TakeruK

Fellow Canadian-who-is-confused-about-US-health-care-especially-for-dependents-here Yes, adding a dependent onto your student plan is a supremely bad idea. For my spouse, we were paying $7200/year just for coverage (we paid about a thousand more with copays). The school even says this is a terrible plan, but I think something like less than 5% of all students on campus have dependents enrolled in this plan. The way it works is that the Health Insurance companies want to collect $X dollars from students and only pay out 60% of that in benefits. So, they determine premium rates by figuring out how much they are likely to pay, add their 40% revenue margin and then divide the remaining number amongst everyone enrolled. Thus, for a plan with a low subscriber rate (e.g. dependents), a small fraction of people with expensive bills will cost the company a lot, and so the rates are insanely high. For the last 1.5 years, we were forced to use this plan because of insurance company refusing to cover my spouse due to pre-existing conditions. Luckily, you are starting this year and not last year! You should get your spouse enrolled in a "Affordable Care Act" plan, also known as Obamacare, or a plan from "the Marketplace" or "the Exchange", or "CoveredCalifornia" (only in California, of course). You don't need to be an American citizen to be covered (although perhaps this might also vary by state), for us, we just need to prove legal non-resident status (via our I-20 or DS-2019). The above person said something about eligibility based on income, and note they will consider each person individually when it comes to determining eligibility (again--may vary by state?). For us, there seems to be no income limit on eligibility, but there is an upper limit on how much income you can make before you are no longer eligible for the subsidies that reduce your costs (but they are very reasonably priced even without the subsidy--we now pay $220 per month for my spouse's plan). Instead, the criteria for eligibility was that one is not eligible if their school/work offers a subsidized plan (so I was not eligible as my school pays for a large portion of my student health plan). As the above person said though, the marketplace won't open again until November, so for the first few months, you should get your spouse covered under a private plan. Contact some of the major providers and you'll speak to a broker that will "help" sell you a plan. If you just treat buying health insurance as if you were buying car insurance, then I think it will make "more sense" how the system works (or doesn't work ). If you cannot get your plan through a private company for whatever reason, then it might be a good idea to sign yourselves up for the student plan and then drop out of it as soon as you can. For my school, I must stay on my plan for an entire year, but for dependents, I can add/drop dependents from my plan every 4 months. So, if this is the case at NYU, you might want to do this for your spouse until the Marketplace opens. Here are some tips for choosing a plan, that we have learned the very hard way (i.e. paying much more money when we didn't need to): 1. Most plans do NOT allow you to see any doctor. PPO plans give you more options, but you really have to check with the doctor pretty much every single time that they are in your health insurance provider's "preferred network". If they are not, you may not be covered at all, or you may be covered at a much lower rate. Doctors sometimes drop out of plans unexpectedly, so you really need to check each time you make an appointment. 2. Unlike Canada, you will basically have to pay some amount every time you get treated for anything. Your total health cost will not just be equal to your premiums! My student plan, which is pretty decent, means I pay $15 plus 20% of most doctor visits. This means every time I see the doctor, it costs me about $30-$50 out of pocket. Every time I see a specialist, it costs about $50-$60. Plan for this! 3. Related to the above, be careful when picking health insurance plans. You really have to treat it like car insurance . That is, it might be better to get a plan that covers fewer doctor visits and pay e.g. $2000 per year plus $50 every time you see a doctor instead of a plan where you pay $3000 per year plus $20 every time you see a doctor. 4. Doctors will actually try to "upsell" you on treatment and services sometimes. Really. And doctors offices sometimes have a financial manager that can help you figure out a payment plan for big procedures. Unfortunately, the reality in the US is that many people here feel like it's basically your fault and your responsibility if you get sick! Fortunately, the ACA really changed a lot even for non-Marketplace plans so people entering grad school this year will hopefully have an easier time! If you have further questions about specifics you can reach me by PM if you don't want to reveal private details in a public place

Hi dcody12, I did my undergraduate degree in Physics and my Masters was in a Physics department (I've now transitioned to a multidisciplinary field that is related to Physics--it's generally considered part of the Physics department in Canada but generally located outside of the Physics department at US schools). I agree with everyone else that Full Sail university is not well regarded as good preparation for Physics grad schools in Physics departments in Canada and the US. Although Gnome and Eigen might not have put it in a way you wanted to hear, it's still the truth. The fact is that while it may be a good school for what you originally intended to do, unfortunately it's not a great school for what you now want to do (Physics grad school). However, this obviously does not mean you have made terrible life choices and that you can never go to graduate school in Physics. What it does mean is that in order to be qualified for Physics graduate studies, you will need to meet the same undergraduate course requirements as a more "traditional" physics undergraduate program. I know what Physics programs are like and even if you have a CS degree from a "traditional" school, it will still take a lot of extra courses to meet the requirements. So, I think even if your CS courses transferred, you won't really have much checked off. In my opinion, the very best and ideal way to get into Physics grad school is to start in a Physics BS program from a more "traditional" school (i.e. generally an accredited school that is not-for-profit). This will make sure you are learning Physics from a Physics point of view and it might be easier than trying to adapt a Computer Science background into a Physics background. But this is assuming you have had very little Physics coursework. If you have the equivalent of the first two years of undergraduate Physics coursework, then perhaps you might be able to fast track and finish a Physics undergrad degree in 3 years. If not, I would think it's best to do a complete 4 year BS Physics degree. I don't know if this is actually possible--perhaps you have other constraints that might prevent you from going for a 4 year degree at this time. I think to better advise you, it would be really helpful to know what kind of courses you have completed at Full Sail. Unlike some professional programs, admission to a Physics graduate program (and most academic graduate programs in general, I think) is not just a matter of completing the pre-requisites and then you are qualified. An undergraduate physics program basically provides the training and foundation required to succeed at a Physics PhD program. Some schools will accept an undergraduate program in a related field, but it does put you as a disadvantage. So, unless I am wrong about the courses you have already completed in the past (my search for Physics courses available at Full Sail only shows a few courses relevant to game design, and none of the courses you actually need in a Physics degree) , I don't think you are at a point where you can just complete a few more Physics "pre-reqs" and then apply to Physics graduate school. In addition, it does not sound like the Physics courses you took actually have much relevance to what you would learn in a Physics undergraduate degree and/or Physics graduate school, I think the best course of action is to start a Physics undergrad program and see how you feel about it after a year or two. I am sorry if it sounds like I am talking down to your Physics preparation (please suggest an alternative approach if I have offended you) but in general, I think it's important to know what you're getting into because setting a goal of attending graduate school in that field. So, I'd say to take it one step at a time, take some Physics courses first! (If I am wrong about your preparation, I am sorry! Let me know what courses you have taken and then I might be able to suggest something that makes more sense!).

I know that you are stating these opinions for yourself, and not necessarily judging other people, but you should know that when you make statements like this, you are implying that graduate students who do have other commitments (relationships, children, taking care of sick parents etc.) are not putting as much effort into grad school as you think they should. You're definitely free to impose whatever restrictions you want on yourself, but if you want to get off to a good start, it would be a good idea to not alienate yourself from your classmates by making these kind of statements. I know you might not even mean it in the judgmental way, but it will come off that way when you say it to other people.

I also thought the quizzes were about course content in order to check that they have been keeping up to date with readings etc. If it's just a "self-evaluation" of their participation, then I don't think it makes sense to give the student 0 out of 30% either. I think you should just go with your own knowledge of how much this person participated and then perhaps give a small penalty for not participating in these quizzes. The other "penalty" that the student suffers from not doing the quizzes is that they will just have to rely on your evaluation of their participation, instead of being able to give their own feedback about their participation levels.

Sorry that this is almost a month later. The GPA conversion is pretty complicated and can vary for each school. It's not that helpful/useful to try to guess how your school will do it. Instead, if you want to gauge your ability, one thing you could do is consider how you rank compared to your classmates. Typically, the best US PhD programs will want students who are at the top of their class in undergrad (probably top 5% to 10%). In North America, I would say that grad students at all schools generally were in the top 30% of their undergrad classes. But the standards for an international student would be much tougher. I don't have concrete numbers, but you would probably want to be in the top 15% of your class for most places, and much higher for the top schools. GPA cutoffs are not very commonly published (or even used I think), because the entire application is generally judged as a whole (lots of focus on research experience at the top schools). Cutoffs for (unfunded) MS programs may be lower but I don't really know what they would be. When you apply to MS Physics programs, no research paper (or "writing sample") is usually required in North America. In many forms, there will still be a place for you to upload one but there is usually an instruction to ignore it for Physics programs. In the SOP, they will expect you to describe your fit and preparation for the PhD program as well as your future research/career plans (which is closely tied in with program fit). You should write about your experience in Physics and Physics research. You should discuss why you want to get a Physics PhD, and in particular, why you want to do so in the field you are applying to. This is generally related to "future career plans" too--you should say what you hope to get out of the PhD programs. You should talk about your research goals and interests. Make sure you give careful thought in explaining why this particular department will help you meet these goals (the people? the equipment? the labs? etc.) In your particular case, you say you are getting an engineering degree. Most people go into Physics PhD programs with Physics undergraduate degrees, but I have heard that in many countries, the closest thing you can do is an engineering degree. You should prepare to use a small part of your SOP to explain why you will be ready for a Physics PhD program that expects you to have 4 years of undergraduate Physics courses, but don't focus on this too much!

I am on J-1 status too, and my wife has J-2 and also has permission to work. So I was in the same situation as you. The financial requirements for J-1 is different from F-1 in two ways: 1. You need to show funding up front for the entire degree program (6 years in your case), not just the first year 2. Your source of funding must mostly not come from personal/family funds. "Mostly" is not well defined but it sounds like your school is defining it to be 51%. I think you already know that, but just to make sure we are all on the same page. Now, for your actual concern: First, you should know that you need your DS-2019 to show at least 51% of all the funds to come from a source that is not you or your family. The people that create your DS-2019 is your school's international student office. It's up to them to decide how long to make your DS-2019 valid etc., so you will have to work with them! Here are things I think you should do: 1. I am assuming the International Student Office is asking you for this information at this point. I am also assuming that, like most PhD students in the sciences, you have a letter saying you are fully funded for year 1 and will continue to be fully funded as long as you make satisfactory progress etc. Usually, this is enough for the International Office to issue your DS-2019 assuming that you will get all of the funding (or be kicked out otherwise). My letter said the same and my DS-2019 shows the amount for 6 years. So, first, I would forward your offer letter with your funding to your school's international office and see if they will accept conditional funding to be good enough for your DS-2019. 2. If they tell you that they can only put the guaranteed amount, I would ask them what they need from the department in order for you to have the full amount on your DS-2019. Let your department know about this so that they can issue you a letter with satisfactory funding. Of course, if your international office suggests a different path, then go with their advice! I would think that the international office is on "your side" and will help you get what you need! 3. I think it is indeed possible for them to issue a DS-2019 for one year only and then as you get more funding from your department, they can issue additional DS-2019s (or extend yours). This isn't ideal because when you and your wife get to the US on your initial DS-2019s, you will have to use this information to apply for your wife's Employment Authorization Document (EAD). Depending on mysterious rules, your wife's EAD can be valid for just 1 year or it can be valid for many years (my wife's EAD was issued for 4 years). But, the upper limit is the length of your J-1 status, which is tied to the length of your DS-2019, which means if you only have a 1-year DS-2019, then your wife's EAD is only valid for one year and you have to apply for another EAD again. The EAD process takes about 3 months so in order to not have an interruption in your wife's job, she needs to reapply 4-6 months in advance of the expiration, which means you also need to get your DS-2019 extended by then. This can end up taking up a lot of your time and money (applications are $400 each time) so I think you should try to work with your school's international office as best you can in order to get your DS-2019 for the full 6 years!

Usually the official transcript will have a description of the grading system so the schools that receive your application will know that a A- is not possible. As to whether or not Bs are bad, this varies a lot from program to program!

I agree that teaching is never as valued as direct research impact in research oriented fields when it comes to hiring decisions at research oriented universities. I do agree that for my field, if you do want a tenure track assistant prof position at a research oriented university, then yes, teaching should be a very low priority for you. The advice I hear is to have a minimal amount of it so that 1) you actually have some experience and 2) hiring committees who only really care about research but want to claim that they care about teaching can point to something on your CV that says you've taught before. I know that my current school does not consider teaching ability at all when it comes to tenure decisions. One prof at my school who was passionate about teaching was asked to spend less time on teaching because his classes were too good. He is now somewhere else, at a school where he feels his teaching is as valued as his research. That said, I don't think it's sound advice to actually tell graduate students to slack off on TAing. First of all, that article that was linked in NicholasCage's post is almost 25 years old. I think in general, most schools have begun to shift towards valuing teaching as well, even if it's tiny. There are centres for teaching & learning popping up at various campuses and even my super-research-oriented school opened their own Centre for Teaching and Learning a few years ago. If a student is absolutely certain they want to pursue a career that is purely research, then it makes sense to devote all of their time into research. However, I think with the current job market, it's a very bad idea to limit your career options so much and to me, it's a far better idea to develop your teaching portfolio as much as possible. Personally, I enjoy teaching, so I don't need pragmatic reasons to motivate me but it's still true that while spending time on teaching might not gain you very much towards the most research-oriented jobs, the little extra effort you can do is probably beneficial in the long run because it will increase your chances at a much broader range of careers. Time management is essential in grad school and I'm not saying to say yes to every teaching opportunity. I'm also not saying you should say no every time either. The best answer, I think, is to advise grad students to think about what kind of careers we want after the PhD and to make sure almost everything we do, whether it's teaching or research or otherwise, is a step towards these goals.

I agree with everyone that said that you should not change the grade and stick to your original scheme (especially if you published this scheme somewhere). I also agree that I don't think this is the right time/place to suggest the disability services. I would just answer the question with yes, they are worth 30% of the grade and that this was made clear. If the student protests this, and you want to be kind, you could wait until after you publish the grades and then send them a link to your University's webpage for the process to appeal a grade.

Glad that you can schedule your courses the way you want! I think there are major pros and cons to decide between telling them now or later. At most schools, it's completely within your rights to do your later years remotely because usually the minimum # of terms required "in residence" is about 2-3 years total. But if you are in a field where you need to work closely with an advisor and your advisor is not supportive of this, it can be a big hassle for you. So, if you tell them now, you can at least save yourself from working with an advisor that will make life tough for you later. At the same time, if you know for sure that no one will want you to do it remotely (or if everyone will tolerate it), then there's no need to start the troubles now (especially since it's a year or so away). In your shoes, I'd probably wait until I am going to move for sure before informing that department that I will be working remotely in later years (assuming that there are no other commitments regarding TA or RAships or other funding sources that require you to be in residence).

I use Pandora too. To avoid the annoying headphones thing, I got a headphone extension cord thing for like $10 and I run it in a path that does not let it get caught on things andis also convenient for me to plug into my ears (and take off easily if someone wanted to talk to me). I don't listen to music all of the time. I find music distracting when I have to read or grade or do homework. I listen to everything when I am doing very low thinking but tedious work like manually going through my data to record numbers or validate things. I listen to my classic rock channel on Pandora when I write computer code but sometimes I mix in some comedy too.

I strongly agree with this paragraph. It's not our job to make sure people are punished to our satisfaction. In fact, in a truly professional department, no one should ever know that Mr. Smith did anything wrong. This is a matter between Mr. Smith and the University/Department, not a matter concerning everyone. In fact, since the OP does not have all of the information, I think it would be highly unprofessional for the OP to start gossiping about Mr. Smith to his/her colleagues and/or complaining to others that cheating happened in that section. It's also damaging to the students enrolled in that section (since as others pointed out, they might have no idea that the TA was intentionally giving them test questions). There is a reason that in some places, investigation of cheating takes place with a body completely independent of the professor and the TA. At my current school, if as a TA, we suspect cheating, we are supposed to report it to a University-wide body for investigation. We are not supposed to investigate anything ourselves, we are not supposed to tell the student that they are under investigation and we are not supposed to tell anyone else about it in case we are wrong (and also in case we are right). We simply just make copies of whatever documents are related to the event and forward them and the report to the investigating body. Those people figure out what to do, determine whether it is against the school's academic policies and take whatever action, in private, as necessary. As the TA for the course, we would very rarely know the result of the investigation--we would still enter the students' grades as if nothing happened and then the school will edit the grades as necessary pending the outcome of the investigation. Sometimes the investigating body might ask the TA or the prof for more information, but sometimes they will just thank us for submitting the information and then we will never hear of it again.

Most schools will open their forms again by July or so. Most deadlines are around December. Do you really need more than 5 months to fill out the forms? If you really really want them though, maybe you can write to the graduate office and ask for a paper copy (since many places will accept paper forms). But, they might not even be ready and by the time you receive them, it might be July anyways.

For international students, if you are not planning to stay in the US forever, I would recommend also/first looking into similar plans in your home country. For example, in my case, it makes way more sense for me to not actually contribute to a IRA/RRSP type plan until I return to Canada and can use it as a tax shelter.

I guess whether or not hosting it on your dept server really depends on how much control you have over it. For me, at every department I've been in, all students are given accounts on the department servers so we actually directly access the files that make up our websites. Updating the page is just a matter of either changing the file directly on the server, or editing my own local copy and then uploading the file to the server (all this I would do myself, no need to ask the administrator). So, when it's time for me to move, I just copy all of my website files and put it on the next department server. And all of my previous departments are happy to keep my old accounts active and I replace my old website there with a page that redirects users to my new department's website. But, if you don't have this level of access and control, I agree that purchasing your own domain and hosting it yourself is much better!

1. It can rain at any time in Vancouver. One joke is that the "Vancouver Rain Festival" runs from Sept 1 to Aug 31 every year. In fact, at many conferences in Vancouver, the "conference swag" you might get is an umbrella with the conference logo on it. 2. A sim card is about $10 and most pay as you go type plans in Canada will charge about 40 cents per minute and 25 cents per text message. Alternatively, if you plan on using your phone a lot during your visit, you can get a single month plan. Here is an example from one single company, but they are all going to be similarly priced: http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/PrepaidPlans?forwardTo=prepaidPlans&service=addons&lang=en. I am not certain if you can get these at the airport though, especially if you arrive at a time where the shops are closed. You can check the YVR (Vancouver Airport) website to see what retail stores they have. 3. This depends on where the conference actually is and what your budget is. I don't know if I can really say anything useful without more information! 4. In the evenings, I think downtown Vancouver is quite fun. There are a lot of restaurants and shopping along Robson Street downtown. I like to take visitors on a walk to English Bay and there are good places for ice cream near the beach. You can sit in the sand, eat ice cream and watch the sunset! There is also a great cupcakes bakery called "Cupcakes" (http://cupcakesonline.com/) near English Bay. Another fun walk is to walk along Davies St (from English Bay). It's the "gay/pride neighbourhood" in Vancouver and I think it really captures the spirit of what Vancouver is about. Other places that are nice are: Lonsdale Quay (at the Waterfront subway station, take the seabus across the water), Stanley Park/Coal Harbour (Cardero's is one of my favourites but it's pricey), Gastown, and Granville Island. If you have time on the weekends, there are mountains just north of Vancouver that you can hike. Capilano Suspension bridge is the famous and expensive one but you can also visit Lynn Canyon for a much smaller but free suspension bridge and hiking area. 5. You can take the "Canada Line" light rail train (built for the Olympics) from the Airport to downtown Vancouver pretty cheap / quick, and there are a lot of connections you can take along the way if your hotel is somewhere in Vancouver close to a train station.

Do you mean an online class from your own school that will count for credit towards your degree? This is perfectly fine and in some places, like my undergrad, will not even show up on your transcript that you took this class online instead of attending lectures in person. If you are taking an online class not from your school and if it will not count towards your degree, then you should be careful to make sure the class is going to be recognized by the schools you want to apply to.

I think there are two issues. First, is this too much work on top of your graduate studies? The common number of hours for TAs and RAs is typically 20hrs/week, but not always. Sometimes schools will try to get their students funded through a fellowship for the first year and then TA/RAs start in the summer or second year. This is ideal but not always available. If you have to be funded through an assistant-ship, 20hrs/week is the typical number and it might be tough to do classes and this work plus whatever else you might have to do (if your program requires more work), but sometimes that's the only choice you get. The second issue is that are you expected to do this work for free? Or by "no stipend" you mean it only covers your tuition and no extra stipend is paid. Your sidebar says you are a MFA student so maybe those programs are very strange, but I would say that the typical value of a graduate student is about $25-$50 per hour. My current school lists 1 TA unit = 15hrs/week for 10 weeks to be valued at $7500, which is about $50/hr. At other schools, our TA contracts pay $40/hr and our RA contracts pay $25/hr. Most of these hours are just made up anyways (including the 20hr/week thing) because in many programs, you don't really track your hours. So, if you think you are getting a good deal in the long run for this contract, then take it.

I don't know where you get the information that you must have straight As to get into grad school. I am at a top program right now and I got grades worse than B+ in some very important classes in my major. Some of them were even the ones directly related to my undergrad and proposed graduate research. Your entire application as a whole is important, not just getting top grades.

My school grants all graduate students 10 working days of vacation time plus all of the institute holidays (11 days per year) for a total of 21 working days of vacation. It comes with a stipulation that your advisor has to approve--i.e. students are expected to work with their advisor so that they take days off during a time that would minimize the impact (for example, don't do it the week of a major deadline!) In this logic, weekends don't count and in theory you can earn more days off by working weekends. In practice, few advisors in my department would care if you took time off. The main policy is to let them know so that they know you will be gone. Ultimately, we have the most interest in keeping our own productivity up so they trust us to be responsible. But I do know of other profs who will track their students' hours and days absent!

I agree with hashslinger that this is not a time for you to play detective or go on hunches. We all have a responsibility to uphold academic integrity and report something when we know there is a problem. However, we also have the responsibility to back up what we claim with evidence, not just speculation. To me, it sounds like the issue has already been reported and probably dealt with. So, I don't think there needs to be any additional reports unless you feel you have some evidence that was not known before. At my school, there is actually an anonymous hotline for anyone on campus to anonymously report ethical violations. I am not 100% sure that encouraging us all to anonymous report anything we might feel is wrong is a great idea, but if something like this exists at your school, you can try to use it so that others can decide how much more action needs to be taken.

I know of many students who do their dissertation remotely if they are finished all their classes. In Canadian schools though, we often take classes right to the last year, so I also know students who schedule all their on campus commitments to one or two days per week. If you only have one class, and the class size is small, usually you and the class can convince the prof to have one weekly 3-hour class rather than 3 1-hour class and then schedule your meeting with advisors on the same day too.

Stewart is on its 7th edition already?? I took Multivariable Calculus with this book too (5th edition). We also did single variable calculus with the same book so I felt it was a good transition. I agree with what 33andathirdRPM said in terms of what to review. I definitely agree that Stewart expects you to be comfortable with different coordinate systems because it's fairly often that a change of coordinates is exactly what you need to make the problem reduce to something you can solve.

I think it looks pretty good--much better than a lot of other academic websites out there. I'm just going to be super critical because I hope I am helping, but remember these are pretty much all minor points and some of them may just be opinion Also, I am coming from the point of view of an academic audience (e.g. as if I was a colleague in your field that just met you at a conference or saw your name on a paper and want to know more). If this is not your intended audience then modify my comments as necessary of course! 1. I would say to get a more academic URL instead of the commercial URL. Can you host a website on your MSc program's department server? In my opinion, I feel a webpage for an academic is stronger if the URL is something like "www.physics.school.ca/~yourname" or "www.yourname.com" instead of "www.yourname.random-commerical-company.com". It more strongly links you with your department and your role as a researcher in the school. But this might also be field dependent. 2. I think the auto-play snippets on your front page advances too quickly. I can't read all of it before it moves forward. I would recommend that you don't set it to autoplay and allow the user to click left/right arrows to advance them as they choose. 3. I also don't understand the context of these snippets that appear on the first page. They read like summaries of research questions, however, I am not sure what your involvement with them are. That is, I am not sure if these are topics you are interested in but have not done any work on so you have summarized what is on your mind, or if these are current projects you are actually working on, or if they are projects you have already completed. In any case, you should make it more clear why I want to read what this snippet is, and then also add: if it's your research interests: Explain why you are interested and what you plan to do with it. if it's your current projects: Explain what your involvement is / what your project is studying / what are some possible results if it's your past work: Explain what you actually did yourself and list publications or presentations that came out of it Basically, make it more about you! 4. About Me looks great! I like that you have links to the people you are working with, but your undergrad advisor appears to be missing one (or this person doesn't have a webpage?) 5. Your Resume page should have an easy PDF download link, in my opinion. Embedding it in scribd is cool, but personally I do not enjoy scrolling through a small window like that. I would also remove the entire Customer Service and Communication section for an Academic CV. Similarly, for an academic CV, I would also remove all non academic work experiences. But, for a CV for other job applications, you might want to include some things to show that you have experience working outside of an academic context. Finally, for an academic CV, I would reorder your sections to be: Education Research Experience Honours and Awards Teamwork and Interpersonal Skills (which I might rename to "Other Experience" or "Teaching and Outreach") Summary of Skills/Qualifications -- but remove the first three things which don't really mean anything in an academic CV (I feel like these terms are just filler words that people learn to use to pad CVs in high school) 6. So I now see that your home page snippets came from your "Research" page. I think the same comments apply here! Also, make your files available in PDF as well as docx. You can also make the references become hyperlinks to the journal's page for that article. 7. Your contact page should provide actual contact information, not just a web form. I think you should provide your email address and usually people put their office number, school address and office phone if you have one. At the very least, you should have an email address listed and also your school affiliation. I think when I want to quickly look someone up, I go to their website, click through the pages to see the pictures and most importantly, I look for their contact info to find out where they physically are. I'd say to make your contact page more like what you would find on a business card. 8. Overall, I would also say you should add image credits to all of the images you use. Even for the pretty headers at the top (but to not diminish the layout, perhaps you can just add it as a footer on the bottom of the page). Again, these are just my opinion and as I said above, I viewed your website with an academic perspective!

For me, I used basically the same SOP for every school. 75% of it is discussing why I am interested in the field, my research/career goals and my qualifications so that part remained the same. So, while the first SOP was hard to write, it only took an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour for each additional application because I just basically rewrote the 25% that is specifically about why I wanted to go to University X and what resources X had for me and what people X had that interested me etc. But even this part is very similar--I felt I had a pretty narrow range for the types of programs I wanted to go to so most of my programs have the same type of resources and researchers. I also did minor edits throughout the SOP to change the school name as required (I tried to mention it only once at the beginning and then not again until the very end) and depending on the specific application, I might make minor edits to the main part of my SOP to frame my final argument better. But other than that, I basically tell the same story to everyone. I agree with themmasses that to get the most powerful SOP, you should pretty much rewrite it with each school in mind because there are ways you can frame everything to make an even better argument. My experience with both Canadian grad schools (in 2010) and US grad schools (in 2012) is that your SOP doesn't really matter that much, at least in my field. To be clear, if you have a poorly written SOP that is incoherent and demonstrates no aptitude or fit for the department, you will definitely get rejected. But, if you have a good SOP that does show fit, that is probably good enough (from my opinion and limited experience). I don't think the effort required to go from good SOP to excellent/stellar SOP is worth it, because I don't think fit as demonstrated by the SOP is going to be the tie-breaker that determines which one of two good candidates get accepted. I think schools care a lot more about research experience/ability and while it's important your SOP delivers this message in a clear and concise manner, your SOP does not have to be a great piece of prose! But this is my opinion based on my experience, and pretty much everyone else's experiences will vary.