Hopin'-n-Prayin'

FnG, Its hard to say whether you are being delusional or not without knowing some of your credentials: What are your Undergrad/Grad degrees? From Where? GPAs? GREs? Relevant work/life history? Academic accomplishments (honors/awards, presentations, publications etc...)? Strong LORs? Have you identified faculty at each school you would mesh with in your personal statements? I'm not suggesting you divulge these- or that they define you as a student or person- but admission is many respects a numbers game, where the first thing adcomms look for is a disqualifier, such as less than awesome verbal GRE score... So the more you can reveal about what your app looks like and what the relative strengths and weaknesses are, the more we can weigh in on the persistence delusional question.

So, the application for Penn requires a 10 page Max (!?) writing sample and specifically states: No Bibliography. I have not seen where other programs have specified this one way or the other. The four other apps I have already submitted all had Bibs and notes. It just seems to me that the Bib and notes say as much about the research and the researcher as the prose does. How are you guys approaching this- especially where you have to shave down a larger paper by 50% or more to submit as the writing sample? PS: I know there is a section in the main forum for writing sample questions, but I do not think that the input of engineering and/or economics (etc...) applicants is relevant.

I'm 38 and receiving my M.A. next month (hopefully). I'll be starting a Ph.D. program somewhere next fall (double hopefully). I started to explain to a prestigious scholar at a presitigious school that I am "non-traditional" (I love euphemisms!) and she stopped me cold- "Nobody cares about your age!" she said. On the flip side, here is my advice for anyone starting this process in thier mid-30s or beyond: If money matters, do not try to 'stumble through' this process like a freshly minted 23 yr old can. Do everything you can to map out what happens in graduate school and beyond. This means being very clear as to what is required at each stage of the program and how to best position for an increasingly competitive job market- which yes, does include overcoming a certain amount of agism Just my two cents...

Great advice from TMP, the only thing I would is: try to ascertain as instantaneously as you can whether she wants this to be YOUR conversation or HER conversation, or both. Be prepared to lead or follow depending on the signals she sends. Being able to lead is indicative of being able to accomplish, while being able to follow is indicative of being teachable and trainable- each are important qualities that professors (and employers) covet...

Thanks for the feedback...I decided a few weeks ago to eliminate them from consideration, but as the deadline approaches, I was seeing if anyone had heard anything to contradict what I had heard...

Does anyone have any tips for scanning transcripts into readable but small-file-size PDFs? My undergrad institution (for whatever reason) doesn't offer e-transcripts, and I've been fiddling around/reading instructions online all night. Nothing is working quite right. I've tried reducing the PDF size during save (too blurry), reducing the image size before converting to PDF, converting to grayscale, etc. I ordered unofficial transcripts and took them to Office Depot, where they made full color, hi-res, single-document-but-multi-page, pdfs. Cost about $5 for five transcripts (about 15 pages). They saved them right to my flash-drive and I uploaded them to the website applications...

From what I've been learning, top, competitive deparments are very concerned with who they are losing candidates to. Also, professors (especially younger, less established ones) definitely can be egg-faced when they fight to get a student in, who then opts to accept another offer... My gut instinct is that the more they like an application, the more they care what other schools are listed on your application. I guess if that is the case, if it were to 'hurt' you, that would actually be a good sign!!

I had been considering applying to Brandeis, but have heard through the grapevine that they were struggling mightily financially and that funding might not be guaranteed a few years down the road... Does anybody have any concrete info on this? I have done some searching, but haven't uncovered anything helpful...

Max, For what its worth, here is my feedback: You sound as though you have not started the Rutgers application yet. If this is the case, you have just over one month to compose a statement of purpose, revise/perfect a writing sample, procure 3 meaningful letters of recommendation and complete the application itself...and this is to say nothing of the GRE...all with finals and the thanksgiving holiday weekend looming... So if I am correct that you are contemplating whether to just now the start application process to Rutgers, I would say go for the M.A. degree. Here's why: You can probably start right away (even if not admitted to the program right away, you can probably take 2 classes in the spring and enroll for the fall term), you can build your Ph.D. resume through presenting and publishing at the M.A. level (remember you are vying for 12-15 spots with 300-400 other applicants) and you will become a much more polished applicant. One last piece of advice, take the thesis track, not the non-thesis track- why would Rutgers want a grad student who already has proven that they are reluctant to do on a smaller scale (thesis), exactly what they will have to on a much larger scale if admitted (dissertation). Hope this advice helps, I followed it myself...