snowcapk

I have heard of small countries doing something similar at the level of entrance to undergrad. Apparently in France, you send in a portfolio and a ranking of schools you're willing to consider, and the Fed/the schools decide were you'll go for the equiv. of the first few years of undergrad (pr

Are you currently a junior? Are you sure the visiting days are not just for admitted students? If the department provides visiting days for college juniors/next year's round of applicants, then you should go. But your essay should focus on the type of research you have done/intend to do and how the profs in the department are a good fit for you. You might not learn anything on visiting day that gives you any insight to their research, especially if the visit is not organized by the individual department.

This sounds like a default procedure to me. I've heard of similar things before. At least one faculty member (potential adviser?) needs to endorse you before you're accepted, ensuring that you have somewhere to go when you arrive. Let's say a prof likes student A better than you...he accepts student A, waits for student A's decision, and if student A declines then he accepts you. Hence the July 1st deadline. :roll: Convenient for them, shitty for you - unless you're accepted very shortly, of course! At this point I would be hopeful if I were you. Have you contacted any faculty members?

Anyone know whether our personal information has been leaked? Should have paid by check...should have paid by check... :shock:

Well, they're not going to pay to fly out people they aren't seriously considering. This is the normal rate I've heard for acceptance among interview weekend attendees.

Didn't hear about that, but I believe it. NSF does not fund disease-related research and you'd have to read the Program Announcement closely/have a good adviser to realize that. Neuroscientists, immunologists, psychologists, nutritionists, etc. might need to word their proposals very carefully in order to be deemed eligible, and apparently lots of people mess this up. On who_got_in I saw that someone's boyfriend has heard back from NSF...but it turned out to be a false alarm. Different fellowship

Once again, Minnesotan tells it like it is! ... Rod-up-my-ass fact of the day: the phrase "the hoi polloi" contains redundant definite articles.

LMAO

I agree with Minnesotan. The diversity statement (notably called a "Personal History Essay" by some schools that employ it) is often phrased in such a way that you can write about any adversity you've overcome. This allows everyone to fill the box with something and feel happy about themselves. However, as Minnesotan put it, the essay is just "a thinly veiled attempt to insinuate racist, sexist, or classist policies." If you don't discuss your experience as a minority of some sort, your essay will be ignored, no matter what unique obstacle you've written about. My guess is that a university would set Affirmative Action Initiatives 1, 2, and 3 (let's say race, gender, and socioeconomic status), and it would be a secretary's job to read the essay and decide whether the applicant fits any of those initiatives. If not, the essay would never be seen again. In theory, a polished writing sample written by the applicant is the best measure of writing ability. But how can you guarantee that the applicant wrote the SoP and writing sample? People can, and do, pay to have those things written for them. Others require extensive hand-holding from their professors, writing center, peers, and random people on the internet. At some point, arguably the instant that outside help is sought, the essay no longer reflects the applicant's own ability level, and from there it's all just shades of gray up to hiring someone to write "his" essay out of whole cloth. I'm not saying it's wrong to get help, I'm just saying that for all the adcomm knows, the applicant could be anywhere on that continuum. This is why I think that the writing sample/SoP should never substitute for a standardized test that measures the applicant's abilities alone.

Hah! No, it's engineering and applied sciences. cheme, why not call instead?

HistoryDude, I saw that you originally wrote that you were "clueless about how you stack up with the competition." Although this site is great for figuring out when programs send their interview requests, it sounds like you are looking for the profiles of previous applicants and whether or not their applications were successful. http://www.graduateschool.whogotin.info/ is a good site for that. For example, when I search for History applicants at Indiana University, two profiles come up (only one of them is completely filled out). You can see the applicant's GRE scores, GPA, publications, experience, and how he/she fared at other schools. Although there may not be applications on that web site for certain programs, you can do a general search for History applications, and look at similar schools. Hope that helps!

Sorry to hear about the problems. You could call next Monday, in addition to your e-mails. Does she have a secretary? Sometimes it helps to contact them, since they have some control over the prof's schedule. :twisted: Finally, if you still know people at your undergrad, call out a big favor. E-mail them a letter to print out, put in an envelope, and leave in the professor's mailbox. Together, these bold moves should elicit a rapid response. My other advice is to not assume that the professor is at fault, no matter how flaky she has been before. I can hardly count on my fingers and toes combined how many times adcomms and scholarship foundations have lost, misplaced, misfiled, returned, or incinerated things that I have personally placed in the mail. When you contact the prof, say that U of X "can't find" the letter and kindly ask her to "resubmit" it. Offer to pay for overnight mail and delivery confirmation so that she will not be "further inconvenienced." (Bonus: you know when she sent the letter and whether the adcomm is at fault.) One more thing: if you can't reach her by phone on Monday, find out if she is in town at all. Contact other profs there is necessary: the department chair or his/her assistant can be expected to figure that out for you. If she won't be reachable, obviously you need to figure that out ASAP so you can move to plan B or leverage with the school for an extended deadline.

I thought this was an interesting point to bring up. My adviser told me that there's no such thing as a "safety" graduate school for those of us who want to be professors. What he meant was that if you don't get a Ph.D. from a big-name school, you can't have a career in academia. There are just too many Ph.D.s flooding the market. I think there is some truth to what he said, because I know a lot of stellar graduates even from our top-ten school who are having to work as adjuncts or go into industry, even after a few postdocs. Certainly if your plan is to go into industry, this doesn't apply to you. But I thought I should remind all the future professors out there that you might be better off getting a master's/working as a lab tech for a year or two, then reapplying to those big-name schools, because getting a Ph.D. from a "lesser" institution could sink your career.