TakeruK

They will average your Issue and Argument essays because the AW score is a reflection of your writing in both essays, not one or the other. Following most rounding rules, 4.25 should normally round to 4.50 but it's not always clear!

I think it's a good idea and perfectly fine to follow up your email with "can you just quickly let me know if you saw this?" (to repentwalpurgis). If they are in the same school, you could consider dropping by in person too. Also, a lot of programs will send you an email whenever they receive an LOR for you, which is super awesome.

Without more context, I would have interpreted this question as "how does this project relate to your career as a scientist". Are they asking about a past project or a project you are proposing? If it's the past, I would discuss how the project developed my skills for future work, and what experiences it gave me. If it's for a future project, then I would discuss why I want to do that particular project in terms of interest, what skills I would hope to gain, what I would hope to learn, and what experiences I would hope to get out of it.

I agree -- make connections with both profs! No one expects an applicant to commit to any one single POI at this point. They don't even expect to you to only talk to one single school! In most cases, at some point during this exchange, the prof will probably even encourage you to talk to their colleagues. If they like you, they would still rather you go to their school with another prof than a completely different school.

Well a week from now would be about a month from the original request! But I would try to get a firm date (either set by the prof or agreed on by both of you) sooner rather than later!

I don't think you should just randomly show up in the department and basically show up at a professor's door and say "I'm a prospective student, can I talk to you?". I would find that impolite! I think for your meetings with people in the department (students and professors), you should contact the admin staff or a prof you've had contact with and ask if you could visit sometime and they will usually set up a schedule for you. However, I do agree that it might be worth it to do some unplanned/unscheduled visiting around too, like just wandering around the campus and seeing how things are laid out, where to get food, park, see the bookstore or the gym, student housing, whatever interests you. Talk to "random" students on campus if you'd like. But I wouldn't try to talk to people in the department I'm interested in unannounced (as if I was going to catch them off-guard) or without introducing myself as an applicant! I also wouldn't show up in a class in the department without an invitation or checking with the professor first. As for timing, do you think they would have an official visit day/weekend for accepted students only later on? If so, then you might choose to wait for that since you aren't interested in visiting the department if you're not accepted. If not, then I guess the question is do you think you will be able to make a positive impression that will help you get admitted? If so, then do it in March! If this is too much pressure and you wouldn't want to do that, then wait. I don't think you have to feel bad for doing this because this is fairly normal in academia. In my field, for example, some post-doc fellowships are awarded by specific institutions (fellowships that are tenable in different places too), so it is usually a good idea to volunteer to give a seminar at that institution in the same year as your application to increase your impact on them when they read your application! However, me telling you that you shouldn't "feel bad" doesn't mean that you won't magically feel bad! So I think you should do what you are comfortable with, but if you were wondering if other people thought it was okay to visit during admission decision time, my opinion is that it's okay -- if they are busy then they would ask you to visit another time.

Oh, I realised I missed the part about "rolling admissions" in your first part. Sorry! Maybe in your next email, you can say it would be great if you could get it by X date and ask if that would work for them? Maybe send this in about a week?

What I did was first send out a simple request for an LOR. When the profs agreed, I told them I would get back to them with more information later. About 4 weeks before the first deadline (6 weeks before most of the deadlines), I sent each LOR writer a 1-page summary of each school, sorted by deadline, and at the top I put my GRE scores, GPA, and 2-3 sentences about my research interests/goals. I also attached my CV. At this time, I also registered my LOR writers as LOR writers in my online application so they would get the email on where to submit their letter. Then, about 2 weeks before each school's deadline, I resent the reminder using the online system so that they would have the direct link to it again. I repeated a reminder at 2 days before and on the day of the deadline. The majority of my letters were submitted either the day before, the day of, or the day after the deadline. I think this is normal. One prof submitted all of his letters at once, so the day before the deadline of the first school, he submitted letters for all the schools! Most profs I know tend to not do things until close to the deadline, because they are very busy, so I would just send occasional emails now and not worry until the deadline. I'd trust the prof to do it as long as I send the reminder email a week or so before and then a day or so before so that it doesn't catch them off guard!

Not in your field, but I have written 1-sentence research interests before for applications (to schools and fellowships). An example of something I did write before is: During my PhD, I would like to become proficient working in observational astronomy in order to study the dynamics of planetary systems by combining observational data with my past experience in computational modelling. or if I needed something shorter, I would like to study the dynamics of planetary systems by through both observational data with computational modelling. In my opinion, the goal of these short statements is for the department to get a very general idea of what sub-field you would be interested in and thus potentially how you can contribute to the department's diverse skillsets. In astronomy for example, researchers are often categorized by what they study (galaxies, cosmology, stars, planets, astronomical instrumentation etc.) and how they study it (theory, computer modelling, using observational data). If I was meeting someone new at a conference, I would introduce myself by mentioning these two aspects. I think it's true that in most fields, most people can be divided into "topic of study" and "method of study"? If your field works the same way, a one sentence that can identify both would be good here!

This might be a field-dependent thing. I did not list any courses in my CV at all. I don't think I have ever seen a graduate student CV with courses listed (but I've mostly only seen CVs from my field). My grad application CV just shows the year, school name, degree, major, thesis title and advisor. I left all of the course info for my transcript. I did have a weird course numbering case (like what Cesare said) where I took one of my courses at another nearby school under an exchange program, so my home school's transcript just lists the # of credit transferred -- no grade, school name, course name or anything. I included the transcript from the extra school in my package and in the application itself, there is usually a box on the last page to enter any special circumstances. I chose to explain that transferred course in this space. In Cesare's position, I would use this space to explain that MC156 = FX451, 453, 562 and my grades in each of these courses. Also, this might be the field dependent part -- in a lot of my applications, the school wanted me to manually enter a list of courses (and sometimes grades) anyways in addition to the transcript. A few schools also wanted me to attach a page describing the four most recent/senior courses relevant to my field, listing the course name, my grade, the instructor's name, the textbook used and the official description in my school's course calendar (catalog)! I think it's standard practice for course numbers ending in *99 to be thesis or independent research like courses. But if you are not certain it will be clear, you can explain it in the extra box. But I think if you talk about doing a dissertation in your SOP, that should be good enough? If most of your courses have the same or roughly the same units/credit hours then it's probably okay to not need to specify it. I guess if it's important, you can still mention it? Or, if the application allows it, then you can just attach an entire extra PDF that basically repeats the info in your transcript with all the extra information, if you really really want to specify this information. But I think if the application doesn't ask for credit hours specifically, you might not have to worry about it (or just email/call the school to check).

I agree with you here -- I definitely would say that your own experience and your way of telling it is the best way to show the committee your personality and what's great about you. What I meant by "making it creative/unique to you" is the extra stuff that one could argue is not necessary for a SOP, but some people might prefer to add on as an extra -- for example, the personal stories. I wouldn't want to put one in any SOP-like things I write in the future, but I know plenty of people that have gotten into good programs with "creative" / non-traditional SOPs. That is, having these quotes, or stories, or doing other creative things isn't going to mean your SOP gets tossed out. But, spending time trying to achieve this while neglecting the important parts of an SOP would hurt you!

Oh, I thought you meant you would be visiting your friends anyways. If you are worried about being inappropriate by visiting during decision time, you could clear it with the department first -- email them to say that you would be in the area in early March, would it be okay to visit? etc. But they might not know that you know they start reviewing applications on March 2. If you don't want to be there while they are reviewing applications, then going early on is probably okay -- they might not begin immediately on March 1 (presumably you wouldn't be hanging around the dept for the whole 9-10 days right?)

I noticed that in some applications, as soon as I entered my GRE Registration number into the web application, it immediately popped up a message saying that they have my score on file and that my score is X. So, I think the scores are kept in a database and one of the following might be true: 1) Scores are kept on a database maintained by ETS. Whenever you take a test, your score is recorded with your GRE Registration number and the codes of the schools that are allowed to see your scores. When you apply to a school, they can then connect to this score server and use your GRE Registration number to get your score (there would be some checking to make sure that school is a school that you have submitted scores to). 2) Although scores are probably still maintained by ETS, schools cannot access them. Instead, when you take a test and your score is ready, ETS sends your GRE Registration Number and your Score to all the schools that you've designated. This might be done electronically or via actual mail. When the school receives scores, they don't actually match up score with application right away. Instead, they simply store the Registration Number and Score on their own server, until one day that applicant applies. When they do so, the application and score is matched up! If it's 2, I think scores might be sent electronically (or perhaps the method differ per school). This is because one of my schools immediately got my scores the morning after I ordered my score report (like 12 hours apart). Perhaps the scores are sent through overnight shipping, but that would still be very remarkable turnaround.

Definitely agree. My advice was for the 99% that you mentioned! Here, I am not as sure. As far as I know, people in my field do not get "paid" (not in the traditional sense) to look at applications. The people evaluating applications are professors that are paid a salary to do all aspects of their jobs: mentoring, research, teaching, supervising, serving on committees such as admissions. So, sure, they are "paid" in the sense that everything they do for the school is paid work, but your sentence makes it sound like there are paid professionals whose sole job is to evaluate applications. So, since professors are super busy people, you don't want to bore them with your SOP. However, they are very interested in hiring a good batch of new graduate students (either for themselves or for their department) so they have motivation to read your SOP. I personally think it's better to invest time in making your SOP deliver your message clearly and concisely so that these busy (and perhaps bored of reading SOPs) professors can get your point right away and move on, instead of using that time to make your SOP sound more creative but not necessarily deliver the message as well. Of course, if you are an excellent writer and can do both, then that's great! But not everyone has that skill or the time and I see tons of SOPs posted here that have creative and flowing intros but then leaves the readers with lots of questions and doesn't deliver the message well. I would advise everyone to first write the SOP to deliver your message as cleanly as possible, and then if you have the time and the inclination, make it creative and unique to you.

I agree -- if you will be there anyways, then it might be a good thing to visit just before they start reviewing applications. I would just check to make sure it isn't Spring Break for the school you are visiting as well. Even though graduate students generally work during Spring Break, the department may not be as full and you might not see what it is really like during the school year. Also, if there are classes going on, it might be worth it to sit in on one class during your visit!

It should be okay if you send your score before you start your application. When I started my applications in 2011, I was able to access test scores sent in 2009. However, I am not sure that multiple schools have the same institution code. What I found was that each school has their own Institution Code, but the "Astronomy" department at every school tend to have the same or very similar codes.

Yce3f7c -- I'll send you a message but if you have more general questions I can answer them here, I just don't want to go into too many more details outside of a PM.

I think including the reason is fine, and could even make your SOP a lot stronger if you present it well. I would agree with the other members here that may suggest that you do not begin with something like "I was interested in X ever since I was a young child" or "I became grossly interested in X when my [parents/aunt/uncle/sister/brother/etc.] showed me Y" etc. But reasons like "I want to study X because I want to do Y" is great. For me, I was a bit more specific and I wrote that I want to do a PhD in Field-X because I wanted to learn Specific-Skill-A, Specific-Skill-B etc because I want to work in Subfield-Z. My opinion is that one should follow the prompt, but they are usually very vague. I would personally like to use more compelling reasons than just simply saying you like the field/topic. Demonstrating passion is important, but I don't think you should do it by saying you are passionate. Your passion will show through all of the work you've completed thus far to get to the stage where you can apply to this program! This next opinion will depend on particular programs/schools, but I think a graduate student should demonstrate more than just a desire to learn more about their field. Graduate programs are specialized programs that train students in a particular set of skills, and it would be useful for the applicant to demonstrate why they want these skills, instead of just merely wanting to learn more. But that's just my opinion.

That might be true, but in my experience, everything worked out for me. I wrote my subject exam 2 years before I applied and my General GRE 5 months before (and sent the 4 free scores right after the test). When I got to the part in the application that asks for my GRE registration number, I typed it in and my scores popped up right away for the schools where I had already sent them. So while it's true that specific departments don't necessarily keep track of your documents until you pay your fee, most schools keep track of GRE scores through a University-wide system, and the application software is run by the Graduate School, not each department separately!

I did say this in the above post, but I should again clarify that the majority of the problems present at Queen's is at the University-wide / administrative level. My interactions with my own department were pretty good! This was also true for some of my colleagues in other departments, but not all of them. So, I would say that my day-to-day life wasn't affected by these university-wide problems, and I felt very supported from my own department (most of the time, no dept. is perfect). However, once in a while, something would happen and it is pretty crappy to feel that your own University consistently takes actions that either directly or indirectly show that it does not really support its graduate students.

Hi, I was at Queen's from 2010 to 2012 for a MSc. I was there for an Astronomy degree, so my field is pretty different! So, I cannot comment on the specific academics of your field, but I can tell you about graduate studies at Queen's as a whole. First of all, Seeking is right that in Canadian ranking magazines, Queen's tend to rank around 4th or 5th nationwide. However, it's important to note that the main Canadian school ranking -- Maclean's magazine -- divides up the schools in Canada into three categories "Medical/Doctoral", "Comprehensive", and "Primarily Undergraduate". Here are the rankings: http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/11/01/2013-medical-doctoral/ http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/11/01/2013-comprehensive/ http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/11/01/2013-primarily-undergraduate/ The names of these categories are a bit misleading, because what they really mean is the first category has a wide range of PhD programs and does research in all categories, which is what most US "research universities" do. The middle category would have limited research/PhD programs, while the last category would have very few, if any, graduate research programs. Finally, like in the US, these rankings are mostly for undergraduates. Okay, I had to say all that to explain that there are only 15 universities in this category! Even in Canada, Queen's is not a household name unless you live in the Ontario/Quebec region (which, to be fair, an overwhelming majority of Canadians do). But people on the west coast of Canada and people outside of the upstate New York region of the US would not know what Queen's was or where it is. In my opinion, there is a very large difference between the top 3 universities in Canada and everyone else. Due to the much smaller size of Canada, I would say that the top 3 in Canada would compare with the top 20 or top 30 in the US. Queen's views itself as an "Canadian Ivy" school, but I think this is only true in the attitude of the people and students there, not in the quality of their (undergraduate) programs. I personally found a huge difference between the undergraduates at Queen's and those at UBC, my own undergraduate program. It's just my opinion (I think it's shared by others but I can't provide evidence!) but the undergraduate students at Queen's, in general, come from more affluent families, and there is a lot of preference towards admitting family of former alumni. One colleague who went to undergraduate at a nearby school said that at their school, if you owned a car, you were a somebody, but at Queen's, if you didn't own a nice car, you were a nobody. Again, I am generalising a lot here, but I just want to convey the message that in my opinion, I felt that Queen's acted and looked like an "Ivy" quality school, but when you dig deeper, you will find something very different. But that's all superficial stuff. I also did not appreciate the administration at Queen's. If you'd like to send me a PM, I can describe more details. But, in brief, this is what I'll say: 1. I feel there is very little support for graduate students. For example, the Principal (Scottish university, so it's the equivalent of the President) meets with each department about once a year. Graduate students sit in on departmental meetings and we introduced ourselves so he knew we were there. At this first meeting, he told the department that they should cut costs by stopping to fund Masters-level students. In Canada, everyone does a 2-year Masters then a 3-4 year PhD, so this is the equivalent of US PhD programs saying that they won't fund you until year 3. 2. In Canada, all major universities have unions for graduate students (usually through their TA roles, but sometimes through their RA role as well). Queen's is one of the last large universities in Canada to do so. Although it seems like most of the physical sciences departments support their students well, our colleagues elsewhere were not! There are lots of struggle between our Union and the University for basic employee rights (such as being recognized as an employee, being paid for mandatory training, having actual cost-of-living stipend increases annually etc.) 3. The administration is steering Queen's to focus mostly on its Business school. While I was there, I got the sense that Queen's wanted to produce undergraduates that would become future CEOs and politicians at the expense of having well funded research and outreach programs. Their new budget model basically penalizes each department for activities that do not make money for the school (e.g. outreach). 4. This happened: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/18/queens-university-marching-band-suspended-for-materials-deemed-offensive-to-women/ (not particularly safe for work). This happened while I was there and I was horrified to find out about this story. Then I was even more horrified to learn that some people have opinions that this was actually okay, e.g. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/11/28/todays-letters-immoral-no-they-are-simply-kids-having-fun/ (This example was from someone in Calgary, who may or may not be an alumni. But it was the only example I could find online now. Maybe you'll take my word that this opinion was common amongst current students and alumni). Anyways, I don't know how much of this is relevant to you. Obviously, I am not a big fan of my alma mater so I am very biased in my writing but I think it's important that you hear the negatives as well. I also think it's really important for you to find people who have great things to say about Queen's so that you get the full big picture. Then you can decide what is the best. Overall, I still do not regret my time at Queen's because I still learned a lot and gained useful skills and experience during my MSc. But I am elsewhere for my PhD and pretty happy about that.

I'd defer to my advisor on something like this. In the end, I think the actual journal name is not so much a big deal unless you are worried about a bad reputation along with the name. In my field, I don't think people keep up with the literature by going to their favourite journals and reading what's inside. Instead, they have web tools that can search all the journals for various topics and then they'll read what's new. I'll assume similar databases and pre-print servers might exist in History too?

I made sure my overview document for my LOR writers was only 1 page, so they didn't have to read through tons and tons of things. At the top of that one-page summary, I put my GPAs, my GRE scores, and a 2-3 sentence description of my research interest as I would describe in my application. Then, for all 8 of the schools I applied to, I listed the department name/address, the deadline date, and the names of the profs I was interested in. The list was sorted by due date for their convenience. It's fairly normal for a student to apply to 8-10 programs in the US, in my field. Additional schools do not add that much more work, because it only takes a few minutes to customize each LOR for each school (i.e. change a few words here and there). Some application systems send you an email when your prof uploads their LOR, and I saw that most of my profs uploaded a whole bunch of them within minutes of each other. Although they might have written them all out beforehand, I think it's more likely that they will just change the school name at the top. They also said they would do this when I asked if they were okay with 8 letters.

It's fine to write it like a letter (and sign it etc.) but it's also not necessary. I think Size 12 font Times New Roman is probably a safe bet. I titled all of SOP "Statement of Purpose" and in the header, I put my name, application # if I was given one, and page X/Y. If you don't want to use Times New Roman, you can try looking at publications in your field and/or newspapers you like and see what they use when they write long articles with large amounts of text. For example, the NYT uses Georgia, and the default LaTeX font (if your field uses that) is Computer Modern.

Yes, this is what I did (although there wasn't a big time gap for me). A few months before applications were due, there was a big conference in my field, so I emailed a bunch of people I was interested in for grad school and just introduced myself, said I was interested in applying, and asked if they were going to be at the conference, and if so, could I talk to them about applying. Some of the people were busy / not attending so they gave me names of their students who were attending instead. Many of them said that they will look for me at my poster etc. Also, you can look at people's nametags and if they are at the school you want to go to, introduce yourself as a potential applicant! Many conferences in my field are run by the national society for X, so the nametags will usually say if they are a student/jr. member or a full member (i.e. post-doc or prof). It would be a good idea to talk to both students and profs at the schools you want to go to.