liszt85

Though only one official offer has come my way, I think I'll end up having to choose between Northwestern (Linguistics) and McMaster (Psychology) [and possible Ohio State University (Psychology) as well]. McMaster seems to be the best fit for me with regards to research interests (followed by Northwestern and then OSU in that order) but I'll be moving from India with a newly wed wife who I have to support and therefore, funding is of utmost importance and will be a major factor in my final decision. Northwestern has offered me around $20.5K (inclusive of guaranteed summer funding). This is guaranteed for 5 years (and 4 summers). OSU will probably offer much lesser but then the cost of living is very low in Columbus. McMAster will probably pay me around 15K CDN per year which again is pretty low but again Hamilton is not too expensive a place. So the decision is going to be really tough and I really have no clue at the moment Any advice is welcome!

I got an informal email about the possibility of admitting me to a Canadian school. The professor mentioned that $20,000 (10K scholarship + 10K TAship) would be offered and that the difference between the international and canadian fees would be waived (via some new scheme, which I guess would be in place at all schools in Canada). So I'd have to pay the Canadian fees of about $5K CDN out of that. So I'll be left with around 15K before taxes (which might not quite suffice to support a non-working spouse on) but in my case, the cost of living is pretty low at that place.. so I might be able to manage. I think they will waive at least the difference between the international and canadian tuition fee. McGill (Psychology) for instance waives the entire international fee (I believe, from what I've seen on their website). So that might also happen, depending on the university. Go ahead and email them with your question, they'll tell you exactly what it will be.

I have a 100% reject rate via email Berkeley just sent me an email after I prodded them with 2-3 emails. They had initially said that they'd only send the letters by post. I just had to know.. to be able to move on with my life. I knew it had to be a rejection but I needed quicker confirmation. So I pushed them.

If you reason as above, it holds for international students too. TOEFL is a good enough test to judge if you have a practical knowledge of the language. Judging from what you've written, I suspect I'm from your country too. I scored 1390 and I spent two-three days with the Barron book and read through 15 word lists and the high frequency wordlist. Indian students normally spend months "mugging up" the words on that list because we do not embrace a culture of reading fiction (which uses richer and more flowery language), especially a majority of students ending up in engineering colleges (I know for a fact that most of my IITian friends don't read novels at all, if at all they do, its sci-fi and is in most cases a very recent activity, i.e., almost no fiction reading done in school days other than the drama text books). If that were not the case, there would be no difficulty in guessing word meanings from their roots and other such hints.. I mean, I surely could have scored much higher had I spent a few weeks reading those wordlists but I was confident that I'd attain, without all of that effort, what was necessary not to get eliminated at the screening stage of admissions. So that way I think the GRE verbal test is an unfair test to administer to international students! A native language speaker might be able to guess a lot of right answers but an international student (in the usual cases) will find it impossible to do that. This is why they learn the words by heart. The human memory is capable enough to acquire and retain 50 wordlists in a few months' time without actually retaining any procedural information about any of it, which should originally have been the intention of the verbal test in the first place! So finally I agree with what you said, if we guys have to present GRE scores, its only fair that everybody is required to do so, because any line of reasoning that can be given to justify why one group should be omitted from the process, can be applied to the other just as easily.

So do you mean to say that you screwed it up on purpose? What you would have got out of it was an acceptance or two from the schools you've applied to.

The history guy meant MS but I'd follow his advice!

I had a more than disastrous semester I ended up with 2 Fs and a few Ds and one C, and a dismal 3.6/10 Semester Performance Index (due to many reasons, family troubles, plans to drop out of college to do music, etc). My Cumulative after that semester was a horrible 5.2/10. My grades then improved steadily and am on a respectable (for my university) 7.0/10 and was admitted into quite a few nice grad schools, mainly due to the research work I'd carried out independent of my undergraduate coursework. As long as you have improving grades and have demonstrated *ample aptitude for research*, you should do fine.

If I go to OSU, my wife would accompany me on a F2 (dependent) visa and that strictly forbids her from working. So we have to support ourselves with just one stipend. I will get a formal offer on the 10th (and will get to know exactly how much they'd give me). My final decision is going to be heavily based on living expenses and if I'd be able to support my wife on my stipend (in addition to all the other factors like research interests, etc). So your advice is greatly appreciated! How is the music scene in Columbus? I would also like to continue taking piano lessons alongside my grad studies. Are there good private music schools in the area (that aren't too expensive, say I'd be willing to spend ~$150-$200 per month)?

Have you visited any of these? I guess the major question must be if your research interests match with the faculty's. The stipend offered is another concern if you're in the unenviable position of having to support people other than yourself. The place and the atmosphere is of great relevance as well. For me the music scene has to be great.. That way, I'd prefer Chicago (Northwestern) over say Columbus (OSU) but then I have to support my wife on my stipend, so OSU holds greater attraction that way because its an inexpensive place to live in! Only you can decide what would be the relevant questions to ask yourself

No, I wasn't at the interview day. Its almost impossible for me to attend visit days since I live in India. I'm waiting for a few more decisions too.. good luck with yours.

Please also comment on whether it would be possible to support a spouse on a similar stipend (14K)

From: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p519/ar02.html#d0e13626 India 1. I was a resident of India on the date of my arrival in the United States. I am not a U.S. citizen. I have not been lawfully accorded the privilege of residing permanently in the United States as an immigrant. 2. I am visiting the United States for the purpose of teaching or conducting research at [insert the name of the university, college, or other recognized educational institution]. I will receive compensation for my teaching or study activities. 3. The teaching or research compensation received during the entire tax year (or during the period from to ) for these activities qualifies for exemption from withholding of federal tax under the tax treaty between the United States and India. 4. Any research I perform will be undertaken in the public interest and not primarily for the private benefit of a specific person or persons. 5. I arrived in the United States on [insert the date of your last arrival into the United States before beginning the services for which the exemption is claimed]. The treaty exemption is available only for compensation paid during a period of two years beginning on that date. Does this mean I don't have to pay the 14% fed tax?

The guy/gal who posted his/her result from UCD Psychology on the results page, could you please tell me where and how to check my application status?

If you are need to support just yourself on that stipend, 18K should be fine from whatever research I'd done. I am planning to support my wife too on a similar stipend.. it'll get very tight. For a single person however, 18K should be enough to lead a simple life.

I lost my patience a couple of weeks back.. mailed all of them. It was only then that 3 schools informed me about my rejection. :| On the bright side, one school told me that they were still looking for funds for me. So if you cannot hold it out for a bit longer, go ahead and email them!

I haven't heard from 6 places too. Berkeley is most sadistic of all. I emailed them some writing samples to be attached to my application file (as I was foolish enough not to have uploaded them on time as I'd lost the link to the status page) and told them that if these couldn't be added and if a decision had already been made, to please let me know. They replied saying that all applications had been reviewed and that they were in the process of sending out decision letters to the applicants and that I should receive a letter by the 13th of March. I don't know what to make of this.. probably shouldn't try! So I cannot get confirmation of my rejection until the 13th. Another staff member wrote to me saying that I could know only by the 20th of March (she was obv lazy to get her facts and dates right). Its also funny that the 13th of March is friday the 13th... sadistic f*cks.

I've seen a similar question being posed on one other discussion forum I frequent. The answer given there was that they would take an average but I'm not sure if its protocol to do so and one that's followed by all schools. I hope they look at your final score and give you credit for your improvement.. good luck! Somebody else might be able to give you a more accurate answer, I just posted what I saw elsewhere, so I'm not sure if this is accurate.

That'd be great, thanks!

True for Engineering/Science PhD aspirants. I hear some depts in the Humanities require/recommend 5 and above on the written section. I just scraped through with a 5 and I don't think my LORs (one of which explicitly contains a paragraph about my communication skills) would have helped in any way had I scored a 3.5 or 4.0. In any case, was1984 had no reason to be concerned about his writing score as its probably higher than the Engg/Sc test takers' average score on that section. Percentiles look bad because I'd say 99% of the people end up getting a score between 2.5 (or 3.0) and 6.0. So there are only 7-8 possible scores. 5.0 is a 77th percentile this time. Makes sense: 6/8 * 100 = 75 (assuming the scores are divided equally among the test takers for ease of calculation). Let me know if you think my reasoning makes sense.

They probably are better at putting together sentences.

People do hear in March. A few schools told me that the professors would meet only in the first week of March and a decision would be out at max by mid March. I'd switch to panic mode (of the voluntary kind, we are all taken over by the involuntary kind though and there's no escape from that) only after mid-March if I were you..

Make sure X is differentiable all the way long, i.e., make sure he gets to interact with the right environment which will give him a strong sense of individuality (hence "differentiable") and try to avoid singularities (like rashes, injuries, etc on X's body/mind). Your parents won't notice a thing. I'm just ranting now.. I'm getting pissed off at Berkeley for keeping me in the dark for so long :| and I know its going to be a reject for sure, but I need confirmation so that I can get on with my business!

Probably say something like acceptances from all these wonderful places put you in a tight spot and after careful deliberation and advice from various different quarters, you've decided to go ahead and accept one of the other offers. Thank her for being encouraging and enthusiastic about your application and tell her that you'd follow her work with interest over the coming years and that it'd be nice to meet her someday, maybe at a conference I've sent out a few such emails and I've always received a warm reply. I don't think you need to be too worried.

Ah, I now understand why I gained weight, why my asthma related cough got worse and why I'm in bed with a temperature now :|

Some Indian English usages: 1) She is too good yaar. (She is very good, mate!) 2) I am not remembering now what she said. (I don't remember what she said) Effects of a direct translation from regional languages which use present continuous forms. 3) I am going to hostel. (omission of definite articles, quite common with Indian students. Hindi: "Mein hostel jaa raha hoon" which literally translates to "I hostel am going" which leads to "I am going to hostel")