jackassjim

Here you go: http://tinyurl.com/dkjnhg

Many countries do not administer standardised tests such as this one at all. U.S. students who have been trained all their lives to write the SAT have an inherent advantage. Average GPA depends on the school. 3.2/4.0 maybe...

Hehe! Be that as it may, considering the time of year, the email still made me a tad jittery.

So at least we know the Harvard folks are hard at work. I just got an email that something was missing in my file...

They must also really like you

shot answer: yes see your PMs for details

So coach, are you organising visits to all Unis who have accepted you? I though it would be a great way to travel on the cheap myself. :twisted:

moremegil: I was actually accepted in what I believe was a first wave of acceptances on the 29th. Since then, I've received an invite to visit on Feb 19-20th. Some kind of open house I guess. Unfortunately, I don't think I really have any inside information that would be use to those of you who are still waiting. I have no idea how their admission process actually works.

I actually find this quite interesting. Any scrap of info you can share with us is really appreciated Scintille.

Yeah, I just looked at the faculty list and it is quite strong. That's too bad. Thanks for the words, but unfortunately, I am affected by the dreaded "two-body" problem, and my spouse was not as lucky as I in this cycle. Looks like one of the only places I could for sure go is Michigan...

Awww that really sucks for you! I've been following your posts for a bit now as we seem to have quite similar profiles. I don't know much about Wisconsin, but do you feel that you had a good match with the Faculty over there?

Yeah, and I got the 7 other acceptances. Funding too! Sorry guys...

Thanks for keeping us up to date with the process at Michigan plisar. Even though waiting a week or two would keep us in line with the expectations I had formed based on last year's data, I was secretly hoping we would hear sooner. I tend to be very relaxed in general, but this is really starting to get to me...

I'm also waiting for them, and I don't think we should make any assumptions at this point. At least we were not in the first batch to be thrown out. Edit: Oh, and did you notice your Google? Darwin was born today 200 years ago.

Depends what kind of department you hope will hire you when you graduate. If you get your PhD from a polisci dept, but you publish things that are usually the stuff of English, you might end up being unemployable. While interdisciplinary studies are indeed fashionable these days, we're just not where we need to be yet. Academia is still a very structured business.

That's a very good point. I really freaked out when taking the gre and lsat as I had never done anything remotely similar to that before.

+1 for everything you just said

I think the percentiles for the gre are not actually that useful in evaluating the performance of the candidates in particular disciplines. At least, not without context. For the math section, they are deflated because many math and physics hopefuls score 800; for the verbal, they are inflated because a lot of foreign students really bomb on that section. Also, on the polisci rumor blogs, I've read many profs say that they look at the scores, but remember very few (none?) mentioning percentiles. In my discussions with profs, the same pattern emerged. So yeah, 700 might be a bit high to expect in the verbal section, but at TOP programs, I think it might be ok to assume that adcomms will not necessarily be impressed by a 650. Not that it's necessarily such a huge liability, but it's pretty near cut-off point.

I don't think you should expect any leeway. It might somehow positively affect your application if you get a great score despite it being your 2nd or 3rd language (even that is not at all clear). However, I do not think there is (or should be) favorable discrimination toward foreign students with regard to how they look at the gre scores (btw, I am also from a non-english speaking country). Make sure you ace the TOEFL

Ok. Thanks a lot for your reply scintille. This really helps to clear things up. I have a long hanging on that particular app, and it is with much anticipation that I await the results. Good luck to you

Your process for selecting schools is perfectly legitimate by the way. For the subscript, you need to go into your personal profile, in the control panel, and change your signature.

So what's the process at Michigan? A post on the results page says the decision meeting hasn't taken place yet. Probably the boys and girls in charge of ranking apps have mostly gone through them though, right? What does "it could be a while" mean?

By the way plisar, I was serious about UCLA in my last post.

Right, I had forgotten about those forms. Yeah, then it's fine, don't worry.

If he actually wrote "but not brilliant", I would definitely NOT use him as a referee. Only pricks would do that. Profs criticisms in LORs are notoriously veiled and understated. This one is not even that hidden and the adcomms will not have to do to much work to read between the lines. I'm sorry for you... As long as it's tenure track, and not visiting or lecturer, yeah, you're ok.