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Yes please! I've been checking the announcements board religiously for this topic to be posted.

Oh wow, I made the list! Awesome!

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Over 1000 USD.

I say definitely still list more than one. You don't know if that one professor you contacted is popular in the dept or the guy everyone hates. Also, listing >1 POI in your SOP makes you seem like a better fit for the dept/school as a whole, not just for this one prof. I say list at least three, minimum. Some schools even require you to list three (e.g., Stanford).

No problem! How's it been going? How'd the thing go with your independent study?

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Quick update: TGC does it again! I sent out an email just inquiring about him taking students next year (and spelled his name correctly!) and he responded a few hours later and suggested a week for the phone conversation! And he IS taking students. I've never been so pleased to feel a little foolish. Thanks for the advice, guys.

^ Keep in mind that I'm NOT from engineering, so if a school has a separate engineering school this could be completely wrong, or if they make exception for people in engineering/math/hard sciences. In psychology, the cutoff for total GRE at top schools is about 1350. Again, not necessarily true for top grad schools in engineering -- I'd google it if I were you; I suspect the information is very readily available with a simple google search. Schools will, under their application FAQs, often say what sort of minimum GRE score they recommend for prospective applicants. You could also look at the TGC Results Survey and filter for engineering majors to see what kind of scores have been accepted/rejected recently. ETA: Someone's started a general applicant discussion thread on the Engineering forum Might be a good idea to ask over there.

Not an engineering major, but it's my understanding that in the quant-heavy programs, adcomms don't really care about verbal scores. 300-390 is a bit low even WITH that, but for an int'l student it's probably not that big of a deal. I've heard some schools don't even look at verbal scores at all. US schools will require int'l students to take the TOEFL, though, which will test proficiency in the English language and schools will put more emphasis on how he scores on that test than his verbal GRE. The only thing of concern would be making sure his total GRE is above whatever minimum cutoff the graduate school (not the dept) has to allow admission into the program. Also, a lot of the time funding is GRE score-dependent so if he's interested in possibly receiving a fellowship he might want to retake the test.

Definitely answer. They ask because they want to see how good a fit you REALLY are for their school. Are you applying to them quite clearly as a back-up? Are you applying to schools with similar program philosophies and faculty with research interests similar to your POI at their school? Use this as another opportunity to sell your app. Carefully select a few schools that are very similar to this program in philosophy and in faculty research interests. It'll show them you're focused and know what you want, and are serious about applying to their program.

I mean that I saw many words from Barron's on the (old) GRE (on which I made a 730V), and the words Barron's chose were easily five times as challenging as the ones in Kaplan. Also, Barron's has many MORE words than Kaplan, if you've already mastered the top 500. I suppose it depends on what level you're beginning at. If you don't know many GRE words, might want to begin with Kaplan. If you're an old hand at vocab, go to Barron's. I also recommend getting any GRE vocab flashcard program for your phone or iPod; I found it very helpful to be able to study on the go.

I'm not sure what you mean with the "after...2 years" bit, but contacting POIs right now (as ever) will be a mixed bag. Some profs will know for sure if they're taking students because they had to declare something to the department. Others won't know until they see what kind of applicants turn up in the pile or are waiting on grant applications to go through to see if they'll be able to fund students next year (for the schools/departments that require faculty to fund their own students -- rare, but I know of at least one top place in psychology that does it). There's not going to be an "ideal" time to send out emails. Seems like everyone I know (myself included) is sending emails out right now for Ph.D. programs, so it's worth a shot! If you don't hear anything back, don't panic. Profs are super busy.

Haha yeah. I guess my thought process was just that, if he was a busy prof and got twenty emails today from prospectives and all of them spelled his name correctly except for me.... Well. Why not spend his valuable time on the people who know his name? I'll be grateful when app season is over, to say the least.

Yes, and yes - I've seen that done in both applicants and tenured professors! Just make sure it's clearly labeled as in prep.

Yeah, I asked one of my roommates (I live with a house of grad students) and she said the same thing -- just send out my other email and spell his name correctly this time and act like I didn't even notice it happened. Thanks!

Oh no. D: I just realized that I misspelled my POI's surname on my second email to him! Which could quite possibly be why he has not yet responded. ;lkajsdfla When I send out my second email inquiring about him taking prospective students, should I address the mistake or just make sure I spell his name RIGHT this time? Good god, I cannot BELIEVE I did this. I usually double- and triple-check my emails. I guess I was just so excited he wanted to have a phone convo that I...freaked out.

It's not so much a requirement as a nicety. It can make things easier for your letter writers if you give them something to work from. For example, this is what I'm giving my LOR writers: a copy of my CV a copy of my unofficial transcript a list of schools to which I'm applying, with POIs and brief descriptions of their work/why I want to go there, + deadlines and addresses a copy of your best publication (or whatever you think represents your best academic work; could be a paper you wrote in their class) stamped and addressed envelopes (if necessary) an explanation of anything unsavory in your academic history you want them to address

I'd say any score on the range is fair game, honestly. However, it's pretty likely that ETS is giving a slightly wider range than the data actually suggest just in case there's some extenuating factor that puts someone's score lower than would have been estimated. They don't want anyone scoring below the range and then complaining to them about it! So I'd say it's possible, but unlikely, that you would have the lowest score on that range.

Excellent. Yeah I was worried that if I emailed him wanting to check back in on the potential phone convo that might sound irritating. But as a current applicant, I'm obviously a little frazzled and don't trust myself to accurately gauge what is and is not over-the-top when it applies to my own situation. Thanks!

Barron's is going to be the best book for vocabulary, hands-down. However, keep in mind that it's a lot easier to learn vocab in context than it is by just memorizing words. I recommend googling words you aren't 100% sure on and then reading online text that uses those words. That way you can get a sense for what the appropriate use of a word is in a sentence (very important for the revised format!) and any subtler connotations its use might have. (For example, the noun "malcontent" has a very different connotation in context than "insurgent" or "rebel," though they share the same definition.)

Minor question, but I'm stuck on it: I emailed with one of my top POIs and he suggested that we have a phone conversation some time over the next few weeks. Obviously he's really busy right now with the start of the semester and he'd said as much in his email (I'd wanted to meet in person while I was in Boston for a conference), but it's been a week and a half since I wrote back and he hasn't responded yet to set up a day to talk. Should I email him again and check up, or wait? I'm about to send out my emails asking if people are taking students this year and I don't want to spam his inbox when I could just as easily ask him about that over the phone when we talk. Thoughts?