ANDS!

What you're talking about sounds like a stipend, which is quite different than traditional financial aid. With the stipend, that usually comes at the end of the first month of the semester starting; financial aid (if a refund is due) comes well before that. What the OP is curious about, is whether there is any assistance in the interim between finishing their undergrad and beginning the graduate program; as answered by others this is pretty much program dependent, but I wouldn't hold out my breath to getting anything that far in advance from the school. Also, as the OP is in a non-STEM based program, it's not likely that they'd qualify for an RA position so early in their studies.

Having attended three campuses that I got Financial Aid for, I never had to wait more than the first week of classes to start to get my refund (if one was due).

Define "acceptable".

Stat admission for Davis is probably going to be more difficult than Bios. I think you can apply to both - though they might wonder why you are. That said the Bios department at Davis is "small", so competition to get in is going to be tough. As for others I mean really any program at one of the UC's should suffice if you are set on going to California.

Some of those schools are far from hopeless (as far as prereqs are concerned - I know nothing about funding restrictions for students). Though I don't think Northwestern has quite the Bios program you are looking for. Personally I think Emory is the better all around choice, but then I might be biased. As for real analysis - more doesn't hurt, but I don't think not knowing it is going to particularly hamstring you. It just might make certain classes a bit more of a challenge.

If it is a course that's not particularly relevant to your long term academic plan (insofar as requirements are concerned) I wouldn't worry about it. Depending on how you are doing in other courses, I bet your advisor isn't that worried either. If this starts a trend, then there might be cause for pause.

Are you located in the town? At this point I would have initiated some face to face time to get an answer. If not, I would simply send a letter to the secretary and anyone else you think would need to know about this situation, that you're simply moving on. Any place this disorganized you really don't want to deal with anyway. Was this the only school you applied to or wanted to attend?

Far better served just researching introductory material of topics beyond Calculus. They are not going to ask about extension fields, or splitting fields, or characteristic polynomials or pointwise convergence, etc. Any of the advanced stuff is going to be the basics. So if you've had a first semester in Analysis, Algebra some Complex and Linear Algebra you'll be fine. If you want books (that can also be found online. . .winkwink): Analysis -Rudin (first chapter reviews of basic topology) Algebra - Gilbert & Gilbert Linear Algebra - Friedberg Calculus - Stewart Beyond that, depending on what you are going for, you should have enough. Half the test is Calculus so you should at least get a 50%. . .right? RIGHT?!

Why are you attracted to the school in the first place? OVerall good program? I listed all of 0 people in my SOP and instead focused on what my interests were; I made sure "overall" that the program met my interest needs and that eventually I'd be paired with a suitable advisor. The HARD sciences I can see not being really able to do this, because - it seems - a lot of their PhD work revolves around actually working in a lab with an interested proffesor. As an English major you should have latitude in this. If you have the persons name, yo u can probably look up their research interests by seeing if they have any publications or indirect mentions. I'm really curious how you were drawn to this place without a good online resource in place by the school.

There was ONE long passage on Henry VIII and theatres. The rest were like, two or three paragraphs at BEST. One of the more interesting ones was on Bee's (I don't remember the kind). As expected the passage on Henry VIII was the most complex and the one I had to read more than once, but since the rest was so "easy" (I scored 161, which at the time was 80-something percentile which was far and away more than I needed) I had time to sit back and think about what was being said. The rest of the sections are just fill-in-the-blanks with words most people should know (or maybe have heard in context even if they don't know the definition). Unless your vocab is just garbage (you're one of the kinds of people who refuses to read on principle unless its OK magazine), if the goal is to not look illiterate I think most people will be fine.

I think the biggest complaints about the X1C are going to be in regards to the screen; however this is a business class machine, and it's not going to have a screen like the MBP and certainly not like the Retina. Reviews have said it is a nice screen for its class though. My last laptop was a Thinkpad, and it has lasted 6 years. I expect to be using the X1C for a similar period of time, unless they radically change the design to make an upgrade worthwhile. FWIW some of the complaints that Mossberg has about the X1C are not found in other reviews from reputable sources.

I don't know how they've updated the prep materials, but I will say I found the actual Revised Vocab section FAR easier than the test materials and old tests that were out about a year or so ago. Shockingly so. I think for folks who have not taken it you are most likely to do a lot better than you think. I was in particular worried about the passage sections, which would put me to sleep or make me cross-eyed; the one's on the test were pretty straight forward and not frustratingly complex and dense like the practice sets. I would say do the vocab apps if you must, but the words/vocab I encountered weren't super foreign (like the practice problems) and the matching was pretty easy.

Oh dear. . .

That's always the refrain isn't it: can't make your point be accepted as fact, just label the person you disagree with a troll and feign ignorance on how the conversation took a nasty tone. Well done. Round and round she goes. I'd say "Physician, heal thyself. . ." but that's just too obvious I think -

My recommendations: Low Budget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AI_1nJYa3Y. It is Lenovo's "budget" ultraportable, and has received rave reviewers from publications. One of the drawbacks is its battery life, but unless you project yourself to be on battery power for hours on end with nary a plug in site - isn't a problem. The 13inch version (which you should be looking at) starts at 719 for a Core i3 and 500gb of space. Mid Range: Macbook Air. Really nothing needs to be said about it. Great keyboard, good battery life. Only comes in solid state drive options (keep it thin). 128GIGS of memory will cost ya about 1000 bucks on Amazon. A bit small for my tastes though, but it would compliment an iPad. Pricey: or Macbook Pro. 13inch MBP will start you of at 1200 and goes up from there. Thinkpad X1C is. . .depending on tastes. . .the least "sexy" of the laptops, but it is a "business class" laptop, and is well known for its distinctive style (all Thinkpads look the same). This one however is superthin, touted as the lightest ultrabook, and comes in at 14 inches and about 1300 MSRP (that will drop once it goes on sale) for entry model. I will personally be getting the base model XIC (was going to get the U310, but the X1C looks very affordable to me). If your goal is to get a laptop and an iPad, I would go for the U310 and a 16GB iPad 2 (you don't need the new one); that would come in well under 1500 (if you are adamant on taking notes on the iPad).

What is your budget?

Amazon absolutely. Unless it is something huge that simply can not be left out on the street (a couch say), they don't have any reason to call and schedule a pickup so you will be fine there. Amazon Prime will allow you to get free Two-Day shipping so you can pretty well plan when your package arrives.

If you say so. This thread has already derailed enough, no way am I taking this flame bait; least of all your ludicrous chicken sandwich ipso facto argument. . . Thank goodness there are people who can actually do math in this world who dismiss such outlandish comments without actually doing some research first (population the competition is drawing from, historical proportion of men to women in the field of interest - yanno, the pesky stuff). If it turns out that this is a significant difference, then yes you can dance a jig at the gender bias (something tells me you haven't done that). Two people find that comment disgusting (and not simply churlish or immature): you (gee I wonder why) and the tightwad it was directed to. Good game. Sorry, I was merely addressing personal snark with personal snark. Feel free to continue thread combing for posts to Rep-Bomb. It's a hoot.

Are you? And yea you're right. The large crowds eating a chicken sandwich last week are definitely a portend of ill-intellectual-tidings for the US. And a majority of folks I've seen claiming there is some controversy regarding the CERC assignments are those setting fires so they can find some smoke.

Could be any number of reasons; intentionally blowing you off probably isn't it. I would send a kindly reminder, or if she has a phone call her (enough time has elapsed between email and phone call). When possible I phone people; email is great for a first contact, but since the email has become a bit more ubiquitous than the phone in dealing with these kinds of issues in academics, it's too easy to ignore or mistakenly pass over. A quickie phone call to her or an admin in her dept. leaving a messag (or inquiring if she is on campus) will do far more to get the result you want.

Oh please. Unwad your boxers and/or panties. Or continue to take yourself (and this forum) too seriously. Either way will lead to hilarity I am sure. . .

Pretty non-existent is not non-existent. Surely, to a linguistics PhD, I didn't really need to lay that out.

Are they courses with ANY relevance to what you plan to study?

I can think of a couple things; perhaps you've been in school too long. You can't see the forest for the smooth milky thighs. . .

I'm sorry but that is a load of bullsh*t. Not your demographics - one need only stumble into a computer lab random times during the day to confirm this - but the incredibly faulty connection that "Hey it's full of all dudes. . .definitely has the undercurrent of sexism in it!" - relative or otherwise. This is still academia; unless the OP is going to school in Iran or something gender/racial biases are pretty non-existent. Jesus. And you're in Social Psychology too. God help us - As for "insisting" on the department - I was simply curious if the OP would bite. They didn't. Coupled with the previous info, I'm simply leaning more towards "less insidious than a normal person would think - " in terms of the tenor of the conversation the OP heard.