ridofme

Yes, I agree - if there's nothing you can do, it's best not to dwell, although I have certainly been guilty of some unhealthy obsessing myself during this application process!

Thank you for the response Miskina. This is a case of me going into a total panic and posting on gradcafe before allowing the situation to resolve itself on its own, which it totally did shortly after I posted. For whatever reason, it just took a few hours to generate the recommendation request after I submitted the Texas Common App. I guess I was just concerned because all of my other applications did it automaticallly, before I submitted any application. Now I can move to stressing out about my referees submitting the letters of time! Haha

A few of the schools to which I am applying have said that they will actually accept scores from tests taken as late as the application due date. So I guess you would theoretically self-report the verbal and quant scores, and then they would get the official score reports a few weeks later. (I think I got mine in 10-14 days). Maybe this would be different for a school with a Feb 1st deadline, but usually the adcomms do not sit down and start reviewing files the day after applications are in. It seems like the main disadvantage of taking the GRE so late would be the pressure to perform. But with a Feb 1st due date, you wouldn't have an opportunity to retake the test anyhow, unless you took them before January 1st, which clearly isn't going to happen. Anyhow, maybe check with the school to make sure that a late submission (worst case scenario) of the official GRE score report won't sink your candidacy, and then go for it! Good luck

I think you need to be careful with wording. I definitely would NOT mention a poor GRE score in your statement of purpose, or even explicitly refer to your background as weak or lacking. But if you word it well, explaining that you want to attend SAIS specifically to bone up on your quant skills could work well, I think.

@1Q84 - Perhaps I came off as harsh, but my tone was only meant to convey how bad of an idea I think this is. As fuzzylogician and others show, hiring a ghostwriter won't do an applicant much good in the end, even if he/she gains an admit. You're right that HeatherC never outright says "I'm going to hire a ghostwriter", so I apologize if she was only posting this in some academic sense. But the tone of the post suggests (to me, and pretty much everyone else who responded I think) that she is intrigued by the idea of getting a ghostwriter, and wants to suss out how viable of an option it is based on the experiences and advice of other forumites. I certainly did not mean to come off as superior - just very, very against this idea on all levels.

Whoops, I had multiple tabs open and just realized I posted this in GRE instead of Letters of Recommendation. Can a moderator please move this post? Thank you and sorry!

One of my referees emailed me today to say that he had not yet received a recommendation request from UT-Austin. I had previously filled in and saved my referee contact info into the appropriate part of the Texas Common App, but unlike the applications for my other schools, there was no 'submit recommendation request' step. I had thought saving the contact info would be enough, but it appears not. Applying to UT-Austin is strange in that I have to first submit/pay for the Texas Common Application (which is essentially basic biographical/academic background info) before receiving specific instructions from UT-Austin about uploading my transcripts/letter of intent, etc. I hadn't submitted and paid for the Texas Common App yet, so I did that today, thinking it might trigger the sending of the recommendation requests. I then emailed my referees, but two have now emailed back to say that they still haven't received anything! Perhaps this will only happen after UT-Austin gets my application from the Texas Common Application? I'm really unsure of what to do, because the office is closed until January 2nd, and the application is due on January 5th. I realize that I've left this somewhat to the last minute, but it seems like such a convoluted system. Does anyone have more intel on how this process works? Has anyone had similar experiences? Thanks in advance.

Has this referee responded to any of your reminder emails? I have not personally run into this issue, but I have read on this forum and elsewhere that schools will accept late letters of recommendation as long as they arrive before the committee sits down to review applications. Since your other three letters all arrived on time, it's clear that the problem is not your lack of organization. Some people are just flaky. First, you need to make contact with this MIA professor, and confirm that he/she actually plans to write the letter. Then you need to talk to the admissions departments at the schools whose deadlines have passed and ask if they are still willing to accept a late letter of recommendation. Do NOT complain about the professor's tardiness - simply state that one referee was not able to make the deadline, and you were wondering if he/she could send in something now.

Where have you heard that? If this does happen regularly, I would be shocked to learn that people are openly discussing it. Having someone else write your statement of purpose clearly violates the terms of the application. All work submitted must be your own, and with good reason. And why you'd want someone else to write your SOP is beyond me. If you can't compose 1000 words about your background and research and/or career interests, then how are you going to be able to complete graduate-level work and write a thesis? It would be one thing if you were going into Chemical Engineering, and saw writing this SOP as a means to an end. (Although it would still be 100% wrong to have someone do it for you). But for Poli Sci? Presumably you should be pretty good at writing. In fact, I just clicked on your profile in an attempt to figure out if you're trolling (I've decided you're not), and you even list 'writing' as one of your interests.* You also seem to be a native English speaker, so that can't be it. Consider me perplexed. We all have anxiety about our SOPs. Writing comes pretty naturally to me, and it still has been a very stressful process. But that is no excuse to have someone write it for you. Even if your duplicity goes undetected and you are admitted, you will have a very hard time in any remotely rigorous program, because enlisting a 'ghostwriter' suggests that you are either (a) incapable of writing it yourself, or ( too lazy. If you don't have any friends, family, colleagues, or former professors who can help edit/review your SOP, then I would understand you paying for some kind of outside review service. But do not, under any circumstances, have anyone 'ghostwrite' it. *I would suggest removing your Skype name from your profile, as it appears to list your first and last name, and you have just posted some pretty damning information on this forum.

To what kinds of grad progams do you intend to apply?

If there were 77 spots and 270 applicants, that does not mean an acceptance rate of 28.5%, unless you're suggesting there is 100% yield! I think Princeton WWS has the highest yield because of its funding, and that is only around 70%. Even if you estimate a 70% yield for Harvard MPA-ID, which is probably too high, then that means that they would have to accept about 110 students to get a class of 77, which means an acceptance rate of about 40.7%.

I write with absolutely no authority on the subject, but I'll chime in with some thoughts. I imagine that if your grades are subpar, a GRE score can serve as evidence of your 'potential', especially if you're a few years out of undergrad. Top scores lend credibility to an argument that poor college performance was based on immaturity rather than the inability to grasp course materials. So it would seem to me that good GRE scores would be more important if you have bad grades than if you have a 3.97 Econ major from Yale. Also, I doubt that these schools are immune to how a great GRE score would help pull up the average for an entering class, making their program seem more competitive and desirable. To that end, I have been told by more than one admissions officer that scores and GPA can affect funding. On the other hand, pretty much every school I've spoken with, or whose FAQ section I've read, seems to emphasize what fenderpete said, that "GRE scores are only a small part of the puzzle", and that they are much more interested in the whole package, including soft factors, as opposed to how you did on one four-hour test.

I have heard that they are more interested in your Q than your V. If you notice, the average/median percentile ranks of most of the schools you listed are much higher in the Q category, which is curious considering that the majority of applicants presumably have undergraduate backgrounds in the liberal arts. I think your best bet is to contact the specific schools and ask about your scores, if it's not too late.

@ mct88 - Ha, I wish I would have read this before applying. I would have included a lot more courses under the "politics" category than I did. Sigh. Hopefully they actually read my transcript!

To second what Revolution said, I think it depends on the other parts of your application, as well as what you mean by "bombed". (Some people on these forums seem to consider anything under the 90th percentile unacceptable). If you have great grades/work experience/personal statement/letters of rec., etc, and a mediocre GRE score, then evidence from these forums suggest you stand a decent chance of being admitted. If the rest of your application is mediocre, or you have truly terrible scores in all 3 sections, then that's a different story of course. Posting more info would help forumites make more useful evaluations.

@icah88 - Just out of curiosity, to what kinds of programs are you applying? It does strike one as strange that they would make you take the GRE if they are only interested in your math abilities, and the program's not even in English. It seems like a subject test would be more appropriate.

It occurred to me - perhaps we just simulated the two-person grading system. Haha

@AnthonyGose - Your points are well-taken. When trying to come up with a rating, I was thinking about the sample essays I had read in a GRE study guide I used. (I think it might have been the Kaplan). The essay(s?) rated around a 1 were truly incoherent, suggesting that the writers lacked a basic grasp of English. While the OP's essay certainly stands to be improved upon, I think it is generally intelligible and attempts to answer the question, although it definitely does so inadequately. Perhaps with your comments in mind, I would downgrade my evaluation to a 2-2.5, but I wouldn't go lower than that.

@AnthonyGose - Not sure if you're trolling, but I think you're being pretty harsh. @OP Based on ETS's posted guidelines, I would imagine you'd get around a 3. I assume that you are copy-and-pasting something you wrote on a practice test? I'm going to make some comments specific to this essay that hopefully will help you going forward as you study for the actual exam. Was the part in bold the prompt? Posting that would allow people to analyze more effectively whether or not you answered the question. --First of all, I think the essay is too short. Everything I've read says that when it comes to GRE writing, more is more. On testing day, that is something you should focus on, hopefully without sacrificing quality. Profusion can come with practice. -- The first paragraph is very important to setting the tone for any essay, and this is something you will need to work on. That opening quotation is very distracting. If you simply removed it, the intro would be much improved. You also need to state your thesis more clearly. A final sentence stating something very basic would be helpful, like "Accordingly, it is imperative that we use our knowledge of the past to shape the future", or something similar. Perhaps this is not the most artful rhetorical technique, but the GRE writing section is about making a clear, concise argument. --I see that you're trying to follow a basic essay structure by bringing in a potential counterpoint, but I think the entire section on tablet PCs is pretty irrelevant. You go from talking about major historical/social/political movements on multiple continents, to talking about a consumer product. If you're going to make such a leap, you need to craft a clear transition. Like, "But an understanding of the past should not impede future innovation. This is especially true in the field of technology. Some of the greatest inventions in recent history would not have been possible if their creators had only focused on what had already been done in the past..." -- I assume that English is a second language for you. Overall, your usage/grammar is pretty good, but you slightly misuse a few words: "decorous", "improvised", "panacea" (although this last one would be fine if you reworded that sentence, like "studying the past is not a panacea..."). Anyhow, I would try to keep the vocab you use as simple as possible. It's better to use a small word correctly than a big word incorrectly. -- Finally! Do not use so many exclamation points! This is a punctuation mark that you should use sparingly! Especially in a serious piece of writing! Perhaps two throughout an entire essay! And even then, only if you are really trying to emphasize a point!

Yes, for two of my schools, my GRE scores weren't linked to my application until about a week after the deadlines, despite the fact that I had sent them months ago. A few other schools specifically said to wait 2-3 weeks before contacting them about having received GRE scores. I would recommend giving it a solid two weeks after the deadline, and then drop a line to the schools if the scores still aren't there. Besides, usually schools will contact you if your application is incomplete at the time they are about to review the files.

Your stats are very impressive. I've only looked into a few of your listed schools, but here's what I know. Berkeley has a small class size, and everything I've read/been told suggests that the program has an intimate feel. Their deadline has passed, though, so I guess you've already made your decision! Harris, on the other hand, seems quite large, with first-year core courses having 70+ students/class. UT-Austin is supposed to have an amazing social work school

The sense I get is that certain schools funnel into the private sector more than others. For example, SAIS has an extremely high percentage of people going into private work. I think that schools that focus on international finance and economics, as opposed to, say, public management would be more versatile in this regard. I've actually spoken to a few MPP grads who are now working in business. It sounds like it happened pretty randomly, to be honest. One started out by working for a city's economic development arm, and then moving into private consulting for firms that contract with the government to build major developments (like strip malls, casinos, airport expansions, etc.) The other ended up working as an analyst for an investment service focused on government bonds. But most people who get MPPs/MPAs, I think, end up in the public or non-profit sector. Those who do 'go private' probably come in at lower salaries than do MBAs. I would caution you against getting a policy/public admin degree if private-sector work is your explicit goal, because you may b disappointed.

@ OP - You need to contact Harvard for this one. Some schools' websites specifically say that you cannot make concurrent applications to different graduate programs. Others might suggest that it looks unfocused to be applying to such different programs, but I am sometimes skeptical of claims that the adcoms are spending so much time assessing the psychology of any given applicant. @ Laila - yes, your GRE scores are very low, even for lesser programs than the ones you've listed. A few adcoms have told me that you are very competitive when you clear the 70th percentile, which would be scores of 157+ in both Q and V. Your scores put you in the 20s. I get the sense these programs let the verbal score slide a bit for foreign applicants, but you would have to make up for it elsewhere. On these boards, people have posted admits with scores lower than 157, for sure, but usually it's only in one of the two main subjects, and/or they have compelling evidence of their skills elsewhere (high marks in quant courses, great SOP, incredible work experience, etc.) I'm also confused by your undergrad education. Do you know how a 64% translates to a U.S.-style GPA on a 4.0 scale? That percentage for us would be barely above failing (an F at most schools is a 59), but I'm assuming that it doesn't translate that directly? And did you get your MBA in the U.S. or elsewhere? Your experience seems good, though. I think your main hurdle is the GRE, and perhaps explaining why you want another master's degree on top of your MBA.

I don't know anything about engineering, but I'm pretty decent at English, so I figured I would give you some suggestions for cleaning up the language a bit (i.e. make your essay sound more 'natural' in English). I have always had a keen desire wanted to be an influential person with who makes a significant impact and contribution to my family, society, country and even the entire world. Throughout my high school years, I have learnt and enjoyed the application of logical scientific thinking and knowledge of natural laws in analyses and solving problems-solving. Evoking that in my narrow-mindedness as a kid, I thought being a doctor whose cures and heals others’ pain is the best impact I would do. After completing my high school in Saudi Arabia and due to the regulations there, I had to pursue my undergraduate study at my home country, Sudan. I graduated from high school in Saudi Arabia, and due to government restrictions, I returned to the Sudan, my native country, for my undergraduate education. Yet again due to the Sudanese regulation, since I have a non-Sudanese high school certificate they crossed credit my certificate from 99% to 88% only. Accordingly, I could not attend the school of medicine at University of Khartoum, instead I admitted in I then went on to attend the Faculty of Mathematical Science (FMS) at the University of Khartoumsame university. , where Although I took dual completed a double major in statistics and computer science., but I thought that I’m going to have an ordinary future with no distinction as I planned beforehand. That frustration even affected my grades in the first couple of years at FMS. When matured I broadened my view to the future and realized that I still can achieve my dream and be the person I wanted to be without being a doctor. I read a vest vast array of work in on computer programming, database system, and applied probability and others. Afterwards I started became fascinated with the industrial engineering and the as a way of representing, analyzing, predicting and optimizing the systems around us. I had did a substantial amount of reading in on linear programming, operations management, production planning and scheduling, quality control and supply chain management. I used to would formulate the linear programming problems without even get to know how to solve such problems any prior knowledge***. Then I took courses in operation research, reliability theory and stochastic process that solidified my interest in industrial engineering and intensified my desire to pursue my study through in that disciplinarydiscipline. Moreover, While FMS does not offer senior projects on in that area, nevertheless I came up with my own proposal for two projects in simulation and queuing model and on land use and planning. ***To be honest, I did not entirely understand what you meant by this sentence. I rewrote it to suggest that you would take on projects involving linear programming, even though you had no background in the field, just based on interest/fascination. If you were trying to convey something different, then ignore my suggestion completely!

I agree that you should have a native English speaker review your statement. I also agree with fuzzylogician's suggestion that you should keep this as brief and direct as possible. You might consider an addendum, instead of wasting space in your statement of purpose, where you are supposed to be focusing on your strengths.What you should actually say, I think, depends on how many bad semesters you are trying to explain away, and how low your grades were. If you got a few Cs one semester, then perhaps it's not even worth addressing at all. If you truly did terribly one term, but then quickly rebounded the next semester, then maybe a sentence or two, like: "My grades dropped in semester X because I was grieving the death of my close friend, who died unexpectedly in a car accident. It was a painful period for me, but I was able to regain my focus and bring up my grades the next semester." If you had a few semesters of bad grades, then maybe add a third sentence about the long grieving process. But I wouldn't do any more than that. Good luck.