nabh

I am not sure if this should even be a separate topic. Yesterday a prospective professor emailed me, congratulating me to join his research group. He also mentioned the good news being posted some where, which I supposed to be the online status and that the letter should be soon in the mail. Apparently my status is still blank and I still have not received a confirmation from the school. Normally if you are officially in both the school and the department will have to email you right? Or does that depend? I am a little scared of the possiblity that he messed my name up with someone, but shouldn't they be very careful an discreet about this? Should I email and ask him directly or should I write to the department's graduate coordinator? Thank you very much,

That was something I need to keep my feet on the ground and my head still high. Well, this is not just some professor; in fact he accepts me informally and with an internship. At first it seems that all matters now is just paperwork, but the silence all of a sudden made me dread. When profs change their mind or something happens shouldnt they at least inform us? What do you guys think? I just mailed off another batch of applications and just kept repeating to myself that this is too early in the game.

Hello everyone, I know that this is a little early in the game to start being paranoid, but I am an intl student and this economic scene makes me really worried and just want to have an anchor. I contacted a faculty member at one graduate school very early in the term. He was very responsive and at the end of our first, long conversation he urged me to send in the application as soon as possible, even though I suggested waiting until my grades are out in January. FYI this particular school is a Canadian one and only considers your application if you already have some prof there back you up. The thing why I asked for delay was because my gpa last semester was markedly lower than the rest due to a constant threat then that I might have had to drop out of school for financial reasons. The subject that killed me was not relevant to the MSc program I am applying to however. My mission this semester is hence to improve it and then submit the application. I consulted many people and in the end, attached an explanation in the application but did not tell the prof. With his strong urging I sent it in and all other papers were received, indicated by the online application. A month passed and last week the department secretary informed that they still have not transferred the one REC and transcripts to her yet. What?! She promises to write me as soon as the decision is made. I wrote him two days ago and receive no answer until now. You may say that I am luckier than some of us but I think I have reasons to dread that something so promising in the beginning will turn into utter disappointment: - It is my understanding that if they change their mind, a paper version of rejection is on the mail to me now. Is it true? Will they bother even emailing me about this? - They might look at my disastrous grade last semester and end of the game. As I said the sessional gpa is lower than the cutout but the cumulative one is way higher since I had hitherto done well. Could it be due to this that they dont even bother transferring the rest of the package? - Should I write again to the prof and the secretary? I dont want to tire them of my questions and would very much like to believe that they are just waiting as I am? I would really appreciate your thoughts. And please understand if this is too much a paranoid to you. I know many have not even heard anything yet.

What if the school does not specify how long the Statement of Interest can be? Is there a general unwritten rule of thumb that I don't know of??? The thing is, I am applying online and the electronic application has a stupid rule that nothing that exceeds 2000 CHARACTERS can be saved. By characters they include words, space, everything and I am at a loss now. I am thinking about sending the essay to the school by post and submit anything else online. I am desperately in need of your advice.

Thats exactly it. My winter semester 08 GPA is 3.2 and the overall is 3.5. Thank you so much and just as you say I do not wish to quench my professor's enthusiasm by this factor. Now that I have read somewhere in this forum that I should not include any outstanding circumstance in my SOP, should I at least mention it in a cover letter, in case they demand from me an explanation? or should I just send the papers and see (again if they will not mind it, they wont ask so why would I want to draw their attention to anywhere near this area, right?)

Thank you very much for your opinions. Seems like schedules at grad school are really random and crazy. Here is another dilemma. my GPA was fine (3.7) up until the Winter semester this year. My family had some really bad things going on, to the point that I considered dropping out. Fortunately I managed to stay to graduate. The thing is, though, the pressure killed me and my GPA dropped to 3.2. Now I want to prove that my marks are low just because I could not stay focused. But here figures speak more loudly than words, by that I mean I am trying to bring my GPA this semester back to the previous level. Right now, the professor keeps urging to send in the application. He seems to value my other strong points and assures me that grades (he only knows that my cumulate GPA is 3.5, not the disaster of last semester) are not as important as his backing. I would like to be honest with him and to make my case more convincing to the committee (he is newly hired and I do not want both of us to look bad because of this 3.2 GPA). I am torn: should I tell him and ask for a delay until I receive my marks this terms (which I am trying hard to make high)? or should I not tell him at all and just write a cover letter to explain it to the committee? Again thank you so much for your help.

Hello everyone, I am a newbie here and in a delicate situation. I am preparing my graduate applications for Fall 2009 and also started contacting prospective supervisors. I was able to schedule a phone conversation with one. I can say from the talk that it was straightforward and positive because ind the end, he asked me when I would like to start and encourage me to send in my application as soon as possible. The rule of this university is that graduate candidates will only be considered if they have a faculty committed to fund them. This prof is newly hired and our research profiles match well enough. However, after that positive phone call getting in touch with him was difficult. I understand that he is extremely busy and so have not worked up the nerve to email him about some of my questions. I know how competitive the whole process can be and am at a loss. Does it ever happen that a prospective supervisor changes his/ her mind within a short time? How should I keep demonstrating my interest in working with him? Or am I just being paranoid? I would really appreciate your inputs.