ktel

They might not have other official interview weekends, but I'm sure one of the schools might be able to accommodate your visit on another weekend.

You're not benefiting yourself or him by pretending you know what he's talking about when you don't. Just ask. He's there to help. That being said, yes I often feel like I don't know what I'm doing or don't know anything when I'm doing my research. I think that's natural. And then sometimes I realize that I actually do know stuff and feel better.

There will likely be a point in the process where you might need to bring it up (I know I needed to mention my external funding to my school) but I don't think you need to mention it right away. I would only mention it if you get significantly far along the admissions process. I also think there might be an argument for not mentioning it at all. You haven't received funding in the form of a scholarship or fellowship. What you're receiving is almost a form of employment. If somebody had a $100,000 trust fund they used to fund their education, they are under no obligation to inform their school of that

I love a good cry it is so cathartic. I cry, talk to my boyfriend and don't take his advice, talk to my dad who says the same thing as my boyfriend and then take the advice. That's my general stress cycle.

I had to send out declining e-mails not to individual programs, but to each individual professor that offered me a position. I think I sent out 10 e-mails or something like that, and tried to personalize them all. One program I had to completely write off because their funding package was not competitive. I had quite liked the people there, and had spoken to them multiple times since I interviewed and after the acceptance to see if there was anything else that could happen funding wise. They knew their funding wasn't competitive and were obviously disappointed to lose me, but knew that is what happens at their university unfortunately. Another program that I declined had flown me out for a wonderful interview weekend, but I ultimately declined to join a different department at their school. I think that lessened the blow for them too, that I was still at their university, just not with them. I actually ran into the dean on Tuesday who was one of the profs who offered me a spot, and she was really nice and offered to have lunch with me.

I think replies 4 and/or 5 sound the best. It shows that you're still interested but need more information. I got an e-mail from a professor last year that was similar, I believe he said "I hope you have received my offer, as it is the only one I've made so far". I replied with, "Thank you, I have received it. I will be reviewing it with my family shortly and will let you know what I decide." or something like that. He's my supervisor now so obviously I didn't screw it up

Totally depends on the school. For the schools I applied to that basically guaranteed your acceptance as long as your GPA was over a 3.0. For other schools you still have to get past the admissions committee. If you really would like to be in her lab and work with her, I would definitely follow up. This is a good sign. I wouldn't assume she sent this e-mail to very many students.

It's definitely not uncommon for Physics majors to jump to EE or CS. You should be able to get into an MS program with limited experience.

I'm going to agree partially with StrangeLight. I think it's pretty extreme to cast doubt on an entire program because you're not making any close friends there. I'm very friendly with a lot of students in my program, but we're not very close friends. I would probably never hang out with them outside of school, but I get along with them fine in classes and in the lab. I've focused more on making friends with my rugby teammates, who I find I have much more in common with. Social fulfillment can be found elsewhere. Now, I could perhaps understand leaving if everybody in your program was so annoying and obnoxious that you actually can't stand being around them at all. That would be difficult to deal with.

I remember I had a nightmare of a time dealing with my study abroad transcript when I was applying to grad school. I took one single course for my enjoyment that was extra to my degree, and all the grad schools wanted an official copy. However the school I studied at does not mail out official transcripts, I have a copy and they sent one to my university to put on file. The registrar's office refused to stamp a photocopy as an official copy. Apparently it's official enough for them to have in my file but not official enough to certify that it's official. So I ran all over campus and finally had to find a notary to stamp it as an official photocopy. So ridiculous. What was even more ridiculous is it turns out some of my programs didn't even care to see the official transcript since it was just one course. Now when I apply for things I always ask if they need an official copy of this transcript first.

I haven't heard of a single university that doesn't have similar bureaucracy issues. It's ridiculous.

I doubt the 0.02 increase in your GPA is what "worked"

I would beg to differ. A 0.01 change in GPA is so meaningless you are wasting somebody's time by e-mailing. That negative impression could negatively affect the application. It just doesn't make a good impression

I like my adviser a lot, but I really get along with one of the older, almost retired profs here at my institute. He only has one grad student and as a result this student gets a lot of time and advice from him. When I was getting acceptance e-mails from profs, one was a semi-retired professor from another department. I'm sure my grad school experience would have been COMPLETELY different had I gone with him. My current supervisor is very busy and has 12 or so students. I go for weeks without talking to him (which is fine by me to be honest).

I interviewed with most of the professors who contacted me, largely because I didn't have a very defined area of research interest and therefore was more open to other areas. So I would just be open and honest. I can't answer your other questions because I have no idea how this school works. For my schools you had to choose a professor and the professor has to choose you for you to be admitted. There's really no switching after that.

Sometimes professors may be interested in you even if you don't show an obvious interest in their field. I was regularly contacted by professors who I didn't specifically mention or previously contact, and my stated research interests were not terribly close to theirs. They just liked my overall resume and wanted to talk to me about their research and see if I was interested

Are you implying most undergrads finish in December? Most undergrads I know finish in April, and it is extremely common to apply for grad school before this. It's almost the norm, in fact.

These stories are ridiculous. I went on an interview weekend, which was more like a "please come to our school" weekend as they only invited a few applicants, and we went out the night before the interviews. All drinks, food and cabs were paid for by the department. I had a ton of fun, luckily didn't drink too much, and because of the time change I had no problem staying up late. I did have a problem waking up the next morning...but luckily made it to everything on time.

Maybe if you applied during the first year of your Master's you could have a May start date?

Like those above me said, it depends on the school. For the schools and programs I applied to (engineering in Canada) if a professor accepted you and your GPA was over a 3.0, you were in.

There's no reason why you would need to know the whole campus anyways. At my undergrad institution I knew several of the buildings super well, but didn't even go to the other side of campus. I tried to give my brother a tour when he started and failed miserably because he was in a different faculty than me.

They must have changed it then, I thought they previously had a program for graduate students as well.

http://www.daad.de/rise/en/ Take a look at this if you want to go to Germany. Pretty sure they pay travel and housing

My department is WAY off campus which is both a blessing and a curse. Makes you feel like you're in a close knit group within a huge campus, but keeps you away from a lot of the services the university has to offer.

I would guess that you will get a single room. I was invited to a similar thing where the flights were reimbursed, but they paid for and booked the hotel, and was given a single room.