TakeruK

I second telkanuru's suggest to avoid large chain stores for bikes. Until I started my PhDs, all my bikes were from these stores and I didn't really like biking on the road. But then when I moved, I sold my old car and got a bike instead for commuting and it's a world of difference. A good bike is actually comfortable and fun to ride on the road! I don't bike as much anymore as I have a new car but it's a good backup mode of transportation when the car is otherwise used! The bikes from Walmart et al. will certainly cost you more in the long term. If something happens to it, you basically have to throw it out and buy a new one. I got my bike from a local bike store for about $350. You can get a discount if you buy models from previous years. You can also get a good deal on craigslist. My wife sold her bike (bought new a few years ago for the same price) for about $200 (including all of the extra stuff like lights) to another person at our institution via craigslist. And I see listings similar to this all the time. So, you can find a really good used bike for just a little bit more than the Walmart prices. I think it's a good investment to get a good bike for the distances you mention. Getting a good U-Lock is essential: do not buy a chain lock! You can also get bike bags to attach to your bike for groceries etc. Adding all of these accessories can be expensive so budget for that, or buy the non-essential things later. The minimum you need would be a helmet, U-Lock, and bike lights (unless you will never bike after dusk/before dawn). Bike lights are a legal requirement where I live (but also a great idea for safety). I found that bike lights are much cheaper on Amazon than at the bike store. If you get accessories with your bike at the bike store, you can often get some kind of discount too. Oh, also a bicycle pump (but see below). Finally, you should maintain and protect your bike! The Bike Club at your school is a great resource. My school's bike club has "office hours" where they will have club members teach you how to do things and also allow you to use their tools to maintain your bike. You can also pay a bike store to do a "tune-up" (like you would for a car) if you don't want to do it yourself. Regular maintenance for me was keeping the frame clean, greasing the chains (the grease is a few dollars) and keeping the tires well-inflated.

There are two main pitfalls of interpreting the average scores in this way: 1. You are assuming there is an actual (strong) correlation between acceptance and GRE V score. If there is no correlation, the average is meaningless! (e.g. if you knew the average height of an accepted applicant was 1.6m, what does that tell you about your chances to get in?) 2. Being near the "average score of accepted students" is not "near the edge". In fact, if it is a normal distribution, then being near the average, by definition, means you are better than about half of the successful applicants.

Are these numbers the median salary for new hires or the median salary of all employed chemists? I have seen survey data of graduates from my school-- the salaries that coldplay32's friends got is typical of the chemistry PhD graduates here that go into industry.

Agree with rising_star: don't dwell on this in your SOP. 2002 is a really really really long time ago. I would summarize all of your experiences prior to your current school in 2-3 sentences. Focus your SOP to tell your story since 2012 and especially after your change of major to physics. Also, if you can choose the order of your transcripts (e.g. many schools ask you to scan all your transcripts into one PDF and upload that), order them so that the most recent transcript is on top.

I agree that if Professor #2 is still in academia (just not at your original university), then she is clearly the best choice to ask for the 2nd letter. I think that if you can secure Professor #2's letter then I think the best choice for letter #3 is your industry job's manager. I am assuming your industry job is at least vaguely connected to the field you did your undergrad in and what you're apply to for grad school. (I make this assumption because in my field, when we say "industry", we mean a non-academic job related to our research, not just any non-academic job!) I agree with fuzzy that It's not ideal that they are not academia, but in my opinion, the "all letters must be academic" advice really only applies to applicants straight out of undergrad. Since you have graduated and spent a couple of years working in a related field, it makes sense to get a letter from your job that attests to your expertise. So, if both the above suggestions work out, you should have all three letters. At this point, I think it's up to you if you want to add a fourth letter (with either Prof #3 or Prof #4) as fuzzy suggests. It would be nice to have a 3rd academic LOR just in case. But sometimes, having weaker LORs along with strong ones can "dilute" them. This is hard to gauge. On the other hand, if your industry job is not connected to your undergrad degree nor your future graduate program then I am less sure about a letter from your manager being letter #3 (maybe it can be letter #4 though). In this case, if you can still get a letter from Prof #2, then I think letter #3 should come from Prof #3 or Prof #4. You can certainly send them copies of your old submitted work to remind them of the quality of work you did in their class. In addition, if they provided feedback on your final essays and projects, you might even send them a corrected version that implements their suggestions.

Yes, you should contact the colleges individually. In 2011, when I was applying, the subject GRE tests were offered in October and November. I wrote the test in November and I had application deadlines of Dec 1. However, the Subject test scores take a lot longer to process as they are scantron paper tests, so my scores were not going to be available until mid-December. I called all of the schools with deadlines between Dec 1 and Dec 15 and asked if it was okay if the score report came after the rest of the materials. Every school was fine with it because they said their committees don't even start meeting until January! I'm not saying that you should assume your schools will be okay with it, but that asking schools is a good idea because you never know what is strict and what is flexible until you ask.

Glad it all worked out! Sorry about the incorrect assumptions!

For sciences/engineering programs, I think your scores are well above the point of "diminishing returns". Getting a higher V score will do nothing for your application. With these scores, I would say you should only consider retaking if your analytical writing score is below 3.0.

It's almost impossible to tell you your chances of getting into these other schools. There are at least three things you could do which would have different effects on your chances, I think: 1. You can quit UNCC now (avoid paying more costs if you are not fully funded) and spend the next few months focussed on your application. If you plan on leaving UNCC before the end of your first year, I think you should leave now rather than later (e.g. after one semester). You can then apply to new programs this winter for a Fall 2016 start. 2. Apply for the listed programs in a few months for a Fall 2016 start. This wouldn't really be a transfer, it would be starting all over again at a new program. You will need to work hard to get a LOR from UNCC to have the best chance of getting into another school. But since you will have very little of your new Masters program completed, your chances of getting into another school for Fall 2016 would be very similar to your chances for this current year. That is, if you had applied to these schools last year, you could probably expect the outcome to be roughly the same this year. Also note that if you are in a 2 year Masters program, you will need to start talking to professors about a LOR very soon and they might not like that you are already thinking about leaving after just starting. 3. Spend one year at UNCC and then apply in December 2016/January 2017 for a Fall 2017 start date. If you are in a 2 year Masters program, then this will give you time to finish your Masters. This will also give you time to build a good relationship with UNCC profs and get a strong LOR. And you will have time to take courses and do research and significantly improve your application. If you are in a 1-year Masters program, then you will already have a Masters degree by the time you reapply, which is also helpful. The third option will have a bigger increase in your chances of admission but it will take more time at UNCC. The first option will have the least positive impact in your applications (maybe even a negative impact) but it allows you to leave UNCC right away (if that is part of your personal reason to leave). I also think if you leave UNCC now then you won't be expected to obtain LORs from this school, it would be like you changed your mind about attending that year. I don't know what the best advice for you would be because I don't know your personal reason (and you don't have to tell it of course). Usually I would say that students should try it out for a year but if the personal reason does not allow that, then leaving now and starting again next year might be the best thing to do.

This is complicated. It really depends on the terms of the contract. Is this contracted union work? Is the grad union a labour union, or like a grad student government type of organization. If it's a labour union and the contracted work is covered under the collective bargaining agreement, then you should certainly go to the grad union for help. Do not try to address this on your own, because the union and the University have an agreed-upon grievance resolution procedure that you should follow. I mean, it's fine to get advice from the legal clinic if you'd like and/or talk to your advisor if you think it will be a comfortable topic but ultimately if the above conditions hold, this is something the union has to work out with the University. As for whether or not they have to pay you the original listed rates, one big criteria is the wording of the contract and the collective bargaining agreement. When I was at a unionized school, our contracts referred to the Collective Bargaining Agreement for pay rates, with a number specified in the contract only as a reference (so if there was a typo there, we would still be paid at the Collective Bargaining Agreement rate). Similarly, if a new Agreement is signed and the rates change, then our pay would also change (although it's rare that a new Agreement would result in changes for contracts already in effect). And finally, another condition is how "final" the contract you signed 4 months ago. Because things can change so often, when I was on contracted work for grad school, we only ever signed contracts within 2 weeks of the job start date. This is because for TA contracts, if the course gets cancelled for whatever reason (under-enrollment, professor illness, professor strike, etc.), the school is obligated to still pay us once we have a contract signed. So, it's rare to see any contracts until the school is certain the course will run. I guess it is strange to me that the school will have you sign a contract 4 months ago! (Which made me question whether or not that thing 4 months ago was a finalized contract that stipulated X dollars for Y hours of work in time period Z, or just "here is your financial offer, at $W per year". Also, one thing I just thought of was whether the thing you signed before was just the financial offer for the entire year and this thing you're signing now is the actual work contract for the first semester only?)

Seems like JD already covered your main points. I just want to say that I know another military reserve officer that just finished her MSc and PhD at the same time. This was in Canada though, however, our reserve program is very similar. My friend worked one night per week in the Navy, one weekend per month, plus a couple of weeks in the summer. My friend also participated in a lot of optional military exercises and exchange programs too, which doubled their opportunities to travel. My friend was very organized and disciplined and they finished both their MSc and PhD theses pretty much exactly on schedule (even meeting all their week-to-week deadlines). That is, my friend did much more than the minimum for the military and still excelled at academics. It's certainly possible! In Canada, reservists will not be deployed unless they volunteer to do so. It sounds like the US is similar. If you do have to leave academia for a short time, almost every single school will have a leave of absence policy as long as you have a legitimate reason. As JD said, most schools will not hold the requirement to deploy against you and will likely let you count deployment as a legitimate reason! That is, you might not find a specific policy when looking in program handbooks for deployment, because most schools lump all leaves of absences into one category (or sometimes two, if they distinguish between "personal" leave and "medical" leave). Hope these two stories help!

Oh, interesting! Good to know, thanks I thought they would ask for ID first, since as you said, that's what normally happens when they stop you at a checkpoint.

For the first point, it's also important to keep in mind that while the TSA or other authorities might ask for a specific document (e.g. a passport during random checks), that doesn't mean the only thing that would satisfy them is this passport. I wonder what would have happened if you said you didn't have it with you or if you showed them a driver's license/ID card instead? For a domestic flight, most Americans would not even carry one. I don't carry my passport when traveling within the United States because it just increases the chance of losing one. Of course, my decision to not take my passport is not necessarily the best advice for everyone, it's just my decision that the risk of being forced to produce a passport is lower than the risk of losing the passport. Also, since you do need to prove legal presence to obtain a Driver's License/ID card, producing this should be good enough. I think the scanned image of passport and docs is a great idea though. Sometimes I need my passport number for some random reason (e.g. identify confirmation for my utilities company since I signed up for that before my SSN so they use my passport # instead of last 4 digits of SSN) and I just don't have it because it's safe at home. I don't think I've ever driven south past San Diego so I have not yet encountered one of these checkpoints that rising_star mentioned. I don't think I plan to ever be in that area, but sounds like good advice to have it just in case there? If I ever do that, I'll have my passport/DS-2019 just in case, but I'll show them my driver's license first and see what happens!

I know this is a confusing topic but it's not really helpful to think about it as "what counts as diversity". Because there are really many different factors that come into play. There is the legal definition of "Under-represented Minority" (URM) in the United States. Schools are required to report these numbers so there might be some incentive for schools to be able to report higher numbers in these categories. (In my opinion, I don't think a quota-based system is going to help but that's another topic). These legal definitions are very specific, it's something like : "African Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), Pacific Islanders, and mainland Puerto Ricans". Note that only Americans count towards this group: a Mexican national attending a US school as an international student does not "count". I've talked to officials at my school about diversity a lot because it's something we are trying to improve here. Our school recognizes that for legal purposes, we count and report students from URM groups but that this is not the only goal of diversity! We have a term for "human diversity" which includes all sorts of things, such as other minority groups not part of the URMs, age, family status, gender, sexuality, etc. Our goal is to create a diverse campus where everyone is welcome and can find others in common with them. So, don't think of this as "what counts as diversity" because it's just ticking off a bunch of boxes. Instead just write about yourself. You are a human being, with interesting perspectives and experiences, not just a series of yes/no questions! Tell them about everything you said here and that will help the program/school see how you can fit into their community. The extent to what you write will depend on what part of the application you include this information. Some schools have a "statement of diversity" or a "personal statement" separate from the SOP. If so, tell your whole story there. If they do not, then be concise in your story in your SOP and focus on the academic aspects mostly. What schools ask for will indicate to you how much they value certain qualities.

For Canadian schools, yes, having Canadian permanent residence will help you because you will count as a Canadian/domestic student and your tuition will be lower so you won't fill up the school's quota for funding international students. This also means you will be eligible for Canadian fellowships. For United States schools, no, having Canadian permanent residence will not help. US schools do not have quotas for specific countries. However, many public schools are limited (by funding) on how many international students they can accept. But whether you apply as a Chinese national or a Canadian permanent resident will make no difference--both Chinese nationals and Canadians count as "international" to American schools!

I have not had any issue with that. The only time I was "stopped" and asked for papers was when I was driving and encountered a random California Highway Patrol checkpoint looking for drunk drivers (pretty common thing to see in Canada and I think the US). They asked for my driver's license, which I showed and they asked questions like "Have you drunk any alcohol prior to driving?" etc. Again, I can't speak for everywhere in the US but in California, it is not customary for officials to stop random people and ask for immigration documents. I have heard rumours that this happens in Arizona and New Mexico but no confirmations. Personally, I think the risk of losing your passport is much greater than the risk of some very strange circumstance that you must produce your passport immediately upon request. There is no real risk in losing an I-20 or DS-2019 though, unless you are outside of the United States: you just go to your school's international student office and they print you a new one. So, I would only take these documents with me when I am doing something that requires it!

1. If you use ScoreSelect, you have three options of scores to send: ALL: This schools gets all of your scores in the last 5 years. MOST RECENT: The school gets the most recent report only. ANY (only available as a choice when you are ordering score reports after test day): You pick any set of scores you want to send. (i.e. send one, two, or as many scores as you'd like) See: https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about/scoreselect 2. No, you do not have to know the exact list of schools you want to send scores to. However, if you want to use your four free score reports, you will have to provide this information on test day (and note that you can only choose "ALL" or "MOST RECENT" for free score reports ordered on test day). 3. I don't know anything about that, sorry.

The majority of people (including me) in my planetary science program (and even other programs in our department, such as geophysics or environmental science) come from Physics undergraduate programs. Physics is a very useful toolkit for solving many multidisciplinary problems So, I think everything is great and you don't have to worry about not having upper level E&M or classical mechanics at all. And you mentioned a BA in physics instead of a BS--that's not a problem either. Two students in my program have BA degrees similar to you!

I don't think you need to mention the specific details, unless you really want to. I don't think the reason for taking a year off should matter--all the committee needs to know is that you needed a year off and you did it and it resulted in very positive outcomes. You can include the Dean's recommendation or not. And as to the LOR, it's fine for the LOR writer to provide that detail if that is what you want the committee to know. If you don't want the committee to know, then it is also okay to ask your LOR writer to omit the detail. In the end, you don't have to justify or "prove" anything to the admissions committee. All they need to know is that you decided a year off was the right thing for you and they should (and will) accept that. In the end, it's what you actually achieved that matters--an extra year off isn't a big deal.

Your sidebar says your program is Oceanography. I don't think upper level E&M and classical mechanics classes will really matter to Oceanography graduate programs. However, even if you are also applying to Physics PhD programs (where these courses would matter), your transcript may show future classes you are registered for or currently taking (just without a grade). This is enough to show that you are enrolled. In addition, most Physics programs I applied to also asked you about courses you plan to take but do not yet show up on the transcript. If you are not applying to Physics programs, then you shouldn't even worry about this at all. If you are applying to Physics programs, and neither of the two above options apply, then you can just mention that you are taking these 2 courses in 1 sentence in your SOP.

Unless you are living in an area where you are likely to be stopped randomly for "inspections" (maybe Arizona?), I would certainly not carry my passport and I-20 around all the time. Technically, we must be able to produce our passport and I-20 upon request while in the United States, so maybe the University is just being extra careful by giving this advice. They don't want to get in trouble by saying that you don't have to, and then if a student is unable to produce their passport/I-20 and says that their school said they didn't have to! I have a California Driver License and I use that as my main ID. Before that, I used my Canadian license as my ID but some places won't accept that as ID for e.g. alcohol. So, when I know I was going to such a place, I bring my passport too. However, now I never take my passport and DS-2019 (J-1 version of I-20) with me unless I am leaving the United States or need proof of legal presence (for example, the utilities company require this). Most people assume I am American and unless they need to know otherwise, I let them assume that.

If your fall transcripts are available by the application deadline, then send them. Otherwise, do not! If a school wants fall transcripts they will usually followup in January for them and/or ask you to update with fall transcripts when available.

This is true, however, giving advice assuming that your audience has the same goals as you is also bad practice. I think the "Don't stay at the same University" advice really only belongs in a list that is titled something like "How to get a top notch tenure tracked position" etc. Or I guess, in general, these lists should clearly define the audience it is meant for. When I write advice, sometimes I say "Don't bother going to graduate school if it's not a top 10 school". I think this is terrible advice overall. However, when it comes with a ton of caveats and conditions and qualifications and I know the person I'm speaking to meets these conditions, then it is good advice. But when you write advice meant for certain situations as if they should apply to all PhDs, that causes problems. It makes it sound like there is only one "path" that is considered "success" in academia and that is bad! PhD programs should empower their graduates to achieve what they want later in their career. PhD programs should not define success as one single thing and push their students towards that one goal only.

I definitely agree with Eigen, RunnerGrad and the "rebuttal list of 10 things" (and probably others, sorry if I missed you) that the advice given in the first list, while mostly good, cannot really be applied to every student in every situation. They might be great for the authors in the past and for future students that are in the same shoes as the author, but because we all have different goals, motivations, values, faculty, etc. it doesn't always work. Although I only highlighted a few points in my first response here, I think each one of those 10 items can be refuted or shown with a counter-example in some way. Even the "Don't get romantically involved with faculty" advice! The advice is generally good, but I know of some faculty-student relationships that work out well. It depends what you are looking for in life. I think the main problem with these "lists" is that they take on the tone of preachiness where they almost seem to say "This is what you must do in order to succeed" or "If you do/don't do this things, you will fail". Instead, I think these advice articles would be much better articulated as "Here are the norms in the field" or "Here is what worked for me" and then encourage and allow the reader to evaluate each statement and determine whether or not that particular piece of information is something that they want to do to "fit in" with the community, or work to change. It's a little ironic, because as academics, we are trained to critically evaluate everything we read academically, but when reading some non-academic work (like this article), we generally don't view it the same way. And I think that's good--I don't want to have to always have my "critical thinking cap" on all the time. I think it's a mistake that many authors of "advice lists" don't switch from "academic writing" mode to "popular writing" mode when writing for non-academic audiences like this. (I say we're a non-academic audience because for the most part, we're not academics studying graduate school, i.e. education is not our field!) I also personally dislike how a lot of these "advice lists" are so fatalistic. Sometimes I read these lists by established and powerful and prominent faculty that say how terrible something is, and then instead of using their influence and power to actually make a change, they instead advise students to just "suck it up". For example, another "advice list" I read recently: http://www.quora.com/What-advice-did-you-wish-you-had-before-undertaking-a-PhD-in-science/answers/14496760 contained all of the criticisms directed at the first list, but multiplied by like 100.

You just have to look at the small things. For example, when I was a kid, I always thought an awesome thing would be to make fried chicken but with crushed Oreos cookies instead of the regular batter. However, now that I have the money and ability to make such a thing, I think it sounds super disgusting. That's how I know I'm an adult.