Teelee

I don't think age is really a factor, but if you want to be competitive against 22+ year old applicants fresh out of undergrad, I would say maybe taking few post bac classes to show your capability as a student to do well academically. There are graduate and/or undergrad courses that you can take online (for example Oregon state university - same rate per credit in or out of state tuition). Getting experience in relevant field and publishing papers? Not addressing the age issue too much during SoP because you are drawing more attention to that issue?

If you plan on weaving your story about overcoming physical illness and still succeeding in school into your SoP, I don't think it's necessary to address the W on calculus. If you actually retook the same class later got a good grade (A or B+) and took other math courses (advance statistics, calc 2 so on) and did well, I don't think it's necessary to address it. When someone takes a W they decided for whatever reason to drop the class and in most cases they retake them and do well which becomes a non issue. Failing a course and retaking is a lot worse. Especially if you only have ONE W,during your 2nd year (still considered your earlier years I think), I don't think there will be a problem.

Your GPA may have been one of the factors for rejection but maybe this year, there were more competitive applicants this year. Also, grad director and the admissions committee aren't always in agreement when deciding what makes an applicant competitive enough (GPA, resume, SoP, etc).

When you defer your loans and you have both subsidized and unsubsidized loans, can you specify which one you want to pay off first?

For example: If you have 20k (at 6.8% interest) in student loan and about to head to graduate school, you have several options. 1) Pay off your 20K in the next 2 years paying approximately 1k/month. While in grad school, you would have finished paying off your entire loan and be debt free (= save more than 6k in interest). You will not have the freedom to do much other than paying off school loans and live very frugally. 2) Pay the minimum interest (approx. $300/month) and still have 18k loan left at the end of grad school. You can use that extra $700/month on other things like mortgage, investment in addition to having money if you run into trouble. You never know when you will need that extra cash. For example, if you suddenly have financial crisis, you can never take the 10k you paid back in student loans last year to buy something this year (the money is gone). 3) Defer while in school and accumulate another 9K in interest (=29k owed in 6 years).

Check out the NRC ranking for plant science. There are several schools well known for botany.

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Your FAFSA for 2011-2012 would be based on the taxes filed this year, which is the amount of money you made last year. So if your spouse makes a lot more money this year, it will not be calculated until next year (2012-2013 FAFSA).

I took the old version few months ago and had to take the experimental section which was the new verbal GRE. The new verbal seemed easier because I didn't have to deal with annoying analogies nor antonyms. The new GRE is strictly fill in the blanks. Each question will have 2 to 4 sentences with 3 to 4 blanks each and you have to make sure all the blanks are correct to get full credit (I think? I don't remember the scoring rules). Check out the new verbal on ETS website and see if feel comfortable to take it. If you have been memorizing just the vocab and not comfortable using these words based on context clues within the sentences, the old GRE may give you a better score.

I know this may sound risky however, if you have to take out a smaller loan <5k and you know you can pay it off within the next few months, I would even suggest opening up a new credit card that offers 0% interest for a year and put it on that and pay it off in 5 months. When I was in undergrad I had to pay school tuition of 3k per semester and just worked it off using 0% APR cards.

You can quality for Direct Stafford Loan (approx. 6.8% interest), make sure to fill out your FAFSA. However, if you are interested in low interest rates and you have a good credit (or your co-signer has good credit) you can get private student loans with a lower APR (approx >4.05%) at places like citibank or Salliemae (2.5% up to 10.5%). After you have taken out all the loans and completed your degree, you can always consolidate your school loans and get a lower percentage.

I would like to get a painting of flowers as a gift for someone. I was thinking it would be great to buy it off a student. How much would something like this cost? How do I go about finding a painter who is willing to paint something for me? How much is an appropriate amount? I tried google searching for info but all i kept on getting was "hiring an art student to paint the house" . Didn't even know someone would hire art students to paint houses. Thanks again.

In many cases, to get stipend/tuition remission/TA, you need to be competitive against all the other applicants (higher GPA, higher GRE, great LoR, and lots of experience in the proposed field). You need to look at graduate schools and see their minimum requirements for applicants. For example, if school X's GRE score for verbal is 500 and quant 600, your GRE score of 1000-1100 is not going to be competitive enough. Although the graduate committee will examine your application package as a whole, you will have a much better chance at receiving funding if you have better stats. I am not sure if stating your financial need in SOP is the best way to go.

I believe if your combined income is very high (for example >100k/year), you will quality for student loan up to 20k each year.

He's teaching some film class at NYU right?

Depends really, if your W is directly related to your major and you plan on doing MS or PhD, you may want to address it. If you have 4 W's from the same semester because you withdrew from school entirely, you probably want to explain that. If it's W's from freshman year, probably doesn't matter as much especially if your overall GPA is high. I have few W's from loooooong ago and never saw the need to address it, never addressed it for grad school nor fellowship applications because it happened so long ago.

Undergrad GPA is used for 1) Getting into grad school 2) Getting support (fellowships or any other assistantship) from the department 3) Getting external fellowship from the government (very competitive and will need a very high GPA to fulfill intellectual merit type of scoring) The value of your undergrad GPA also changes some what pending on your major and type of grad program you plan on joining.

1. Doesn't hurt to ask if you can be considered for MS/PhD because straight to PhD will take at least 5 years to complete since the first two years, you will be taking a lot of classes and will not have as much time to dedicate to research. 2. Having two advisers can become a problem especially if they don't like each other or have a very different way of advising students. Unless you are getting involved in an interdisciplinary research, it will be harder to convince them to combine their funds and support you. 3. Asking won't hurt I suppose, although I feel like he might just accept another student this year who will actually take the offer instead of giving all these provisional conditions. 4. In many cases, it's common to see first year fellowship offered to an entering grad student with a condition that they find their own funding after the first year. Usually they expect you to find TA position within or outside of the department or find external funding opportunities. Worst case you need to take out a huge loan and pay your way through. If you really can't afford to go to school maybe you need to seriously reconsider. Maybe try reapplying next year and try to acquire full funding.

There are several factors that make you a competitive applicant for PhD programs. While it definitely helps to have high GPA and GRE scores, you can become a competitive applicant with relevant research experiences and publications (if possible), personal statement and letters of recommendations. Acquiring external fundings like NSF fellowship will make you an attractive applicant as well. You might also want to work for a year or two prior to going to grad school and make sure that grad school is what you want to do. There are research jobs in biotech/pharma/hospital based research positions that hire people with BS and pay more than 30k a year. I know several who ended up with 38-48K salary right out of undergrad.

You can still get 5 to 6 years of fellowship and obtain teaching experience. I know someone who mentors undergraduate students in lab (average of 4 to 7 students per semester, ranging from 1 to 4 credit research, honors and non honors thesis based research) and teaches during the summer months to get more experience. Very busy schedule all year but it's something to think about I think.

Getting one will help you get more in the future hopefully.

If you have the time, you can always start sending emails during holidays and catch up on things. If they don't remember you at all then I guess you are gonna have to go with your old letters.

If you can't get a paid position, you can always volunteer/intern part time while you work on other things like GRE or post bacc classes (of course this is necessary if your GPA/GRE is low = barely above minimum required by the program).

Good idea to call them directly and explain your situation then. Good luck.