shai

Hi, I can try and help, although I'm not familair with the field. Cheers.

Hope this helps anyone - I just got a reply from one school I'm applying to which said that international students don't need to fill in the GPA info. They calculate it for you. Cheers

Hard call. I'de say - apply and see what happens. Low rank is better than no rank (meaning not getting in any school). how low is it compared to the other ones ?

Hi Everyone and thank you all for your advice. I am still so puzzeled because it seems that a 94.75 would be somewhere between 3.975 and 4.00 GPA. This seems highly unlikely... anyhow, I'll try and leave the option blank in the application forms and see where that gets me.

hey there. question - did you order transcripts to be sent directly to the schools or do you receive them and send out by yourself ? Thanks

I don't think the 4.00 is a linear scale.

Hello everyone, I have an average of 94.75 out of 100 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Can anyone help me understand what it means on the 4.00 scale ? Is it a 4.00 or would only a 100 be counted that way ? thanks !

Anyone familiar with the program in Princeton ? Could you share your wisdom ? Also - anyone familiar with similar programs around the US ?

But if so - aren't you supposed to get the log in credentials to the file they automatically opened for you ?

Hi I sent 4 schools my GRE scores. When applying, do I need to open up a new account or does sending your GRE scores open an application account for you ?

I wrote an e-mail asking to volunteer in any research the prof. is conducting. I actually ended up in a meeting with the prof, where she told me that she doesn't have any spots available but took me around the department and introudced me to other profs. In the end, there was this one prof. wo said that if i was willing to work for free, he'll take me. He said that, being that i didn't need any money, I actually had a card going for me.

That sounds interesting. I'm actually applying to the same schools as you are, but with weaker application material. I'm counting on schools liking my statement of purpose and maybe taking into account the fact that I'm a bit older and have been through some unique life experiences (compared to average american students). However, I am glad that we are not into the same research interests, because if I was in an application commitee I would accept you and not myself !

That's a really impressive application you got ! What are your research interests ?

it works a bit different for me. I keep telling myself - what is the most important thing a person needs to know about me. than i have a genral idea. i don't write it down. i keep thinking to myself - "OK, this is what i want to say. how does it effect my everyday life". then i have it in my head, boiling. and once i feel it's ready - i write it down without thinking of style, editing and spelling.

Anyone here applying to socail psychology programs ? what field ar eyou applying to within social psych ?

http://www.uni.edu/walsh/linda2.html

who said anything about life and the universe ? why are people here so sensitive about advice ? the truth is no one in this forums knows what helps and what not, so we each say what we think. you shouldn't contradict other's advice, just give your own. let the advice taker decide which to take. breath, people. breath.

My friend, I guess you're not familar with religion, are you ? It's one thing to be secular (like myself) and not believe in anything. It's abolutely another to say that there isn't anything new coming up in religion. The fact is that religion has been studied long before any of the "hard" sciences and will probably still be here after the academia will find a new bon-ton science and leave chemistry behing. Are you aware of a small field called the philosophy of science ? How nothing is really real (except for mathematics) being that the ideas, methods, as well as the scientific tools, are all based on a few persumptions ? and by the way - no need to be arrogant. if you were as secure in your field as you would like to seem, you would have no problem with people in other fields talking about original ideas and struggling.

still on the subject of the statement of purpose - does any else fear and worry that their SOP will end up regarded as corny ? oh my god, how i love research.... that sort of thing

as an israeli i can give you two advice - 1. it depends on the israeli university. Tel Aviv and Haifa are much more open minded and "leftist" than the Hebrew U and Ben-Gurion. It also depends on the specific program and faculty - check their media publication and if they're signed on any petitions. 2. Your work needs to be written in asmart way. this means that you should triple-check your facts, see that you are based solely on them and not your owno opionion and make sure to have a lot of "although"s in your conclusion. I'm sure no israeli prof. would like to see a work written by someone who has never lived in israel / palestine and has gotten all his ideas from books and the media, and unless your work is based solely on true facts it woul dbe disregarded.

that's true if you are applying to a place where there aren't many apl=plicants. but if you want to stand out in a crowd of 300-500 applications, just summing it won't do it. unless you have a 1600 GRE, 4.0 GPA and LOR for nobel prize professors, i think you need to try and be clever - if only for showing them your uniqueness

my humble advice would be to end with a short story/moral/wise joke that sums your main ideas. example - say you stated how interested you are in frogs and their mating behavior and would like to go into academia to be a better frog researcher. your concusions could be something like : "in my family there's a saying that to understand a frog you need to be one. although i'm not sure i will ever be able to get into a frog's mind, i would sure like the oppurtunity to find out". this way you a) finished on a high note made a comment that they will surely remember c) summed your interests but showed you're not only a boring scholar does this help ?

I'm not sure about PhDs, but I'm from Israel, and I believe that when applying to TelAviv U, no one will care where you got your undergrad. I mean, unless you're from the top 10, you're regarded as equal. It's just that no one really knows any schools in the US other than harvard-princeton-yale and the sorts

can anyone give examples of hooks ? lets say 2-3 first sentences ?

I thought this could be a good place for those who are already accepted to PhD programs to add their most important tips for the SoP. What do you think ?