TakeruK

Sometimes these application forms are outdated. Remember that ScoreSelect has not been around forever, only since 2012 I think? In my opinion, you are well within your rights to not provide all GRE scores if you are reporting via ScoreSelect. I don't think universities should** have the right to circumvent the system. Without you telling them, the University should have no way of finding out your other GRE scores because they cannot just look up your scores in the ETS system without your permission. It would be a gross violation of privacy. **Note: "should" is not the same as "able to" or "would". Schools can certainly get around this by asking you to send your "test taker's score report" which will show all of your scores. But this requires action on your part. I think this is a crappy practice because 1) it circumvents the ETS score report system, and 2) it requires everyone, even if you only took the test once, to pay extra for this version of the score report. So, while I applied before ScoreSelect existed, if I am applying now, I would submit only my best scores and if they ask for the test taker's score report, I would either 1) withdraw my application because I think a school asking for this is ridiculous or 2) submit the test taker's score report with my extra test scores edited out (and tell them I did this) or 3) submit the full test taker's score report as requested. The action I take would depend on how much I still wanted to be at that school after getting this request.

I started my PhD in September but the degree did not get conferred until November. My school gave me until December to provide the diploma.

It should be okay but you should check with your accepted school once you decide where to go. I applied to my PhD with a BSc (already conferred) and a MSc in progress. I didn't actually get my MSc until November (my PhD program started in September). I needed to provide my MSc in order to officially matriculate, but since it was not being conferred until November, I got a letter from my school that I completed all requirements in late August, just in time to enter the US for PhD program In either case, I would not worry about this until you decide where to go and you talk to your program to see if this will even be a problem. Really, the most important thing the visa officer would worry about is whether your new school has accepted and admitted you, so an acceptance letter is probably enough. And your new school will do what it can to help you get here.

I would say the minimum length is enough so that the reader gets the information they need but not too long that it won't be read (or the information won't be absorbed). Although my experience on the writing end is fairly limited, I get the sense that they are typically around 1.0 +/- 0.5 pages long, at least in my field.

The usual order of things is: 1. You apply for schools during your last year of undergrad (2015-2016). 2. You get an admission offer around Feb-April of 2016. The offers do not usually explicitly say that you must complete your undergrad degree. Instead, it is implied that everything you say in your application is true (i.e. your expected degree date). 3. You make a decision on what school you want to go to. 4. After you make a decision, you begin the paperwork for the school to issue you your I-20 or DS-2019. This usually happens in April/May. 5. You receive your I-20 or DS-2019 and begin the F-1 or J-1 visa application process in your home country at a US embassy/consulate. By now, you will likely have received your degree. 6. You get your F-1 or J-1 visa approved. During the summer, your new school will begin asking you for registration deposit (if necessary), and proof of degree completion when you have it. Sometimes the degree is not conferred until after the new school's school year begins---talk to your school to determine the deadline. 7. Finally, you enter the US no more than 30 days before your new program starts (your visa does not allow you to enter earlier). It's hard to predict what your visa officer will use to determine eligibility. Your letter of admission from the school will usually not say "conditional acceptance". But by the time you have your appointment, you will likely have finished your undergrad degree requirements (it would be a good idea to get a letter from your current school saying so, if it is not already reflected on your transcript). And by the time you actually enter the US, having the actual degree in hand would be a very good idea (or again, transcript or letter if you don't have the physical degree yet). Of course, once you are on step 4, stay in contact with your new school's international office to get better advice too!

Strongly agree with this. I thought this was an elective course. If you are required to take it, then you take it---it doesn't matter if it's useful to you or not! Everyone in my program takes a breadth of fundamental courses in basic planetary science, no matter what our actual research is. It's important to have some foundational groundwork in order to communicate and understand others who work in your field. One day, when you are no longer taking courses, the department might solicit opinions on coursework from its senior students. This would be a good time to voice any concerns if you do indeed feel that some of the courses do not serve some of the students well. But the right time for that kind of feedback is not now, it's when it's solicited and when you have finished the coursework and have seen the full picture of all the courses and see how they fit with each other.

If it turns out the course is not what you expected and is not useful to you, then I think the best thing to do is to drop it and spend your time on research or another course. Make sure you go through whatever channels you need to in order to drop a course. This might mean enrolling in additional research credits or enrolling in another course to ensure you meet minimum # of units for your program/university/visa status. Also, you may need permission from your dept chair, advisor, program representative, etc.

I would only submit a 4th LOR if it was as good quality as the other three. I would not use another LOR of "lesser" quality (what you're suggesting for you #4) to "compensate" for a "lesser" LOR (#2). After all, what looks better: 2 out of 3 strong LORs or 2 out of 4 strong LORs?

You're right! I misinterpreted "admitted/applications" as in the number of people that were admitted (i.e. matriculated) into the program, but I see now that it is the percentage of people that got an offer Oops!

The numbers by themselves just show that 2014 and 2015 are marginally different from the six years before that. The six year average over 2008-2013 is 17 students per year, so if you assume it is a Poisson process (not exactly perfect but a good approximation), then there is a 2-in-3 chance that any given year would be different by 4 students in either direction and 1-in-20 chance that it would be different by 8 students. 2014 could be the 1-in-20, and 2015 is definitely within the 2-in-3 chance. So, by itself, I don't think the numbers yet indicate a significant trend. However, this trend along with some other correlation might indicate something. For example, you should consider the number of faculty members at the school. If some faculty left or retired in 2013 or so, then it would make sense that the number of students accepted is declining. Or, if a large number of faculty members took sabbatical in 2014, then they might not have taken new students and that year might be abnormal. Or, if a large number of students expected to graduate in 2013 delayed their graduation, then 2014 might have a smaller class so that there is enough funding to go around. Or, as has happened at my school, we had one year that was smaller than the others and the reason was partly due to a decrease in NASA funding that particular year (the one with the government shutdown) and also a dip in applicant quality. Top programs, like the one you are providing numbers for, might choose to just admit fewer students if there aren't enough that are at the calibre of the former students (i.e. saving that funding for next year). They are not going to accept students that are simply "good enough". So, I think unless you find other correlations to go with the numbers, I would not think the drop is drastic nor significant. Finally, you'll notice that I chose to look at the absolute number of students rather than the percentage drop. I think absolute numbers are more meaningful because all of the factors that constrain admission deal with absolute numbers (e..g "How many students can we fund?") and not "Let's accept the top X%". You'll notice that it seems like the number of applications has gone up! In 2008, 72 people applied; but in 2015, 100 people did (although 2014 is a weird year in this regard too, only 58 people applied). Instead, I would just look at this table and say, on average, this school admits 16 students per year.

The situation that fuzzy (and others, but fuzzy summarized it really well) wrote about is fairly common in graduate school, especially for new students unfamiliar with research, or unfamiliar with the norms of the field. You have written a few posts here now about similar problems and it's not clear if you're writing about the same problem or if there are a lot of problems going on all at once. In any case, but especially if you are facing multiple problems at the same time, I think it is really important for you to make sure you understand what the professors are really saying when you do meet with them. From the posts here, when you say things like "2%" or saying the prof does not have evidence etc., to me, it sounds like you are approaching this the wrong way. Of course, you should expect the professors to have evidence if they are going to sanction you for academic misconduct. However, before it gets to that, you should stop thinking about this as "the professor is wrong and I am right" or basically the view that the professor has to show you why you are not meeting expectations. Instead, drop your previous thoughts on plagiarism and really listen to what the professor(s) are saying. Suspend your own beliefs about whether or not you plagiarized and just listen to what the professor is saying. They will identify things that they think you are doing wrong (e.g. using another person's idea without attribution) and then you should talk to them about how you can change it. The goal is not to prove your innocence or guilt. If it ever comes to that, then you will be facing expulsion from the program. Instead, right now, it sounds like what you should be trying to do is to understand why your work isn't acceptable and fix it. However, if you continue to treat it as an accusation and that these meetings are like "trials" then I think it will soon lead to a more serious discussion where the outcome will be to decide whether or not you can continue.

Yes, just use the STEM extension. You get a completely new and different F-1 status for each graduate program, so what you do now will not affect your F-1 status in grad school. You should talk about this with your international office, in fact, this is the perfect time to sit down with your international student advisors and find out what is the next best step. Finally, even if you cannot or choose not to take the STEM extension, this just means you cannot work between the end of your OPT in May 2017 and the start of the graduate program in September 2017. You will have to leave the US at the end of your OPT but if you want to just be in the US, you may do so on a tourist visa (6 months at a time). It just means you can't work! Or you can just spend that time at home or on vacation etc.

What visa status are you on? You mention OPT so I assume you mean F-1. You should talk to your school's international office to get the details, but one important fact is: you do not have to have a job offer in hand in order to qualify for OPT status. And if you are in a STEM field, then OPT status is (currently) 29 months. You can get a Masters degree, graduate, go on OPT status and remain in the US legally until you find a job (and you can also work on OPT status). This information might help? Sorry if it's just repeating info you already know. This will fulfill the short term goals of: 1) staying in America and 2) being able to work. One of my friends was in a similar situation as you and was on OPT for about a year, did some odd science jobs and then eventually found work with a company willing to sponsor her H1-B status. The part that I can't help you with is the getting the Masters part. But maybe there is an office on campus that could help you (e.g. the graduate studies office at some schools can help with this). Finally, while it won't help with the "leaving the PhD program" part, there are concessions in the F-1 program that allows students to work while in school in order to meet an unforeseen and large financial need. Not sure what your situation is, but your international student office can help determine if you qualify and help you apply.

Please don't cross-post. For those who want to join the discussion, please go here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/70175-interdisciplinary-engineering-and-policy-applicant-incredibly-worriedadvice-please/

At my school, we are allowed to take many courses outside of our field of interest but our advisor must sign off on them. The classes that students take are often in Computer Science (just for fun, for training, or for a minor), English, Education, Theatre Arts or Languages. Most of these classes are actually aimed at science students taking them for fun/interest because out of the list above, our school does not offer graduate programs in any of them except for CS. We are not allowed to earn a second degree, except in very rare cases. Sometimes, the second degree could be earned through a joint program with another nearby school (e.g. we have a MD/PhD program where the PhD part is done here and the MD part is at a nearby school). I also know PhD students at other schools that can get dual PhDs from partnerships between multiple schools (e.g. U. Maryland and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile offer a joint program where students can get two PhDs, one from each school).

I also would choose the postdoc over the professor in this case.

I agree it's specific to each case. In the most recent class I TA'ed, the emphasis was on learning Bayesian statistical methods. In the problem sets, this includes doing things like making plots to show your answer. In this class, I removed a small number of points (10%) for missing things like properly labelling your axes. It's part of communicating your work clearly and I decided that this was worth 10% of the problem set. I wanted students to think about things like axis labels a little bit, but not have it detract from learning Bayesian statistics. I made the decision to reduce cognitive load on small details so that the big picture is not lost. However, in another class, a laboratory methods class, I would take off up to 40% of the points for things like missing axis labels. This is because I felt that the point of the lab course is to learn how to keep a good lab notebook and develop good practices for later scientific work. I do agree that communication is as important as the results though. In almost all of my classes, I will award up to 80% of the points for clearly communicating to me what they were thinking. Only 10%-20% of the points for a correct answer (i.e. I'm happy to award 9/10 on assignments that get the wrong eventual answer but did all of the right steps and explained why they chose those steps clearly). To me, this is like the spelling/grammar (since my courses do not involve papers)---it's not just getting the right answer to the differential equation, I want to see that the student can 1) show that they know the steps and 2) are able to communicate these steps in the norm of the field (here, it's a proof or a series of equations but it could be grammar if it was a different assignment).

Well, in that case, you should wait and see the result of the initial review before submitting applications since most grad school applications are not due until December. Good luck

I am at a school where the honor code is interpreted, in the context of the collaboration policy for homework, is basically "if it's not explicitly disallowed, then it is allowed". I know this is a little abnormal though. You're right that most honor policies/syllabi here include a statement that all of the work must be the student's own so in effect, that statement does not allow professional editing services. But when I wrote the post above, what I meant is that it is not inherently immoral (in my opinion) to pay someone to edit your essay for spelling/grammar. So, if a collaboration policy allows it (or does not disallow it), I think it would be fine. By contrast, I think it is inherently immoral for an unfair practice such as "Students with names beginning with T are allowed to copy their friends' answers" and if an honor policy/course syllabi allowed it, it would still be inherently unfair/immoral. As for grading, yes, I agree with you! If I were to allow something like this in the class, I would not assign any points to spelling/grammar (or subtract points for mistakes). And I agree that the problem with many professional editing services is that they are not worried about ethics but this is a problem with the provider, not the act of getting outside help. For the analogy, I think you are right that calculator is more like a word processor. But an algebra engine like Wolfram Alpha is more like a professional writing service I guess. This is because Wolfram Alpha will not just tell you the right answer, but shows you all of the steps in getting there. Using this in an intro calculus class, where the point was to do the work yourself to get to the answer, would definitely be against the rules of that class. But using this in something like an advanced Quantum class where solving the integral isn't really the main teaching goal, would be allowed.

You should follow the norms of your field. In my field, this is definitely something you should put on your CV for things like grad school applications and fellowship applications. You should certainly include the name of the journal. Using examples from my field, if it's submitted to something like The Astrophysical Journal or the Astronomical Journal (the standard place to publish your findings), which accepts 85%-90% of submissions, then the reader will know this is a paper that will likely be accepted. On the other hand, if you are submitting to something like Science or Nature, then there is a very low chance of acceptance. But it will also signal to the reader that you're doing some really cool work if you are considering Science or Nature. In my field, if you have something really cool, you submit to Science or Nature first, and then if you don't get past the initial review, you resubmit to Astrophysical Journal or Astronomical Journal etc.

I agree that you should not be working for free. Your time is worth more than that. And, as rising_star said, you are doing free work and taking away paid work from another person. And, since it's free work, it will put the supervisor in a weird place too because they can't really "manage" you like an actual worker. Professors in my field will rarely take on volunteers for this reason. It's not your responsibility to find a replacement for yourself and it's also not your responsibility to worry about who will do the work. What is your responsibility though, is to do your part in giving your team the appropriate amount of warning so that they can hire a new RA. The earliest this could happen is when you confirm and sign an agreement for the new job. This is the #2 part in rising_star's first post.

One of my former research advisors was also the research advisor for another one of my former research advisor. And I almost went to a program where my research advisor would have been the postdoc advisor for the first person in my last sentence and the PhD advisor of the second person in my last sentence.

I applied for the OGS for both Masters and Doctorate studies in separate years and was successful both times. Although Masters programs do not require original research, I still wrote my Statement of Interest (when applying for the Masters level award) about my research. Here, I am specifying "original" research as research that no one has ever done before. Masters programs in my field still have a very strong research component, but it could just be something like proving an established method works as a precursor to doctoral level research. If you are talking about a program that has no research components at all, i.e. a coursework based Masters, then I guess this approach won't work. Instead, if you are not going to be conducting any research at all, I think you should write your Statement of Interest as an essay stating why you are interested in your field, the research in your field, and the program you are applying to. That said, although I might be very biased since I only know things from the point of view of someone in a research-based program, I think most OGS awards go to research programs rather than coursework. But I could be really wrong! Finally, most schools will provide examples of successful statements online. Here is one school that I just googled for OGS examples: http://gradstudents.carleton.ca/awards-and-funding/external-awards/ogs/

I haven't traced it back further than my supervisors' supervisors. But in a related note, there are tons of people who do think about the same thing. For example, there is the "Erdos Number Project": http://wwwp.oakland.edu/enp/ . (Erdos has an Erdos number of 0, coauthors of Erdos has a number of 1, coauthors of coauthors of Erdos has number 2, etc.). There are also other "numbers" for other famous researchers. It's not quite the same idea as an advising family tree but it's similar because one is likely a coauthor with their supervisor, so if your supervisor has a number of N then you will at least be N+1. In any case, it's not just you---there are entire projects and databases (and in the case of the Erdos project, even algorithms) written to determine these connections

In the other threads, it sounds like you are asking about writing in coursework. In that case, it is not part of your research supervisor's role to edit your writing for coursework (at least, this would be strange in my field). One exception would be if you chose to write the final paper for a course on your actual research project. Your supervisor might offer to read it over and give some comments (although it's still rare for them to actually make the edits or edit for spelling/grammar instead of just content). However, if you are asking about professional writing, such as journal articles, grant applications, conference abstracts etc. then your research supervisor would be fairly involved. It does depend on each person though. My own advisor takes a very hands-on approach for editing when it comes to their students' work. They would not just edit for spelling/grammar correctness but also think about better ways I can phrase certain things. This is especially important for grant applications! But not all professors will do this and how much they are involved would depend on the amount they have at stake. For example, a professor might spend more time on edits if it's their student (i.e. invested in student's success). But, if it's not their student or postdoc (but they are still a coauthor) then they might spend less time and for major spelling/grammar issues, they might suggest the author use an editing service. As for policies, I've encountered class policies that prohibits outside help with editing (whether it's a prof or another student or the writing center). Some fellowship applications also say that the student must write the statement "on their own" or "independently". I'm not sure exactly what this means---so far, I've interpreted it to mean that all the writing must be mine but a professor (or any other person) can look it over and give feedback but not actually make edits or do any of the writing.