Helpplease123

Can't give too much advice on your profile and potential schools but I applied on a whim to a top 30 ranked MBA program last year and was accepted (with my psychology BS) so don't think that will let you know down - most class profiles will tell you undergrad degree of the current years and they are usually pretty varied! Edit: Sorry I just read you're only graduating now...I would definitely recommend getting some work experience first...

It is possible they got misplaced before reaching the correct people - that has happened to me before. I just got the email too, was a bit panicked it had taken this long to be told something was missing (submitted in time for the 15th Dec deadline) and also confused as I posted my transcripts with the financial statement and the email didn't mention that as being missing... You need to fill out form 4 and then get some kind of bank statement...i'm under the impression that the bank statement is just to process your I-20 though, so you could try calling USC and seeing if you can delay providing that until they have an answer for you?

Well only you know what's best for you but if it helps...i'm (unexpectedly to top it off!) living through LA - London with no money on either side to visit for the next 4 months (over 2 months already done) and a guaranteed 4 hour minimum distance (much more likely more) for 2 years at the end of this 6 months due to my grad school locations. I know lots of relationships that have survived this kind of stuff, my only suggestion would be just wait and see what happens, don't preemptively break up!

Why do you have to break up? LSU wouldn't be far at all if you decided to go there and if you don't get in anywhere you can just go work there for a year and try again for UT-Austin. Anyway, many people live very far away from boyfriends/girlfriends (myself included) and it sucks but you can make it work if you want to...so, am very sorry to hear you didn't get into UT-Austin this year but don't give up on your relationship just yet!

If you don't have any B or higher graded maths classes at undergraduate level then yes, definitely take some. I'm taking a calculus, stats, micro and macro economics online with UC Berkeley and can definitely recommend - just wish i'd had time to complete the classes before submitting applications...all i've been able to do is let schools know i'm taking them.

1000 characters or 1000 words?

This sounds like an incredibly extreme version of most places...i've heard repeatedly, 10% over is fine and most places do not count words, they know roughly how long the essay should be and that's what they're looking for. It can be time consuming to establish word counts on however many files as you attach the documents in pdf and so they'd need to paste it back into word, plus even in word some people include titles others don't - so even just highlighting the text minus title would take a minute and they're getting hundreds of applications...

Think it really depends on the school - i've had some ask for 3 pages but no mention on fonts, spacing etc, others numbers of pages with formatting guidelines and other with word counts. Some have asked for double spacing, some for 1.5 and some haven't mentioned - same with font sizes. The important thing is to follow the guidelines. I can't see you being penalised for 1200 vs 1000 words if the school has made no specifications to the contrary.

You still have some time, for NYU and Brown at least (not sure about the others...) I'm not sure that your GPA is high enough to compensate for the GRE as the lower boundary for that tends to be 3.0. I would really suggest you take the GRE again - were there specific areas you had problems with that you could really focus on for a few weeks while getting rest of the application ready?

Dear Professor so and so, I wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm my interest in the x program at y school and in meeting with you to discuss my research plans etc ... (and have this as a forward above all the previous email correspondance so he can see it maybe?) would wait a while longer before emailing though...

I realised the quant side a little late in the game but am currently enrolled in calculus, stats, micro and macroeconomics with Berkeley Extension - hopefully that will help my application even though no final grades yet!

Hahaha Hope i'll get into at least one but I've started making a list of programs that have app deadlines in April just in case...

You want evidence that George Bush is not the sharpest tool in the box? Didn't you seen enough during his presidency? So to summarise, the evidence: pretty much everything George Bush said...ever.

Did you not receive the following email on submission? Read it and the blog and all will be explained - I got an email yesterday saying my application is now complete and being reviewed by the admissions committee (I submitted on 4th Jan but last recommendation was submitted on 11th Jan). Although confusingly it still says GRE received not official on my application page... ------------------- Thank you again for submitting your application for fall 2012 consideration. I wanted to follow up again quickly with some additional encouragement and advice. First, we consider our Admissions Blog to be our number one source of communication regarding the application process. We received several hundred emails on January 4th and 5th with questions that were actually answered on the blog in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline. There is nothing wrong with emailing us of course and the blog will not answer every question you might have, but we hope that by following the blog you will have many common questions answered, thus saving time and possible anxiety. If you have not subscribed to the blog doing so is easy. Simply entering your email address in the Feedburner box in the right hand menu will ensure that you get an email every day we update the blog. If you follow our blog with an RSS reader, do note that our home page address has changed. The old address will be active for several more months, but it would be wise to update your reader to reflect this new address: http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/sipa/ Regarding the processing of applications, please note that it can take us several weeks to complete an application. This is normal and you should not be worried. I recently covered this on the blog, but in short it will take us a least a week to print all of the applications we have received and we need to go through each application manually to verify accuracy and completion. Thus it can easily be up to three weeks before we complete our manual review process. I know the stress level associated with applying and wanting to know your status. I applied and went to graduate school myself so I have been in your shoes. As an administrator tasked with managing the review process, I ask for your patience as we work as quickly as possible. We will contact you if we need anything and you will get an email when your application is complete. Finally, thank you for taking the time to apply and Happy New Year. Sincerely, Grace Han

You're right, seems like it was the FAQ here but be careful generally because I experienced the reverse with LSE (a FAQ last updated in 2009 giving strange recommendation requirements), which is why I gave the OP my original advice - probably best to check with the school either way though!

I would contact the program asap...I imagine that the application is more likely to be correct than FAQ (they may just not have been updated recently) and considering the conflicting information, I would hope that even if it is Jan 1st they'll let you complete an application. Best thing to do though is call them as soon as they reopen.

I don't think you did at all... the question asked for a news story that moved you and thats exactly what you wrote about and you tied it in with an area that is of interest to you/which you plan to pursue a career. The story doesn't have to be about policy specifically - as green diplomat said, it is a way for the ad comms to see what policy area interests you, which it sounds like you've done.

I got mine 18/19 calendar days later, not 15...i'm not sure how successfully they're sticking to their own deadlines, so probably better to assume business days to be safe! I had a panic because one of my deadlines was on the 15th day and when I took the test, I assumed that would be fine but I ended up needing to call the hotline so I would have scores to report on my application form - which luckily one of the ets customer service reps told me would have the results because I hadn't been aware.

I am doing an unpaid internship at the moment and you probably would be able to find one of those relatively easily in your masters field (they may even start paying you after a few months). Working internship part-time you could also get a part-time paid job, just about anywhere, so you have some income. That way you are getting the money you need and some relevant experience and neither should take anywhere near as long to find as a relevant paid full time job. The worst thing you can have is a prolonged gap on your CV that you'll need to spend the rest of your life explaining!

I doubt Aerospace admissions teams look very closely at your Verbal scores beyond a minimum threshold, for the reasons you pointed out. As you said, vocab learning is not a great measure of aptitude, which I imagine is why there is very little of it in the new test and those questions that are, allow you to use contexts and intuition rather than just memory. I imagine some programs look at one section, others another and some more general subjects look at both...clearly it is most important that you do well in the section most relevant to your degree. I think a lot of people with lower scores will disagree that it can be "cracked" - as they didn't, despite probably wanting to. On the other hand most native English speakers probably have an inflated verbal percentile due to the amount of non-native speakers taking the test and some may have inflated quant percentiles due to the amount of History, English etc. majors taking the test, who aren't interested in that portion of the test (for reasons already mentioned). Devaluing other peoples scores that they may have worked hard for and be proud of, by basically implying that the test is a piece of rubbish isn't really necessary though. Clearly it is not a waste of time or it would not exist/admissions committees would not ask for it. Maybe people place more emphasis on it than they need to, maybe you shouldn't have bothered to learn 4000 words BUT the fundamental testing of someones abilities to take maths formulas and apply them to a variety of problems, their abilities to decipher the meaning of an unclear piece of text or their ability to structure a coherent essay (which I don't think has anything to do with knowledge of the topic - I knew nothing about mine), can provide useful information on a candidates general aptitude. For example, if they need a boost having messed around during undergrad, leading to a lower GPA. There are of course flaws such as mentioned before, English not your first language, a History major who hasn't done maths since high school etc. but the admissions take these into account and can use the scores to get an overview of how capable a candidate is in the areas they're interested in.

Might you have time to take it in between now and an application decision (i.e. apply now and submit the test in a month)? Seems like it would certainly help your chances.

Which of your results were you not happy with? You think they were too low or too high based on your abilities?

JoMarie got all of the first section correct which means the second section would've been the hardest level questions - if you got some wrong in the first section, potentially easier ones, that will be why you got a lower score. Do you really thing that any admissions will differentiate between 168 and 170!? Would you want to go somewhere that crazy!? You got a great score and the GRE isn't going to be what makes or breaks your application - focus on the bigger things like SoP and writing samples, you'll be fine.

I'm a bit confused...do you want to go to John Hopkins or do you just want to get in for the heck of it? Seems a bit of a shame to take the place from someone else if you aren't committed to going...

A bit unconventional but if you want to get the hardest maths questions right and know anyone with a GMAT book, might be worth working through some of those too (although ignore the data sufficiency questions). I studied for the GMAT first for about a month and was really struggling to get a good maths score, switched to GRE and all the skills i'd learnt were applicable and the question format was like a breath of fresh air after GMAT stuff.