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Is anyone else having SOP remorse now the the due date has passed? The SOP I submitted on the 1st briefly mentioned the research I' d done and focused on my interests because they also asked for a CV. Now I'm thinking what if they don't look at my CV for whatever reason. Why, Why did I do that?

Thanks guys. My app is still there, so I'll shoot for COB (4:00 to be safe, hopefully sooner)

I'm getting nervous. My SOP would benefit from a fresh read tomorrow. No where on the school web site does it say a time cut off though. Does my application vanish at the stroke of midnight?

One of the people I'd like to work under in grad school suggested I e-mail some other profs in the department to increase my chance of getting an interview. It's a top-tier school, I'm guessing they get so many applicants this is another way of weeding people out? I have no idea what to say, or how many people to e-mail. I've picked out three so far who I can connect my interests to, but...how do I write this without sounding like I'm going through a formality? "Dear professor X, I'm applying to work with X, but your research sounds like it could connect with what I'd like to study, X X X ,etc." is easy enough, but how do I end it? "Please watch out for my app" sounds like a no-no, ending with a question might be asking too much of a busy prof who you're not going to be advising with... Anybody out there written a successful one of these? Thanks,

I hate the GRE. I feel like no educator knows how to actually interpret them, they all just have some system they made up themselves that they stick to, that has no connection to the information ETS puts out. Few seem to believe they have much impact on whether you are a good graduate student, but they still feel more comfortable if they see high scores (at least that's the impression I get from reading this: http://science-profe...al-writing.html - a bunch of comments from grad school admissions people about how they judge GRE scores). Most don't know what to do with the writing score. like, my scores are: Verbal: 163 in the new score, 650 in the old score, 93rd percentile Quant: 155 in the new score, 700 in the old score, 69th percentile old score conversions I got from http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide.pdf I've heard from my adviser that you just want above 600 to get into a good place. But looking at this scoring system I am better at math than verbal according to the old scale, while my percentiles I think are closer to my real skills. Like, what do the scores even mean? Do too many academics rely on the scores versus the percentiles (many talk about "I look for people with a score over x"? Tell me what percentile is good, not what score to be above. What does it all mean? GRE seems about as effective as a dousing rod. I'm just frustrated because I want to know for certain whether my scores will hurt or disadvantage me in any way when I apply. If, as someone said, 155-160 is the new 600, then my math is just barely there or below. If the profs look at the guide ETS put out and judge based on old scores, then I'll be totally fine. I have no idea what percentiles they want, because no one talks about percentiles.

Thanks for the responses! Actually now that I'm thinking about it, I asked his PI for a recommendation once (with Eigen's plan in mind - the grad student would help write the letter), and I got a positive response from the PI. But, it's been a while (she said yes to writing a rec in January of this year), I worked in that lab for just 2 months last summer, and I am planning to apply to the PI's lab (her lab is actually my second choice) so would it be weird to ask her for a recommendation to get into her own lab? I guess I should I ask her to write a LoR for NSF GRFP and my other grad schools, and then ask someone else to write the rec to get into her lab? (Still leaves me with the problem of finding a 3rd LoR writer for her lab...)

So...I have two solid references for NSF GRFP and grad school apps (one from my thesis adviser, one from a researcher I'm doing a project for now), but I am trying to find a third person. I worked for a graduate student on a side project last summer, and he liked my work and we've kept in touch ever since. He would make a great reference because I worked directly for him on his project, and he knows how passionate I am about my field. But how would a reviewer feel about a rec from a grad student? (He has been a grad student for 6 years in the field I want to do research in, and has been published in The American Naturalist ). Many thanks!