t_ruth

what you just said there in your most recent post is much more qualified and nuanced. The original statement was way too limited (JMHO). Education is certainly not the *only * means to gain empowerment and expand opportunities, and saying that right off the bat would raise an eyebrow with me. Your mileage may vary, but just a thought... for example, trekking through the remote mountains and/or volunteering and/or networking are all non-education-related ways to gain empowerment and expand opportunities.

Do you really support this belief? If I were a adcomm member who had been a non-traditional student or who had significant experiences outside of academia, I would be majorly turned off by this statement. Anything is hardly ever the *only* way to get anything.

I wonder if anyone ever gets the award but doesn't get in to graduate school...

I'm still baffled by the idea of 'safety' schools for Ph.D.s (applying to your current school/program aside). I can't think of a school that I would have a 100% chance of getting in where the degree would be a valuable one (as I want to go on and gain a professorship somewhere). My distribution was one uber reach, two really top schools, four solid programs and two good but not as good programs. Don't think I'm guaranteed any.

I can't find the actual thread now, but it was a site like this one where someone who had formerly taught a prep class mentioned that as one of the criteria. Of course, he's just some dude on the web, but from what I've read of everyone's experiences here, I wouldn't be too surprised...

yep! all good suggestions. unfortunately, my days consist of hanging out with my toddler and seven-month-old, which leaves lots of time for thought...um obsessing... especially when I'm up in the middle of the night for multiple hours with only said thoughts and baby for company. maybe there will be something good on tv come January

backup plan? don't have one... try again next year i guess...though who knows what I could change. You know my story from our PMs hopefully it will work out for both of us.

how's your search going? when do you come to visit/interview? It is frustrating (and frightening) to see all the posted acceptance notices from other programs at the schools to which I am applying. I can't seem to think about anything else...

Our deadlines seem later than a lot of the science programs, so I think I'll be waiting until February (at least) before I hear something, but just wanted to see if anyone else here was waiting with me. Happy New Year!

wow! I can't believe how many people are hearing things already! None of my schools even seem to have any kind of online status updates where I could find out amissions decisions (only tracking for receipt of my materials).

it is comforting to head about other people waiting on here too...when does that livejournal who_got_in board become really active?

How do you all stand it? This break time is the worst, because I *know* there won't be any activity on my apps, so it is useless to even refresh any status pages (and I still have some apps to finish up and last-minute transcripts to get since I ran out, and I can't do anything on those either!).

I don't know that I feel any schools are "safety." How do you find one that is and that's also going to give you a decent degree?

I agree with the last two posters (that overcoming these obstacles are positive). though I think the material might be more appropriate for those diversity statements some schools require than the professional-minded statement of purpose, which really shouldn't be a "personal statement" with emphasis on the personal from what I've seen.

The one constant in the grading is the computer. I'm guessing that the human graders are trained to grade like the computer, and as a whole, the graders are rewarded for being as consistent with the computer as possible (by avoiding having a second human grader have to come in and reread if there is too large a human/computer discrepancy). With as little time as they get, I doubt they would care much about anything other than fitting us in nice little score boxes and matching up with their computer colleague.

most of the apps I've done require the writing sample to be done online, so I don't think it is going to work. I have heard there is some grace for transcripts.

I noticed the humanities vs. science thing too, but where does that leave social sciences? They often seem stuck in the middle for so many things...

I happened upon the admissions stats on this site and saw some people posting in December that they received acceptances or interviews for applications submitted in November. Do things really happen that quickly? I didn't get my stuff in until the December deadlines (or close to them)...is it slower the closer you are to the deadlines? Have all the spots been given away? Will we be seeing lots of acceptance and rejection posts come January when the break is over?

well, it's graded by computer, so things like that matter...and topic, supporting, conclusion sentence-structured paragraphs as well. Of course, these are things I only really learned AFTER taking the darn test. In any case, after looking into it further I really don't think it is that much like law school exam writing. In law school, the key is identifying all the forks in the facts and the law, and "issue-spotting" as many things as possible, without really delving too deeply into any of them. The sample essays I've read for the GRE writing that scored near a 6 seem unnecessarily detailed with sentences to explain concepts that are a bit "duh." Even though most people joke that lawyers are unnecessarily verbose, law school (at least in recent years) trains us instead to be as clear and concise as possible, so those same 6 essays would not do very well on a real law school exam.

yep, I'm still reading this...bet you indented your paragraphs though!

ugh! a little rant: when I took the test I designated four schools and departments in which I was interested. I didn't know at the time that the schools wanted them sent without a department code. I've now sent off my applications including a photocopy of my scores so that they can be better matched. I've heard from a few of the schools that even though they have there in writing where they were sent, they need them sent to the school without a department code and now I need to order (and pay for) more score reports to be sent again just to the school code. You would think they would be able to retrieve them

I was just thinking of this very thing today. I was planning on sending a photocopy of my scores in with my supplemental materials and transcripts (where I send the transcripts myself instead of directly from my undergrad schools), and I think it is probably a god idea to follow-up and make sure they got everything from ETS too.

I keep hearing that strong LORs are key, but as a returning student, completely changing fields, I don't think my LORs will be what are considered really strong (from people at the top of my intended field, etc.), so I'm hoping that will still be ok.

FSIA, my stats aren't that great - I have to overcome a 3.4 GPA from a very eh state school.