-hermes-

According to the results survey, acceptances sent out around mid March... potentially only 3 weeks more of waiting! Haha

Me too! I wrote quite a bit about LGBT spaces and women's empowerment in my SoP and have been worrying that adcomms will think I belong in a program that focuses on gender and sexuality instead. Have to fret over something, right?

@gurlsaved, @fanonfanatic, yeah, I think I knew my question was too general for anyone to really be able to answer it. It was more of a musing based on really disparate experiences I've had so far in terms of integration/segregation in schools, though none of those experiences were in the States. Thanks for giving it a try though! I agree that large cities and a liberal slant definitely play significant roles -- and interesting point about Washington DC, fanonfanatic!

I can't believe I forgot to post this! A relative: Now, you MUST finish your Master's program in one year. Me: It's a two year program. Relative: MY daughter finished HER masters in one year! *proceeds to tell family how I shouldn't take more than a year and how wonderful her daughter is* ... Her daughter's program WAS only a one year MA. Facepalm.

Thank you! Such a nice gesture. Just need to firmly remind oneself that no amount of fretting will have any impact on the decision.

I knew I shouldn't have opened my SoP. I wrote "Masters" instead of "Master's". Augh. How will they take my app seriously given that I couldn't correctly punctuate what I applied for? Dear Ground, Please swallow me up. Kthx.

I'm an artsy through and through, and I used Barron's -- I found it pretty comprehensive. Princeton Review is ridiculously simplistic, and I wouldn't recommend it. The GRE is definitely much harder. I suggest taking an ETS practice test to get a better idea of what the content is like, and where you stand in relation to it.

Fight Club

Yay! You're welcome! Is there anything specific that you feel is a marked improvement? A friend of mine is pondering upgrading from Snow Leopard.

@fanon_fanatic, thanks for the welcome! Has anyone here applied to a Masters program? @Ville, sorry to hear about your experience of grad school. I'm an international applicant as well, and given that I work full-time, I didn't have as much time to research programs as I would have liked. That said, I was wary of small college towns for exactly the reasons you described. I haven't studied in the US, but I'm hoping people in cities aren't as insular as you describe on your campus (I don't think they would be) -- I briefly studied in a school where people segregated themselves according to nationality, and it wasn't pleasant at all. Anybody have some input on integration in the States? Of course to some degree it is what you make it.

warming up

Haha, cute! "Email?! *click click click* " I can definitely identify.

1. "Oh, American schools like Harvard aren't all that hard to get into! Don't you just have to be able to pay?" 2. "Apply to more places" *stresses*

(Page view fail)house music

scarlet fever

Oh man. I'm trying really hard not to read my SoP. I was reading and rereading it over and over until I submitted it, to the point my eyes started glazing over -- and I caught a misplaced comma right as I was about to upload it! Don't know how I missed that during all the revisions. Scared to see what else I might have missed.

Lion came preinstalled on my MBP, and I love it. That said, my laptop has 4 gigs of RAM. I suggest reading up on the added functions you'd get with Lion on Apple's website and elsewhere online, to see whether the upgrade's worth it. I love the multitouch features, and AutoSave and Versions are really useful.

Program's -> programs Gah... The exasperating experience of posting on the boards with an iPhone and its over zealous autocorrector.

Hi! I thought I'd sneak into this thread, even though it's for PhD program's and I'm looking to get a Masters. Hope you guys don't mind! Still a month of waiting to go!

One of my recommenders forwarded me his rec after submitting it. I tend to overanalyse and fret over EVERYthing so I didn't read it for a while... But the curiosity got to me, haha. He was really complimentary and it was nice to read such a glowing letter during this period of grad app self doubt.

Can I be "that person" and ask what font people prefer to use? That also makes a difference with regards to page length, despite the font size restriction!

I'm not in Psych (though I did major in it for undergrad), but I wouldn't mind pitching in my two cents. Anything to get me away from my own app.

Hi, I agree with the advice of the other posters regarding the first paragraph and the need to be more concise. I also think the link between this event in your life and the resulting effect on your character needs to be strengthened. You say: Although Joshua’s death is not the only event that changed me for the better during my journey through life, it is definitely the most significant. As a result, I have an increased capacity to be an involved and committed student; a strong and sensitive leader; and an individual with a desire to have a positive impact on society. It's not totally clear to me how that event led you to be a more involved student, for example. Just adding a couple of linking sentences should strengthen this significantly.

Thanks for the responses everyone! it's reassuring to know that industry research may help my case. To clarify my question, I'd like to get a rough idea of what sorts of responsibilities undergrads undertake when gaining research experience in the social sciences: are they entrusted to crunch numbers and run statistical analyses? Or deliver surveys? What sort of activities? I've looked through research done by professors in my field of interest, but it's hard to discern what the scope of the RA or undergrad students' contributions would have been.

Hi! I'm applying for a Master's degree, and I don't have any academic research experience. However, I have recruited and moderated focus groups, designed and analysed quantitative surveys, and the like for my day job. Does professional research mitigate my lack of academic research experience at all? Google searches throw up tons of advice on how to land academic research exp, but don't answer a more simplistic question: aside from the undergrads who manage to get publications, what sort of day to day research activities are ideal masters applicants supposed to have done?