Queen of Kale

I am not in engineering but I have very similar GRE scores and I am in a STEM area with a lot of material science and engineering cross-over and I didn't have any trouble with higher verbal scores but "lower" quantitative scores. In fact, several POI commented that it was refreshing to have someone with strong English skills in field where that is rare. And as other people have said, if you have solid math grades and have taken many advanced math courses, I think that holds more weight unless your math score was really dismal, which it is decidedly not. (edit) Just saw that I am giving advice to someone who asked for advice in November. Why oh why don't I ever see that until this late? Anyway, maybe this will help some future would-be-poster.

I applied to seven, which seemed reasonable at the time. I have no idea what is the norm for my field though, I just knew if was the list that evolved after about a year.

I cheated and I voted for four things, but I think great research fit (and personality fit) with one PI was the most important thing for me. It's a bonus if there is a second PI, but unlike some types of geology (coughcough stableisotopegeochemistry cough) most departments have at most two people who do what I want to do. Everything else (nice group, happy students, funding, etc) is important to me but not as important as fit. And personality fit is as important to me as research fit at this point. I only applied to places where the research was something I could throw my back into, now I want to make sure I'm working with someone I actually like.

My mom has a strange grudge against the University of Chicago because it gets cold there. Other schools where she is convinced it does not get as cold: University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, and Brown. And, as if that weren't strange enough, I lived in Chicago - I know I like the cold! But every time we talk she says "but its soooo coooold" just about every other sentence. Moms

I want to squish rocks and shoot lasers and play with all the fancy toys no one let me play with before I went back to school. And I want to do it forever. Getting paid is just a plus, IMO.

This is so perfect that this thread resurfaced today. I was making kale for dinner tonight, which for obvious reasons reminded me of this thread (cue GC flashback scene) and I almost burnt my leafy dinner. Nooooo. But, wonderful coincidence!

I would not have applied to a safety school but I might have substituted a highly ranked "wild card" instead. I hedged my bets. It turned out fine, but I could have been riskier, although it might have meant even more anxiety in the intervening months.

I know, it's really really early to admit this, but the wait is making me crazy. Now that I don't have any more schools to wait on I catch myself having these NSF daydreams all the freaking time. Also, dreams about the NSF that usually have some sort of Wonka element (finding the NSF letter in a chocolate bar, etc). I've gone round the bend.

steel magnolia

It took me 13 years (and I dropped out twice) but I got into every program I applied to. In my case, I honestly believe everything came down to fit, as well as showing that taking my sweet time figuring out what I wanted to do and making it work was worth it in preparing me for what comes next. Or, I'm on some sort of Truman Show like set-up and everything was rigged because I'm an unwitting TV star or something. Bottom line: do what you need to do to be the best student AND person now AND when you finish.

Pear Tree

white ribbon

I'm 29 and dropped out of school twice before finding the thing I loved enough to stick with it. I did not avoid my non-traditional status in my SOP and most POI I've met have brought it up as being a strength - as in I'm clearly not applying in autopilot because I took my time getting to this point. But, I've met a wide range of successful applicants at prospective student weekends and they had a range of backgrounds and ages, none of which seemed to keep them from getting into a school they were thrilled with. My field (geology) does seem particularly open to older students though.

snow bunny

I would try to steer clear of a memorable or "zippy" conclusion to emails. I think, in a way, its important to close your email in the least obtrusive way possible because anything which smacks of being contrived is going to obliterate whatever memory they have of the more important body of your email. To me, adding something catchy at the end is like saying "I'm not sure that the rest of my message is that important, why don't you just have this jingle to remember me by." I know sometimes even a post script is distracting enough that I have to reread the email to remember what the meat of it was about because now my mind has just been erased by whatever random quote or send-off they added which threw me for a loop. I'm a fan of a good ole "regards" or "best wishes" myself. I tend to be a traditionalist in these things though, I'll go so far as to avoid contractions in a formal email.

Mini cadbury eggs - the speckled little milk chocolate ones. I actually wandered around for like 35 mins in my Walgreens so I could wait while they unloaded all the Easter candy because I was so excited. Best candy time of the year IMHO.

break bread

no, I think the whole world is onto that shameful tree

WAT! They have breed bans?! How did I miss that? What breeds are forbidden?

I've gotten help from my school's writing center and it's always the same - brutal but really instructive. I find it more helpful to have someone edit my work and really follow the logic of those edits instead of reading out of a book or offline. For me, most of my mistakes are the same ones over and over. So if I can just have someone smack me around (metaphorically) over a "then not than" a few times it will stick with me more vs. reading about the rule. Also; your title reads like most of the texts I sent my husband Ex: (all texts from me) "I'm standing by the toad" "No! I meant goad" "Wait tad newt bode" "Nooooo road" "Ahem, I am standing by the road" "Yeah, I didn't see you because I was texting, sorry"

Just declined my first offer today (UT Knoxville) - and even though it was a terrible research fit and basically my safety school, I felt totally freaked out while writing the e-mail. Like, there would be some sort of nerd retribution against me. I feel the same way about going to prospective student weekends when I know there's a chance I will have to turn someone down, I mean, I know it's how the process is set up but it makes me feel guilty. This is I guess an extension of my being the girl who never let a guy buy her a drink. Anyway, just had to share and see if anyone felt the same way.

semen trees (AKA, the dreaded Bradford pear)

The gap between unofficial acceptance, e-mailed acceptance, mailed acceptance, and all those extra random post acceptance emails about your new student ID or checking your new email, etc - it all seems really variable. I sometimes have gotten everything within 24 hours and sometimes there is an excruciating gap where you hear you've been accepted but you have no idea what the details are (funding, student visit, if it's real or if it's a grad application induced fantasy) and you begin to descend into madness. That's where I'm at now, so I totally feel your pain. I think the more you care about the particular school, the longer the wait until you get the information you crave. It's without a doubt a massive anti-overachiever conspiracy.

I think these triangles, plus the basic probability (combinations and permutations), will get you through at least half the problems and almost all of the difficult ones.