Vacuum

Why won't your SO move with you? Job? Family? Personally, I would choose to have less debt. I'm not sure of the status with your SO (married, dating for how long, engaged etc), but you never know what will happen in a relationship. Also, if you were planning on marrying your SO, are they not concerned about taking on this huge amount of debt? Because it would become their problem too if you do get married. If you were to end your relationship for whatever reason that we cannot predict at this time, you would be the sole owner of a crapload of debt and have to figure out how to pay that off all by yourself. I guess it depends on the reasons behind your SO not wanting to move at all, but I don't think it is fair that they are not willing to budge in order to accomodate your financial worries. It is all about the give and take.

peep show

Some schools conduct interviews and others don't. Usually it will say on the department website if you can expect an interview or not. I know for my programs I applied to, there is only one school that always conducts an interview. I think for most Masters programs they don't conduct interviews. Don't start getting worried if you dont hear from the schools, since that might be perfectly normal.

Of course you could! It is not like U.B.C. is a tiny, unknown school. I quickly looked up the math department and found this list of past grad students. The last column says 'where they are now' and a bunch of them have ended up in the States, as well as other countries. You can check it out to give yourself some reassurance. http://www.math.ubc.ca/Grad/gradAlumni.shtml I think Vancouver would be more along the lines of scenery you are used to in CO when compared to Kansas City.....just sayin'.

I know nothing about either of these math programs, or anything abut Missouri, but I vote UBC because I went there hahaha! If there is anything you want to know generally about UBC/Vancouver I'd be glad to answer!

death march

Well, you could go the route of re-taking the exam, getting the extra time/calculator and seeing how you do. This would take a lot of study time though and of course filling out forms, getting it approved etc. as you mentioned. Now, I hate math. I don't have a disability, but I suck at it. I crammed last minute to take the GRE too since one day I thought 'Oh, I'll try to get into the programs in the USA' and lo and behold they require the GRE. I studied non-stop for about 2 weeks and only got a 500 on the math. Warranted this is not the best method AT ALL, I feel like you would still struggle even with the extra time if your disability does greatly affect you like you described. Some schools require a minimum score on the GRE, much like their GPA regulations. There is some leniency on these scores depending on the school. but it is always best to at least meet them (Master's usually require around a combined score of 1000). Most schools post GRE information in their admissions sections (check the specific department). Some schools say they take everything into consideration and don't give you a hard number to go off of. If I were you, I'd contact someone in admissions (sometimes these are normal office people) or perhaps a professor that is on the departmental committee, to ask about the GRE scores and to let them know about your learning disability. Maybe if you explain to them how your disability negatively affects your ability to complete complex math, they will be able to offer you specific advice. You could also include this in your Statement of Intent/Purpose, so that the committee would be aware of your personal situation as they go over your application materials. If you have some formal documentation from a doctor or something like that, you could include this in your application package. Just remember, that no matter how high your GPA is, it does not guarantee you will be accepted into your program. Some people with 4.0, perfect GREs, thousands of publications (exaggeration a bit here...) get rejected, while people with 2.8 GPAs and 900 GREs get accepted. Fit is a big thing for grad school and it really is a crap shoot to get accepted. I think as long as you make the committees of the various schools you apply to aware of your disability, they will judge your math score accordingly. On a final note, geometry is a bitch. Goodluck!!

rabid animal

Have you confronted this professor about his conflicting instructions to you or stood up for yourself when he belittled you in front of other colleagues? This could result in him being more of a boor towards you, but maybe he doesn't think he is doing anything wrong? Maybe he in fact, thinks he is 'helping' you. I'd maybe bring up your concerns directly with him if you haven't (and have the courage to do it). Since you already went to a higher up and they seem like their hands are tied, which is pretty lame, you might have to just directly deal with him yourself. His response might help you figure out if you want to drop out, continue or try to transfer. Don't start attacking him about all of these past situations but try to be constructive about it. Also, some schools have...a committee....the name slips my mind, but it basically is a student rights type of thing. They are hired by the university to represent student concerns when it comes to major issues that arise between programs/students or faculty/students. I know they have these for students who are completing medical school, so perhaps they have a general one? Worth checking out. They basically act as your 'lawyer' against whomever/whatever you are having issues with. This is definitely a rough situation and I feel for you.

Does the university provide a form that has multiple funding options on there? Usually there is a spot for personal funds, sponsor funds, scholarships, loans etc. I would think that you would just fill out your 19000 under the scholarship/sponsor type sections. You could always give your university a call to make sure about this before you fill out the forms. I know that if you are supplying personal funds, you need an official financial statement from the bank to send along with the form you fill out. For all the other varieties of funding you need to have proof that you aren't making it up, so any document from the university that describes awarding you 19000 would be attached to the form.

Maybe they mailed out a letter and you just haven't received it yet...?

this confirms yet again that I hate math. I'm gonna stick with my pro and con list hahaha

For sure you can! The rankings aren't necessarily the best to go off of anyways. I think that people get sucked in by how schools are ranked and assume the higher the rank, the 'better' the school will be, but many of the attributes the schools are ranked on don't necessarily have a direct effect on the student in the long run. Also, not all schools provide certain information to the people creating the rankings, so that would leave us with some skewed results. I don't know... I just personally don't put too much emphasis on the rankings! Keep your head up! Think more along the lines of 'fit' rather than rankings!

I know when I was in admissions, the committee met in a boardroom and usually didn't have computers or anything like that with them. They would just review the paper forms. It could be that the group making the decisions is doing something similiar and aren't actually doing the 'labor' part of the admissions process. Usually you have people working in the office that make sure the forms are all there and sometimes they even do intial reviews (for GPA and the like). They might be the ones who would look up that address, whereas the committee might just be reviewing what is in front of them on paper that represents you and not the virtual version!

When there are issues like that during the process from schools (sending wrong info, general confusion about what is required for application, etc) or if the staff is really rude on the phone/in person OR they never respond to emails, I always think it is a red flag. I always wonder 'do I really want to go there if they can't even do this part right?' It kind of becomes a joke when they require students to stick to such strict guidelines during the applications process, when they themselves make huge errors like described above. Frusterating!

If for some godforsaken reason they don't accept you, try, try, try again. School is becoming more and more competitive, which is unfortunate and some great minds slip through the cracks. All you need is that one person who believes in you, but you have to believe in yourself first! I've been in that spot last year of being rejected. It sucked. I was sad, but got over it and thought 'I'll show them next year'. Grad school applications take a lot of thought and energy, so I give kudos to anyone who goes through the process.

I did. I think it is normal to want to know what the chances are and I'm pretty sure programs get asked all the time after they send out wait listed letters. If there was a contact name on your letter email that person. Usually it is the secretary of the department that knows this type of info. Just write something like 'I received notice that I am currently on the waitlist for PROGRAM X. Would it be possible to know my placement on the list?" Something like that!

my first response was 'waitlisted' but I have to say, I was much happier to have that than a rejection as the first result back to me! I do feel your pain though because last year I also had a rejection as a first response! The good thing is that you applied to quite a few schools and I'm sure you will get in! KEEP THE HOPE ALIVE!

not all programs follow that april 15th deadline, so that might explain the answer? pretty vague/weird response to your question if you ask me! You could always call back and ask again to clarify.

google never fails to impress.

Sometimes the email will state when they need to hear from you by. You could always just not respond OR you could just make up a few questions to ask them about the program or what have you, I don't think they necessarily expect an email back in response to their acceptance, but if you email back a few questions then it might give you peace of mind. Just make sure that you email a person, since sometimes the general emails they send out don't have a person responding attached to those email addresses!

hahah I am sure it has happened many times. People might start to drink more if they are super nervous to try and calm those nerves....but then things just get messy! I'm interested to see if anyone has experienced this in person!

Some overseas programs don't require letters but go solely on grades (not USA or Canada).

If it is a personal statement, including your background story is fine. I'd still keep it brief though (1 small para). Schools who ask for a personal statement are interested in knowing your personal journey to where you are now. For mine, the outline basically was: Brief Intro Para 1: background story ending with why I chose the field i am applying for (this would be the 'fluff' portion) Para 2: School experiences surrounding my major Para 3: Life/Work experiences Para 4: What I want to focus my studies on and why Brief Para 5: Why I want to go to X University. My entire statement was 1 page. Not double spaced or anything like that (2 pages double spaced I guess). It was tough to keep it short and sweet, but most places have word limits anyways, so it worked out for me. You want a WHAM-BAM-THANKYOU-MA'AM type of letter. Put it all out there as succinctly as possible. Use the best of your limited space!

If you are going to grad school at a different institution where you significant other is not working, but he will visit you there, why do you have to introduce him as a former professor? Why can't you just say 'this is my boyfriend JoeBlow'. If people say 'what do you do JoeBlow?' then let him say 'I am a professor at BlahBlah school'. We are all adults and I think you can date whomever. Just because he is a professor in the same field, would not equal him being your professor when you were in your undergrad. There were many profs in my small department that never taught me. If people are mature, I don't think it would matter. This is not something scandelous if you ask me!