db2290

I don't like this company. I was asked to 'convert' my British grades for Columbia University and they were very unhelpful on the phone, extortionately priced and I didn't agree with the conversion they gave. Put me off applying to that University full stop! if 90% of admissions commitees can understand a relatively simple grading scheme why can't the remaining 10%!?

ok, in response to your two questions. 1) if you have time (and you do if you are aiming for Jan deadlines), I would retake. I think for a hard science applicant will prob need a higher quant score (I'm not sure what a competitive applicant would have for this field but certainly for your top university choices this would be very high if not 800). 2) You can retake once every calender month, as opposed to once every 30 days. So you could technically do it on Oct 31st and 1st November if necessary.

me too - maybe we could do a trade?

I'd be happy to - feel free to drop me a PM

I was wondering whether anyone had any advice in expressing the fit with a given program. Obviously the specific advisor I am aiming to work with and his/her work will be explored but I want to express my knowledge of the program without resorting to platitudes like "the world class reputation of University XXX..." Clearly this is a subjective issue but if anyone had any generalities to share i'd appreciate it

I'm sure plenty of people will be willing to help you bhvana but you haven't really said anything about what field you are interested in or anything. In terms of scholarship options and documentation you need to take the time to visit the websites of the specific schools you are interested in. People will not do this for you! I suggest that you go to the subforum for the subject you are interested and ask around there.

If you list all their titles as Assistant Professor then the adcoms will probably assume them to have a Ph.D. I know I did! I find it strange that someone can be an assistant professor without a Ph.D but anyway. In my applications there is only a space to put a title rather than qualifications.

The HGSE course is in an education department, so I would imagine most applicants would have prior experience in educational research/teaching or some related field. The Harvard psych department might be better suited for your research interests perhaps?

The HGSE course is in an education department, so I would imagine most applicants would have prior experience in educational research/teaching or some related field. The Harvard psych department might be better suited for your research interests perhaps?

The HGSE program would be very hard to get into as a current undergrad I think. They seem to expect a lot in the way of demonstrable leadership/education experience and the average age is nearly 30 of incoming candidates. Might be worth a try though. Have you thought about teaching for a bit?

As a UK undergrad student I've had the same issues with this. Nearly everywhere I am applying to suggests to leave it blank so this is probably a good idea. One American uni is making me pay Worldwide Education Services to 'convert' the grade for an extortionate fee. You can do an 'unofficial' check with them here (https://www.wes.org/calculator/login.asp) which normally costs $5 but I found a free code which takes away the charge (FB638dra452). I think that was the one. If not, google it. WES undervalued my grade, though, IMO, as I got 77% (fairly reasonable first) and it converted it to 3.7....

Ah thanks for that - no point then I think!

I don't really 'get' the whole waiving the right to see LOR business. Does it matter if you don't waive your right? Will this be looked at negatively? If you don't waive the right, can you view the letters on the online applications? I don't think my writers have anything bad to say, I'm just interested!

Is Standard Deviation a topic on the GRE? Some of my study books include it and some completely omit it - I'm confused!

I know people who have got into their doctoral programs straight from graduating from university. I would imagine they would want to see a commitment to educational issues (be that summer work, research experience etc.). I don't think teaching has to be one of those. Although it might depend on what programs you are applying for. The more practitioner based courses will require teaching experience more, in my view.

Hi all, I am currently applying for Ph.Ds. I have contacted a professor from my current (Masters) University about helping out with research and boosting the experience on my application. I have met with her once and we agreed to do a project together. Obviously by the time I send off applications (soon) I will not have accomplished much with her. How should I present this experience on my CV? I have put something under my research experience heading saying something like "Sep 2010 - Research Assistant at XX Lab, currently planning a project with Prof. X regarding....". I am worried that this is slightly disingenuous as I haven't started the research yet. I wasn't planning to add this to my SOP - do you guys think it would look conspicuous if I left out this information on my SOP but added it in my cv? Thanks

I'm also from the UK - it's probably post-GCSE maths to give you a reference point. It;s actually the verbal section that needs longer revision, in my view. Good books I'm using: Kaplan, Barron's (particularly for word list)

Does anyone know anything about doctoral programs and funding at Teacher's College. I have been trawling the website and haven't found anything about support for Phd students. Better still, if anyone has any general comments about financial aid and cost of being a student in NYC that would be great.

oh really? I was under the impression it would take 3-4 weeks from when you actually sit the exam to when the university receives it. Does anyone else have any experience of this? Looks like I should play it safe and schedule it earlier.

Hi all, I was wondering whether someone could offer their insight. I am currently studying for the GRE, booked November 2nd, just in time for Phd applications, which are in mid December. I basically have everything riding on the GRE now, so I am working pretty hard at it and have made some quite decent progress. I did a 800score practice and got 620V, 600 Quant with some silly mistakes in there. I'm looking to get around about a 700Q, 650-700V by November (I am fairly inept at Maths!). I just realised that you can retake the GRE once every calendar month, rather than every 30 days - this has led me to think that I should reschedule my test to the end of October (and stomach the $50 fee) so on the off chance I have a bad day/weird questions I can retake it. Is this a good idea? I'm not sure if I will realistically chance that much anyway over the space of a week but it seems like a good insurance. Perhaps....

I am also in this situation. I am so angry about having to pay almost $200 dollars to 'convert' my grades when I am already paying the universities an application fee! Ridiculous

OK, the title was a bit dramatic! No, the head of department was at a high school. I think the Professor who has been helping me might be the best best. cheers for your answers guys

Hi all, Quick query about LORs - I am applying for a Phd in the field of Education and am trying to get a sense of who would be best for a third recommender. I have been out of undergrad for two years now, so obviously makes it a little more difficult to find appropriate academic references, hence the problem. First one - Professor who I worked as a research assistant for a year with. At Ivy league University. Slightly unreliable and I didn't have the warmest relationship with him but I am applying to that College and they are the only people who can attest to research potential Second - Director of studies from Undergrad. Had quite a good relationship with him, he should write me a good reference. Third ? see below A third professor, also at an Ivy League College, has been helping me with my SOP as I know her. As a British student, she offered to write me a letter as she is also British and was faculty at my old University. She said that she would, I quote, "Contextualise your achievements etc. But it won't be very long". Meaning that she won't exactly wax lyrical about me but will explain the British grading system, say I am academically very capable and so on. She is, however, on the faculty (and used to be on the adcom) of my first choice program. So this must be fairly useful. This isn't ideal but my only other options are my Head of Department as a teacher (know extremely well and she will say great things about my teaching duties but has no postgraduate qualifications or cannot comment on my academic ability) or my undergraduate thesis supervisor (I don't know very well, haven't spoken to for two years and probably won't say very much other than I scored very high grades). What do you guys think?

thanks guys thats great help - particularly the bit about the passive voice

Hi all, I recently spoke to a Professor (she used to be on the adcom for the same course at the University I am applying to) about whether I should put any awards in my statement. She said "yes, it can't hurt!". I was slightly skeptical about this - what would you guys think about a statement such as the one below? The conclusions of this project were presented at the British South West Universities Conference (an annual regional student conference comprised of a number of universities in England), winning the prize for Best Presentation. It was an immensely fulfilling experience to take a research question from its inception to its finish and share the findings with colleagues from around the country. This dissertation and my overall degree grade achieved the highest possible classification (‘1st’), I came overall first in the cohort in both instances. This was in the context of a paragraph about my undergraduate thesis and what I investigated. What do you think? Dan