Queen of Kale

strawberry wine

I never eat in my kitchen and we don't have a dining area but I could never cut down on cabinets, counters, or appliances. I just need the kitchen itself and about three feet to move around in. That said, $45 ain't that much. I'd just pick the one in the better location.

that guy

Let's say hypothetically that someone was adding to the results section before their morning coffee; they might have accidentally written WashU instead of UW. But yeah, interview invites going out.

I had 5 people write my letters of recommendation but only submitted the required 3 per school. So, I reduced the load slightly for each recommender, chose the three for each school based on any relationships they may have with that particular department or which strengths I wanted to emphasize, and also in some ways I was hedging my bets in case one letter wasn't quite as strong as I imagined. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but in the past I have had a letter writer or two who offered to write a glowing letter but when they sent me a copy (too late) it was either poorly written, a "rush job", or simply not specific enough with the sorts of details which make a good letter really convincing. Since, I've tried to not put all my eggs in one basket, and having an extra letter writer may well enable you to do the same if you like.

After my first acceptance I felt a rush of relief, and yet because they haven't changed my online status or sent funding information I'm starting to ramp back up on anxiety day by day. Plus, every time I get an e-mail letting me know that some answer is coming "soon" or "before day X" I get a thrill and then clench my jaw for the next week while I wait. It does no feel dissimilar to waiting in line for a really scary roller-coaster ride.

Pack a nice snack, maybe one with a bit of caffeine or sugar, and wear comfy clothes. Oh, and taking stretching breaks if you have a bit of time at the end of a section, don't just try to "power through".

white diamonds

I just PMed you

land rover

round robin

Well, if you've already applied I wouldn't bring it up. But if you are still mulling over applications or haven't reached out to POI yet then sure, I might fold it into a general inquiry about the program. Something like, "yadda yadda yadda, after thoroughly researching your program online it looks like my gre score of blahblah might be on the cusp of your departmental average for admitted students. Studying at Place U is a real dream of mine but I want to ensure my application materials are up to snuff so as to improve my odds of acceptance. Would you recommend concentrating my efforts on retaking the GRE or is there perhaps another area of my application which should be my primary focus?" It's not great but I'm operating at 50% coffee. My gist is, fold it into what ever your dialog is, I wouldn't make it it's own big thing. No emails with subject lines which are all "Retake GRE ?!?" I mean, clearly you seem like a smart and reasonable human being who wouldn't make that mistake, but I'm throwing it out there for whoever is reading. One other thing: your scores look fine for grad admittance and I hope it didn't sound earlier like I was recommending a retake. I just (a) wanted to get those links out there and tied to one another because they were a great tool for me in deciding if I wanted to retake. ( also consider what GRE scores might be needed for fellowship applications. You no longer need the GRE to apply for the NSF GRFP but it's something to consider now and when you're in grad school for university and outside funding for which the competition can be fierce. Again, not saying your current scores aren't high enough, but I'm just trying to round out my reply with as much information as I took into consideration when deciding if I were to retake the GRE.

I would look at programs you are interested in here: http://graduate-school.phds.org/find/programs/earth-science and then convert the average quant GRE score with the concordance table from here: http://www.ets.org/gre/institutions/scores/interpret I'm not saying that these are absolute minimums, we all have heard about people with unusual combinations of GRE/essay/grades/coursework/research/etc who got into a dream school - but this way you can approximate the scores which schools you are interested in might expect. That said, I don't see why one has to trade studying for the GRE for research experience. I don't think it's an either/or. I think you'll be competing against candidates with both and you need to do what you can on both fronts. Of course, there's only so much time in the day, but if you look at what schools expect and decide to retake the GRE I would still try to pursue as much research as possible (and maintain your grades and work on your essay, etc.) Just do what you can to keep all the balls in the air without making yourself crazy. Good luck!

potato gun

My test day score was exactly the same score I had on my first (of nine) full length practice tests. Each of my weekly practice tests improved a bit but I ended up with the same score I had on day one. BUT, I'm still glad I put in those long hours of studying because I imagine that those gains I saw in my practice tests canceled out the points lost to test anxiety. For this reason, I can only imagine that how well your test score matches to your practice test scores is more a testament to individual quirks or test anxiety than to the accuracy of a particular manufacturers practice tests.

I was asked how I chose all of my schools, what tied them together and what parameters went into whittling them down. Compared to more technical questions it wasn't exactly Hardball, but I'm glad it was something I had thought about before it came up. I think if you have multiple interests and your school list reflects that you should be able to explain how your interests are intertwined.

I don't know about PE specifically but I was told by the Jackson School of Geology at UT that financial package information won't be mailed for a few weeks. But that you don't have to apply or submit additional information, just wait and that they would send us the info in a few weeks. I think a short gap between acceptance and financial information is not uncommon. You might want to check in with either your POI or the department secretary to be sure.

I waited until I had an official-ish email rather than just an email from a POI. That way, the rug wasn't somehow going to be pulled out from under me plus I would potentially have more details to add to help people down the line. Plus, I just reveled in the shock and awe a bit.

body electric

Rizu - I agree, I would not worry about your UT status yet. My POI told me awhile back (before the admission offer) that even at the prospective student weekend most attendees will not yet be officially admitted but will be interviewing and that only a few people will already be admitted and have fellowships. Since that weekend is still a month away, I wouldn't think that most admits happen until afterwards (except with special fellowship cases). Hope that helps!

Unofficial e-mail yesterday letting me know I was accepted to UT Austin with a one year fellowship! Still waiting for official details on funding, prospective student weekend, and everything else - but so excited! I never expected to hear this early

shadow knows

chess pie

I applied so early that about 50% of the time I began an application, got a page or two into it, and somewhere in the fine print the application turned out to be for the previous school year. So I would close it down, wait for a new application to post, but I still sometimes get reminder e-mails from the earlier applications. Also, one school made the new application available before it was complete. So after I completed and submitted the application I received panicky e-mails telling me that the application wasn't supposed to be made available yet and that I would have to e-mail my remaining credentials AND send hard copies AND of course most of these got lost because there was no way for the materials to be electronically tracked. Might have jumped the gun a wee bit.

Adam's apple