TakeruK

You can get as technical as you think someone in the same department but does not work on the same topic. When I wrote my applications for astronomy programs, I assumed the people reading the SOP may be studying galaxies, cosmology, star clusters, etc. while my explanations were about asteroids. But remember that you can word things so that different people can understand it at different levels. For example, I might have written a sentence like "We used the numerical integrator SWIFT to compute...." This way, someone who works on my topic will know exactly what I'm talking about since SWIFT is one of the standard packages, but someone else in physics/astronomy can still get the idea that I did a numerical computation. Sometimes it's great to mention proficiency in certain skills because that might mean you're able to jump into things much faster! In addition, I should note that you don't want to get too technical in the SOP anyways. You don't need to explain everything you did. I kept each project to about 5 sentences, and my focus was on what I got out of it (i.e. what skills were developed, what knowledge learned) and the "results" of the project (that is, which publications, if any, and what were my role in producing the publication, as well as how does my result contribute to the field overall).

I'm glad you found my answers useful, but unfortunately I don't have a handy "cheat sheet" of everything one really needs to know for the exam. Since I had to do a lot of math in my physics undergrad degree, I did not prepare very much for the General GRE Quant -- I spent all my time on the Verbal section instead. But I think you can find these things online! I used http://www.majortests.com/ to study for the Verbal part and it worked really well for me. I also did one or two practice worksheets from their math section since I didn't want to underestimate it. I don't know how good their math prep things are, but I really found the Verbal part useful. However, I should note that I took in the GRE in June 2011, before the new "Revised General GRE" changed everything in August 2011.

I don't think that would be a good idea. Sending in scores late is a "privilege" you can ask for if circumstances warrant it, not something you should take advantage of! I suppose you could lie to the departments and make up some excuse why you cannot take the GRE earlier (but in many places they are offered practically every day) but that might not be in your best interests. It also took my scores much longer than 10 days to submit -- it was something like ~3-4 weeks (but I was in Canada so maybe that's the difference). In addition, I would only count business days as part of the "10 days", so with all the holidays in December, I wouldn't cut it too close. I submitted my Physics GRE score late to a few schools because the subject GREs are only offered in April, Oct, and Nov. I was not able to take the test in April nor October since I was out of town at a conference. The subject GRE scores take longer than general GRE scores (about 4-6 weeks) to become available so my official PGRE score was not ready until ~Dec 20 so it's a little bit late for a few schools. But since ETS intends its November exam date to be used for applications submitted that December/January, it makes sense for departments to allow a slightly late score. In addition, I had already taken the Physics GRE 2 years ago (and did poorly, but my retake wasn't that much better!) so I was still able to submit a temporary score. So I feel like if you ask for extra time to take the General GRE, you might look like you are unprepared -- after all, you had all year to plan for it. Maybe the school won't even look at the packages until the end of January so that they won't care if you submit the scores a bit late though. But maybe they don't want to set a precedent for accepting late scores. Perhaps you could check with 1 or 2 of your schools and see how they react -- if it's very negative, then just take the test earlier! Good luck.

I think it's important to keep in mind that the way we might have been taught to do these questions in high school math classes are usually not the best way to approach the GRE Quant. questions. I remember in high school, we would have to show all our steps and follow the method exactly to get full points. In the GRE, you just need to get the right answer, no matter how you do it! So, I think it's best to find a method that works the fastest for you and stick with it. This is important on other ETS tests as well -- for example, in the Physics subject GRE, there are many questions where you should not solve it by evaluating equations etc. -- instead, guessing and checking sometimes is the best method. For me, I would have solved this question by looking for counter-examples first. Anytime I see a question asking about the validity of a mathematical statement that is asserting something to be always true, my first instinct is to find a case where it isn't. It works well in this case because the very first possible value for "y" is the counter-example. Edit: However, prime factorization will always work I think. So if you get really hard numbers like "if y is divisible by 85 and 92, is it divisible by 96" or something like that, then it would be easier to just prime factorize. But the GRE would not ask you questions with really stupid numbers like that. In addition, the larger the number, the less likely that statement is going to be true since the multiples of both 85 and 92 are few and far between! I would always try a faster method first, and if that doesn't work then resort to prime factorization. It might cost me more time in that one question, but I would save a lot of time for the questions that didn't need a full treatment. I think it's helpful to have the multiplication table up to 12x12 =144 memorized for the GRE Quant. Then you would have quickly realised that 60 is the lowest common multiple faster than you can prime factorize! Another useful thing to know is the divisibility rules. Here is a list (http://en.wikipedia....visibility_rule) -- I had learned the ones up to divisibility by 10 (except for the rule for 7, it's too complicated).

If the two letters from the directly-related field are only profs that taught you courses (i.e. you didn't work with them) then I'd stick with the original three excellent letters. You don't need a LOR to say you did well in their class since your transcript shows that you are performing well in the field you're applying to. However, if you did do something above and beyond the normal class work and this doesn't show on your transcript, then maybe this would be helpful in a LOR. You could also consider using all 3 excellent undergrad LOR and 1 of your "new" LORs. I get the sense that you shouldn't include extra LORs if one of them is going to be weaker than the other 3 though, since it will "bring down the average", so to speak. But if one of the new LOR can add something that is missing from the rest of your application, then you should include it!

You can also talk to the departments involved to see what they might suggest. Maybe their students commonly work with profs in different departments etc. or they might have kind of unofficial or official joint program/partnership. Outside of that advice, I think you should apply to the program whose academic fit is best for you. That is, it might be easier to get into a Chem. Engineering program given that is your undergrad training. Or you can consider the academic requirements of both departments (coursework, electives, orals/quals etc.) and pick the curriculum that fits you best. If you know that you will be able to work with people in other departments, then in multi-disciplinary fields, you might want to just choose the "home department" to be the one that is most convenient for you in terms of logistics/academics/etc. This was the advice I got from a prof when considering applying between an Astronomy vs. Planetary Science department at his school.

I think this is a delicate subject! Ultimately, you are the first author so you have control over what goes into your manuscript. However, as students, we generally do not have very much power/influence. I can understand the other coauthors' hesitation -- they don't know you too well (unlike their other collaborators that they might have worked with for years) and they have a lot of other stuff going on. This paper isn't as important to them as it is to you. So, they would prefer to be cautious instead of putting their name onto something that they might not be certain is right. Usually your PI would be the one to turn to for support and guidance. When the other profs send comments to your PI, he/she should tell the others to send them to you instead! Everyone is going to have different opinions. Eventually, you will have to decide which suggestions/edits to take and implement them. Again your PI should be the one to help you decide what's important and also help you smooth over issues people might take with you not following their suggestion. Usually a couple of edits is all you really want to do -- send out a first draft, give a couple of weeks for comments, talk about them with your PI, implement what you decide is necessary, and then send out a second draft, stating which suggestions you've made and address any other comments you didn't implement (i.e. similar to a peer review process). If it's going to be 4 co-authors agreeing to one thing and 2 not, then maybe some kind of discussion is needed to work it out. You might repeat this iteration with a third draft or you might just send out one last final draft before submitting the article. Another important thing is to set deadlines for people to reply to your drafts. Again, your PI would help you enforce these deadlines as well as choosing a deadline that gives everyone enough time but does not take forever. Finally, although you are the one who is leading the manuscript, as a relatively junior member in the group, you sometimes just have to be mindful not to step on too many toes and you might not be able to do as many things as a first author prof might be able to do. But you shouldn't let yourself get pushed around either. As I said, it's a delicate balance!

Grades are a weird thing. Some places consider 100% to be "meets all expectations of the course" (i.e. got all of the questions right, etc.). This seems to be the way most North American schools (at all levels) treat grades. Others might consider 100% to be "student knows all there is to know about this subject (at the level of the course)". So since most courses do not expect students to actually retain 100% of the curriculum, an A grade could be as low as 70%. Looking back, I would say if I remembered ~2/3rds of the material in most of my courses, I would be pretty happy with it. Other people grade on a relative basis instead of an absolute scale too. Someone told me that they basically treated the best student as "A" and then compared everyone to that standard (so it's still possible that everyone can get an A). Another did not use a linear grading scale -- if you did the minimum expectations then it was 80%, if you did a "great job" then it's 90% and after that, every further percentage point is much harder to earn than the last. This is an interesting way to grade since our system generally assigns "A+" to 90+ so going above and beyond the requirements does not boost your GPA. I don't really know what grading scheme is the best, but I definitely think absolute scales are more fair than relative ones!

Yes -- I think the only way to see your score(s) first and THEN pick which score to send would be to not use the four free schools and then pay for "Additional Score Report" for all the schools.

Definitely plan ahead and save up / put money aside. But depending on your school and/or program, here are some possible options you might have as well: 1. Ask about extra funding if you come early. At my school, if you arrived earlier in the summer, you're "hired" as a RA basically so you get paid for the extra months. If they're not going to start paying you early, then I'd get a summer job or only come early enough so that I can get settled. At my MSc school, I didn't get paid until Sept but I arrived in August, so I just let the department know that I'd arrived, did all of the admin things (keys, desk, etc.) and then didn't come back until September. August was mostly spent getting to know the city and getting the apartment set up. 2. Some schools offer a start-up loan. In July, my current school let us know that our first paycheque doesn't come until the end of October (the term doesn't begin until Oct 1), but we could apply for a start-up loan of $2500 with 0 interest and fees that would be paid to us in mid September (i.e. before school officially begins). That was helpful for my wife and I since we were moving to a new country and this reduced the amount of currency we had to convert (and thus saved us some fees with our bank!).

I agree with those that say checking is an easier way to do this. But, if you really want to do it with prime factors, then here is what I THINK is right. Since the prime factors of 24 are (2,2,2,3), then a number has to have ALL of these prime factors in order to be divisible by 24. That is, all numbers divisible by 24 are also multiples of 24, which means you can write their prime factors as (2,2,2,3, ....[whatever else]). However, for "y", which is divisible by 12 and 10, and they have prime factors: 12 --> (2,2,3) 10 --> (2,5) Y just has to have any set of prime factors that satisfies both. For example 60 = (2,2,3,5) is a valid number for "y" because it meets the divisibility by 12 (i.e. it has ALL the prime factors of 12) and it is also divisible by 10 (also has ALL the factors of 10). Note that one of the "2" prime factors is "double counted" but that's okay. However, (2,2,3,5) is NOT divisible by 24 because it does not contain ALL the prime factors of 24 (there are three 2's needed). Hope that makes sense. Summary: A number Y is divisible by X if and only if ALL the prime factors of X is present in the prime factorization of Y. If a number Y is divisible by multiple numbers (e.g. A, B, C, etc..) then you just have to make sure the prime factorization of Y contains ALL the prime factors of A, B, C, etc. but you are allowed to "reuse" prime factors for different A, B, C... And finally, just to do another example: If y is divisible by 15 and 18, is it divisible by 36? 15 has prime factors (3,5) 18 has prime factors (2,3,3) The minimum prime factors that y must have are (2,3,3,5). This is the smallest set of numbers you can make that will contain all of the prime factors of 15 and 18 (although not necessarily at the same time). 36 has prime factors (2,2,3,3) y is then not necessarily divisible by 36 because y's minimum prime factors are (2,3,3,5), which does not contain ALL of the prime factors of 36 (2,2,3,3).

I was a pretty successful (in my opinion lol) tutor during the last few years of undergrad and while I did it as a MSc student as well, I just didn't have as much time as a grad student! I think the most important aspect of being a successful tutor is connections!! I would first find out if my fellow students are tutoring too and work with them so that you don't undercut each other. Find an agreed-upon rate. This depends by location but a number that has worked for us in multiple places is something roughly $30/hr. Next, find out if your own department posts tutor lists. My old department used to have a page listing contact information for all grad students interested in tutoring (and what courses they could tutor) and then undergrads who wanted extra help beyond office hours would contact the grad students. So you might not even have to tutor students outside of your own school. One important thing is to find out what conflict-of-interests rules might exist if you're a TA as well. The general rule is that you shouldn't privately tutor a course that you are currently TAing, but usually old courses are fine. In fact, you can be pretty successful in tutoring, e.g. PHYS 101 if you were a TA for PHYS 101 in previous years. I say work with fellow grad students/tutors because you might want to find someone quickly to cover for you in case you get sick or have to be away for a conference etc. Or maybe you're just really busy one week. You could also cover for your friends as well if they are busy or are away. At my old department, we formed an ad-hoc tutor network where we could trade students. In addition if one of us had a full schedule but a new student wanted help, we could direct them to other tutors. This works really easily if you guys all charged the same amount. In addition, I found that it's important to make it clear to your students what your role is. Sometimes students expect you to do their homework for them. I personally believe this is unethical tutoring. If I need to show a student how to do a question as an example, I either change the numbers or pick another question in the textbook that isn't assigned. I think it's important to make this clear on your first meeting, so that the student knows what to expect. Student satisfaction is really important. It's far more valuable to have a repeat student schedule you every week than to do lots of one-time sessions with different people. I usually tell the student that the first session is 50% off so that we both get a feel for things. Sometimes our teaching/learning styles just don't match up. Almost every student appreciates the chance to find the best fit for tutoring and almost all of them end up paying the full rate even the first day. I think it's very important to have a good rapport and almost a partnership between tutor and student. If you treat them as purely a source of income, I don't think you will be as successful. I also find it really rewarding in non-financial ways when my students share their successes with me. From a practical point of view, it has also been beneficial since they recommend me to their friends. Hope that is helpful!

Whether it's correct or not, the general feeling in academia, I believe, is that online schools/programs are not as rigorous as "brick and mortar" programs. In addition, if your goal is to be in academia, it will be significantly harder for you to be anything other a student enrolled in a full-time graduate program at a physical school. I get the sense that online programs are good for getting certification to do something in the professional world perhaps, but I do not believe online programs are a good choice for research/academia goals.

I don't want to be a nagger but since you mentioned that you want to "give a piece of [your] mind to the CEO", I would strongly recommend that you don't do this. It's not going to change anything. It's also really unprofessional. The right thing to do would be to move on and not worry about this experience any more. Getting further involved could potentially burn bridges for you in the future and connections are important in both academia and the professional world. However, I might understand how frustrated you are feeling (for what it's worth, since I don't really know you) and personally, sometimes I find it beneficial for my own sanity to write a letter/email giving the person a "piece of my mind" but then delete it and not send it. Also, ranting to friends willing to listen is sometimes helpful too. What I'm saying is that you already have your 3 letters so there's no point burning bridges. Venting/ranting might be a good way to release frustration but do it in a "safe" way that won't hurt you in the future!

Sorry to hear that I don't think you should automatically assume that the CEO asked your project manager to not write a LOR for you. If the project manager really wanted to write you a LOR, they would have offered to write a personal one before you could ask. In addition, a personal LOR isn't very useful -- it would be much easier to find a prof that taught a class where you did well to write you a LOR and it might even be more beneficial. So I'd consider that response to be a diplomatic way to say "no".

Related to Eigen's post, here is a link that I found at the bottom of every email I received from a prof (it was part of their signature): http://www.emailcharter.org/index.html Personally, I don't agree, since a "pointless" thank you email is the electronic equivalent of saying "hi how are you?" to someone you pass in the hallway. It seems like the charter does not believe that email is a real form of communication -- that it's something we have to do. But for me, email is my preferred form of communication -- I'd much rather e.g. email my dentist to set up an appointment, book a tennis court at the gym, ask the bookstore if they have X in stock, etc. than pick up my phone and call! Maybe it's a difference between people who have grown up in the digital instant-communication age of emails/texts/etc. and those who grew up using more "traditional" forms of communication. That might be an oversimplification though! So maybe as our generation move up into faculty positions, our stances on "email etiquette" might change!

This is a good point -- I guess I was writing my advice from my experience/field, where we definitely do not pay for interviews etc. Only one school wanted to interview and we did it by Skype. When it came to visiting the programs, they paid for flight/taxis/buses/transportation, accommodations (or I stayed with another student), food, everything. Also, not every school required official transcripts so that saved some money too. But I do agree that applying does cost a lot of money -- not counting the costs of taking the GREs, it probably costs on average $100 per school. I definitely agree with this! I also did a Masters first, but I was in the Canadian system where everyone does a 2 year masters followed by a 3-4 year PhD. But I made sure to explain my reasons for doing a masters first (wanted to make sure I actually liked grad school before committing to a 5-6 year program) and I don't think it hurt me in the applications. Unfortunately, many terminal masters programs in the US are expensive (as they are not funded) so in my opinion, I would prefer to pay the extra $500-$1000 to apply to PhD programs now than pay $20,000 for a 1 year terminal masters. Additionally, you could also consider Canadian masters programs. I don't mean to force Canadian programs onto you but just letting you know that Canadian schools will fund their Masters students (Masters students in Canada and pre-quals (years 1-2) PhD students in the US are basically equivalent). Additionally, many Canadian schools have deadlines between Jan 15 and Mar 1, and they often do not require the GRE. Just another option to think about, if you're willing to go outside of the US. A Canadian masters often do not count for anything when you start a PhD program but neither would a terminal masters in the US.

I think that's a fine response. But some might even say to not bother sending a reply if it's just going to say "thank you". I don't agree and would send what you just wrote above though!

I don't think you want to put them in a situation where it's difficult for them to say no -- then you will think you're getting a good letter but it could really say anything. I think you should mention that you would like to ask your project manager for a LOR in the email and suggest a Skype appointment time to discuss the matter. This gives them enough time to think about writing you a letter and what they would say etc. so you will know what to expect! I think it would be a very bad idea to "pressure" someone into saying they will write you a letter. If they feel like they have to write a letter but don't actually have anything good to say, then it's going to be a very bad thing!

I think you still have plenty of time. You have about 5 weeks until Dec 15, which is the most common deadline. It should not take this long to put together a grad school application, if you really work hard. I think the toughest part will to be to sort through the list of schools and finding good fits. Try to do this within a week and also schedule meetings with other profs you know (i.e. those who would write you a letter) in order to ask them for letters and get their thoughts/input on which schools have good fits for you. If you do this within a week, they will have 4 weeks before Dec 15 deadline, which is about the right amount of time. Dec 1 deadlines are tighter since it's only 3 weeks away but if you have strong connections with your profs, they would be able to pull it off for you (it should only take them like 1 hour to actually write it). In addition, if your profs need a bit more time for the earlier deadlines, consider contacting the schools you're applying to and asking for an extension on the LORs -- usually they are okay with this. You still have time to put everything together! I started my applications about this time last year. I thought my earliest deadline was Dec 9 but then I found out for one school, the deadline was Dec 1 for international students. I found this out on like Nov 25!! But the school was okay with transcripts, test scores, and LORs arriving late as long as I had my actual application in on time! Another tough thing might be the GRE -- if you are not ready to take it within 1-2 weeks, it might be the biggest constraint. In bigger cities, the GRE tests are held every day so maybe you will have to travel in order to get a test date soon. If you really really want to try for grad school next year, then the only down side to doing all this is a lot of application money, effort, and probably stress! But at this point, you might as well apply to everything and then wait for the outcome in order to decide what to do next Fall. In my opinion though, it's not that bad if you take a year off between undergrad and grad school. It would really help you though if you could do something research related in fall 2013 if you end up applying for Fall 2014 instead.

I normally would recommend that people contact their supervisor in the way they normally communicate but Skype / phone calls are pretty intrusive. In addition, you probably Skyped during working hours about work related things so if you Skyped now, it might be disruptive to their workday. Maybe the best idea is to set up a Skype appointment via email (let her know why in the email though). That way you can discuss your performance and let her know more details etc. about the letters. I think it is also important to talk (phone/Skype/in person) with your project manager and have an honest discussion about your performance. You might have thought the work demands were unrealistic but your project manager might not agree with you. At this point, it doesn't really matter who was right -- the only important thing is whether or not your project manager will write you a strong letter and I think an honest conversation will help.

I was part of a half-military, half-volunteer organization for most of my youth and I think that experience helped shape the person I developed into. I totally put that experience into my CV where they asked for one. I didn't mean to imply that being in the military is a bad thing etc. I would have said the same thing if you had mentioned any other experience/extracurricular. I was just saying that if they purposely do not ask for things like that, then it probably won't enhance your application since they would only ask for things that they prioritize in their applicants. But definitely include anything you think might help you in CVs for other schools of course!

I think email would be a good way since it doesn't require the person to answer on the spot -- maybe they'd like some time to think about it.. You can just say that you are planning to apply to grad school and that your experience with the firm would really help your application (and that you learned a lot etc. etc.) and then ask them if they would be willing to write you a letter of recommendation. If you think the project manager will write a good letter then it won't matter the reason for termination. She doesn't have to bring that up even, and you don't have to mention your termination in your application either -- just list the dates you worked at the firm. If you get interviewed then you can't lie of course, but since most internships are short/temporary, I don't think anyone will assume you got terminated unless you say so (unless you were terminated for a very short time).

I agree with margarets -- if you feel that some of those things (e.g. military service) has defined the type of person you are then it makes sense to include it in the SOP. In addition, some schools have an extra box/page for "any other details you think you should include" and you can put those things there too. However, if the school asks you NOT to send a CV and does not provide any chance to give other information then it is likely true that they don't care about these things at all. Remember, what may be important to you might not be important to the grad school!

That's interesting! Thanks for the correction