Kitkat

UT at Austin has it listed that they would like to see at least 1100 on GRE scores. I would assume that the rest of the schools would be around that level as well, depending how competitive they are. Now, you pass that limit so that is a good sign. But it will be a challenge to overcome on your application. Now you have a lot of great experience that is related to what you want to go into grad school. Thats a plus. You have a good GPA not just in undergrad, but also with a masters, also a plus. But they might ask why you are switching from English with your MA to a higher degree in education, but this should not be a huge problem, due to all of your experience. (I am assuming you taught English in school?) You have at least one publication, another plus. So my main questions are, one, how is your SoP or what ever form of statement that they are asking for, and how strong do you think your letter of recommendations are. I ask, mainly because if you think that they are strong enough, you might be competitive for these schools. Now of course, I would still say take the GRE over again, just so that you don't have to worry about have one area on your application that is so much weaker then the rest of it. In so many cases it seems, adcomms seem to not accept people for the smallest things, and not necessarily because that person wouldn't be a good fit for the program, but because they don't have enough resources to take all the students that they would like to. That said, if you can/ afford it/ have the time, maybe you can take a test prep class or something to help you with the exam. They are good if just because they help you get used to the instructions of the exam, get you used to testing situations and all of that. Also, while it might be nicer to have the higher quant score, it might not hurt you as much as you think. Some programs that are not math involved don't care so much about that part.

My suggestion would be see if you can find any jobs that fit what you would want. Then see what those jobs require you to have in the form of education. It might be possible to find a dual degree that fits the need for science/administration stuff. Not all scientists want to do the paperwork stuff really.

fervent faith

Very true. To the OP, basically what it is, is not that you are a bad writer, but rather the test is a very formulaic test all over. Like what myacu said, just study previous answers to the essay questions and learn the kind of formula that they want for it and do that. I honestly have to say that what they want is a very basic freshmen in high school kind of essay. I think a lot of people mess up because they attempt/succeed at writing something better for the test that doesn't fit what they are looking for, and then end up with a less then stellar score. But like people have said before, it's also the least looked at part of the exam. Since you are going into english, I am assuming you also need to submit a writing sample, which they will think is far more important to judging the quality of your work, then what you can do in half an hour in a testing area.

I'm looking at about 9 programs right now, and it is a mix of both MA and PhD programs. With the PhD programs, I have a mix of "reach" schools, some competitive schools and then a small about of "safety" schools, but less in the last category but that is mainly because I am also looking at independent MA programs as well.

It sounds like you are doing a lot of great things already! I am just wondering, have you now graduated from your undergrad program? If so, what are you doing with your time while you apply? Taking a grad class is great, but I am sure that there is still more time for you to do other stuff. Is there any way for you to get a job that might have something to what you want to go into grad school for or do with your Phd in a similar area with?(I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me)

To the OP, I don't think that you need to mention that you got rejected last year. Just explain that you have the focus to do it, show all the work that you have done in the past year, stating that you realized that what you had done was not enough(without necessarly putting in those terms) and move on. I am having a similar issue with my SoP. I am still struggling with that whole not wanting to do the cliche thing in it. But it sounds like I am starting off with something similar anyway. It's currently much more of a "when I was little, i didnt want to be exactly this, I wanted to be that....and after much going farther away, came back and found this as a much better fit", and have tried to go into a "and here is why" kind of essay.

dodge taxes

From what I gathered, they will want transcipts from all of the schools that you went to, but won't necessarily average them all together, it depends on the school/program. I would suggest asking each program that you are looking at to see how they are going to look at all of the records. Also, I don't think that you yourself really have to do the average yourself. Each school probably has a different method of how they would want to look at the three different records together. You might also want to find out if they will weight your graduate GPA more, since it was harder work, and it shows you potential to do more advanced work. But like I said, it really depends on the program.

I have already gotten past this point for myself, but I think that it might be a good thing for future applicants. Basically, what resources (other then thegradcafe.com), have people used in order to start looking for programs that might be a place that they want to apply to. I think it could be helpful, since this is one of the smaller fields out there, and therefore, harder for students who are applying to find information. I feel that the process is nerve racking enough as is. So I will start it off with a few resources of my own, including some stuff for the sub field I am interested in. http://geosociety.org/members/student.htm http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/earth-sciences/rank/_M_M_____M________M_____________________M_______________________U And since I am more interested in geobiology/paleo, these were also good resources for me: http://www.paleosoc.org/ http://www.vertpaleo.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

I think that since you are a foreign student wanting to get into an economics department, the verbal score really wont hurt you that much. As long as you do well with the TOEFL exam, and write a good SOP, I don't think it should be that huge of a deal. As a note, from the sounds of it, you seem to have a pretty good command of the language. It just might be an issue of not knowing enough of the vocabulary that the GRE wants you to know, but in your case, they might be more concerned about your ability to understand the coursework, and possibly teach. If you can do that, then you should be fine.

It might be that she is just very insecure about the whole thing and is trying to make herself feel a bit more secure and in control by making you look bad in comparison. I think the ktel is right to just not talk to her about it anymore, considering that no matter the reason for the way that she is acting, it is not helping you out at all. You give the impression that you have done some things that are similar to her, that are applicable to what you are looking for at graduate school. At the same time you still have the opportunity to make your application look the best that it can. I would say talk to professors about your chances at getting into grad school, and what you can do to best present yourself. It would be better to listen to them then someone else who is applying. She doesn't know any better then you do if either of you will be getting in.

I think that it really depends on the field that you are going into. With law, I could imagine that with a larger cohort you can still easily get your degree and get something out of having that many people to get in contact with. I think that with law, it is more about who you know. But in the sciences, I think that it is also having more contact with your research adviser, and other people in your field, which is not necessarily the more the merrier.

I think that schools are used to the idea of getting things in pieces. In many cases, they want the GRE scores sent to them straight from ETS, and you are sending them your stuff. So those two part are probably going to get there at different times no matter what. As for the letter writers, it is completely understandable that they want to get things done when they are quite. But if you want to send them a bit closer to the deadline, so that they don't get lost in the next six months before they start looking at applications, have you tied looking into services like Interfolio? They let you store things like LoRs over a period of time until you are ready of sending them out, so possibly you can have it done that way. I don't remember if there are other services that do this but I am sure that there are.

With the SoP questions that I have been looking at, what I have basically done was this. I talked about what brought me to where I am now, applying to the program. This includes why I want to apply to this field, what I have done in terms in course work, teaching, research and the like. Then I have talked about why I think that school/program is one that I am applying to. This includes who I would want to work with in that program and why, and what i would be interested in looking at.

loan shark

loan shark

whale shark

Just scroll to the top of the page, and click on the messenger button on the top right. That should let you send it to me. And yes I am applying this fall for Fall 2012.

I can review it for you. But it might be better for you to personal message it to people who are willing to read it for you then posting it forever on the forum.

air tank

fresh fruit

There are plenty of places of finding the numbers of a department that dont involve asking the students here, like calling up and asking the departments themselves. Which apparently other students here have said that they have done. But what my main point was this, that when it comes down to it you might have good numbers to get in. What the difference between you and everyone else are your experiences which might be much harder to quantify or compare to other peoples experineces. What might be better to ask them is what it is like in their labs that they are in, what the environment is like. More along the lines of it it would be one you would want to be in. If they happen to be in a lab that you want to work in.

I also doubt that the people in Offically Grads would necessarily know much better *just* because they themselves got into grad school. They were able to get into grad school because they applied to the right schools at the right time. They did their homework on where they would be a good fit, and basically everything else that Strangefox said in his original post. But they are not on any admissions committies, just like any of us current applicants. All they really would be basing their information on would be their own numbers, and those that they have heard about. I think that they just did what was in the end best for them, using many sources of information, including other people at this site.

fresh fish