TakeruK

This is probably the best advice, especially about following the common formatting from your field! My basic SOP was 1.75 pages single spaced, 12 point font, about 1100 words. Only one out of 8 schools gave a length limit (1 page single spaced) for me. I found that I needed an extra ~100 words to explain why I have a Masters degree, and especially how a Canadian MSc does not mean I dropped out of a PhD program early and that it's different than a course-based terminal masters. The guidelines I saw on the Internet when writing this was 2-3 pages though; but it wasn't clear if it's double- or single- spaced. I figured 1.75 pages single spaced is close enough for either guideline! I was applying to mostly Astronomy programs, and a few Planetary Science, if we want to calibrate for fields I would also disagree with the other person who said to not repeat anything in your CV -- some things are worth mentioning more than once. For example, I wrote a short paragraph for every research project I did, talked about what I learned from the experience, what my main results were, and why they are important/interesting, especially if they resulted in publications. Some of this information is repeated in my CV, but I used the SOP to put emphasis on the more personal aspects, especially how the experience lead me to where I am today (in terms of experience, interest, etc.). But it would be interesting (for me anyways) to hear about how long others' SOPs are. Maybe mine was really way too long and I was just lucky they overlooked it

I'm not yet a parent nor a doctoral student, but both of that should change in the next 2 years! When I was visiting my future school, I met some students who became parents while they were doing PhD studies. In this case, both parents were PhD students and they were both able to continue their studies/research. Part of the reason why I ended up picking that school was that students seem to be very well supported if they want to start families. There were resources available from both the school and the state. They told me that they were able to continue their PhD studies because their somewhat flexible schedules allow them to alternate staying home with the baby. But they really couldn't have done it without their parents being in the area too -- I think their parents were able to provide a lot of childcare support though. In addition, they supplemented this with occasional childcare: some funding is provided for low income families I think, and the school had some community child care thing set up as well. I guess I can't really add much except to say that you might find some resources within your future school (I really didn't expect to have anything, so I was pleasantly surprised when I talked to student-parents) and an anecdote of a family of 2 PhD students and a child! My wife isn't a student, but we aren't sure of her prospects for full time employment either, since we will be on non-resident visas where we need special permission to take employment. So I'll probably be checking back here often to hear what others have to say too

I also noticed this from talking to American friends at Canadian universities. The main reason, I think, is that there are far fewer schools in Canada! Schools in an area will sometimes tend to specialize too, to avoid overlap so that even 5 or 6 graduate school will likely cover all the top Canadian scholars in a field. And for some Canadians applying to US schools, many will choose only the highest tier school they can reach when applying to the US and save safety schools for Canada since the whole process of moving countries is too much hassle for anything less than a "dream" or "really desired" school! I think this is the case even for undergrad schools -- most Canadians I knew apply to 1-3 universities, usually in their home area or one of the big ones in Canada. In the US, there appears to be some stigma against going to a school in your home state though (or so the Americans in Canada told me!).

In general, no tests are required for post doc positions. From seeing my friends go through it, you generally need to have a CV, a cover letter, a research statement saying what you would be interested in doing and how you will achieve these things, reference letters and potentially long-form answers to any questions posed by the application. The application itself will tell you exactly what is required! If you make the first cut, it seems like most post-doc positions will then conduct interviews as the next step. In addition, many of my about-to-graduate friends (or current postdocs looking for another) will attend a lot of big meetings in the year prior to applications to get to know people/groups. They will also travel a lot and give lots of seminars/colloquium talks at places they are interested in.

Maybe your field is different, but I would think it's bad form (or at least not in your own best interests) to not use a letter that was tailored specifically to the school you are applying to (most of the content would likely be copied-and-pasted but I am pretty sure my LOR writers made a few small changes for each letter they sent). I'm not sure what a dossier service actually does, having not used one myself though. It sounds like the service allows for the prof to upload a letter once and then you can reuse it for as many schools as you want? Even if your field does not generally have "personalized" reference letters, I think using a letter that is dated a year ago would raise some eyebrows, or at least draw attention to the fact that you did not get in anywhere last year and are trying again this year. I mean, you won't be able to hide it with a year gap in your record etc. but you probably want to have a clean slate with the new schools (after all, you might have had other reasons to take a gap year). Being cynical, the school that you are applying to might presume that you didn't get an updated letter because something changed between you and your LOR writer and he/she would not have as good things to say this time around. Maybe that's too cynical though! So I don't think it would hurt to ask your profs for a new letter. If nothing new needs to be said, they could just change the date and re-upload. Although maybe you want to consider why you did not get into the schools you applied to -- sometimes, especially now that the admission decision rush is over, you might be able to ask the schools for feedback. Maybe it would be in your best interests to change some of your LOR writers if you think the LORs were (part of) the problem. Remember that reference letters in academia are very different from reference letters in "real world" jobs. In the latter, the letter is mostly a formality, stating that yes you are a good person and a good worker and maybe highlighting some of your strengths. An academic LOR should not only boast your strengths in coursework and research (or research potential), but be able to compare you favourably. It might also be useful to let your LOR writers know of the results and thank them for their time last year. Maybe they might have some helpful advice for the second time around as well! Good luck!

Yikes! It might not be so bad though, because the grades are for independent study/research courses, and it sounds like you got a F because the system automatically assigns Fs to "incomplete" grades after some deadline? I mean, obviously it's still not a good thing, but it would be a lot worse if these grades were from traditional courses! It's stressful short-term but I guess your only long-term worry would be that this might reflect poorly on your ability to get work done on time / by a deadline (no offense, just an honest assessment of how others might view this problem down the road). Most schools have a system in place to appeal grades, but it usually must start within some timeframe of final grades being assigned (30 days?) So even if your supervisor does not return within 10 days, you can probably try to appeal it. Most rules at a University can be bent, even those that seem unbendable! Sometimes it might help to have more face to face interactions with people in the registrar's office and put a more human touch to the problem. In my experience, I found that most people really do want to help students and despite the bureaucracy, they want the best for us but they have to make sure they don't break the rules (and get the right permissions to bend them). So, maybe you can try to convince them to give you more time to get in touch with your supervisor. If not, then you should look up/ask them for grade appeal procedures so that you are on top of it ASAP. I guess it really depends on your supervisor too -- I'm assuming that he/she thinks you are doing great work and just need a bit more time to finish. If this is the case, based on past experiences with people I know, your supervisor might do one of two things to help you: (1) he/she might just assign you an arbitrary grade without seeing the completed product because they are confident in your ability -- it probably won't be an A but it would not be a F, or (2) your supervisor might just decide to grade what you have now -- not all independent research projects actually get fully completed and the point is to develop research skills and experience, anyways! If you get a good result, it's just a bonus. I would NOT ask the supervisor for any of these options though (maybe option 2 if you are really desperate), I'm just letting you know what you could expect to happen. I am a little confused about your timeline though -- at first I thought you were starting grad school this fall. But it sounds like this year is your last year of undergrad and you're starting another program (grad school? masters? something else unrelated?) right now and then you're going to apply this winter for Fall 2013? By the time you apply, your grades would probably be finalized. I am pretty sure that if your transcript is changed due to a mistake, it would not reflect this. In my first year, one of our final exams was marked out of 80 but when the prof entered the grades, he thought it was out of 100 so everyone's grades was much lower than it was supposed to! 2 months afterwards, the faculty of science "investigation"/review decided that anyone who wanted to review the marking could see the prof during certain times and we all filled out the formal grade change forms -- most people got a 10% boost. My transcript doesn't show the old grade at all. It makes sense -- if the grade was officially changed then the old value was invalid so it shouldn't show. So, hopefully for you, by this winter, the grades will be changed to something not a F. I also don't think you have to worry about it affecting your GPA because most schools wouldn't count independent study courses towards a GPA (after all, many places mark it as pass/fail). As long as it's not a F (so that you graduate), you should be okay. A strong letter from your supervisor should also clear up any doubts about your ability as a researcher due to this grade. I wouldn't even discuss it in the applications unless your grade below a B. But to be brutally honest, since you didn't say there were any reasons why you couldn't complete the required work on time, your supervisor may end up giving you a grade that is a fair reflection of your work. That is, you shouldn't expect to get a A or a B if you don't feel you actually did A or B quality work. I'm not saying/implying that you are expecting this, just stating a fact that even though research courses may be more flexible in grading, the grades still need to be earned. That was long! Summary: You should work with your supervisor to get the grades changed from Fs to something that accurately reflects your work. You should find out about grade appeals processes ASAP in case you can't get this done within the next 10 days and can't get an extension. If your grades are changed successfully, you should have nothing to worry about when it comes to grad school applications. Assuming that you did good work in the past year and your supervisor is happy with what you've accomplished, your supervisor would probably be able to find a way to give you a grade even for an incomplete project, but you have a lot of administrative type stuff to do! Good luck

As Eigen mentioned, journals with open access models, such as PLoS are doing well, so it's a business model that works. I hope to see an eventual shift so that either the current major journals switch to this model, or that researchers switch to publishing in these journals instead. When I say one should break rules and laws that are considered unjust, I should also add that one should also be willing to accept the consequences of breaking said rules/laws (even though they are unjust). That's why I said "with as much risk as [one] is willing to take" -- if a student decides to protest the late assignment rule by handing their assignment in late, I'd expect them to take whatever penalty the rule stipulated. But this could still be an effective form of protest -- if the students believes that we didn't give them enough time to do the assignment, a large majority could hand in their work late -- this would certainly cause the prof and I to pause and think whether or not the timing was fair. It's not an excuse to create chaos/havoc and it's not picking-and-choosing which rules to follow because there are consequences. Despite the above paragraph, in my post, I was actually talking about "hard to enforce" laws/rules -- not just those that a person might think is unjust. That is, rules that are unjust because they are hard to enforce, not necessarily for other reasons. For example, it would be very hard for a University to ensure that every single article downloaded was used purely for the user's own research. So it is not a valid rule to impose on its user. Similarly, it would not be a valid rule for the journal itself to impose on the University. How would you feel if the government decided that all toilet paper rolls have to be hung a certain way -- would it make sense to follow this rule when it is very difficult to actually get caught not doing it? As for the theft of ideas -- generally you don't share your ideas unless you are okay with other people going with it. Presenting it at a conference or seminar means it's public domain. I guess someone could also steal my ideas by literally stealing my code, experiments, unpublished data, or steal them from reviewing a paper I submitted. This is generally considered theft and academic dishonesty and it's very enforceable. Even worse, maybe you mean a collaborator could steal the project and finish it and publish it without me. This is also enforceable because large collaborations (at least the ones I've been a part of) have clear contracts stipulating who will get credit for what and sometimes even the author list ordering. Usually most people avoid doing stuff like this because the reputation damage far outweighs any rewards from stealing. On the other hand, sharing articles has almost no risk. In addition, to go with your idea of being "beaten to the punch", for a lot of data I would be working with (i.e. telescope data funded by government agencies), I usually am only allowed exclusive access to it for ~1 year before it's released to the public anyways. So it's not unusual for someone with knowledge of your techniques (because you published them) to use your data and produce results before you do. I think this is a good thing -- more research gets done! And the your data would still be cited.

Many people also believe that journals subscription practices are unfair because taxpayers' money (i.e. government grants) are being used to pay for costs related to publishing an article (in my field it's about $1000 per colour image) and then Universities have to pay again (using government money) to subscribe to the journal and get these articles. Even though my agreement with the library may or may not allow me to share articles with others, I would still do it anyways. I want to see a change towards open access journals and not having to pay for ideas (it makes sense to charge if you are still getting print copies delivered, or a nominal fee to pay for server costs etc. but the Ivory Tower economic model should not be a for-profit one.) Researchers in the science generally lose money for every article published -- it costs money to pay us to work on the articles as well as publishing fees. But we do it because the point of research is to communicate our findings and published articles help us get grants for more research. I think people should break the law/status quo, in non-violent ways, if they want the law/status quo to be changed. I also think that a rule/law that is hard/impossible to enforce is an invalid rule/law but that's just my philosophy. So I would encourage people to continue sharing articles and violate closed access agreements as much as possible, with as much risk as they are willing to take.

A resume is usually a 1-2 page summary (that's what the word means!) while a CV could be much longer. If you look at some prof's CVs on their webpages, you might find 20 page long documents that list every single talk they've ever given! You obviously don't want to go to this much depth, but I think it should definitely be longer than just 1 page. Also, if you look at CVs from outside of North America, sometimes you will see very detailed information like "Born 1960. Married. 2 children." etc. -- this is usually not required for North American CVs either. I am not in your field, but I imagine something similar would be used in all fields. My CV format was - Name/Contact Info - Education -- For each school/degree, I included major, thesis supervisor, thesis title - Research Experience -- For each project, 3 to 5 lines listing what I did and what the main results were - Publications -- separated peer reviewed articles and conference presentations -- I picked out one presentation per topic instead of listing every single one. - Scholarships and Awards -- included year, name/funding agency, and dollar value - Teaching Experience -- For each item, 2-3 lines explaining my duties - Volunteer Experience -- same as above, only included things I thought were relevant My CV was 4 pages in the end. Most of it was just list/point form so it wouldn't be very hard for them to read even though it's 4 pages. The important things are at the front so if they get bored, my volunteer stuff isn't that important anyways! However, each school will have different application format -- sometimes the school does not ask for a CV but instead asks individual questions that would correspond to a CV section. For example, one school asked me to upload a list of publications, a list of awards, a list of teaching and research experience, etc. all as separate documents. Also, the research experience section will allow you to go much further in depth on what you actually did than your SOP, I think. You should still overlap the most important facts but this is your chance to tighten up your SOP by leaving the other details for the CV. (At least, in my field, I tried to keep the SOP to less than 2 pages; at one school we were limited to just 1 page). None of the schools I applied to actually specified an upper limit on the CV page count. Despite this, I still probably wouldn't submit anything longer than 5 pages though.

I don't know what the MAT test is or how it works. If you already sent them your scores (for free or paid the testing company) then you should be fine, unless the school or testing company says otherwise? I'm not sure what you mean by "ordering a transcript" -- usually the scores are sent electronically? For the GRE, you get scores sent to your undergrad school plus 4 other schools of your choosing for free if you decide on the schools before / while writing the test. After that, it's about ~$20 per school.

I am pretty sure they do not start a file for every score that comes in. Based on some of the words that describe this process on the ETS page (i.e. schools can either receive a CD, mailed twice a month, or access the scores through a database), and a conversation I had with an admin secretary when my GRE score was going to come AFTER the due date, I think that your scores just simply sit on a database, either at ETS or at the schools that you "sent" the scores to, or on the CDs. They don't do anything with the scores unless you send them an application with a testing reference number. They then use that reference number to look up your score in the database and enter the values onto your application. Last year, one school's due date was Dec 1 but my scores wouldn't be ready until Dec 21. The secretary said that it wasn't a problem since they can just look up my score on the University database when they are ready. With the exception of schools that still get physical CDs, I am not even sure that scores are physically sent to the schools. It's easy enough for ETS to store all scores on their database and when you order a score report, it "unlocks" your database entry so that the school official can access your score. Alternatively, each school could have their own databases that downloads all entries that are tagged with their school ID from the main ETS database every (day/week/month/whatever). If it doesn't work this way, I think it should -- but it's clear that it doesn't cost anyone ~$20 to actually send a few numbers electronically! It's also definitely true that it doesn't matter when you send your scores, as long as the scores themselves are ready!

I also applied to 8 schools. Not all schools are created equal -- some will be much more competitive to get in than others. If you are applying to say, 10, schools, I'd apply to 5-6 schools where you believe you are competitive, 2-3 schools "above your league" and 1-2 schools below ("safety schools"). Having a range is good to make sure you don't over or underestimate your ability!

I think Canadian schools are just the same as US ones. Usually you don't see them ranked amongst US schools since the main PhD program rankings, I think, only include US schools. I would say UBC is probably comparable to US schools ranked around 30 or so but depends on the field. In my field, it's almost expected that we Canadians spend at least one posting in the US -- usually either PhD or a post-doc before maintaining a permanent job in Canada. Overall, I think the big 3 schools in Canada -- UBC, Toronto, McGill, would be equivalent to attending US schools of similar quality (i.e. no difference because it's in Canada?) At least, that's the impression I got from American students attending UBC while I did my undergrad there.

When I started my MSc, I was able to get my institutional email address around August but we didn't get our departmental email address (i.e. @dept.school.ca), which is more useful, until we arrived in person! I only use my institutional email address for junk mail and university wide broadcasts (i.e. more junk mail). I haven't gotten an email address for the new school yet and I'm looking forward to getting a .edu address and the benefits it entails (it seems like some useful US services for students will require a .edu address!). Although I have gotten orientation related emails from the new school to my old address though! And I got a new student number, so exciting

I didn't mean to imply that you would be slandering your schools From the way you wrote it in your first post, "by claiming lack of access", it sounded like you should be careful to word it so that it doesn't sound like an excuse, not necessarily slandering. You wouldn't want the admissions committee to infer that you are saying "If I was at a different school with research opportunities, I would have gotten a research job" because even at places where there is the opportunity, the competition for the spots is tough. I'm not saying you wouldn't have gotten one, I just don't think it would be a good message to say, basically, "the only reason I didn't get a research job was because of the school I attended". You don't have to worry about "lack of effort" because it's clear that you tried to get research positions since you ended up in internship programs. But the way you word it the second time, that you sought out internships because you wanted to ensure you get a good research experience, would be a good way to say it. Personally, I would still avoid citing the lack of research opportunities at your school, even though it's true. A cynical prof would think "well, why didn't this student apply to REUs or other national research programs, or apply to labs/groups at other schools directly?" Students are not limited to their undergrad school/location to find research experience. I think, personally, you could make a stronger point by just discussing your internships and not explicitly state that you did this to overcome the lack of opportunities at your undergrad. Otherwise, the ad comm might think it was an excuse. I think the SOP should make your points by "show, not tell" -- let them know what kind of person you are by what you've done. But that's just my opinion, I obviously have no experience on the admissions side of this and I hope I don't sound too aggressive in trying to convince you of my opinion -- I just wanted to state it clearly! Good luck

I also got the same advice, twice! When I started my MSc and when I was visiting PhD schools. I heard it from both profs and current graduate students. In my current MSc experience, it's definitely true and good advice. I also learned that it is MUCH easier to say "I'm going to prioritize" than to actually sacrifice effort. But I think I've learned to do it by now Sometimes the advice comes with further details, like -- grad courses can sometimes be taught by profs that don't give a damn about the course. They just want it over and done with and you're not going to get anything out of it. So just get that minimum pass. Similarly, if you are taking a course that is just to fulfill a requirement but doesn't help your research or career, then just get that minimum pass. Save your course-related efforts for subjects that are interesting to you, or for courses that your adviser is teaching. In addition, your grad school grades won't count for very much. Most post-doc applications won't really look at them, but some fellowships/scholarships might. In undergrad, the point of school is to take courses, and learn. In graduate school, many people (profs and students) view courses as a formality, something to get out of the way. Like a driving exam, first aid certification, safety training, etc, the goal is to demonstrate that you are proficient. (i.e. courses are still important, but for different reasons than in undergrad). A related piece of advice is knowing when to ask for help. Sometimes students want to impress their supervisor by trying to solve the problem all on their own and spend weeks doing so. Sometimes the problem is something that the student couldn't have possibly known (or would have taken a long time). Knowing when to balance asking for help to save time vs. still being independent and learning on your own is something I'm still trying to figure out too. And finally, grad school is really a place where "you get out what you put in". You can easily devote all your time to grad school. You will probably be rewarded too, with high grades, good research etc. But the cost is high! You need to know what you want to get out, and how much time you're willing to spend on school. If you don't draw the line, you will end up spending all your time doing work. A lot of students find it useful to log their hours and note what they were doing (just in general, e..g. research, courses, teaching, etc.) and then review it to see if they are spending time the way they want to. For me, a ~50-60 hour work week is what I've been aiming for.

While publications are nice and especially if they are in a reputable journal, it's like "stamp of approval" from a third party. But like others said, the thing that is actually important is that you were involved in publishable-quality work. This means your LOR writers will have tons of good things to say about you. I'm not in the field, but I think this is something that is true to academia! But what's the harm in applying this year and then just reapplying if things don't go well?

I don't know what your field considers competitive experience for grad school -- but in general, a lot of undergrads will go into grad school without a whole lot of research experience. The people you meet online may not be a representative sample. But I wanted to write this post because of your question about the SOP. You should definitely not address this in the SOP as a "lack of access" issue. In fact, I don't think you should ever write anything negative about your program or other people in a SOP (unless you are describing a problem you faced and overcame). Instead, just focus on the ~2-3 semesters equivalent of research experience you do have. Talk about what you learned from it, how it has benefited you and how it has influenced you to continue research in graduate school. You can definitely spin it to make a statement about how excited you are now to continue further research in graduate school and that school X will provide that opportunity. I know some graduate students that entered school without any research experience at all, so I don't think your experience will put you at the bottom of the pack.

Have you tried just using your old library card number / login information and see what happens? Sometimes you are not deactivated right away! Most alumni association also have library privilege programs too -- but I guess it sounds like you already checked that? Going with the above poster, in addition to whatever everyone else already said, you could try going to the school and trying to use one of the public access computers. Maybe there are some student computers in the Student Union Building, or an unlocked computer lab in one of the buildings. Most of them will probably require a password but maybe not all! Usually you just need to have the right IP address (i.e using a on-campus computer is enough) to access the library's database. Bring a USB stick or email all the PDFs to yourself. Otherwise, asking anyone you know who is still a student, anywhere, to find something for you. If a friend sends me a small list of links directly to the Journal article's webpage, I wouldn't mind taking 10 minutes out of my day to download the PDFs and email them to my friend. If you have several people who can do this, maybe ask each one of them once a week to not trouble them too much.

This might be science-dependent, but from talking to profs at my schools and the profs at visiting schools, on average, a department expects between 25-30% of their offers actually attending. So if they are looking for 10 spots, they might *eventually* make up to 40 offers. I say *eventually* because what will most likely happen is they will make ~20-30 offers on a first wave and invite these people to visit, etc. After these people make their decisions -- some might reject the school right away, some will visit first, then second and maybe third waves of offers will come. The number of offers made depends on the ranking of the school -- not many people will turn down a top 10 school for example, however, the best students will probably get multiple top 10 school offers so that might balance things out. Also, if the previous year was smaller/bigger than normal, then their first wave of offers might be bigger/smaller than normal etc. As for rankings -- the danger with these massive rankings list is that they not always super accurate but more importantly, they don't always consider your subfield properly. For example, I study Planetary Science, which is sometimes its own department, sometimes part of Astronomy, sometimes part of Earth Sciences, and what I really do is in between Astronomy and Planetary Science. I can't compare rankings between two different lists. And, more importantly, your advisor's reputation will probably take you much further than the school's. Right now I'm at a Canadian school that is unknown to most people even in Canada (outside of Ontario) but I'm working with one of the best people in my field (in my opinion ). You should get opinions about your future advisors from current mentors, if possible. Having a recognized advisor is the same as having an established member of the community vouch for you in the exclusive academia club! This is pretty useful until you are able to establish yourself independently -- for example, for the first few conferences, having a well known advisor will likely help your abstract get selected for an oral presentation since people might not be familiar with your work otherwise. Just to provide another point to think about -- I don't consider myself a ranking snob (but maybe I'm not judging myself fairly) but when I applied, I mostly targeted high ranking schools. I did this in a small part because of the "prestige" since I want to settle down in my hometown more than I want to be in academia. So it would be better if I could go to a school ranked higher than the ones in my hometown. Also, if I don't end up in research, the brand power of the school name will help me get non-research jobs, I think. But I targeted high ranking schools mostly because they tend to have more money which means more chances of me, an international student that requires full funding, to get accepted. Indeed, I got in a few high ranking private school programs, but was rejected by lower ranked public programs too! In Canada, for my MSc, I didn't have to worry about funding issues so I went to the best project/supervisor and didn't have to worry about rank High ranking schools also tend to have other things I was looking for such as a big city (or close to one). These factors were important to me because my wife and I made our decision with equal weight to academic factors and personal/quality of life factors

Maybe it's just the schools I've been to, but most profs and students aren't in "grad school application mode" until October-November ish. So that's when most profs will be receiving their requests for letters from their students/former students. Personally, I decided to wait until November to ask for letters because I know my profs well enough to know that if I ask them now, they will be busy and forget about it. When they get requests from other students in Oct/Nov, they might not remember my request anymore! Then I would have to send a reminder, but I might as well have sent the original request in November then. Also, if you are going to apply to a lot of places, it's helpful to ask for all your letters at once, and give them a document that lists all the schools. I didn't want to ask for letters for schools A, B, and C, then later add on School D and E and update the document because when it's time to actually write letters, they might accidentally view an older version and not see your more recent schools. And it would be unprofessional if you changed your mind a lot and kept sending revised documents. So, personally, I would advise to wait until you know exactly which programs you are applying for and also exactly who (2-3 names perhaps) at these schools you might want to work with. This information will help your letter writers structure their letter. Because you might change your mind, and because I think profs like to send all their letters at once (just copy / paste, make a few edits -- I notice that in a span of ~1 hour, I would get emails from 5 schools saying Prof X has submitted the letter electronically now), I would advise to wait until Oct-Nov. to do this. However, what I would do now is to give all your potential LOR writers a heads-up -- an email (or talk to them in person) like "Hey, I'm going to be applying for grad school in [field] this fall and winter, and I was hoping you would be able to write me a reference letter. If so, do you have any time restrictions I should keep in mind or any other requests? Also, if you would like to share any advice or tips, I would appreciate it. Thanks!" [edited to whatever level of familiarity you have with your prof of course. So then if they really would rather write the letters in the summer (maybe they are on sabbatical this fall), then you can go ahead and do that!

What you described sounded a lot like the tutoring company I worked for during undergrad so I probably would have done the same thing as you if I was in your situation. So I definitely empathize with what happened, don't get me wrong, but I was just trying to explain that while unfair, I think the manager still acted within the confines of the law, as I understand them anyways Just to clarify, in case people read this later who are in slightly different situation, termination pay and severance pay are two different things (at least in Canada anyways). Termination pay is a basic employee right protected by law (i.e. part of our Employment Standards Act) on the same level as vacation pay, minimum wage, overtime pay etc. Unless you broke the law and got fired, employers must give 2 weeks notice or pay in lieu of notice prior to termination. Severance pay, as you said, is a benefit that has to be negotiated in your contracts so it doesn't usually apply to hourly employees. In certain circumstances, severance pay can be much higher -- at one auto parts warehouse near my hometown, when the company decided to close down the warehouse, the severance pay was something equivalent to 18 months salary and 2 years of health benefits (this is not the norm though).

I think the correct term is to say that I'll plead the fifth? See, I'm integrating into American culture already! I've seen this many times by many people now but for some reason I decide I'll point it out here -- the u in TakeruK isn't a capital letter It's a name, Takeru, followed by an initial, K Not my real name at all, just a name I made up a long time ago and use as my Internet pseudonym. The origins of this name betrays my age when I thought of it -- it's related to Digimon and Neopets characters (i'm so cool )

As was said after this post, everyone knows that grad school will be full of challenges. What matters is our ability to cope with the challenges, conquer them, and move on. I didn't see the posts in this thread as saying that the posters can't handle the communication problem. A common method of coping with challenges (one that I find work very well for me), is to discuss it with others in a similar situation and find support in one another. Usually I learn about a viewpoint I might not have considered before, but probably won't change my overall view. After the venting/complaining is done, we sigh, suck it up, and deal with the challenge. No one is saying they are going to give up because of this. For example, everyone loves to complain about air travel -- tight seats, bad service, delays, lost luggage etc. Most of the complainers are still going to fly again, even the same airlines that give them problems before. Or, does your cohort/department have weekly/monthly pub nights where everyone gets together, have some drinks, gripe about their courses/research/equipment/etc. It's just a coping mechanism. And gradcafe is great for students in all stages of grad school to cope with grad schools' challenges.

It might be a STEM thing since graduate students are not expected to possess scientific writing skills before starting -- it's something we learn as we write papers during our PhD. Although if you do have the skills, it would make you all the more desirable! I wasn't trying to say whether or not the adcomm would "appreciate" good writing, but whether or not they would judge you on it. For example, when I grade my students' homework, I appreciate neat writing, or typed reports, but I don't actually grade them on how nice they format things (unless it's illegible). It's my understanding that many social sciences/humanities applications involve a writing sample, which is much longer, and I would think that would be the place where writing style/ability is judged. Sure, having a well written SOP is never a bad thing, as it might be read before the writing sample and thus give a good first impression, but it is my opinion that you should spend enough time on it to make sure it says what you want to say, and then move on. My SOPs went through 2 drafts and then 1-2 more drafts for each school as I personalized the SOPs to fit the program. In total, I probably spent about 6 hours writing the master version, plus 1 hour per school to personalize it -- not counting the time it took to research each program to learn how to personalize each SOP. Sure, if I spent more time, it would make it better, but I think it would be diminishing returns at this point!