jackassjim

Are you refering to those agnostics who view what little faith they have as a relatively costless insurance? Edit: Oh, and +1 for your characterization of the previous poster's argument. I think you're on target.

Those of you who shared the dream probably kept on keepin' on, while the ones who didn't have the chops probably quit. I think it's just fair warning. That's the kind of stuff you need to hear early on.

Ambivalence implies the presence of contradictory attitudes or feelings toward an object, a sort of back and forth between believing that God is, and believing (s)he isn't. This understates the power of agnosticism, which can, in effect, constitute a principled philosophical stance for someone who believes that the human mind cannot know if there exists a supreme being.

Happy I could be of some help

Lifehacker published an article recently on another website you might find interesting: http://lifehacker.com/5122433/verbalear ... your-vocab

Frankdux: Thanks for posting this. Of course, I much prefer my formula. Nevertheless, I will defer to your expert treatment of the problem in this case. I will just need to revise (upwards) my estimated chances of getting in at individual schools so that I reach the same 50%.

I went for many more reaches that safetys. I guess it depends how risk averse you are. But I figured that I have good stats, good letters and everything, and that my 10% chance at each of my 5 reaches gave me about 50% total... Edit: Do I need to revise my GRE math, or is that ok?

The adcomms must be so tired of reading applications that in those cases, my bet would be: shorter is better. I'm sure you can edit your paper to make it shorter. Just insert something like this: [A discussion on the mating habits of the porcupines of British Columbia has been removed to comply with the space constraints] Edit: Then again, that comes from someone who wrote single spaced (I'm not sure what was expected with regard to page layout...)

True, I only found out about this website a short while ago, and I don't know many grad school applicants, but I've never seen anyone with a gre that high. 780 quant, ok, sure, but your verbal is truly impressive. If the stats are real, then you must be a future star. You don't seem to really have a safety option in your list though.

I looked at the statement. Check your PMs for my comments on it.

Wow, that was even tougher than what I said. I agree with the gist of the argument. Definitely don't start with that. Remove the expression "high school drop-out". If you absolutely feel it is necessary to mention it, make up a sentence that sounds better. Perhaps something like: "After blah blah, I chose to leave school for a few years in order to blah blah and replenish my motivation toward academic pursuits". Ok, that sounds like crap, but you probably get what I mean.

Don't want to sound like an a-hole, but 750 is not uber-impressive either. I'm in the social sciences, got a 760 but still only hit the 86th percentile. Engineering folks, I assume, are probably expected to score quite high on that section of the test. Of course, it all depends where you apply... But yeah, if you want me to look at the statement, you can shoot it to me via pm. I can't guarantee I will have time to look at it (very busy these days), but I still might. Good luck Jim

Same as last year? One thing's for sure, funding is not going to be easier to get this year, with the hit that many unis' endowments took with the recession and all...

You better have some seriously strong arguments to convince the adcomms that you have improved since you were 22. High school dropout + serious difficulty with simple arithmetic does not sound too reassuring. It's ok to point out your different path, but you run the risk of overdoing it...