InquilineKea

Haha wow

What were your experiences with contacting professors, especially this late in the admissions cycle?

Hm - so in case there is a missing letter, then should one get another prof to write a quick LOR even if the prof isn't listed on the LOR form?

And do they try to look at the Facebook profiles (which can be true gold mines) of applicants, if at all possible?

Select a Test Date IMPORTANT: All test dates for which you have reportable scores should be displayed below. If you have reportable scores from a test date that is not displayed, do not use this service. Contact GRE Services for assistance. 12/10/2011 - IBT GENERAL TEST 11/12/2011 - Subject: Physics 10/15/2011 - Subject: Biology Send Currently Available Scores (includes scores from test dates listed below) === I know what the scores are by now. But I don't see them displayed online (yet). Should I send them? Deadlines start on January 2nd, so I must be quick. === Also - what is the best way for me to check whether or not they received my GRE test scores? Some of the departments have very general names that don't correspond to any particular department within the school. And in some other cases, I may be applying to multiple departments.

Wait - aren't most programs pretty lenient when it comes to LORs that are a few days late?

Like, those checkboxes that ask the professor to rate the applicant in terms of certain characteristics, where the applicant could be "phenomenal", "better than 95%", etc...

In particular, I've found it interesting how so many biological science and chemistry students are so disillusioned, while most geological science/atmospheric science/astronomy students seem so much happier.

(obviously this is an issue related to discussing LORs with professors)

Interesting - how do you know that PR tends to target to the mean? Even strong students often get much higher scores when they use PR

There are some problems in them that are a lot more difficult than any problem I saw in the GRE (I got 166 V/167 M by the way)

As a starter, look at http://astrobiology-beta.arc.nasa.gov/nai/teams/

Citations to research papers would really help me succinctly point out the direction that I want to point my research towards (and they also show that I really know the research literature in my field).

I think both of my responses turned out to be that long (20 minutes at 100 WPM => 20,000 words). Obviously, it's not the length that matters - it's the arguments that do. But I very thoroughly addressed and overanalyzed all the necessary things. My main weakness was really the organization since I didn't do much revising.

And I got 166 Verbal, 167 Math. Are these scores final for sure, or is there a chance that they could still change?

Some grad schools (especially Berkeley) ask for them. I know that it depends from field to field - I'm mostly asking this as a general question.

Oh cool - thanks! Are any of the professors willing to eat out with prospective students? Or even possibly meet with prospective students outside of normal hours? They already know who I am (and some seem impressed) so I'm not some random person. == Also, does anyone else want to meet another undergrad or something? I'm scared that I'll feel lonely, especially after the hours. PS: Is anyone else checking an Airbnb hotel for this?

By "most liberal", I mean that they ask for more than what's usually necessary. E.g. Berkeley asks for an extra essay, Brown asks for social media profiles (and allows up to 6 LORs too), and Penn State makes you input your last-2 year GPA as your GPA (and I think they have one extra "bonus" form) For me, they would benefit A LOT, which is why I'm interested. On the other hand, Chicago's app is frustratingly minimalistic.

Yeah - I'm coming. My plan is to meet potential advisers, but ugh, I'm having a major issue: I'm seeing a lot of cases where a presentation only has two authors, and where neither of them show up on the list at http://sites.agu.org...strant-search/. Do a lot of people come without registering, or what? And if that happens, is their presentation/poster entirely cancelled? A lot of potential advisers have their names underlined, but I can't find their names among the registrants anywhere. For example...

And what is the best way to inquire after whether they admit at the departmental level or not? E.g. I've heard that in other schools, then if a professor REALLY wants a student, they can get the student (I believe this is the case for the University of Washington Atmospheric Science department, as an example).

Not just whether the prof is "great" or not, but also, whether he's reserved or enthusiastic. E.g. it's entirely possible that even some great professors might write enthusiastic LORs for everyone, even the ones who aren't so special. Meanwhile, a reserved professor might write enthusiastic LORs for only a few people.

http://www.quora.com/What-qualities-characterize-a-great-PhD-student?q=qualities+graduate+student Do you agree or disagree?

http://www.quora.com/How-do-you-write-a-good-letter-of-recommendation-for-a-grad-student-on-the-academic-job-market sounds pretty scary... I'm sure that standards aren't as high for undergrads, but I'm sure that this still has some element of truth when it comes to undergrads.

It seems that places like Northwestern, JHU, Washington University, and Brown have a lot more fieldwork than many, and that places like Caltech/MIT/Washington/Princeton seem to be more computational than many. Are my impressions right? What are your impressions? What about places like Duke?

Maybe since that might allow them to write LORs that are more unique? Or that emphasize different parts of me?