TakeruK

There is a "standby testing option" (https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/register/accommodations/). It costs a little bit more ($25) but you only pay if you get to write the test. It's not ideal, but you should try for both the Sept and Oct 2013 testing dates. Did you know that despite the fact that you register for each subject GRE separately, the testing centres are actually all the same and you will just end up in a big room with all the other subject test takers. For example, the people sitting around me when I wrote the Physics GRE were mostly writing Psychology GREs! So you might as well just go for the subject you want/need! When I wrote my Physics GRE (in a lecture hall with at least 100 other psychology, physics, math, etc. test takers), there were about 10-20 people who were there on standby and everyone got a seat. The testing centre was actually moved at the last minute (I went to the room indicated on my ticket only to find a note on the door directing me to another room), possibly due to the room reaching capacity. This was for the testing centre at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada. So, I would suggest that you keep checking back online to see if spots open up (they might move to a bigger room if possible and if the seats fill up). If not, then standby testing is probably a good idea. If you are able to try to do standby for both the Sept and Oct dates, then that would kind of double your chances! I know that standby testing can be a gamble and cost more though -- McMaster was the closest testing centre (but still over 3 hours away) so I had to arrive the night before (or wake up at 4am in order to get there in time). But if you absolutely need to write this test to apply for schools, then this might be worth it. Alternatively, you could try to petition for a supplementary testing centre (see link above) but I don't know if you would qualify.

I'm actually not sure whether you need to tell your POI the reason why you don't have a LOR from your advisor. I'm also not sure if you should ask your advisor for a LOR or not either! Personally, my gut would be to not ask the advisor for the LOR and only tell the POI the reason for not having a LOR. The things I'm sure about are: 1. If this is the only school you are applying to, then you should probably only tell your POI the reason you don't have a LOR from your advisor. I don't think the rest of the department needs to know, especially if you say that your POI would be the one ultimately making the decision on your admission. I think what you suggest doing in your original post sounds like a good idea. I would not include the reason for not having a LOR from your advisor in your SoP or any of the application materials. I have this opinion because if your POI is the only important decision maker, then why divulge extra personal information to those who don't really need it. 1b. If you are applying to other schools where it's not just your POI making the decision, then maybe you should include one-sentence in the optional "any extra information" section of your application (not your SoP or any other main sections of your application) about the nature of your personal relationship that made you decide to not request a LOR from your advisor. 2. If you do include your advisor's LOR, then you should make sure your advisor discloses the nature of the personal relationship! I would probably only include the advisor's LOR as an "extra LOR" (i.e. some schools require 3 LORs but will accept up to 5 etc.). I still think you don't have to mention your personal relationship in the SOP and you should just let your advisor's LOR disclose the relationship, and maybe also put a one-sentence thing in the optional "extra info" section. Overall, I think that since this personal relationship should not have any affect on your abilities as a PhD student (only on the potential reliability of your advisor's LOR, if you submit it), the info about your personal relationship doesn't need to go in the main application materials. If you mention it at all, it should be sufficient to keep it to the extra info section, or where it actually matters, in the LOR itself.

Just an added note for C -- In one case last year, one of the programs I was applying to, (the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory [LPL] at the University of Arizona) had a separate institution code than the University of Arizona. However, the website for the program said to send scores to the University of Arizona institution code! I guess the LPL institution code was no longer used or something. However, during test day, I did not know (or forgot) about this so I sent the scores to the LPL instead of the University of Arizona. A couple of weeks after the application deadline, the department didn't get my scores and they had to ask me to scan in my unofficial score report! It all worked out in the end but I think it's worth checking out your 4 free schools ahead of time to make sure there isn't anything strange about the way they want your schools sent!

Good luck!! I forgot to mention that during this process we asked the school's International Student Program office and they said that getting J-2 EAD is a routine process so like you said, just have to jump through all the hoops in terms of paperwork and it should all work out! It turns out the only major roadblock I encountered was with the University of Arizona -- for some reason, even after spending a few days talking to everyone from department administration level to graduate school admin level, the University would not admit graduate students on J-1 status. I did not end up going to that school and maybe there would have been a way for it to work out had I chosen to enroll there, but even if you meet the minimum US Immigration requirements for J-1 status (i.e. a fully funded program), the school still has to be willing to issue you a DS-2019 (i.e. sponsor you on J-1 status). Most of the people I talked to there did not even know PhD students could be on J-1 (they thought it was for post-docs only). Afterwards, I found that looking at the school's International Students Office/Program website will generally tell you how much they might know about immigration procedures -- some schools even have sample EAD application packages online with step-by-step instructions!

Since the summer started months ago, I've been wearing khaki-like shorts, which I hope still look "professional" enough while keeping cool! It would really depend on what level of "formal" you want to portray and what others in your department wear though. For me, shorts like these: http://www.haggar.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3977790&cp=4011449 fit my needs in terms of "formal-ness" and comfort. If you time it right, you can get really cheap stuff from haggar.com -- I think I ended up paying around $10 per pair of shorts! For wrinkles, you could consider investing in a garment steamer! It's pretty good at getting most of the wrinkles out and it is much faster than ironing. For example, something like this: http://www.amazon.com/PS-200-Perfect-Commercial-Garment-Steamer/dp/B0000AR6Y0 If you really want sharp creases or stiff collars though, you would need an iron still. We got ours for around $40 with a sale at department stores like Macy's or Sears. Some stores might not have everything in stock, but they offer the option of buying online with in-store pickup instead of paying for shipping. I don't use it for my clothes (hanging up my polos immediately after removing them from the dryer gets rid of wrinkles well enough for me) but my wife uses it for her work outfits, which aren't always iron-friendly either.

I'm not an expert on C++. Like you, I know C and I have used a bit of C++ only. But here are my thoughts: Having a bunch of blank spaces in your output sounds like a good idea to me. Sometimes I also use "***********" or "----------------" strings to help me see different sections. I don't think stuff like endl*5 would work because endl is probably encoded as some unicode value or something and multiplying that value by 5 might result in something undesired? I think your best bet, for simple code, is cout << "\n\n\n\n\n" I'm not sure what you mean by saying you prefer endl over \n. When I looked up the difference, I see that the only difference between endl and \n (new line) is that endl will flush a buffered stream. cout is not a buffered stream, so the behaviour of endl and \n is going to be the same in this case? Unless you mean you prefer reading/writing code with "endl" instead of "\n". If so, that's fine but I would point out that "\n" is something used in many different languages while I have not seen "endl" in many other places than C++ (I'm sure it exists, but I feel that "\n" is the standard "new line" character).

For style, I think what Eigen said above is correct -- your second promoter is going to be a co-author too, so the article has to also be written in a way that she is okay with/prefers. In academic writing, I think that all the authors must be satisfied with the final product, and it would be unethical for any of the authors, including the first author, to submit an article without permission/input from every co-author. Just because they will be in your thesis does not mean that everything will sound the way you want it. Hopefully you can find some compromise that makes you both happy. I've seen cases where some co-authors completely disagree on the writing. The person did not like the writing at all so they removed themselves from the author list. This person was an accomplished scientist though, so having one less paper coauthored was no big deal to them. If your second promoter does not compromise, that is really your only option, since you can't write the paper without them. However, I think that might do you more harm than good, since you are probably not as well established to be able to do things like that. Finally, in my field, I know that very few first papers written by students are actually submitted the way the student has written them. After the many many revisions, many of us find that the majority of the paragraphs have been completely changed from our original writing. This is normal, and I think it's good. It's the process of editing and revising! I also think it's normal for papers by students to start out with the writing tone/style of their supervisors and then eventually mature and evolve into the student's own style.

Hi there, We were in a very similar situation, except we're from Canada and my wife did not have as much of a "professional" job as yours did. The whole process was a lot of paperwork and required a good amount of time but everything worked out pretty well! I assume you guys got the J-1/J-2 thing worked out and I'll tell you about our experience getting EAD (Employment Authorization...Document?) for my wife! We both arrived in the US in Sept 2012. When I checked in at my school's international office, I asked about the process for applying for EAD for my wife. They gave us a large checklist of things to include and forms to fill out. You will need things like your marriage certificate (even though you probably had to provide that to get her J-2 status in the first place!) as well as copies of your DS-2019, Passports, etc. You will also have to write a letter to US Immigration explaining why your wife needs employment. Here is a slightly tricky part: You have to include a budget breakdown that shows that your stipend alone is enough to meet all your necessary expenses (rent, food, health care) but not enough for extra stuff (car, recreation, etc.) This is super strange because you need to be making the right amount -- if your PhD stipend is too low or too high, your wife can't work. In practice, it's not really a big deal because if your stipend was not enough to meet your expenses, then you would not have been approved for J-1 status in the first place. This is also why your wife can't work if your own stipend isn't high enough (they don't want J-1 students being supported by J-2 work). There's usually a form letter that your school will provide for you and you will just fill in the blanks. You also have to pay $380. We got all this together and submitted the application for EAD in October 2012. The school checked over our package before we sent it. It takes about 3 months for them to process it and we had to provide extra info because my school forgot to tell us about the marriage certificate ahead of time. So, we had to submit that during December 2012. My wife was approved for the EAD in January 2013 and she got her EAD card a few weeks after. The school had told us that it's up to US Immigration's discretion to decide how long the EAD is approved for. Some people are approved for only 1 year but my wife's EAD is valid until 2017, or my J-1 status ends, whatever comes first. She can renew it if I end up staying here longer -- she would just resubmit all the above again about 3-6 months before EAD expires. After you get a EAD, you can apply for a Social Security Number (SSN). At this point, the J-2 person has way more employment rights than the J-1 person. J-1s are only allowed to work on campus and our SSN will reflect that. The J-2 with EAD will get a SSN that allows them to work anywhere, with pretty much no more limitations than a regular American (except that the EAD will eventually expire). It took about 3 months for my wife to find a job, but I think that was mostly due to the lack of opportunities in the place we're living, not because she was a non-American. I don't think companies will be reluctant to hire someone who is on J-2 EAD because of the "temporary" nature. Americans move around all the time anyways -- for example spouses of American grad students are just as temporary as a spouse of a foreign grad student. Also, your PhD program will probably be something like 5+ years. In this day and age, staying in one place for more than 5 years is pretty much permanent! Finally, there are laws against employment discrimination based "source of employment eligibility". They can't choose to not hire someone because they got permission to work as a J-2 status instead of e.g. being American. Of course, shady employers can find ways around this, but it's just the way it is, I guess? It's not like you can really hide the fact that you're from somewhere else because your resume would show all your experiences being in another country! In reality, I think most employers don't even know all the details of whether or not you're allowed to work -- my wife didn't go into the details of what her J-2 status / EAD means in her applications. When she started work, she had to provide her SSN of course, and also show the employer her valid EAD card along with it. She would file taxes as a Non-Resident Alien, but other than that, I think she is in her employer's system as any other employee, since they really only care about the SSN.

Agreed -- my second post was working on the assumption that the OP did indeed do what he/she said they would do in their second post: I was responding to Lisa44201's post about ethics that was written 2 days after the "I will come clean" post by the OP. I thought Lisa44201 was saying that even if the OP discloses everything to School A, there would still be ethical issues because the OP is not using the deferral for the traditional reasons (e.g. personal emergency) and thus denied a student a spot at School A. However, I think that If the OP did disclose everything to School A and the deferral offer still stands, then it's no longer OP's responsibility that a spot was wasted and the unused spot is a result of School A's decisions. Sorry for that super pedantic post, but just wanted to clarify what I said!

This is a good point! Actually I can buy mutual funds with my Canadian Tax Free Savings Account and all income earned from those funds would also be tax-free in Canada. I guess "Tax Free Savings Account" is a bit of a misnomer because it is not limited to a traditional savings account at a bank, but instead, it refers to an account where we can buy mutual funds, GICs, RRSPs etc from and not pay taxes on the income earned. My only worry with mutual funds is that I am unsure how I feel about the fact that mutual funds are not guaranteed. I understand that there are strategies / options that result in lower risk portfolios but I currently do not understand them yet. I'm mostly talking about the savings that we left in Canada when we moved south, which is not a huge amount. They are currently in a GIC (Guaranteed Investment Certificate) term deposit and the current difference between GIC interest rate and expected low-risk mutual funds performance isn't very much. So, even if we doubled the interest, the actual money difference is not very big. Still, this is something I plan to figure out soon (after quals, before graduation) and make better use of our savings!

Yes, your GRE score is just as valid, whether you take the paper or computer based test.

No, I don't think 0.5 years is a big enough gap to warrant explaining! If you have a good reason to bring it up in the SOP then it won't necessarily be bad, but I don't think you need to bring it up just because it's a gap.

I agree with juilletmercredi -- my current goal is to be able to save ~10% of my stipend and contribute it to a Canadian Tax Free Savings account. I don't know where I will be retiring (but probably Canada), so I am not putting money in an IRA (or the Canadian equivalent) yet. The GIC term deposit interest rates in the tax free savings account just barely staves off inflation and when I have a "real job", I plan to use all of my RRSP (Canadian IRA?) contribution room as a tax shelter when I make real taxable income. I think the money I save from the tax shelter in the future will be worth the potential interest lost while I'm in grad school / post-doc (the interest rates are pretty crappy now anyways). Also, I will be able to claim every dollar spent on tuition while in the US (tuition waiver counts as money I spent since for Canadian tax purposes, it is considered income, but not luckily not taxed!) as tax credits when I move back to Canada! So, if all goes according to plan, I might not be able to save up a ton of money while in the US for school, but I should be able to save a modest chunk of my future income due to the tax credits

I wrote my Subject GRE at a college campus 3 hours away from where I was living (the test was at 8am so I had to actually arrive the night before). I gave myself an extra hour to find the room (navigating an unfamiliar campus on a weekend is pretty tough -- no one around to ask for directions!). It was a good thing too, because when I finally found the building, there was a note on the door saying the GRE tests have moved to a different building!! Luckily there were a bunch of other GRE test takers in the same situation and we were able to find the new room together. But definitely give yourself time!!

I would check the "results" section of gradcafe to see if other people have applied to this program in the past (for Jan. start). If there is, see the approximate dates that they heard the results. That is probably the best estimate for decision timeline. Other than that, we can only guess. When I applied to Canadian masters program (you almost always apply to masters out of undergrad in Canada) for a Fall start, the deadlines were in January-February and the decisions were made about 6-8 weeks later. But I know many people who did not get their results until something like April or May (i.e. 3-4 months after application). For you, since you are applying for a January start date and the last 3 months were summer months, there might not be a lot of effort in evaluating and making decisions on admissions made. I'm not sure about the specific program you're applying for, but in Canada, it's often the case that you will be funded by a specific professor so that person has to decide whether or not to accept you. If this person has been away for awhile, or if they are not certain their grant will be approved and/or if they will have the money to fund you, then your decision will be in limbo until they find out! As an international student, you will cost more so it might be a financial/budget issue that they are trying to work out. From my experience in Canadian graduate programs, whether or not a professor is ready/able to take on a new student could really depend on whether or not their current students are going to stay or finish up. I think there is just not enough information currently to try to guess at what the outcome would be. It would probably be a good idea to have other plans in place in case you don't get in, though.

I think it's common that US schools will not count courses from different schools (even at Masters level, whether they are from the US or not), especially if this is considered a "core class" for your program. At my current program, you are able to talk to the instructor of "intro level" core classes and if you can demonstrate you know the material well enough, you can replace that class with a more advanced class. Sometimes though, certain core classes, especially if they are a pre-req for a different class cannot be substituted at all. This is because some programs will want their students to not only know the material but to learn the material in precisely the way that the program teaches it (for better or for worse). This might be because the school wants to make sure their graduates (who carry the school "brand name" around) to know exactly the same thing in the same way. Alternatively, core classes may form a big component of qualifying exams and you might not do as well on the qual. exam if you didn't take the course exactly the way it was taught at the school. Finally, depending on field, you may need to take the course from the PhD school to get some sort of certification. If you are not able to be exempt from the class, I would recommend taking advantage of a lighter/easier courseload and get a head start on something else, as Eigen suggested! Also, sometimes retaking by a different instructor can expose you to new parts of the material and maybe even give you the time to delve deeper in some areas. Last year, I took a certain course for a third time and another course for the second time. The course material is pretty rich though and a 10-week quarter here or a 13-week semester back in Canada would not have been able to cover everything, so there was still new material even for the third time! It was actually pretty nice to see alternate presentations and be able to learn/explore the interesting details since I didn't have to struggle to learn the basic stuff.

When I applied to Canadian schools, I contacted profs before the application deadlines. I wrote a brief message, very similar to your template there. I did not attach any CV or transcripts but I did mention that I could attach them if they want. Usually, they will say something like "yes, I am taking students, and I encourage you to apply". They will see your CV, transcripts, etc. when you apply since in my experience, the application materials are distributed to all profs in the department that might be interested in you. Usually there is a place in your application to mention profs and also if you made contact beforehand, the prof will know to look out for and/or request your application. Some things to remember -- in Canada, there is no April 15 deadline thing (but some big schools follow this to stay in line with US schools). Usually, when you get an offer, you will get a few weeks (~4 or so) to say yes or no and if you say no, then the prof will probably ask the next person on their list. You can always ask for an extension of course, and they will usually grant it if you are waiting to hear back from another school. This also means that at some schools, you can apply before the application deadline and you might even get an offer before the deadline in some cases. However, note also that Canadian schools tend to have later deadlines than US schools (Jan 15 is the first one I remember having) so the decision timeline is about the same as the US anyways. Good luck!

Wow, this is a tough situation. Firstly, are you certain that it is her suggestions that caused the reviewer to comment on the writing? The example you gave does not show any errors. You said that there are suggestions that contain grammatical errors and unclear language. If so, then you should be able to explain these errors to her when you make your changes. That is, each week, when you get your suggestions/notes, you should respond to each individual note. When writing my MSc thesis, my advisor gave notes in ink so I just stuck a post-it note on each change I wanted to discuss further and wrote down the reason why I did not completely implement the suggested change. I brought these notes in to the next meeting and discussed them with my advisor until we came to a phrasing that we both agreed on. So, maybe doing something like this in the future would be a helpful way to bring up the topic professionally? If there is a technical mistake (i.e. grammar or spelling) then you should be able to dispute her suggestion without any problems -- maybe an English writing handbook might help too. If it's words like "aim" vs. "goal" then there really isn't a difference and you could either use her words or try to convince her that your words are just as good. But this synonym issue would be secondary to any actual writing errors! You already said that you talked to her about this issue but it didn't work. If you talk to her again, with the reviewer's comments in hand, do you think she will agree with you this time, or at least come to some sort of compromise? Or, you say that she is your "second" promoter, do you have other people involved in this project? Sometimes getting another person, especially another prof, involved could help you in disagreements between you and your advisor. But you should be careful that you don't make it appear as if you are getting other people to "gang up" on your advisor, or that you don't appear to be "going over their head". If you do this, I would recommend that you do it with permission from your advisor if possible -- for example, perhaps try saying that you are both wasting time arguing back and forth over the writing details and ask if you can solicit the opinion of a third person, or something like that.

I agree with fuzzy that you need to do more than just do good work and hope to be noticed. However, I do think you have the right to be resentful about this set-up because it sounds like there is no set policies about TAships are assigned. (Or maybe there is, but you have not had access to knowing how it works). In many programs, the TA assignment policies can be very clear (whether TA assignment is governed by union rules or clear departmental policies) and it's unfair when only students who know how to get extra TAships are able to get extra TAships. You could approach the subject to the department by asking them about the TA assignment policies, and basically ask what is the protocol for requesting/applying for additional TA assignments. You could also go further and request that the department communicate these policies more clearly to all its students!

Funding is tough to get! I think budgets are very limited mostly so not getting a fellowship/award isn't a sign that your research is not useful or a judgement that you are a bad student! There could be nothing wrong with your application and you still might not get funding just because there isn't enough to go to everyone deserving. The way I see it, I wouldn't ever compare myself to my peers at any point in my application, so I try not to worry about why my research is more interesting or more useful than someone else's. I just try to focus on presenting myself the best I can and hope that it will meet their standards for funding. When I come to the "why should you be considered for this award" section, I approach it not from a "why is my application better than everyone else's" view, but instead I write it as if I was answering the question "Why should taxpayers/private donor money be used to fund your research?". So, I try to explain my research/myself in these ways: 1. Explain why the research is important/interesting. Most of astronomy has almost no real application to everyday life so I focus on putting my research question in context of the current body of knowledge. Why would other scientists be interested in my results? I try to tell a story that explains what the big picture research question is, what has been done in the past, what is the next step, and how my work will help the community reach this next step. Also it's important to show what is new and different about your approach! 2. Show that the research is something achievable. Sure, it's easy to write vague and idealistic goals that will solve everything one day, but your grad school life is short! Try to show what preliminary work you have already completed to demonstrate that what you are proposing is achievable in 3-4 years. Maybe you have completed a study with a smaller sample and now you want to generalise. Or, there are other studies that use similar methodologies to answer a different problem. 3. Give prior evidence of your ability. Usually these essays are like SOPs for grad school -- you want to spend some time talking about yourself too. Discuss your previous research experiences. Tell them what you've learned and taken away from each experience. Also don't be shy in telling the committee about what you accomplished in the past. Did your work result in presentations/papers? Did other people use your results? Did your project form the basis for another student or person's project? I think most academics are naturally modest and while you should not exaggerate your impact, be sure to not understate it either! I think it's important to not worry about trying to make yourself sound better than the other applicants. You shouldn't even mention them in your application! Just focus everything about you -- your experiences, skills, and accomplishments. The goal of the application is not to sound better than everyone else, but to prove to the committee that you are a good investment of the money that has been entrusted to them! Also remember that all throughout science, at all levels, many many great people and projects will end up unfunded -- not because they are bad, but because there is limited resources!

Outside of standard stationary stuff (pens, stapler, post-its), I have cutlery, mugs, boxes of tea, a photo frame, tissue box, random toys (dinosaurs, plushies, etc.) on my desk. I also have a Canadian flag and my hometown's hockey team's pennant on the wall next to me. Behind me, I have my "library". Inside my desk, I have chocolate and other snacks. I also store things that I exclusively use while I'm on campus in my office space, such as my baseball glove. We have a dedicated lunchroom down the hallway, but in my last school, I also had an electric kettle and mini-fridge in our office. I'd definitely decorate my office space! When moving to my PhD school, that was one of the things I was most looking forward to (so I planned ahead to make sure to get things from my hometown/country). I am always looking out for interesting/cool stuff to add to my desk collection (I'd probably get rid of older stuff eventually to avoid being too cluttered).

Talk to the Canadian school's international program office about it. It would really depend on what your home country is, I think. I know that some of my US friends got their student permits processed at the border (so the processing time is a few hours?) while others had to wait a couple of weeks for it to come in the mail.

Do you mean that you couldn't buy a new phone with contract because you won't be in the country long enough to complete the entire contract? Or, was it because they did not want to sign a contract with an international student that does not have US credit history etc. If it's the latter, then it's not the same with all companies. For example, T-Mobile has a special program for F-1/F-2 and J-1/J-2 visas to sign a contract with them despite no credit history! I didn't even need a SSN to get the contract -- the phone was one of the first things I did upon arriving. I used an unlocked phone from Canada but my wife got a new phone on a 2 year contract with just her J-2 paperwork and passport.

I think you're right -- I misunderstood the original post a little bit and thought that Advisor 2 was using the data collected by the OP. But now this sounds like if I used Advisor's 1 telescope* to look at a certain set of stars, and then Advisor 2 also used Advisor's 1 telescope to look at the same set of stars and independently collect their own data! This sounds like a waste of resources though, unless there was reason to believe that the OP did not collect the original data properly. Otherwise, why waste time using the instrument to collect a duplicate copy of the same data! In this case, I would feel even more upset as the OP because both Advisors 1 and 2 should have known that the OP has already collected the data, and their choice to redo the same analysis on the same samples with the same equipment is a conscious choice to exclude the OP from the work. The two profs have every right to do this of course, but I feel that it is not the behaviour I would wish my supervisors to have. (*Note: just for sake of argument, it would be pretty rare for a single prof to own a whole telescope!) So, as I said above, the situation is slightly different since my supervisor and their collaborator (also my collaborator at this point) did use some of my data in the end and I was included in the paper after all (along with everyone else on the proposal so it's not like going from 2 authors to 3, but more like from 8 to 9). But I feel that it is the responsibility of your supervisor (both Advisors 1 and 2) to look out for your interests here too. I would have expected that if Advisor 2 wanted to work with the samples that Advisor 1 had instructed you to analyse, Advisor 1 should have said "Sure, you can look at these samples, but my student, OP, is also working on these samples too so we should include OP in our work." As a graduate student, I don't think it's right that you should ever feel that your advisor is working with someone that is competing against you and you should never have to feel that you are competing against your advisors!! When I agree to work on a project with a prof, I am expecting that I will be the only one that they work on this project with! I would think it is a conflict of interest / conflict of commitment if the supervisor was simultaneously working on the same analysis on the same samples with another person (whether they're another grad student, a postdoc, or a prof!)

I don't think you did anything terrible. The worst possible scenario, I think, is that you came off as thinking you knew a lot but it turns out that you didn't know as much as you think. So the prof could be understandably annoyed that instead of joining his lab doing one of his projects, you gave the impression that you thought you knew better or that you are overestimating your own abilities. I think it's generally true that students think way more about their relationship with their advisor than the advisor. He probably will forget about this aspect of you soon enough when he sees your real work and meets more new students. You are likely overanalysing the situation and it would help to just focus on your future interactions with him! Forget it ever happened!