Igotnothin

The OP is talking about a professional master's degree.

I bet less than 10% of Master's students across all fields are fully funded (excluding people in continuous MS/PhD programs).

I think it's great that you have 3 papers including a first-author paper so early on in your program. It sounds like your concern is that they are not focused enough to fit into your dissertation? My view is that publications are way more important than your dissertation, so who cares if your dissertation is a bit scattered, if you graduate with something like 7-10 publications.

Yeah I would mostly agree with onzeheures30. Although I wouldn't be opposed to a little material on the field if it helps to illustrate why it is important to you or why it is a good fit for you.

Yeah I think your instincts are right here. If either journal asks you to verify that the paper is not under review elsewhere, then of course you should not submit to both. On the off chance that neither mentions it, then go ahead.

Yeah I watched a prof write an entire grant proposal this morning.

Absolutely. If you don't notice when Google Docs reduces your margins by 3%, you are not worthy of a grad school fellowship.

We're talking about extremely minor formatting issues like 0.97" rather than 1" due to quirks in word processing software or Google Docs. In my opinion, a poor reason to disqualify people who spent many hours preparing the application, and who may very well have credentials worthy of the award. Automatic DQ makes sense if the goal is to minimize the amount of work for reviewers. But the goal should be to give the awards to the most qualified applicants.

I think the low GPA and non-math/stats major will really hurt your chances at getting into a PhD program. If you do apply, I would drop Harvard and Hopkins due to their rankings and Penn and Yale since they are really small programs. I'm not familiar with the others but my sense is that some of them are also pretty small (Rochester, Vanderbilt, Buffalo, BU), which makes it unlikely to get an offer. Michigan and UNC are highly ranked but accept a lot of students - might want to add those two.

From one Packer fan to another, I think you have a great chance at top 10 biostats programs. You seem to have a bit more experience in math than stats, but SIBS gives you some biostats credibility. I think if you have a chance it might be worthwhile to get involved in some stats or epidemiology research. But if you're applying this year I guess the deadlines are coming up pretty soon. Anyway I think you'll have no problem getting in to UNC, Michigan, Minnesota, Emory, Penn, etc. Probably Hopkins too. May as well also apply to Harvard and UW. Best of luck to you.

I vote "unethical" on this one. Like ADDABD points out, more money for you means less (or none) for somebody else. I'm not surprised that you're okay with it since you're the one profiting from it. My interpretation of a grant funding "the person" just means that it's not for a particular project, but to fund good research in a general subject area. It doesn't mean that it is intended to give a researcher who already has funding a higher salary.

I would strongly recommend leaving this guy in the dust. One publication on a side topic (relative to your dissertation) is not worth dealing with his bad attitude. I also wouldn't worry too much about offending him, given the way he treats his volunteers. Who cares if he doesn't like you afterwards? You don't like working with him anyway.

I agree with the others. Stick with it and use any resources available (professor, TA, private tutor). Good luck.

Seems a bit dishonest to me - enrolling in a program, accepting two years worth of funding, and then upgrading to a higher ranked school.

All right I've got peanut butter, a whole wheat english muffin, and a butter knife. Where do I go from here?

Sorry to hear the first year isn't going very well. It's definitely better to find a place you like rather than spend 5 years being miserable. That said, you've only been there for a month or two. A lot of people have trouble adjusting to a completely new environment. Maybe if you have an open mind for the next couple of months things will get better. I think it will be hard to articulate your reasons for transferring to a different program. Saying it wasn't a good fit is pretty vague. If you had the opportunity to visit the department prior to enrolling, you were in a good position to gauge whether it was right for you. And you also had a chance to see the city, if for only a day or two. So they might not be 100% confident that you will like it at their department either. I am sure the faculty will be disappointed that you are leaving, and you can expect some awkward conversations. I know a lot of second-tier departments only take in 5-10 PhD students per year, and it's not good for the department to have funded students come for a year and then leave without a degree.

Bravo!

I'm not the one saying things like "well maybe they actually did look at your GPA and GRE" when that's not what we're arguing. Or "well maybe the UW-Madison rep didn't know what she was talking about" when that is the basis of the entire scenario. Or "I think I saw you say that the committee should read every word of every application a few pages back..." when if I said that you could easily click Quote and prove it.

Let's imagine an e-mail conversation between the applicant and a UW-Madison representative after the applicant hears that he was not admitted. Student: Thank you for considering my application. I know you are busy, but I was hoping to get some feedback on how I can improve my application next year. Is there anything in particular that was weak in my application? Rep: We saw that you were an international applicant so we threw your application in the trash bin. Thank you for your interest in our program. Americans on Grad Cafe: Stop whining, international students!

Hi X, Thank you for your patience. We complete reviews, interviews, and admissions for applicants within the U.S. borders first. We then review external applicants. Frequently, this first phase fills the slots available. I will email you when a decision is made. Thank you for your interest in our program. X

It seems pretty clear to me that international applications to UW-Madison are frequently not reviewed. I'm basing this on the e-mail from UW-Madison saying that international applications are frequently not reviewed. Hi X, Thank you for your patience. We complete reviews, interviews, and admissions for applicants within the U.S. borders first. We then review external applicants. Frequently, this first phase fills the slots available. I will email you when a decision is made. Thank you for your interest in our program. X

Sorting applications by GPA and GRE requires looking at each applicant's GPA and GRE. That would constitute some "evaluation" of each application. My argument this whole time has been that every application should be evaluated.

Are you kidding me?

Fair to say you have to look at an application in order to judge its quality?

l really don't know what you're driving at.