ktel

While I have never taken the GRE, I find it strange that people study for months in advance as well. I have never studied that much for any exam in my life, and I don't know why I would do so for this particular exam, no matter how important it is. I would expect some preparation from most students, but months worth may be excessive for most people.

An update. My cohort IS helpful once you find the right person. I have been subtly suggesting that I don't know what I'm doing and many people have offered to help or shown me who can help me.

Basically ask him what he would need from you to be able to write a strong letter. As he was previously your supervisor he knows that you were a good student/academic back then, you need to show him that you still are and how you have been doing that. He might even want you to write a first draft for him to edit (although I wouldn't suggest this to him directly, instead I would offer to help him write the letter in any way he requires and see what he requests)

Your masters dissertation supervisor seems like a great start. He says he would be glad to help, so that's a start. I think when he says he's "not sure how" he doesn't know what to write since it's been 12 years. You can fill him in by letting him know what you've been doing, what you want the letter to highlight, what you want to study.

Imposter syndrome and stress is normal, violent outbursts are not. The fact that you don't feel safe around him now warrants you taking a larger step than just talking to him about his behavior. This isn't exclusively a personal conflict, it's his problem.

I don't know why I got down voted. It's true. I'm trying my best to rectify the situation but that's how I feel right now, apparently sharing your feelings is not acceptable here? Nor is having a bad day? My supervisor is a very busy man and has been travelling a lot lately and hasn't been around at all. I'm going to go talk to one of the post docs to get some help with my research and class mates/another prof for help with an assignment I'm struggling with.

^ I wish. I am very much left to fend for myself. I don't know what to ask or who to ask but I know I don't know much and I need a lot of help. An orientation of some sort would have been nice. I know I need to ask people for help but it's difficult when you don't really know who to ask.

It's a LOT better to get a reference from a professor who has completed grad school, as opposed to a student who is still going through. You must have other professors that know you well.

I don't really understand what you mean. Are you talking about including a profile of the professor who is writing the letter? I have never had a letter of recommendation include a profile of the person who is writing it for you. The letter is supposed to attest to your abilities, not the abilities of the recommendation writer. That being said, the more well-known and successful your letter writer, the better it looks (typically, provided the letter itself is strong).

I don't feasibly see how you could get into an engineering graduate degree program without an engineering undergraduate degree (or closely related degree) or a significant amount of experience (which you probably couldn't get without an undergraduate degree). As a professional field, you need to be properly accredited. I did see something like this: http://extension.berkeley.edu/cert/const.html that doesn't explicitly say you need a related bachelor's degree, and the courses don't look overly "engineer-y". I think I'm just confused about what you actually want to do. You could get into construction management without being an engineer, but there would be certain things you wouldn't be qualified to do.

This paragraph really hit home for me. While I don't think I want to quit, I'm having a much more difficult time than I thought I would. My life isn't fundamentally different. I am certainly not as lonely as the average grad student and I don't spend my time that differently than I did before, yet it all feels a lot worse.

Definitely not enough information in your post to give you an informed response. It depends on what school, who your supervisor is, how well known both are, what kind of job you want afterwards, etc.

I hate to discourage you, but the combination of no research experience, low GPA and no strong letters of reference do not bode well for you. You can change 2 out of 3 of those things, but that might mean having to take a year off to upgrade your profile before applying to grad school. Not that it wouldn't hurt to try to apply. If you've worked as a lab tech could you not get references out of that?

You assume we're all American. You also assume being against OWS is being pro Tea Party. This movement is going global, and is not limited to American politics.

What an excellent article.

Remember it's just an e-mail. She said she wanted to Skype with you and you haven't yet. Just ask if she's still wanting to discuss this with you, she may have forgotten. It's not as big of a deal as you think!

My classes are starting to get more and more time consuming, so much so that I'm having a hard time balancing it with research. The most time consuming class is the most important for the building blocks of what I'm supposed to know, however.

Yes you should definitely mention that you don't live near by and suggest a phone call or Skype discussion.

My department/supervisor provides free school supplies

Well, does this student project group require FEA or other computational design tools? Since that looks like what you're in the program for. It could be worth mentioning if you can tie it in well.

^ This. You should have an idea of what you're interested in and what you want to research. You should then also have an idea of the various professors and what they research. Having interest/knowledge in a few different areas shouldn't hurt your application, and in fact would probably help it.

I use Onyx uniball: http://www.uniball-na.com/main.taf?p=2,3,8 It's key to get slightly thicker looseleaf when using ink pens like this, so that it doesn't run through.

^ Because large, peaceful gatherings can turn violent and they want to be prepared. I'm going to bring up the Vancouver hockey riot again as an example

Is the program course based then? Do you have to do a final project? I'm not sure what you mean by it doesn't emphasize/require a thesis

I don't think 7 or 8 schools is that much, compared to how many I know some people on this forum have applied to. That seems like an average number to me.