TakeruK

I think it's too early to make contact with profs at your prospective grad schools now. Fall 2014 is a really long way aways! However, it's not too early to start gathering resources to think about grad schools. It's actually the best time right now!! You should be making contact with profs at your own school. It sounds like you have at least one research project (the lab assistantship). You could ask to sit down with the PI of that group and let them know you are very interested in grad school. They should have lots of advice for you and they will probably tell you to work as many hours (full time is nice if possible) during Summer 2013. Then you would have at least two strong research projects under your belt when applying to PhD programs. They might also suggest other profs you can talk to in your current department. Alternatively (or in addition to doing the above), find some other profs at your school (or another school in the same city if there's two) and start talking to them now about working for them in Summer 2013. From your description, it sounds like you will have a very strong GPA but grad school is about much more than just academic talent. Schools want to recruit students who have demonstrated research talent (or potential for research talent). So if I were you, my focus from now until Fall 2013 would be to increase my research experience. From my own experience, Research assistants get paid a lot better than teaching assistants anyways, so if time is an issue, I'd also prioritize a research/lab assistant position over a teaching one. TAing is a big part of grad school, but doing at least one semester of it is more than enough to help you get into grad school -- doing more won't help. I'd try to find some time to do the GRE sometime next summer. And maybe start making contact with prospective profs sometime next summer too, after your summer research project/job is well underway (then when you introduce yourself to prospective profs, you can mention both research experiences that you've had). Hope that was helpful! My intention was to outline a possible list of things to do to help maximize your chances of getting into a school. But I realise you might have another concern -- maybe you are wanting to contact profs to help you get more information earlier to prepare for a move? If that's the case, then I still think you should hold off talking to profs until next summer if you want really concrete answers. If you ask profs now about 2014, only the ones that know for sure they will be away (e.g. a planned sabbatical etc.) can give concrete answers. Everyone else will likely say that they will be looking for students, but they can't really say anything about how likely they would want to work with you in 2014 when they haven't even met the 2013 applicants yet. Finally, I apologize if you already know this information about normal timelines. For you, applications will probably be due Dec 2013 to Jan 2014. You will probably hear back from schools between Feb 2014 and April 2014. Some schools will begin their terms in August 2014 but others might be as late as October 2014. In the best case, you might have about 6 months, which isn't a lot of time to move an entire household, and in the worst case, only 4 months!! My (also awesomely supportive) wife and I don't have kids yet but we had some similar concerns when applying to PhD programs. We are from Canada, so there was also the worry about me getting the right student status so that my wife could apply for permission to work. What we found helpful was to work together in the whole admissions process. I first compiled a list of schools with programs that interested me and then both of us went over it and eliminated any locations that would not work for us (e.g. not possible for my wife to work/find jobs, or not a place we want to raise kids [we want it to be easy for us to visit our parents and vice versa], etc.) At this time, I also contacted profs to rule out places that won't work anyways. Before I applied anywhere, there were 8 schools on the list, but they were really grouped into 3 different geographical regions, each with their pros and cons. We found this process to be helpful in managing our worries about uncertainties in the future. While waiting for application results, we could at least look at what housing, health insurance, all that stuff would cost in each of the 3 places and make plans for how we would move all our stuff, etc. After deciding on a school (we made the final decision around April), we were worried about finding a place to live. Many schools have special housing for graduate students with families (usually unfurnished so it's basically an apartment or townhouse where the school is also your landlord). They usually have very flexible leases -- for example, my school does not make new students sign a lease with them (there is a 1 month minimum stay though) and it's only 2 weeks notice to move out. In California, the standard move-out notice is only 30 days (so we would not be able to really look for a place to live until 1 month before we got there!!). So, our back-up plan was to live in graduate student family housing until we found a place to live. However, some schools have long wait lists to get a spot in this type of housing, and we learned that they accepted wait list applicants as soon as you've been accepted to the school. So, keep an eye out for these things and sign up for the wait list as soon as you hear good news from the school -- you can always cancel your application (check to ensure there's no fee though) if you change your mind about that school. Fortunately, we did find a place to live before the term started but it was a stress relief to know that we did have a backup option. Sorry for writing so much, but I hope the second part was more helpful at addressing some of your concerns! We were really stressed out and we didn't have kids and were just renting, so I could only imagine how much more stressful it is for you and your family. Definitely take advantage of all resources (e.g. the housing/waitlist options above) though -- sometimes they are not very well advertised since most students are not coming in with families!

I think Americans can write and recognise both styles. For example, the high impact journal Nature uses British style so many American researchers have to use British style, not just see it regularly. In addition, a lot of profs at American researchers are not American! Personally, I used the style I was brought up with (mostly Canadian) but for some reason I naturally use the "ize" ending instead of the "ise" (I had to go back to "fix" recognise in my first sentence above! lol). I still write in this style for my essays and other assignments here in the US.

The NSERC page says: to be eligible... you must have completed, as of December 31 of the year of application, between zero and 24 months of studies (full-time equivalent) in the doctoral program for which you are requesting funding Assuming that this is currently your first year of PhD, and you are a full-time student, then by December 2013, you will have completed 16 months of studies, so next year is the last year that you will be eligible to apply. However, you will only be eligible for the CGS/PGS D2 (i.e. the 2 year award) because you would have completed more than 12 months of PhD next year. So if you get it, you will be funded for years 3 and 4 of your PhD. All the information is here: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/students-etudiants/pg-cs/bellandpostgrad-belletsuperieures_eng.asp

If I didn't want to report a recommended test, I would not have reported it. I'm not sure if you "have" to report it though -- almost all applications make you agree to a statement that's something like "I certify that all information provided is true and complete to my knowledge etc.." So if you answer "no" to the "did you take the test?" question, you are technically breaking that statement. However, not all sections on the applications are generally required (e.g. usually financial information questions are optional), so I would argue that since the test is optional, the question about the test is also optional. I remember looking at some of the applications and realising there were actually very few required questions. So my advice to all application is to reveal only what you think is beneficial/neutral. If you are about to write something that might not look good, first check to make sure it's actually required. Usually, just before submission, you can click on a button to "check for completeness" and it will tell you if any required fields are missing. Obviously, there are some things you cannot hide, and sometimes omitting certain facts might hurt more than revealing a bad score, for example, so use your judgement! I feel that despite the disclaimer you have to sign, whether or not you took a GRE test and your score is personal and confidential. Even if the school requires the subject score, you can still choose to not reveal/submit it and they will have to decide whether or not they want to still look at your application (probably not). I had one school that "strongly recommended" the Physics GRE. I scored 44% and 52%. I submitted both scores and got in. Another school did not ask for the Physics GRE at all, so I did not submit it (I answered no to their question about having taken the test). However, my general GRE score did not get sent to them properly and they asked for a scan of the score report I got in the mail. The mail score report is for me only so it contains ALL of my test scores. When I scanned the score report, I blocked out the Subject GRE score section (using Paint lol) and wrote a note stating that I did not wish to report these scores because it was not required. I wasn't asked any questions about it and they accepted me. Technically, since all Subject GREs appear in the same section of the mailed score report, they didn't have to know it was Physics GRE scores instead of e.g. Math GRE scores from the past or something. However, I think if a school doesn't require a subject GRE score, that means they probably don't really care. For the "strongly recommended" school, I decided that I'd rather show that I took the test and tried my best (since I got two consistent scores) instead of avoiding it at all.

I don't think gifts are necessary at all. But, I did send gifts and a card to all my letter writers because I felt that we had a good relationship, and they all helped me more than just writing a letter -- they took the time to advise me on graduate schools. It was very helpful to me since I had no idea how academia works so they were all great mentors. I really appreciated this and wanted to show it. To avoid any possible impropriety, I waited until I was about to leave the school before sending the gifts though -- especially since the profs who wrote the letters could have been my instructors and/or on my thesis committee etc.

No problem -- I should note that when I applied for the OGS (2010,2011), the system is a little different from today. The biggest change is that until 2012, Ontario's Ministry of Education administered the awards but now it's up to each school to allocate their quota of OGS awards any way they want. So, it would be useful to check with your school and department for advice too!

Hi, The OGS is meant for students in a full time graduate program and usually provides for a large fraction of their stipend. The award value is $15,000 if you are enrolled year-round, and $10,000 comes from the government while the remaining $5000 comes from your school. This money generally replaces other sources of stipend. But you may still see a slight overall increase in total funding. For example, at one school, winning an OGS increases your total funding by about $5000 (over someone without any scholarship at all). Your funding from other sources (TA, RA) is reduced (which also reduces your TA commitment). Overall, it's a good thing because the less your supervisor has to pay you, the more freedom you get. Also, it's a good award to list on a CV. As to whether or not it's a "research fund", no -- it's a scholarship. The money is used to pay your stipend, which you will use to pay tuition and living expenses, or you can save it up. That is, you get the money directly and it's 100% yours. The OGS is NOT for research purposes. If you are looking to applying for an award in order to get funding for your research project (e.g. equipment, an experiment, whatever), then there are other awards available for this. Finally, I don't think the OGS strictly requires that you are doing research at all (i.e. Masters/PhD dissertation). The only requirement I think is that you are a full time graduate student. However, since the application package asks for a research proposal, I think students who are doing research / has a strong research background are more likely to win this award.

Last year, my application deadline was Nov 15. I first heard back (email) on Dec 14 from Fulbright Canada stating that they had received my application and checked it for completeness. They also said that it was eligible for consideration by the Canadian Adjudication Committee and that I should hear back by mid-February. Next, I got an email on Jan 26 stating that the Fulbright Canada Adjudication Committee has reviewed the applications and has recommended my application to the US. They then requested further information before forwarding my application to the US. They also asked that we update them as we hear results from the schools we've applied to. They said that this step is not a guarantee of funding because they recommend more people than awards available. Finally, the email said that final results will be sent out on or about April 15. Finally, sometime in early April, I got a letter from Fulbright Canada in the mail. It said that in the end, I was not selected for an award. From the other Fulbright threads around here, Fulbright seems to send rejection letters in small white envelopes (since it's just a letter) while acceptances come in bigger envelopes with more detailed instructions (can't confirm this though). I noticed this with grad school applications too actually. However, with those, usually you hear by email way before anything in the postal system arrives. Basically, the timeline was pretty much the same as the outline in the detailed application instructions -- even a bit ahead of schedule! Good luck!

I use a laptop for my "home office". During my MSc, my laptop was a Windows machine and the work computer was a Mac. Now, my laptop is a Mac and the work computer is Linux. But I've found a way to make it all work out nicely, even though the operating systems don't match! On Windows, I used PuTTY and VPN clients to access my mac work computer from home when necessary. Mac has a built in terminal so that makes my life even easier now. To synchronize files, I use Dropbox. I currently have ~12GB of space due to the "Space Race" promotion (most of this will go away in 2 years though). I find it really helpful to save all assignments/coursework here so that I can easily work on assignments seamlessly from either work or home computer. Same with any writing that I am/was doing (e.g. thesis). For papers, I use Mendeley to synchronize files and automatically generate bibliography (I use BiBTeX but they can do a lot of formats). I don't print out very many papers since I don't want to have to drag a stack/binder full of papers around. Mendeley gives you about 2GB of free storage, and this is a LOT of space when you just have PDFs of papers. For expensive software (e.g. MATLAB, IDL), my school gives me a license to install and use this software on my home laptop. There are sometimes more restrictions for certain software. For example, one software requires that I'm logged into the campus VPN (e.g. same deal as if I wanted to use my school's library's subscription to access papers off-campus). For other software, I find it really handy to use the same software on all your machines. For example, I use Google Chrome as my web browser and this allows any changes I make (e.g. bookmarking a useful website / paper / conference info etc.) to automatically propagate through all machines. In addition, I use platform-independent software such as OpenOffice instead of MS Office or the Mac software (except for Keynote since I really like how that works) so that I can open any file on any computer. I try to save things in PDF when possible. With all this, despite different OS, I feel I can have almost seamless flow from one machine to the next! It really works for me

This only applies to people who were awarded the CGS M or PGS M back in 2009 or something (i.e. the old two year CGS/PGS M awards). Now we only get 1 year awards for masters studies.

If I was given this option and could only upload ONE of the three things you mentioned, then I would upload my CV. I think the information in the CV is the most beneficial (for me), so if I didn't already have a chance to present this info in the other parts of the application, I'd pick the CV for sure!

I think everyone is expected to say yes unless they already have a fellowship (e.g. SSHRC or OGS) confirmed. In other words, you should only say no if you are for sure getting money that will preclude you from receiving any further financial support (awards like SSHRC and OGS have rules on how many other awards you can hold at the same time) or like a sponsorship from your employer etc. Otherwise, you want to be considered for (and awarded) the entrance scholarships because they represent additional aid that you have earned. In addition, they are important for your professional profile because they will strengthen your CV. If you don't need the money at all then you are free to decline the award once they are offered to you so that you can still include it in your "brag list" when you apply to grants, jobs, etc.

I think you should just be honest and say that you had mistakenly asked for one more LOR than necessary. If you do it quickly, then they will probably not mind. Alternatively, you could try to figure out which writers would be the best fit for each school. You don't have to submit the same set of letters to all of your school. If this fourth professor has a strong connection with one of your programs (e.g. alma mater, did a post-doc there, has collaborators) then it might be better for that prof to write your LOR there. To do this, just reply to the third and fourth prof's email confirming their letter writing and show them the list of schools, asking if they think a letter from them will especially help you at any of these schools. It depends on how well you know these profs though. By the way, I don't immediately see how the fourth prof is not as important as the third prof. Supervising your masters essay is a important role so he could say a lot of useful things about you in the LOR!

I've seen this section on a few applications last year. The section was always prefaced with "This information is for financial aid consideration only. This optional section will not be used to determine your admission." Sometimes these instructions don't appear on the actual online form, but in an "Instructions" section somewhere in the application software or on the graduate school's FAQ page etc. I didn't answer these questions in any of my applications. Also, a lot of online applications have an automated check when you try to submit that lets you know if you missed any required fields. So you can also try to run a completion check to see if those empty fields get flagged.

Hi, At a lot of schools (e.g. Berkeley) they did not even want me to try to convert my Canadian grades (in % like yours) into the American GPA system -- they would do it themselves to ensure accuracy. The main issue is that there are two main GPA scales, one out of 4.3 and one out of 4.0 (as well as a lot of other less common scales). I think the way Canadian grading works, the 4.3 scale fits better but depending on your distribution of grades, it might not matter. But if your grades are all very similar then the two scales shouldn't differ too much. Here is a quick prescription to convert Canadian grades into American GPA. In the 4.3 system, an A+ is worth 4.3, A is worth 4.0, A- 3.7, B+ 3.3, B 3.0, B- 2.7, C+ 2.3, C 2.0, C- 1.7 (usually most Canadian grades cut off here...). In the 4.0 system, both A+ and A grades are worth 4.0. 1. For EACH course separately, convert your % mark into a letter grade, then into a Grade Point (0 to 4.3). Then multiply your Grade Point for that course by the number of Credits/Units that course is worth. 2. Add up all of the Grade Points from all the courses that you want to consider. 3. Divide by the TOTAL credit/units of all your courses that you are considering. This number should be your GPA. It's basically a "weighted average" so that a 6 credit course is worth twice as much as a 3 credit course etc. In addition, it is NOT the same as taking the average in % first and then converting to a Grade Point -- however, with the grades you mention (i.e. closely clustered), it will probably turn out pretty close. Hope that was helpful! If you did get all A's and A+'s (except for one), then your GPA should be pretty close to 4.0 on the 4.0 scale and between 4.0 and 4.3 on the 4.3 scale. That is, you have a really strong GPA, in my opinion.

Thanks for the correction I'm glad they changed it, although hopefully I will never have to look at another GRE again

I think even if they ask directly, you don't have to fully mention it. It's not an ethical question for an interviewer to ask (but they will probably ask it anyways). That is, I don't think an employer is allowed to ask an potential employee "Are you going to keep this job for X months" unless they are asking you to sign a contract. This is to protect people who, for example, may want to take maternity/paternity leave after a year, or have an illness that might prevent them from working in the future -- you are not obligated to commit unless there's a contract. However, they could ask things like "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" etc. to gauge your plans. You can be vague though and it would be honest, since you don't really know how your applications will go! Even if they ask directly about graduate school, you can still say that you are not sure, or that you have currently no commitments to any school (which is still true). Of course, this is different in jobs where graduate school education is encouraged for employees but it doesn't sound this way from your description! So I agree with everyone else -- don't mention it! Just don't directly lie and say that you have no intention of ever going to grad school, but that doesn't mean they need to know that you are applying. The truth is that you are not committed anywhere else and that's all they really need to know!

Regarding whether or not new faculty would take students, it really depends on the field. In my field, it's often the case that new faculty will take on a lot of students. The assistant profs are very busy and they want / need to do as much work as possible in order to produce science that will get them tenure. So, they are looking for lots of students to get all this work done! In addition, advising students often helps you get tenure, so they want to increase that count as well. And, taking on students is a little risky for profs -- what if they don't end up finishing? I think a newer prof, who might not have as much experience supervising students might want to "diversify their portfolio" by mentoring several students at once. However, this is balanced by the school/department funding -- newer profs might have a harder time securing funding to pay for graduate students. But if they are a prof at a top program, they are probably both a good researcher (but not necessarily a good advisor) and have access to funding/facilities. I would say it's definitely a case-by-case basis whether or not it's a good idea to choose a brand new advisor (lots of threads here debating the pros and cons). But if you say this person is just 2 years removed from grad school, then it's likely they spent the last 2 years doing a post-doc (really uncommon to get a tenure track position right out of PhD?) And most "tenure review periods" are about 5-7 years, so if you start next year, you will have a good chance to finish around the time they are under review for tenure.

Some schools were very vague. One prompt was simply "Please attach a PDF of your personal statement here." There was no word limit / page limit, or any other direction! Other schools were like the prompt you showed, and there were also some schools that wanted me to answer a specific question within the SOP. One school even reminded me to make sure I had the right school name l in my SOP before submission!

I had a problem with my transcripts last year where the online status-checking thing for one school said "Transcript not received" I emailed after the deadline has passed and the transcript should have been received and they said that they did receive the transcript but since the names didn't match exactly, the computer system didn't update the status. They did not manually fix the computer status though!

From what I understood from the ETS material, if you are doing the computerized General GRE, then they are using CAT (Computerized Adaptive Testing or something). The difficulty (and thus "point value") of each question changes according to your performance. That is, if you are doing well, then your next (set of) questions will be harder. If you are doing poorly, then the next (set of) questions will be easier. This is why you are not allowed to skip any questions. The idea of this algorithm is for the computer to determine at which level of difficulty are you able to consistently get correct answers. Your score is based on the difficulty of questions you answered as well as the number of correct answers. In the past, people have said things like "it's essential to get the first few questions right so that you can quickly move up the ladder" but I'm not sure that is quite true. But if it is, then the early questions are more important. When I wrote the Quant. part of the test, I figured it wouldn't be too tough since I was pretty confident in my ability. However, it was right down to the wire for me -- I had to guess the very last question with only 5 seconds remaining. I noticed that once I passed question 20 out of 28, all of the remaining questions were of the hardest difficulty level I saw on the practice exams. I might have even gotten one of the last questions wrong, but I still ended up with the maximum score (could be lucky and didn't mess up, or perhaps it was due to the CAT algorithm).

I also think the the GRE Verbal can make you stand out if you have a high score but in the STEM fields, I don't think a mediocre score is going to hurt you. So my strategy was to study words where I found time but I didn't stress too much about getting a really high score. A low score is bad, but "low" likely means really low -- for example, one top Astro department publicized its minimum cutoff GRE Verbal score to be 500 / 800. I think being in at least the 67th percentile is probably good enough to not worry about, at least in Astro. I don't think the GRE Verbal is necessarily a proxy for general intelligence, especially if English is not your native language. And I think most people realise that actual ability is not always correlated to test scores. I feel like when the committee has examples of your ability to communicate in your SOP, CV, PHS (sometimes) or other essays, wouldn't they want to judge your ability for themselves instead of relying on ETS' numbers?

I'd send them a reminder email 1-2 weeks before the letter is due and then one more reminder 1-2 days before it's due. Usually I trust my profs will write the LOR on time if they have written back to clearly confirm they will write the letter after my initial request. You can also ask them what / how often they prefer reminders!

Sometimes my LOR writers have asked for the entire application package, and this was for a prof that knew me well and supervised my research. It's definitely motivation to get things done earlier. However, I'm not too sure that you need to have a fully polished SOP for your LORs. If you are giving them the SOP a month in advance, you can let them know that it's still a work in progress. I suspect that they might care more about the content than the style of writing. For example, they would want to know that you are interested in Topic X so that they can write about how you will be great at studying Topic X. Although it's not impossible, I doubt that they will be "grading" your SOP and writing a letter based on that! Of course, you always want to present quality work, but they should understand that the SOP may go through a few more "polishing up" drafts between their version and the final submission.

I agree, but I don't think they will publicize this, or more and more people will submit scores later, and making it much harder for them to put the application packages together for the committee to review. They might be able to handle a few late scores so they might say yes if you ask nicely, but if I feel like if your only reason is "I want more time to study", that might not go over very well! And it might send the message that you are unprepared.