TakeruK

Just wanted to speak to this point because it was one of the biggest difference between a top 10 school (my current PhD program) vs. top 200 school (my MSc program). I think it really depends on the "non-top-10 school". At my MSc program, it was in between (as in, a 2 hour train ride from) two other very prestigious programs and we were only able get "big name speakers" for one seminar per year. Sometimes, if we were lucky, maybe two in the same year. And even when we do this, the speakers rarely stay overnight--they often arrive from a train at the first school at say 9am, the seminar is at noon, there is a 1pm-2pm lunch with the speaker. There may be a dinner with the speaker, but they might choose to take a train to the next school that evening around dinner time. In any case, 1-2 grad students might get a meeting, but the professors tend to monopolize the speaker's time. At the top-10 program, we get "big name" speakers practically once a month. And, students are always prioritized in arranging meetings. The program is also able to ensure the speaker stays overnight (school pays for accomodations) and the speaker spends two meals with students. Also, student input at the MSc program was pretty limited ("send us some name suggestions and we'll see what we can do"). At my top-10 program, the third year grad students take full responsibility for choosing speakers, inviting them, arranging their schedule, and hosting them. I think this is great practice for building our network. I did this last year and it helped opened new connections for things like getting invites for me to speak at other institutions (nothing confirmed yet since it's too far away but a bunch of people indicated that they would be happy to host me in the future). I do agree that connections with the faculty do help bring in good speakers (at my MSc program, all of the good speakers came because they were a collaborator of a faculty member) but the school brand name plays a big role too. Many speakers that we invite are very happy for the chance to speak at a "big name school". And, I think putting the invite power in the hands of the students gives us a leg up in building our own network (I mean, "Would you like to speak at <top 10 school name>?" is a pretty good opening :P)

I just want to say (although in a different field) that I am at a top 10 program and this post encapsulates all of the concerns that a student at a top-10 program really needs to think about when it's time to pick which school/lab to go to as well as what to specialize in when you graduate! So many different people---grad students, postdocs, and faculty---warned me about what Eigen wrote in the last paragraph when I was considering this top-10 program for my PhD. I would say that if you let yourself be relegated as another pair of hands (or another "cog in the giant research machine" etc.) then all of the advantages of being at a top-10 school disappears. So for those who are considering top programs, think about this when you figure out where you would fit into the department. It's important! And for the second issue---the one where a student is only successful because they have all these resources---it's something that many of my fellow students and I have thought about and worked on. It's a real concern at top schools and the good faculty point this out to us right away and make sure we are developing skills that are useful beyond institutions with a lot of resources. For an example: a student who had to work really hard to get the most science out of their second-tier equipment is going to be able to learn and develop a lot more than a student who works at a place where the equipment is easy to use and always works. Of course, I'm generalizing here, but being at a top school means you have to work extra hard to prove to future job committees that you aren't just successful because you had all these resources, but that you would be great without the resources too. Just something to keep in mind as well.

Congratulations! You should be able to change it now without any problems. In fact, your school does not even need to know your new name until you want them to know your new name**. Many of my friends change their last name in their personal life (bank accounts, Facebook, social things etc.) but keep their original name for all academic purposes. My spouse uses their birth certificate to prove use of their birth name and their marriage certificate when they want to prove they are entitled to use their married name. (**Note: I mean for academic related things, like your school records etc. They would surely need to know for things like taxes and stipend payment, but you're not at that stage yet!) So, as others said, change your name if you wish. No need to inform the schools that you've applied to. Once they contact you about an acceptance, and after you accept their offer, go ahead and initiate the name change process once you're a student there. It would be like any other student who chose to change their name while enrolled---they'll know what to do I can think of three exceptions where you want to let the school know of the name change prior to this: 1. If you are invited for a visit and the school is booking travel for you and you will be traveling with ID stating your new name. Then you will probably want to let them know at that point that plane tickets and room bookings should say the new name. (**However, see tip below). 2. If you're sending updated information for your application and these items have your new name on them for some reason, then you would want to let them know to connect the two names. 3. If you need your offer letter to say your new name (e.g. you need to use your offer letter to prove proof of funding/income for things like loans, apartment rentals etc.). That is, you don't have to worry about the schools you've applied to until you need something to officially say your name correctly. No need to pre-empt it, in my opinion. Finally, a tip: If possible, don't change all of your ID to your new name at once. Usually you have to send in the old copy and you don't want to be left without any pieces of ID at all. One thing my spouse did was change their passport first, and then their driver's license after. So, they would always have one piece of ID with them. And, during the transition period, if they needed something that showed their original name, they used their driver license/birth certificate. Maybe the laws are a little different where you live though, but in Canada, a married person is legally entitled to use either their birth name or their married name (technically they "prefer" that you be consistent, but you are not legally required to make sense).

Having mostly As and a few Bs leading to a A- average (3.6-3.7) is a strong average for graduate schools. You will be competitive at many grad schools with this academic record. Of course, it also depends on where you are thinking of applying. Canadian or American schools? etc. I am not in math so I don't know what the top US math programs are expecting. But your profile described here is certainly competitive enough to get into some good graduate schools. Increasing your experience with research would be a very good next step though. Here are some tips: 1. In Canada, the NSERC program is a very very good way for undergraduates to gain research experience. In particular, you want to apply for the USRA: Undergraduate Student Research Award. The USRA pays you about $2000 per month for research, usually in the summer, and NSERC provides most of the cost, so you are almost free to a supervisor. This makes it much more likely that you will get someone to fund you for research, especially as I hear in math, there may not always be a lot of funding. The USRA is also pretty prestigious so it will also help you get the NSERC CGS-M, CGS-D, or PGS-D (graduate level fellowships). These fellowships help you get into grad school and winning earlier NSERC awards is one of the best ways to win future NSERC awards. If you are not familiar with the USRA, the way it works is that you can apply for this award at any Canadian university and each school has their own application process. The process usually begins in January, with deadlines as early as January 15. It does sound like you already have something lined up for this summer, but just letting you know. Many undergraduates in Canada looking for research experience will be applying to USRAs at universities all across the country in the next few weeks. 2. Another good way that I gained a lot of research experience was through a co-op work program. As a junior, it might already be too late for you to do this at your school. But it's still worth checking out. At my school, I got 16 months of full time research experience between my 3rd and 4th year of classes (so my degree took 5 years but I graduated with a lot of experience and some papers). Anyways, just a thought. 3. And finally, many schools in Canada offer honours programs which are meant to prepare students for graduate programs. In addition to higher academic standards and larger courseloads, it usually means you must do an honours thesis in your final year. At my undergrad school, a F in any course would disqualify you from entering the honours program formally, however you can still do the honours thesis as an non-honours student. So, think about working on a research project in your final year! Typically, the amount of work expected for this project is about the same amount of work as you would put into a regular class (honours students tend to take 4 courses + 1 research course in their final two semesters, instead of 5 courses per semester). Hope that is helpful!

Congrats and good luck!

Sorry to hear that you have to go through all of this red tape I guess I was lucky that because I work for RA/TA purposes, I got a letter from my school that allowed me to get a SSN (but it's a SSN "for employment purposes only" not credit/benefits, so I still have to put big deposits down on utilities and such). A state ID / driver's license is super useful. I use it as my main form of ID whenever I'm in the US and everyone just assumes I'm an American, which makes things a lot easier. Especially for things like buying alcohol---I don't have to point out where my birthdate is on my BC driver license! And some places want to / prefer to see an American agency issued ID, for whatever reason. I can share some stories if it makes you feel better: the DMV didn't want to look at my J-1 status forms when issuing my driver license. I told them that I think they needed that info---they said no thanks. A month later, I got a letter from the DMV saying that they can't issue my driver license until I send them a copy of my DS-2019! Also, my spouse is on J-2 status which allows my spouse to gain work authorization. However, one of the criteria to qualify for work authorization is that we need to prove that we do not need my spouse's income in order to survive, but that it would be for fun things only. We had to write a letter with a budget showing that my income is enough for necessities and that my spouse's income would be for things like "vacations and eating out" or other luxuries.

If you are in the US now, go to the DMV and get a state ID card. You'll just need to prove you are legally present in the US (I-20, DS-2019, etc.) Or, send them your Canadian provincial ID card (if you have one). I definitely would prefer not to send them my passport either (although when I got my passport renewed while in the US, I had to send away my passport too....I felt better that I was sending it to Passport Canada though instead of the IRS).

When I moved in 2012, the exchange rate was almost par so I was able to move a good amount (enough savings for maybe 3-4 months of expenses) just in case. But now that the US dollar is a lot stronger, and I've saved up some amount of money from my stipend here, I've been considering moving some of that money back while the US dollar is high relative to the Canadian dollar. But it's tough since I don't know if I will stay here in the States for a postdoc or maybe go to a different country. So US dollars seems like the most flexible currency right now, for me!

I'm no immigration lawyer, but the information I got from my international office is that this is more of a problem when you are trying to get a visa or use your visa to (re-)enter the country. I don't think maintaining funds is a requirement to keep F-1 status, it might only be necessary to gain F-1 status. Also, in order to get a F-1 visa, you just need to show funds for the first year, not all the years. But I am not an expert. Realistically though, it's very unlikely that you will be audited randomly by US Immigration, so this is not something I'd spend time worrying about. However, the takeaway message for new international students would be that I would move enough money from home currency to US currency to last for a while when you first get to the US! If your F-1/J-1 funding requirements are met by your school's stipend package though, then you won't even need to worry about your home country savings to get your visa (I didn't provide any bank statements or anything to US immigration for proof of funds---just my offer letter).

My field doesn't generally interview. I did get one Skype interview though. We got an email asking us to pick a time and the first available date was 1 week from the email (and the last available date was 2 weeks from the email). I did get invitations to visit schools and talk to professors (but this is after I found out about acceptance, so it's not really an interview for acceptance but it was more like an interview to determine which groups/labs I could work in). They gave us about 3-4 weeks notice for this.

I put mine on the left. But I don't think this is something that will make your application get laughed out of the pile.

The top Canadian programs are not as competitive as the top US programs. Of course everything depends a lot on the field, but in general, the top Canadian schools are in the range of US schools ranked 20th to 50th and I would say that they are comparable in competitiveness for domestic applicants. That is, the top Canadian schools are about as hard to get into for a Canadian applicant as a school ranked, say 30th in US News would be for an American student to get into. International students does make it trickier. In general, tuition is way cheaper in Canada, even for international students, so admitting an international student does not represent as much of an increased cost in Canada than it does in the US. So, from this perspective, I do think if everything else were exactly equal (i.e. same applicant strength and same standard for admissions at both schools), I think it's slightly easier for a US student to get into a Canadian school than a Canadian student to get into a US public school.

For my first 3 years, I was paid on a Canadian fellowship, which is worth a set amount of Canadian dollars. The Canadian government sent me a paycheque every 6 months, with the award value converted to US dollars. At first, the two currencies were at par, however, in the last year, I was only getting 80% of the original amount because the US dollar increased in value. My school asks me to send them the check stub for my Canadian fellowship. My program pays the same stipend to every single student, so they just pay me the difference between the set stipend rate and the value of my Canadian fellowship. So, my American source of funding did change because my program promises a guaranteed total salary if you're bringing in external funds. Unless you are getting paid from your home country as part of your stipend package with your grad school, I don't see how your home currency value should make a difference on how you get paid in the US.

@rising_star: That's great advice for paper-based classes. I have not yet taught or TA such a class but I will keep this in mind for the future, in case I do! And definitely second everything you said with timer and rubrics. In my past TA experience, I usually only have 3-4 minutes to grade about ~6-8 pages of math, so this is key!

I think that time management is a really important part of academia and it's something we all really start learning in grad school. I think both teaching and research are things that can be described as "you can always do better". You can always spend more time on teaching---you can do more grading, you can tweak that lesson plan more, you can rehearse that part one more time, you can design that homework question better, you can provide one more piece of feedback. And, you can always spend more time on research---you can try a slightly different experiment, you can collect one more data point, you can read another review paper, you can reword that paragraph better, you can change the colours on the figure etc. There is always more to do! So, instead of just pouring time and energy into teaching/research until it's "perfect" (it will never be), I go the other way around. I first assign how much resources I want to spend on this task and then budget my time to create the best effect. I do this for both research and teaching (after all, for research things, there is limited telescope time, and limited money to present at conferences etc.; the same principles apply). With teaching, it's a little bit easier because from Canada, I am used to TA work as contracted hourly work instead of salaried work. So, I decide how much time is supposed to go into teaching (based on any contracts that might exist and talking about expectations with the department or whomever is in charge of my teaching work). Then, I divide up my work and design the course to make the most of the time I have allocated towards this task. In addition to what rising_star suggested, here are some other ways that you can reduce time spent on grading (which often is a big time sink and also the least fun): 1. Reduce the amount of material that will be graded. I can think of three ways to do this. a. If your students will do homework even if it's not graded, then I would assign only a few questions that will be graded and the rest as ungraded homework that you'll just provide solutions for, but not grade. This works better for more senior students. b. If you know that your students will only do homework if it's graded, then assign all of the questions for homework, but you tell them ahead of time that for each homework, you will only grade X questions, randomly. So, you might assign 5 questions per week but only grade 2 of them. c. You can also do a hybrid: assign a larger number of questions over a longer time period and then announce which ones you will be grading the class before it's due. So, you might assign 10 questions due 2 weeks from now, and tell the students that all questions should be completed but you'll ask for which 4 to collect for grading 2 days before it's due (so, in theory, the questions should all be finished and the student can just polish up the graded ones). This eliminates the "luck" factor from option b where you might choose to skip one question and have it be worth 50% of the homework grade! 2. Streamline the material you are grading. This works better in some fields than others. But you can design your homework/quizzes/etc so that you can grade them as efficiently as possible. In the lab sciences, for entry level labs with 1000+ students, one way to do this is to have fill-in-the-blank lab reports, so that the answers are in the same location on the page for every student, making it easier to grade. For physical sciences, our homework are often calculations, so you might require students to draw a box around all of their answers, so you can focus on that area. I'm not sure how to do this for papers though. 3. Prioritize your feedback. Spend more time on feedback that the student can use to improve their work. For example, I would spend more time providing feedback on quizzes, homework assignments, midterm exams etc. However, I would spend little time on feedback grading final exams, which the students do not get returned (and also, it's too late for them to do anything about it). When grading finals, I rarely leave comments, unless it's a strange thing that I need to make a note in case I need to justify the grade later. That's just tips for grading efficiency! You also can be strict with both yourself and your students on how much time you spend on teaching related work outside of the classroom. If you are finding yourself taking too much time away from other work because you have open office hours, maybe be more strict. Perhaps you can set aside a single day to do all of your teaching related work (prep, grading, office hours etc. and only take appointments from student on that day). Maybe you can set aside certain time periods where you will read emails from students (if you find these emails distracting you from other work). Of course, if you choose these strategies, make sure you communicate your intentions to your students well so that they know what is going on! (e.g. you might say "I will only read emails from this class on Mondays and Thursdays" or "I am not available after class for discussion, my office hours are X" and then close your office door when you get back after class). Be firm! This part is really hard for me because I really enjoy interacting with my students, but ultimately, if I let students have any part of my day that they want, I am letting down myself and other responsibilities I have as well. Luckily, I can only think of one course where I had to implement some of these measures because the amount of time I was spending on the course was getting out of control and impacting my ability to do other work. For things like lesson plans, rising_star already said most of what I would say. Keep all of your notes and re-use them. Don't redesign your course each year. If you have any choice in what you are assigned to teach, try to pick the same courses at least 2 or 3 years in a row. Sure, getting variety of experience is important, but so is having enough time to do other things you need to do (e.g. research).

How creepy!! I can think of two possibilities though: 1. Did you apply to Duke for undergrad? They might have connected any old information from any earlier application and auto-populate. I know that many schools have software to avoid multiple entries for the same people and they really want to consolidate/merge entries when possible. 2. Did you use a browser that has auto-complete on? Maybe for some reason, your browser filled in that form for you automatically and you didn't notice?

They should be short and to the point, but there is a big difference between: and: (subject: PHYS 101 final exam) Hi TakeruK, where is the PHYS101 final? --- Both examples are short emails and get right to the point. However, for an instructor, one is actually worded in a way that you can answer, while the other could be tough to figure out. I think it's just a matter of respect that if you are asking for someone's time, you should provide information necessary instead of relying on or requiring the instructor to figure out what class you meant! Of course, I don't think this is even an appropriate question---a student should not be asking the instructor where the exam is, unless for some reason, there has been a big miscommunication (see: It's in the syllabus!) When I think of email etiquette, I don't think of formal letter writing. As in my "proper" example above, I don't care if the student signs the email or not because 1) Gmail cuts off the signature anyways and 2) most modern email accounts have names set up so I could see who wrote the email from the header info (exception: If the student is using a university email and did not set this up, or if they did not provide their name to the email provider, then the student should sign it). I also don't need there to be whatever number of spaces---for a quick question like the one above, everything in 1 line is fine with me. I do think a proper greeting is required though because email is not text message and if you would not greet your professor as "hey you" in the classroom or hallways, then don't do it in email. Finally, my last point is that there are lots of different levels of formality that you can use with email. When I send one to my spouse, it's basically a text message that I am too lazy to get my phone out for (especially since I find typing much faster than texting). Or, if I am waiting to meet up with a friend and am running late, I might just shoot them a quick email without any greeting etc. These are all great uses of email and take advantage of the fact that we can communicate almost at the speed of light! But that doesn't mean this level of formality is acceptable for every communication. The formality of communication between two people does not only depend on the format it's sent, but also the relationship of the two parties. I do not expect students to send me text message-like responses, whether it's an actual text message, an email, or in the classroom. I'm not sure why this is tough for students to understand---we figured this out with telephones! Even though the medium is the same, we communicate pretty differently talking on the phone with our friends, our parents, and our bosses.

I love LaTeX and I think it's the best scientific typesetting software! I currently use Mac OS X and I have MacTex installed. I use TeXShop as my text editor. I like TeXShop because it is simple, I can easily store templates that I can load and type in (e.g. I have a template to create problem sets for my students) and most importantly, it displays the compiled product side-by-side with the LaTeX. My favourite feature is to be able to click on the paragraph/equation/table/whatever in the compiled product and have my LaTeX screen scroll automatically to the same point in the code** and highlight the exact thing I clicked on. (**technically, it's not "code" but it's easier to say code) However, one downside is that there are fewer "macros". When I first started to learn LaTeX, I used a different editor that had lots of buttons I could click on and the code for that thing would appear. For example, did I forget to how to code up an integration symbol? No problem, just click on the symbol I want and it appears! I first learned LaTeX over 10 years ago, but now, there are also other ways that might make LaTeX more intutitive to new users. For example, there is LyX (https://www.lyx.org/). It allows you to write and see the final product on the same page. For my field, this is especially helpful for equations, because for complicated equation, the TeX version is really different from what it displays as, and LyX gives you tools that is similar to Microsoft Equation Editor, letting you pick symbols and such easier. And, it also tells you the TeX version so that you can learn it. Eventually you'll learn things like \int gives you the integration symbol instead of having to find the button. Last summer, my summer student showed me another cool thing: https://www.sharelatex.com/ It's an online cloud-based editor, so you can work on it from any computer without having to install a bunch of stuff on your machines. Also, it's collaborative, so if you are working on a document with multiple coauthors, everyone can edit it. One of the most annoying things about LaTeX, especially when I was first starting, was making sure I had the right packages installed and in the right place and in the right path etc. This means I have to keep everything exactly updated on my work and home/laptop computers. Nowadays, MacTeX actually does a really good job of managing my packages so this is no longer a problem for me. But for new users, ShareLaTeX might be a good place to start! And finally, staff at my school's Library have started telling us about Overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/ It seems very similar to ShareLaTeX but perhaps supports more formats. I haven't tried this yet. So, although LaTeX does have a steep learning curve, the nice thing about starting new is that you can take a look at all of the options available and pick what works for you. Hope this list here gives you some good ideas. I'm not sure if all of them will work with your field though but it's a worth a try! And as fuzzy said, take a look at what resources are available that is made for your community, by your community. In astronomy, there are plenty of templates that are pretty much "standard" to use and most journals even provide their own class files so that you can use those as a template. And, usually if you google "How do I ...." you will find someone who solved the same problem and posted their code solution for you to use. No need to reinvent the wheel

I think this is a valid reason to ask about your status. Today is December 23, and most school offices in the US will close sometime after noon on Dec 24. They may be open for the days between Christmas and New Years but they also may not! My recommendation is to call Tri-CBM during working hours in the Eastern Standard Time zone and explain your situation. I am suggesting a phone call because email might be too slow---it might take more than one back-and-forth and also due to all of the other stuff going on in the last few days before the holiday, making a phone call will reduce the chance you will be ignored. Just my suggestion.

Just to add to rising_star's comments, I also want to say that many people (including me) use "R1" just as a label for a type of position and its job expectations, not the actually definition of R1 (which, as you say, aren't even used anymore). And I use it when I think about schools internationally, which doesn't get classified by the Carnegie system (I think?). With this in mind, I would say an R1 school in my mind is a school that both fits rising_star's description of job expectations and the school funds the department I'm interested in well. I'm also not really interested in moving around much more in my life. So the idea of going to a R2/R3 then applying for R1 doesn't appeal to me. When it comes time to apply to TT positions, I'd only be applying to places where I am happy staying forever. It also rarely happens in my field, typically people move from R1 to lower tiers, not the other way around. So, to answer your question, I don't care if I end up at a R1 or R2/R3 in the end. But my ultimate career goal is to be in a certain geographical area, and to do so after 1 postdoc. Academic jobs are competitive and limiting myself geographically hurts my chances, therefore for a postdoc, I want to be at a place where I can maximize my chances at my ultimate career goal. The geographical constraint is more important to me than what I do, so I would be okay leaving academia to live where I want to live. And since I am not sure a postdoc at a non-R1 institution would help me get an academic job in this geographic region, I might as well just leave academia after my PhD if I don't get postdoc offers at R1s. Also, I mentioned a salary constraint above---at least my field, the R1s are the places with the money to offer fellowships that pay well (and for national fellowships, they are generally held at R1s anyways). So, although I am not applying this year, I've been paying attention to what my friends are doing and "shadowing" them looking up job postings etc. It seems like the ones that meet my goals tend to be R1 schools.

I agree with fuzzy. Many faculty I know will do a little bit of work between Christmas and New Years, even though my school is technically closed that whole week. Looking at the calendar, I think Dec 28 / Dec 29 is a good time to send that automatic email reminder from the application portal (that way, they get the link to the submission form). You might even follow it up with a personal email wishing them a happy new year and saying that you just sent some automatic reminders for Jan 4 deadline. Then, I probably would not send another reminder email until January 5.

I definitely agree that the individual visit would not be the same experience! My program plans a super awesome 2-day event but once in awhile, a student cannot make it and has an individual one instead. It's not as good because 1) you miss out on some really cool lab tours, 2) you miss out meeting potential cohort-mates and 3) students and faculty are busier and may have less time/energy to talk to you and show you around. The individual visit is still preferable to a Skype-only visit though. Also--when I was visiting, I had to reschedule one of my visits. I thought I might be the only one but it turns out 2 other students also rescheduled their visits to the same day as me! And even if the dinner on Friday night is optional, for me, it would be one of the most important part of the visit. When I was a visiting student, the extra time away from the campus and with students-only provided me with a lot of really good insights in what the department culture is like and especially about any negative things that students are less willing to say at the department. I made some friends that I saw again at conferences (and some of the grad students I visited are now postdocs at my school!). And from the point of view on the "other side", as a current student, I find the social/dinner events a much better place to share the non-academic details about the program: things like where to live, pros/cons of advisors, what courses are like etc. During my daytime meetings with prospective students, I only get ~10-15 minutes and usually with a group at once, so we only briefly cover the details about the research our group does, and just barely able to answer specific questions by each prospective student. As for the extra day to explore, personally, I based my decision equally between the academic program and the location, so I wanted to spend almost equal time discovering both! I think it was totally worth the extra hotel night (sometimes I had a friend in the city I stayed with for free) and extra meal costs to get the additional ~24 hours in your potential new home.

If you don't reschedule, you will miss at least one Friday night event (maybe even both Friday night events). I think the evening events with the students is really important! Also, traveling like that might make you not be as alert/do as well in your interviews. I would suggest that you try to reschedule the interviews, in this order (by "prioritize" I mean don't reschedule it, but it does not necessarily mean that it is more important): 1. Prioritize the one that is scheduling your visit along with other prospective students. (Not sure how this field works---in mine, some schools schedule all the visits at once, and others have individual visits). Individual visits are easier to reschedule so reschedule that one. 2. Prioritize the one that has the longer visiting schedule. Although in your example, the second school is only slightly longer (the Friday dinner). 3. Prioritize the one that asked you first (**this is assuming you have not already committed to visiting with either school at this point). If one school asked you weeks in advance though, then maybe this should be a higher consideration. 4. Prioritize the one that is harder to travel to (I'm assuming that the difference in total travel time from home to either school, if you were to visit on different weekends, would be around 4-5 hours given what you said, so this is why this criteria is lower. If it was a school on another continent, then I'd say definitely prioritize that one!) I just also want to say that asking a school to reschedule your interview because of a conflict should be an okay thing to do and it does not mean that you are not as interested in that school. That is, you should not consider asking to reschedule to have a negative impact on your admission chances (as long as you do so professionally and right after you get the interview invite instead of waiting a long time). I mean, maybe it will but my point of view is that if they are not able to accommodate a reasonable request, then maybe attending that program isn't a good fit anyways. And finally, I wouldn't want to just visit for the interview and leave immediately. I'd stay for at least half a day or a full day to explore the city, do some touristy things, scope out potential neighbourhoods that you'd live in etc. You'll have to pay for the extra day(s) yourself of course, but personally, I think it's well worth it and also provides a lot of useful information if/when you have to decide between multiple schools. And especially if the school is in a place you always wanted to visit---might as well do at least one cool thing while you're there since if you don't get into the school / don't accept the offer, you might not visit again for awhile.

Definitely agree. What I meant is that if the Q score is "good enough", then a higher Q score won't mean much to the school. Here, a 161 Q vs 158 Q is ~80th percentile vs 70th percentile, both are "high enough", in my opinion for many programs. However, a higher V score, for native English speakers, does seem to carry more weight. But this is just one data point and of course there will be lots of variations between each committee and even each professor. I'm not sure what you mean by "not all applications allow" sending both scores? I thought they just ask for the GRE score report and when you order the score report, you can choose to send one score or all scores. You'll have to send the entire set though, can't pick the best Q and V parts. But maybe my info on score reports is outdated---I sent my scores in 2011, before ScoreSelect, so every single report always contained all your scores in the last 5 years!

Another suggestion for those who are using Mac: The "Preview" software does more than just shows you PDFs, you can also merge PDFs with it. If you open all the PDF files with Preview at once, you can use the "Thumbnails" pane on the left (you might have to activate it) to merge files. You can drag the PDFs onto each other to create a new file with pages from both PDFs and you can even "expand" the preview to move pages around and such. Just remember to save your new PDF (use Save As to avoid overwriting the file you dragged everything on).