hope4fall2012

I don't really think you should be worried about your undergrad grades, especially because you've done well in your subsequent masters degrees.. Do the normal stuff, scope out schools and professors, write to them, meet them, come up with a few good ideas on what you would like to do and form a good application package.. Nobody can really tell you if you'll get into a particular school or not, but it seems like you have a good shot.. Talk to professors definitely and see what they make of your research experience, as well as your ideas for the future..

I think I've ended up pressing the panic button too.. We (my advisor and me) decided that I would attend a workshop in the US during July and to do that I would need an earlier-than-conventional starting date. Unfortunately, this has a whole set of formalities with the graduate school with the dept having to submit an official early start form and it's delaying the entire thing. The dept has to submit the form, the grad school has to accept it, the International Students has to then process it and then mail me the I20. And I need to fly out by the first week of July, in 7 weeks time.. FML

Funny that you mentioned this. A friend just told me that there is tax treaty between the US and India that has some deductions for Indian who are on a student visa. I don't have the details either, but she did get a refund after she filed her taxes.

I think you should definitely call or email. It's the first week of May. I don't think contacting them will impact your chances in any way. Hope you hear some good news soon!! All the best.. ..

Hey everyone, I'm visiting Yale for a period of one week from Jul 9-16 and have to arrange my own accommodation during that period. Do you have any ideas on what I could do for accommodation for just one week? I've been looking at listings on Craigslist, but haven't been able to find anything much for just one week. Obviously, hotels are ruled out since they would just end up being too expensive. Do you have any ideas as to where I can possibly look?

Thanks a lot.. Am I the only one who finds all this complicated? Like starting grad school and moving was not stressful enough.. Well atleast we have time till the April of 2013 to worry about taxes. Unless Dec 21, 2012 happens..LOL..

Are you guys sure we'll be classified as non resident aliens? The wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28law%29) says that a resident alen has to have either a permanent or temporary residence in the foreign country. As students, we do have a temporary residence in the US right? I'm sorry if I'm being naive here. I have no prior experience/knowledge with 'these' things..

7 applications (2 acceptances, 3 rejections, 2 in limbo).. thats around 29%.. nothing to feel happy about, but glad I'm starting this fall..didn't really have a backup plan..

Maybe, you could try the meet and greet section of the forum?

Yup, the school is funding me for an extra month and giving me an early start date.. Cuts down on my holiday time but there was nothing else I could do.. The 'valid from' date on the Visa will be 30 days before the start date of the program start date right? I should keep in mind that I don't enter the US before the 'valid from' date mentioned in the Visa, isn't it? I don't think I really understood what you're trying to do. In an case, I do have to come back to my home country to apply for my student's visa. And I will not have sufficient time to do so after the workshop. Thank you for all your replies!!!

Hey everyone, I'm visiting the school I'm attending for a week from July 9-15 and then attending a workshop from Jul 16-20 and then coming back to school during August (I plan to do some personal traveling during the last part of July). Normally, the visit and the workshop would be done on a tourist visa. But I don't want to do that because it won't leave me enough time to come back to my home country and apply for a graduate student visa. What I'm doing instead is getting the school to give me an earlier start date of Aug 1. Officially, you can enter the US 30 days before the date on your I20. I'm planning to use this provision to visit the university and attend the workshop. Do you see any problems with this plan? Will I be asked any uncomfortable questions at Immigration or required to show some additional funds? PS: I'm from India.

Now, you're scaring me.. I haven't gotten my I20 as well.. Infact, I don't think the processing has started even.. Does it really take that long? May I ask which country, if you don't mind?

Congratulations!!! That's really good news.. ..

There is no way this can end well and I guess on some level you already know that. Even without him being in the same lab, this would be a bad idea, what with the wife and kid and everything. If you have 3 years left to complete your PhD, you must be just getting started with your research, after your qualifiers. The complications arising out of things ending badly with a lab mate could really affect your research at a vital period. It will be really uncomfortable if you'll have to collaborate on a project or do even something smaller like teaching a course together. I know that this might be insinuating a tad too much, but you might end up being a victim of sabotage if the other person ends up with a grudge. End it. And try to end it on good terms. Being just one kiss, it shouldn't be 'that' hard.

I'm an international student and the thing I really liked about applying to US universities is that GPA is not the only deciding factor, especially for PhD programs. I believe that everyone of those factors that you mentioned (research, publications, experience in the industry, or connections with top professionals) plays a very important role. The competition might be higher than ever before, but I believe that excellent research or a good paper in a highly reputed journal or even a conference can offset a lower GPA. You will find a lot of people (on this forum and elsewhere) who don't have a 3.9+ GPA who have still managed to get into tier 1 schools. I'm sure admission committees do understand that your grades might have taken a beating if you spent more time than required than research or maybe even an internship.