Helpplease123

They hadn't arrived in the post, email etc. the day of the deadline which had me panicking a bit but when I spoke to the ETS customer service people they said that they'd be on the phone line...so although I had to shell out the $12 I got my scores in time. I only took the test 14 days before though, with a month you should be absolutely fine, i've since got the scores in the online portal...about 16 or 17 days after I took the test but worst case you can always call. I also spoke to the school and they said it would be fine if the scores were a little late anyway as long as everything else was submitted.

I'm not 100% sure on this but I think NYU should be in your risky category and get one more moderate, it's an incredibly popular school and very highly ranked - I don't know much about the other schools to advise you unfortunately, i'm an international student as well.

If you haven't seen this before, it may help you make some decisions and with your applications.. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/599432-so-you-want-ma-ir.html

Correct. It is a method of ranking candidates abilities in comprehension when things haven't been spelled out to them. If the passages were too clear and straightforward everyone would do just fine, it would be very self-esteem boosting but frankly why bother having the test.

Sorry I had a quick look online but couldn't see any International Relations rankings either... I think the methods you're using to rank the schools are probably quite useful (overall ranking and then rankings for similar subjects) - just choose 10 from the list you've got, 2 dream ones, a couple of stretch schools and maybe 5 moderate but you'd still happily pay out for and then if you want, 1 that you're sure you'll be accepted at.

USC is the top ranked from my list for what I want to study (public admin) so actually might be my least safe bet, although if I got some funding would definitely be my first choice. Have given up on safety schools, have decided that as you said, no point really going all the way to America for a 2nd tier school...could go to a quarter of the price 2nd tier school in England!! Just hoping to get into one of the others as the top tier American public admin programs are far more established and higher ranked than the English ones!

spend some time going through the program sites and figure out which programs fit what you want as well, rather than just applying anywhere

I made some obvious cuts (i.e. too competitive or ranked too low, you wont get a visa) but without any knowledge of the important parts of your application it's impossible to know where you'll get in

I don't think so...quite a few schools i've applied to have actually asked for your highest score in each area (regardless of what test it came from)

I guess you could use the personal statement as kind of a prologue to the statement of purpose? So talk about your life leading up to now in your personal statement, how you came to want to study your program etc. Maybe start it at the first point you got an interest in the subject and discuss how it first developed? Then in SoP talk about you now, your future goals and how xyz program fits into that. You're right, I wouldn't talk about struggles too much, I think they get so much of that now - everyones looking for some dramatic story to stand out it probably just gets a bit annoying to read but you also want to keep it interesting so try and add the odd bit that's less formal. I suppose it depends on the degree you're going for as well.

Can you find any international affairs rankings? You're GRE scores are pretty good but not amazing so I think kiteintheskies is right suggesting you pick the bulk of your schools in the 10-20 area, top 5 may be a slight stretch although don't know anything about your work experience of quality of your essays and both of those are going to be pretty important. On a slightly different note, is an M.Comm a masters program? You're going to struggle to get a visa to do a masters in America if you've already done one abroad...

Well it's definitely been 15 days now and still not showing on my online page, lucky I didn't listen to the lady I spoke to yesterday who said to hold out - would've missed the app deadline! What I find so bizarre is that the scores are available on the $12 phone service but not on the internet page, which you would think would be more up to date than a phone line...seems like a pretty sneaky way to make money...

Thanks everyone that's really helpful! They have already written recommendations so shouldn't be too long but wanted to still give them time anyway as recommenders are notoriously unpunctual! Thanks for sending the link for the grad admissions pages process makes more sense now, almost gave me a heart attack though when I saw 4000 word writing sample but then realized you'd written that it was the classics homepage not general instructions (and I somehow missed the giant "department of classics" banner acros the top) haha

I've emailed the school but guessing it's going to take them a while to get back and I may need to hurry up... has anyone applied to U of Texas - Austin? You can't notify your recommenders until application is submitted, does that mean application needs to be submitted by deadline date of 5th Jan but recommendations can come in after? Or that must submit application before then and make sure references are in by the 5th as well? Thanks!

Thanks for the advice. I left it late because of all the changes, I wanted the new test to be somewhat established before I took....was actually just able to get them on the phone service.

Make a table of all the information you have...

I took my GRE on 1st Dec and my first application deadline is today - I thought this would be fine as the reporting should now be running on the 10-15 day schedule but I haven't heard anything yet and online it says my scores are absent or not available. When I submit my application what should I fill in under the GRE scores? I got unofficial scores at the end but nothing for AWA obviously - should I just leave that box blank and fill in the unofficial scores for Q and V? So incredibly annoying...when I took my GMAT I got the official scores in under a week.

I hope so, I took the test on 1st Dec and my first deadline is tomorrow! But no sign of the scores yet...

Putting content aside since i'm no SoP expert and am only just writing my own now...I would suggest that you go over the quality of your English language and maybe try less to use "big words" and more just try for it to just be correct. I don't mean that rudely, your English is impressive but I just think that by trying to make it sound fancy, some of the content may be misunderstood. For example, the first sentence doesn't really make any sense and no one says townsmen, in fact it sounds a bit like a sentence that gets churned out by one of those language translation websites. Anyway, as I said, you're not English and so am very impressed with your language but I think you may be better off toning it down a bit.

Thanks for your advice!

I've just seen on the application form these two questions: Please list 2 or 3 scholarly/research topics that are especially interesting to you. (1000 characters) Please list the names of 2 or 3 faculty members whose research you find most interesting and with whom you wish to work during your graduate studies. (1000 characters) Should I still mention in my SoP? Thanks!

Thanks! I was originally planning to just talk about relevant courses, so will add something in about professors too!

I've seen quite a number of posts suggesting that future professors should be discussed in your statement of purpose and it's not something i'd considered doing....would it only be relevant for Phd applications or should I be doing it for a masters application as well? Thanks!

Maybe consider wording things like this post slightly differently in the future, as calling those scores shit could be quite offensive for many people who would be very happy with them.