Queen of Kale

Fish market

More like 'Drop the Knowledge' Although I tend to stick to the 'never happened to me' camp - I'm always glad to be around when this discussion happens. Because I think it's easy to not see, or not want to see discrimination which applies to you - it makes you feel weak or whiney or like you're making excuses. I will march for anyone's rights but my own, see discrimination everywhere but my own life, and just 'suck it up' or brush it off if I'm ever being discriminated against. And that's why its nice to have someone who reminds you that the proof is in the numbers. It doesn't have to feel personal if you're not ready for it to. You can just know that it's happening and deal with it objectively like the other types of injustice which are easier to address because they don't revolve around you. At least, that makes it easier for me to recognize and work against discrimination against women in science & academia.

About $1,000. I applied to 7 schools, none of my schools received the 'free' GRE scores (not to panic anyone, I took my GRE really, really early and there was over a year gap between scores and applications to match them to), and also I attended 3 undergrad institutions which all charges ~$10 per transcript sent. Applying to grad school was the most extravagant spending free-for-all I have ever experienced. Is that sad?

I think there are enough qualified women in STEM that the standards need not be lowered. On the other hand, it may help when you apply for NSF funding, especially if you have tried to help other women get into STEM (which many of us STEM-ladies feel passionately about).

I wouldn't worry about mentioning the gap year unless you can tie it to something specific that bolsters your SOP - an independent research project, relevant work experience, or a course which informed your current path. Don't explain a gap year just because you feel you have to account for every moment. Most adcoms won't notice a gap year because they won't be interested in what you did before college.

holiday cheer

I would avoid using the term 'fatalism' - again it's not fair but it reminded me (and potentially your adcoms) of the Kristen Wiig Saturday Night Live "Red Flag" skit: http://youtu.be/RhxOWekRGXI

If the gossip is gossip - and not abuse - suck it up. If the gossip is abuse, find a way to document it and take your documentation to someone in a position of power to help you. That would be my plan in your shoes but there will hopefully be a wide range of valid opinions offered here along with mine and you can choose the best bits from them all.

alien nation

My current TA commitment is about 15 hours a week but there a students in my department who spend up to ~ 30 hours a week with TA duties. Some of these students have longer TA hours because they personally are very focused on TAing and some have larger classes or more demanding professors. At the other end of the spectrum are the few students who feel above TAing at all although they are supported by TAships and will 'pass the buck' onto a fellow TA so they can focus on research & publishing. So even in one department it is not clear what the time commitment of a TA is. I think if you switch to a new department just over the teaching demands in your second year; you will spend more time replacing that year than you would if you stayed in one place and let the natural fluctuations in TA-demands average out. Of course, that's only if the TA time demands are your only complaint and not the thing tipping the scales.

It depends on the field which is more usual - contacting a POI before or after. I contacted mine before because I was trying to whittle down a too long list of schools but I know people even in my field that contacted people after or never were in contact until an acceptance.

It depends on your program & if you are going the thesis route. I think usually thesis-based Masters programs still have more of a advisor based program design on average but these specifics vary considerably by field, advisor, and project. Your best bet is to contact someone at each school if you have very specific questions.

I was nominated for special fellowships at a few of the universities I applied to. I was accepted to these schools in the long run but did not receive the fellowships I was nominated for (but did receive full funding otherwise). In several cases my POI was pretty upfront about the fact that I was being nominated because I was a female/minority. On the other hand, although I did not receive any of the special fellowships I was told I was nominated for early in the process I did receive fellowships from two more prestigious schools that I did not even expect to get into & who didn't tell me I'd been nominated. So while I think this can't be anything but a good sign for your applications don't let it sway you too much in terms of how you might be ranking schools in your mind. And good luck!

If the D+ isn't in your field I wouldn't even waste time mentioning it in your SOP. I had a lone F in a field unrelated to the area of my PhD and not one of my POIs noticed. Several mentioned that they didn't even look at the full transcripts, just the final GPA & the courses they are particularly interested in.

Y'all should know to embrace this feeling - it seems like grad students are always in one of two states: scrambling before a deadline or wandering the halls dazed after just barely meeting a deadline. I'm in no way a procrastinator but I still am in a constant state of 'wait, what do I do now?' following grant applications deadlines and research deadlines and course deadlines and submission of articles. I wish someone would have explained to me upfront that the strange feeling I had after submitting my applications was about to become a lifestyle

haunted library

I think this section is most helpful for POIs that have been contacted by multiple students - they will get a stack of applications from students who are interested in working with them & if there are dates of contact they can look at the emails and refresh their memories. If you haven't contacted anyone don't worry about it but if you have, fill it out so they can remember what your exchange is. I know my advisor is literally in the office next to mine and he will forget that he has seen me or spoken to me an hour after it happens - these people are busy and you should make it as easy as possible for them to remember how awesome you are

These are the three sites I found the most helpful when I was at this stage of my application season: 1) http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/advice/prospective.html 2) http://theprofessorisin.com/2011/07/25/how-to-write-an-email-to-a-potential-ph-d-advisor/ 3) http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2007/12/writing-to-me.html Hope that helps & good luck!

So, anybody else feel like they have no ability to self-assess how they are doing? Normally in undergrad I would have had some sort of graded feedback in my first few weeks. In my PhD program I just finished my first quarter and won't get a grade for any of my courses until they post in two weeks - just finals & nothing else. Same with my research - I keep checking in with my advisor and he just sort of laughs at me and tells me to keep processing data. I am not tooooo worried because I feel like someone would give me a heads up if I were really floundering - but it's strange to be free-floating like I am. Anybody else in the same boat?

It's hard to say where my time goes but I don't (yet) feel any busier than I did when I was an undergrad and working part-time. Maybe that means I'm lazy? TA: 10-15 hours a week Research: 10-15 hours a week Classes & HW: 10-15 hours a week Seminars, meetings, and journal clubs: 10 hours a week So, roughly 40-60 hours a week. The balance shifts from week to week based on exams, equipment availability in the lab, and the needs of the students I TA. But generally speaking this has been my balance. I'd like to focus more on research in my second quarter (when I have a break from TA duties) and generally I foresee this balance shifting away from seminars/meetings/etc as I become more proficient at speed-reading journal articles and more articulate in my meetings with my advisor.

I am not in engineering - this may make all the difference in the world so take my opinion with a grain-o-salt. When I was in my pre-application stage several professors I spoke to (and some I ended up applying to work with) told me they were much more likely to accept PhD students vs. Masters students. Why? Because taking on a graduate student is not only an investment in money (in which case it may make sense to take on more Masters students if they are self-funded) but also an investment in the professor's time. And most professors have even less time than they have money Now this is particularly true in my (hard science) field where the first year or two may be learning various lab techniques and producing quality results or publications are rare before the 18-24 month mark. For a professor to take on a graduate student, ensure that they are adequately trained, and wait for that student to start 'making the science' takes the full time of a Masters degree. In this scenario a Masters student leaves just when they have become useful to the professor. Of course, this is not only field-specific but also project dependent. It's worth discussing with a POI you have a running dialog with before you apply. When I first began considering schools I was convinced I would have to apply to a mid-tier school for a Masters and leverage that into a top tier PhD acceptance. After talking through the PhD/Masters choice with my POI's I decided to only apply for PhD programs and it paid off. Bottom line, get an opinion (or as many opinions as possible) from the people who you actually would want to work for, they will know best what type of student they are looking for. And good luck!

big country

This is just IMHO but I would limit this 'story' to 2-3 sentences max. You have a very small amount of space to sell yourself as a scholar, as a researcher, and as someone who is qualified to not only be accepted to a program but to graduate and excel in your field. The expectations of your family, and what every choices you made before committing to your current path, has little to do with your achievements or abilities. Don't focus on being the most interesting candidate but the most qualified. Ex: I took over a decade to graduate, cycled through 4 majors, dropped out of school twice, and worked basically every blue collar job under the sun. I summed this up in two sentences in my opening paragraph and never mentioned it again. As it turned out, everyone forgot by the time I had my interviews that I was ten years older - what they remembered was my research and not my story, and my research was what got me into each program. Everyone is a unique and beautiful snowflake. That sounds snarky but I actually mean it. The problem is that means we could all pitch a memorable 'story' and still get lost in the shuffle. Grad school isn't cast like a United Colors of Benetton ad - the focus will be on picking the most qualified student who will be an asset to the department. Sell that story and only mention your unique/special circumstances if you can underline why it makes you more qualified to work in your field.

evil computer

Since you'll likely need three letters I would suggest that if you live near enough to your school to give it a shot, to schedule appointments to sit down with any professors with which you had multiple classes. If you have graded coursework from those classes, bring it. If not, try to remember what your major assignments were, what your grade was, and what you felt your strengths were. Next, draft an outline of what you would put into your SOP. Clearly bullet point out what you want to go to grad school to accomplish, what degree you'll seek, where you plan to apply, and how the strengths you had in school and since graduation prepare you for your goals. E-mail the professors with whom you had multiple classes and just say something simple like; "Greetings prof. x, Iwas a student in your A class and B class in 20XX and 20XY. I really enjoyed blahblah assignment, expecially when I learned about stuffstuff, and since graduating I've often thought back on what I learned in those classes. In the time since graduation I have been working on stuff, but I am strongly considering pursuing a graduate degree in thing. I would greatly appreciate any time you might be able to make to speak with me in person about my plans to attend graduate school in blah field as I value your advice in this area. I know this is a busy time of year but I would happily work around your schedule to meet at your conveniance. Thank you so much, blahblahblah." Something short and sweet. Don't ask for a letter upfront, but just try to get in and talk with someone. At the end of the meeting you should sense if it would be appropriate to ask for a letter or not. Worst case if they meet with you, you'll get some advice, and best case is that not only will you get a letter but it will not be a "so-and-so got this grade in these classes" letter, but one which can convey the actual excitement you feel about your goals as well as whatever specifics you can convey over the course of the meeting. While I didn't take this approach for my grad school letter, it was the approach I took to get letter for my first internship applications after returning to school after a long time away. When I needed those letters I had only been back to school for a short time (less than a semester) but the professors I met with have all been staunchly in the QueenofKale cheering squad since (although they had no idea who I was before). Of course, some profs won't even e-mail back, but you'd be no worse off for trying.