philo-Sophia

Age and working experience can be an advantage.It depends on how you think of it. IMO,I don't think age is a problem~~

never too late to learn~~ and i agree that many students who start PHD at a very young age are not firm enough because they don't see how the society and the outside world really work ,and many of them are likely to cast doubt on their decision of studying for a PHD.I've worked for one year after graduation because I was not sure about whether I wanted a job or to continue my studying. Then I went back to the campus because I got to know what kind of life I really want to live. So I've made up my mind to study for a PHD.I will be 28 when I start it.

yes,you're right,it measures the ability of writing a specific type of writing. But I'm a slow person...so it's hard for me to form a strong issue essay in a very short period of time.I think I need more practice to be quick if I want to get a higher AW score,but that will cost a lot of time that I should spend on my major courses.Maybe the best way for me is to work out excellent writing samples and focus on my major.

Though statistics is hard for me, I support you to chase your dream. It's so good to know what you really want to learn and where your interest and talent lie.

I studied statistics as my major when I was an undergraduate and struggled to obtain a BA degree of statistics. Quite the opposite of your situation, I transisted from statistics to history of education for my MA because statistics was too hard for me and I thought I need more knowledge of social science and humanities. I don't know what courses students learn in U.S.,but in China I learned higher algebra and calculus as basic courses in statistics major, then "applied random process" ,"topology","abstract algebra" and so on, all very pure and tough theory... Some of my classmates went to universities in U.S. after graduation. As they said, the Ph.D. courses were as" easy" as what we 've learned before. ..

I really don't want to comment on AW because I didn't do well,either.But I really don't think AW is a scientifically designed test. What people need is to practice again and again and use the so-called templet in order to get a high score. If you don't use the templet ,you may get lost because of nervousness during the test, especially the time is so limited . The score can't really reflect one's capacity of writing.

As an international student, I think your scores are strong except for the quantitive part -.- mine is 560+800 , I wish I could get a verbal score like yours... So comparing with my score,yours is really good~~ I know what I'm saying here doesn't help, but don't worry,don't feel bad for yourself.

thanks a lot for sharing~~ NO relaxation before the final decision. It really helps a lot.