virion

U Washington MCB - rejected by email.

wow bazinga12, you really are cross posting all over multiple forums about Princeton . As someone else suggested, chill out for a second. It seems like you're freaking out because not many people are mentioning it. Most of us are freaking out when they hear that the nth competitive applicant on here is applying to the exact same program as us. Let's stick with the version of this thread that was not aborted (not this one), no need to have two of them, especially when you posted the exact same [question?]. Or maybe, if this board supports it, the threads can be merged or some such thing.

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?t=t Crazy that someone posted that they got a UVA BIMS interview when today is the application deadline. Maybe they're a UVA student currently? (If you're reading this, fill us in please ).

Just a joke. No reason to think anyone is telling anything but the truth.

Either the people who visit these sites are among the more qualified applicants, or they're compulsive liars.

I've been told that unless the directions make the limit sound especially strictly enforced, that going 10% over should be okay, more than that is risky. I'm not sure why certain schools (seems to be an Ivy thing) have this limit, but if your statement is ~1000 words I do not think you should submit it without trimming it significantly.

Yes, Columbia has a notoriously short word limit on theirs. I don't remember their application too well (I eliminated them from my list back in the summer), but do look around for any other writing submissions that are required in the app. I say this because U Penn appears to have a 500 word personal statement, but you soon realize that there is a second 1000 word research experience essay. Some schools just break things up differently, but I haven't heard about anything besides the 500 word essay for Columbia.

I assume InquilineKea was referring to the general test.

I would say no, unless you're having trouble with white space on the first page.

Applying to what I consider to be quite a lot (10-12) schools this Fall. Will post more specifics school-wise once I have it worked out. My SoP is also in the works. Still pretty rough, but the general outline is coming together. The "school specific" bit is just a scribble of notes for different schools so far. LoR have been discussed with all previous advisors and there should hopefully be "glowing" and sent without delay come time for those. GREs are done with. Not amazing scores but not worth repeating it (especially with this new test...). I decided to take the Bio subject test for the heck of it and got 86th percentile overall, 96th in cell and molecular (area of interest). The overall "low" score is due to a 66th percentile in ecology/evolution (something I'm not particularly interested in and departments I'm applying to probably wouldn't place importance in). Subscores are reported, so that's a good thing, but I can't decide whether or not to send this optional subject test score. If it were 96th overall, I would of course. I'm thinking that if a school "recommends" a subject test I will send it. If they're a somewhat lower ranked school, I'll send it. But if high tier programs are full of applicants with very high scores, perhaps sending it to them would be more harm than good? It seems like generally these threads start out pretty slow, then explode in early December. Good luck to everyone!

Thanks for the response. This is pretty much what I'm thinking for the CV. Cumulative followed by a very quick reassurance that I've learned to take my education much more seriously, but nothing more than that to avoid dwelling and to get on to more relevant matters. And thanks about the GRE as well. I spent a few hours after the test looking on here and on grad program FAQs trying to determine if I should retake. I think I lucked out on the set of verbal questions, as most averages stated are a little lower. As for quantitative, I'm a bit over for some programs, while some of the top programs state averages closer to 750. Either way, I feel secure enough with it to stick. Even if I got 10 or 20 better on Q (who knows, could stay the same or even drop?), I'd be worried about a drop in V. Of course, I don't even have the writing score yet. I feel okay about it, though.

Oops, I copied those averages from a word file I keep, forgot to change CC to community college. Thanks for the feedback about the apps. I haven't actually filled any out, and I suppose it has been a while since I have looked at any (most require registration, etc... but it's getting to be about the time to do that). Perhaps I got the idea of averaging from the fact that the automated unofficial transcripts I've seen from a few institutions do compute this average. So I guess the answer is to look at the apps. Still curious for the sake of the SOP and contacting potential advisors in advance, though (if this is indeed a detail that should even be mentioned).

Hi! First time posting, but I've learned quite a bit on these forums over the last few weeks. I've taken the general GRE and subject (Bio) test now, so I've moved on to freaking myself out about non-GRE issues. So, I'm wondering how best to state a GPA in one's CV or statement of purpose. Obviously, I don't want to be dishonest. The lowest value of my "ways of stating" my GPA is, as expected, my grand sum of college/community college (goofed off first year, etc). My overall from the institution I graduated from (well over 90% of my credits) is a little higher, major is higher than that. The "last two years" values look most impressive, but I'm worried that they'd be conceived as dishonest. I don't know that people would actually list "GPA last two years" on a CV, or if that's just something they expect the committee to see via transcripts. So here is my list I'm choosing from: Total main university: 3.53 Total university: 3.50 Total with CC: 3.47 Major: 3.68 Last two years: 3.77 Last year: 3.92 My main concern is that "total with CC" is naturally the most honest version. It has to be stated, as I see it. So I'm left with a need to be slightly more impressive, but I feel like listing more than one other one could seem desperate and draw more attention to the low GPA. Does this make sense? Other information, because people will undoubtedly remind me that there are many factors besides GPA which are important (I know, but thanks! I am continually reminding myself this ). Undergrad from a pretty much unknown state school. I have about 3 years research experience in the form of undergrad/honors thesis project and a great research job since graduation in my exact field of interest (contract for another year). No publications, at best could change to submitted 2nd author by time of apps. Letters of rec should be great, previous coworkers got into Yale, Stanford, etc. GRE 730Q/640V/?A, bio subject 86th percentile, 96th cell/molecular subscore. So I've got some good, some not so good aspects here, but I'd like to focus on the weakest link which is the GPA! Am I right in feeling that they aren't quite low enough that I should spend any time whatsoever on them aside from stating the values?