sarakeet

I would recommend waiting until September and e-mailing again if you don't hear from them. August is a serious vacation time here in the UK and I'm pretty sure half the professors at my university are on vacation at the moment... I know my tutor is about to finish up two weeks hiking and camping out of the country. I mean they could just be uninterested or very busy, but they might just be out of town, and a lot of people here don't seem to do work e-mail on vacation. Good luck!

Hey, I can't speak as to the reputation of SNU's degrees or anything, but I'm probably about to start a linguistics-related master's degree at Korea University (on a "foreigner" scholarship) in the fall, so if you have any questions about that, maybe I could answer them... I've also studied Korean at SNU in the past, so if you have any questions about that program, I could probably answer them. Just as anecdotal evidence about language of instruction, there was a Turkish girl in my (Level 2, i.e., still beginner level) Korean class who was getting her master's in economics at SNU... She said all her lectures were in Korean but apparently she was still able to take the class and do the reading and stuff in English, she was just really bored in the lectures. I know at KU they say about 30 percent or so of graduate-level classes are in English, but I don't really know how this is divided over the different degree programs. Also, if you're interested in TESOL-type programs, I have a friend who did the part-time program at Sookmyeong Women's University (all in English) and seemed to enjoy it. Anyway I found out a lot of information about the program by e-mailing the professor who is in charge of it, since detailed information about programs is not always as forthcoming on the websites of Korean universities (in my experience) as I'm used to it being at American ones. I have to admit that I was kind of worried about the reputation thing too... This is a second master's for me, so I don't really mind that much, but it's good to hear that SNU has a good reputation, I hope KU does as well!

I've written about my experiences teaching abroad for the last several years, but most of the statement is more about me, what I want to do in education in the future, and why the school would be a good fit for me. I don't really think it's that different from other fields, except that there is a bit more of a career element to it--but in mine I'm mostly writing about questions that my experiences have raised about international/comparative education that I could answer by completing their masters' program, what my experiences could contribute to the program, etc. Every time I write about an experience, it's an example for one of these things. I guess I don't feel the need to prove that I have a source for my interest in education, since I've been an educator for 4+ years already. If you don't have a lot of experience as a teacher, writing about that kind of stuff more makes sense. Just my $.02--good luck

I submitted my first one Sunday--it was to a British university, and you had to submit the SOP via a text box in the browser... There was no option for previewing (that I saw)... And when I looked at it after submitting, all the paragraphs had been squashed together >.< I'm going to submit a correctly formatted copy via e-mail following their directions for extra materials, but still, annoying! I'm planning to finish all the British unis by the end of the week, and I'm looking forward to it, as it's been a little more confusing that the American ones!

ZCM, I didn't have student loans to start with, so I didn't have to worry about it, but I know a lot of people who came here specifically for that purpose--but yes, essentially, it's a salary/cost-of-living discrepancy. In 2010 I took about $10,000 worth of graduate education courses online without taking out loans or anything... I just had to cut down on my extracurricular travel... I live in South Korea, for the record.

I've been teaching overseas for a few years, where it's not too difficult to pay off say $10,000 of student loan debt in a year, so my plan is--work while I go to school, and if I can't get a good enough job in the field, teach overseas again for a couple of years to pay it off. Not everyone's cup of tea, though, I know.

You should call/e-mail and ask! (And then let me know... haha)

I don't know much about business school, but are you sure about the retakes not being counted toward your GPA thing? I know that's true for law school, which uses the LSDAS service to put together applications and they recalculate your GPA by their own standards, but I'm not quite sure it's true for grad schools in general. (Although now I'm wondering, because I did retake a course or two myself...) However, I don't know if business schools are more like law schools. Anyway, I think you should go for it but not depend on it. 3.6 is a decent GPA, 3.3 is not a bad, auto-reject GPA. I imagine your unusual story could work for you provided you spin it the right way/depending on who reads it. But anyway your test score and GPA discrepancy/the prestige of your undergrad/the basic framework of your story don't sound too different from mine and I'm definitely going for both those schools! But I'm definitely not depending on them and am applying for other schools too. FWIW. I hope this is helpful, and good luck!!

Other moral of the story: Freak out about it as little as possible. If they are at all professional, they will e-mail you back with one answer or another unless they have forgotten, didn't get the e-mail, or put it off/forgotten for so long that as soon as they see or hear from you again, they'll remember and feel a little bad. Glad to hear from all those who got in touch with their profs in the end.

I just wrote this to another poster, but I would definitely try a different e-mail address. I was all worried because a professor (who I was really close to) didn't e-mail me back after a week... So I used a different e-mail address with the original message and a note at the beginning that I wasn't sure he had gotten it at the other e-mail address. He e-mailed me back within hours. So definitely do that, or call him up to ask if you're using the right e-mail! Good luck!

I had this problem--after about a week, I contacted the professor by another e-mail address. I copied and pasted the original e-mail with a short note at the beginning saying that since I hadn't heard from him, I wasn't sure if he had received my first one. I was really nervous too, but his reply was along the lines of, "No, I didn't get it, and of course I'd be happy to write recommendations for you!" And I felt pretty crazy for even worrying about it. Soooo... I'd just wait a couple more days and then e-mail him again at that e-mail, or another e-mail, or call his office and say something like, "Hi, I sent you an e-mail the other day regarding my grad school applications, but I never got a response, so I was wondering if I was using the right address." Anyway good luck!

I have one too! I'm have all the parts of the application in different cells, and I'm changing the color based on how much progress I've made on them. I really... love... organizing stuff on spreadsheets

I dunno if it's college by college or something, but the Teachers College one has been open for a week or so.

Hi, that sounds like the right choice for you. I pretty much don't regret not going at all... Basically only when I think about how good the schools were that I got into and start worrying whether I can get into an equally good grad school in education. If you/I/anyone is worrying THAT much about something being the right decision... It probably isn't... At least not at that moment. Best of luck in figuring it out and in whatever you end up choosing!

When I was applying to law school a few years ago, one of my LOR writers actually asked me to write the letter for him, and then he would modify it as necessary. Apparently this is fairly common at least in law school applications. He said he figured I would remember the classes I took from him and papers I wrote for him better than he did... Anyway after he changed up a few things, he then sent it back to me again to check over the grammar and facts--and he's a native English speaker. SO I would say that there's no problem with editing it yourself if your writers are comfortable with it. If they seem uncomfortable with it, try a third party.