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Hello,
 
I am interested in the Software Engineering program at George Mason University. I would like to know the minimum GRE score required for this program.
 
My profile 
 
GRE - 299 (Q - 154 ; V - 145)
 
TOEFL - 102
 
Work Experience - 5 years of experience in Software development
 
Undergrad - 74.5% (Electrical and Electronics Engineering)
 
Thanks,
Deepthi

A standard stipend in chemistry (or more generally the physical sciences) will be in the ballpark of 22-33k. Depends on the area's cost of living and the competitiveness of the program, but it is rarely more than what big national fellowships like NSF give (~31k). Princeton gives a butt ton (a highly specific and scientifically determined amount that I don't know but was closer to 40k than 30k at one point) to all their grad students, I guess because the undergrads subsidize them.

What school and program did you get accepted to?

What does CAD mean?

I am not allowed inside DSW Shoe Warehouse without a chaperone.

Lol did you see how everyone responded so negatively to that? People get very jealous and bitter when you say that you have enough money for things. I didn't think you were flaunting it in a mean way or anything, I've just noticed that especially in the whole grad school culture people tend to get very mean and attack you personally if you're not living in poverty. For instance, when people learn that my parents pay for 100% of all my expenses and I don't have to worry about money when I'm in grad school they immediately attack me and say that I am the worst person on earth, must be lazy/stupid/dependent/not worth the dirt I'm standing on because I'm not paying my own way. Everyone grows up with different circumstances and some people end up getting higher stipends. I'm sure you earned yours, I just find this response to be very amusing, and sad in a way.

So glad my GA is going to be as high as it is, 35k =)

A good sign, but not a sure acceptance. 
 
Depending on their funding situation, it may be that they would need you to win the university wide fellowship, or they might still be reviewing things. 
 
I say to be cautious, as I did have a friend who was one of a small set of graduate students nominated for a very prestigious university fellowship who ultimately didn't get accepted to that same institution. 
 
But on the whole, it's a really good sign! Congrats!

i usually wear worn out jeans with crotch holes darned shut by my girlfriend with some nature-y t-shirt. sometimes I wear a button down shirt. no one seems to care - especially given how my supervisor dresses...but i am an ecology grad student...hehe.

I stopped caring about what other people think a long time ago

I'm not a brilliant student so all this doesn't apply Q.E.D.

Depends on what you like.

For Indian, check out the Kashmiri food truck on the Pitt campus. It's the second one up on Bigelow. There's a reason why it's very popular among Indian students
Also, Udipi Cafe in Monroeville is an authentic southern Indian restaurant. It's delicious.

For middle eastern, there are several great choices:
Salem's Halal Grill and market in the Strip is simply brilliant. Fresh, high quality meat and very affordable meals. They also do a few Indian dishes and have the best tandoori chicken I've ever had.
Taza 21 in Squirrel Hill is a good shwarma cafe. Good wraps, delicious soups.
For hummus, check out Greek Gourmet in Sq. Hill. They stock around a dozen hummus varieties, and make all of them there at the shop.

Vietnamese:
A woman runs a Vietnamese sandwich stands near a Vietnamese restaurant in the Strip during warmer months.
Vietnam's Pho has the best pho in Pittsburgh--you can get it with tripe and tendon, which is positively lovely.

If you drink coffee, I'd recommend 61C for the variety of kinds but Commonplace coffee for environment. Both are in Sq Hill.

Chinese:
American-chinese: Zaw's is the best in the city. In Sq. Hill.
Bakery: Bubble Pi is an authentic Chinese bakery with buns, zongzi, etc. in Sq. Hill
Rose Tea Cafe has authentic Taiwanese food. Yep, also in Sq. Hill.

Thai:
I don't think Pittsburgh has a great Thai restaurant. There are some good ones though. Thai Cuisine in Bloomfield is solid. I've heard good things about Thai Gourmet, which is down the road. One of the two Thai food trucks at CMU is good, the other is kinda meh (the friendlier operator has the weaker food, unfortunately. I still go to his sometimes).

Chaya is a world-class sushi place, in Sq. Hill. It's also, as you would expect, very pricey. Website: http://www.chayausa.com/

South American:
Green Forrest, in Penn Hills, is a Brazilian churrascaria, and a good one. Pricey.
Chicken Latino in The Strip has delicious Peruvian chicken. On Sundays, they also have beef heart, which I highly recommend getting once (you probably won't want to order it again).
Tango Cafe, in Sq. Hill, is a nice coffeeshop. Actually, I recommend it above Commonplace. They have some very yummy Argentinian desserts etc.

Some other places:
Mokabobs runs on Saturdays in the Strip during warm weather and has some terrific kabobs.
S&D Polish deli has delicious perogis, hunter's stew, and other Polish treats.
Luke Wholey runs a fish grill outside of his father's wholesaler. I highly recommend anything that he cooks, but especially his tuna--get it medium rare and enjoy.
There's a good Turkish restaurant in South Oakland, I think on Semple Street. It has very tasty food.

Finally, East Liberty has a good Ethiopian Restaurant (Abay). Definitely check it out.

Oh and if you like tea, check out Te Cafe in Sq. Hill. Friendly staff, a great place to hang out, and a good selection of tea.

nipwe, If your only motivation for going to a school is its "prestige" then I think you'll have a hard time getting in to these places. You can't flatter your way onto a PhD program. The Admissions Committee KNOW their university is in the World Top 100 Rankings, they KNOW that people want to get onto their programs just because of that fact. Admissions Committees are looking for hard-working scholars who will make significant contributions to the school's research program/Department & research group life, who will go on to do Great Things and generally prove to be a good investment. They almost certainly AREN'T looking for somebody hitching a free ride and intending to coast through their PhD for the sake of "prestige" just to go back to their home country to better land themselves a job. 
Be very careful about reputation snobbery.

Thank you for all the congratulations!!
 
Here's my stats:
 
*International with US degree from a top ten public school
*Cumulative/major GPA: 3.70
*GRE: 152/164/4.0
*Chemistry: 780
*About a year of research experience in an organic lab
*Three 2nd author publications on pretty decent journals (the lab is small, I work/learn fast, and I guess I was really lucky!)
*Three solid recommendations
 
Last year, I had no publications and I got rejected by all the programs that I applied to.

Hi chemleg, I got an official acceptance via email on the 14th. Visiting weekends are on March 1-2 and 29-30. My application status hasnt been updated yet (same to the other 2 acceptances I got). I'd say that theyd inform by mail/email then updating on their website later.

U of Michigan!!! Finally!!! I'm going somewhere!! I AM SO EXCITED!! Will update with stats later!!
2nd time applicant here!! so please forgive my outburst of EXCITEMENT!!!

#2. 
 
Landing a good post-doc is more about your PIs connections than where you did your PhD. 
 
Ideally, by the time you're applying for a post-doc, and then for faculty positions, your name itself will be recognizable to people in your field- they've seen you talk at conferences, they've read interesting papers you've published, and you've met and talked to them at conferences/invited lectures. 
 
The last person on a search committee I talked to said that the stuff on your CV matters to get you an interview, but at the interview it's all about how you come across- can you convince them you're a smart, talented scientist with ideas and the background to carry them through, or not?
 
Networking is really important. Where you got your PhD may help with that, but it's not the most important factor. Schools that have a lot of PhDs placed in academia tend to perpetuate that, since new graduates from those schools (should) already have a network built of past graduates that are now on search committees at those schools. 
 
Another factor that wasn't mentioned is advisor's recommendations. At the big programs, good PIs will have multiple students graduating and applying for jobs each cycle. While they might give good recommendations to all of them, they will only really be able to give their "top" recommendation to one of them. If you're in for the competition, then you might (or might not) be that person. 
 
Whoever gets the "top" recommendation will have a good shot at getting interviews, most likely. The others probably won't. 
 
My PI, and most of the faculty in my department, did PhDs/Post-docs at top 5 schools. I've asked them if they would repeat it, and most of them have said they wouldn't. That they thought things would have been smoother and better going to a lower-ranked school with a PI that they really fit with for the PhD, and then going to a top-5 school for a post-doc, based on the work and recommendations from grad school. 
 
I'm at a school ranked under 100. But my PI, and other mentors, have good connections to PIs at top 5 schools, and I've gotten to consistently meet with them and talk with them. Coming from here, I think I have a very good shot at a "top" post-doc, and that's what matters more. Most of our previous grads have gone on to top post-docs for what they want to do- either at a top school, or with the top researchers in their field. 

Undergrad Institution: Large Private Institution - Top 50
Major(s): Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Minor(s): Mathematical Statistics
GPA in Major: 3.95
Overall GPA: 3.93
Position in Class: Top 5% (summa cum laude)
Type of Student: Domestic female, non-minority

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163 (88%)
V: 157 (73%)
W: 4.5 (72%)
Biochem: 680 (93% - with subsections of 93/95/85%)

Research Experience: Undergraduate Research at my university (3yrs), 1 internship at biotech company (8wks), 1 fellowship at top medical school (10wks), and Postgraduate Research at top medical school (5 months and counting). 10+ conference posters (3 first author) and 2 papers in preparation (1 first author).

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: At University: Honors/Distinction (from 1yr senior research project), awarded prize for being at top of my major (2nd overall), Phi Beta Kappa Member, Summa cum laude honors, various merit scholarships. Outside University: Research Award from American Cancer Society

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Undergraduate Research Assistant (3 years), Teaching Assistant (2 semesters), various volunteer work

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Senior Thesis Project (Written paper, oral defense), won small grant from my university to support my senior year research

Special Bonus Points: Took 5 graduate classes (3 biology/chemistry, 2 mathematics), research connections in one of the programs to which I am applying

Applying to Where:
Harvard - Biological and Biomedical Sciences - Cancer Biology
UPenn - Biomedical Graduate Studies (CAMB) - Cancer Biology (Also, HMGS Certificate Program)
Stanford - Biosciences - Cancer Biology

My list is a tad short as I am also applying to 10 MD/PhD programs.

Don't worry. People who tend to post their stats often have pretty good numbers and are not necessarily a representative sample of everyone applying... Even then, numbers are not the most important factor the adcoms look at.

you need to do more of your own research--especially because Americans generally are not familiar with the Japanese university system.  You can Google everything nowadays.  By simply going to the University of Tokyo webpage (which, remarkably, is by default in English), and clicking on a tab that says "Degree Programs in English", one can find this:
 
http://dir.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ICE/course/course10.html
http://www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academic/
http://www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academic/ir-student.html
http://www.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academic/doctor.html
 
So English-language postgraduate degrees are available in chemistry at Tokyo.  You should look up to see if courses are taught in English or Japanese though.  Also consider, of course, that even though a course is taught in English, the English might not necessarily be fluent.  Note that the East Asian methods of teaching are entirely different from those of the West.  Much more discipline, focus, and book-studying is required.
 
Most younger middle/upper class East Asians can speak some English.  However, you obviously would need to learn to read and speak Japanese to a certain degree of fluency to survive in Japan for a long term academic stay.  The university will have more English fluency, but Tokyo itself still has most of its signs, etc. in Japanese.  And Japanese civilian English is not known to be all that great.
 
So if you really are set on doing a graduate degree in Japan, I would sit down for a good few hours and search around the Internet.  As I just demonstrated above, you can pretty much just go to the university website, browse a bit, and land on the information you want.

I said earlier it seemed slow... and then I got accepted into UW Seattle  and Santa Barabara within the hour or so. With acceptances at those two schools and Stanford, it seems like I'll be enjoying the sun on the west coast this coming fall. Can't wait! Still want to hear from Columbia though!

So, it seems that I am in a drastically different place than most other applicants I have seen on here, but here is my story & opinion on that, if you would like it:
 
My history: I did not apply right out of college at all, since I have a pretty low (2.9) undergrad gpa, even though my last 4 semesters were awesome, or at least mediocre (3.6), and so were my major/minor gpas.  I was certain that even with research & presenting that research at various conferences, even with extreme interest, what have you, that I would not get in, anywhere. I thought I would begin by serving my country but also using my scientific background, and attend graduate school either during or after my commitment to my country was complete. As it turned out, I was not accepted into the program in the military I was really interested in, so I applied again, and was rejected again. I had a really sad few months, I worked several temporary jobs, and eventually landed a 'real' job, using some of my skills acquired in school. After entering the work force as a real 9-to-5er, I realized that I want more than anything to go to graduate school and to then use that to do what I really love - science. So I decided that I would apply to graduate school, but I have only applied to one this season, the only one I really want to go to. There are several advisors I am interested in their research and also think I would get along well in their groups. It's where my life is, regardless of whether I get into graduate school. I also applied to jobs that are more related to what I would like to do for a career (rather than the jobjob I have right now), just in case I don't get in. Right now, I graduated from college almost two years ago, I have a good paying job, considerable references from my company, a larger skill set than I started with out of college, and a renewed sense of purpose. 
 
My opinion: You already applied where you could. If you can get more applications in by the funding deadline, maybe it's worth it to try for you. But I think, you've applied where you really want to go, right? And you put everything you could into your applications, right?
So if you get in, pick the best place for you and go bloom!
If not, well, go find a job that will pay your bills for now, make some connections, earn some money, and maybe take a class or do some research, and try again next year!
I can't think of much worse than taking a position at a 'safety school' with an advisor I don't like, or doing research I don't care about, etc, when I could be doing something else I like more. Honestly, my time off from school has taught me so very much, including that I cannot wait to get back to school. I love learning, and want nothing more than to get my acceptance letter in the mail, but ... to quote the gorgeous and smart Jennifer Nettles, "I ain't settlin', or just getting by... I'm tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high." It's not worth it to me to be accepted anywhere else, so I put everything I have into getting in there. So if I have to apply more than once, if I have to keep working a 'grownup' job, whatever, I want to get into that one school, and getting in somewhere else is not enough for me to be happy.
You should make a list of what really really matters to you, and chase that list with all your might. If that's graduate school, focus on that. Retake classes you did poorly in, retake the GRE, get an internship in something interesting to you, pay off some of your student loans, whatever you need to do to make sure you get in next time. And if it's not grad school, well, that's okay too. Maybe your profs didn't want to tell you this, but people choose not to go to graduate school and have great lives, all the time. Maybe you're one of those people. 
 
Also for what it's worth: go ahead and steel your self for the worst. I have found the hardest thing for getting over being rejected from something you really want is that look in the people who care about you's eyes, that 'what now?' look. I've seen it for both me and for my partner, and it's really bad from both sides. But if you a) have a plan and are confident that you can apply again and with better results, because you've made your 'package' better, it's a little easier to take. If you do get rejected, that's just better preparation for the real deal when you do get in, right? Cause from what I can tell, tons of rejection and failure... is the best possible preparation for real graduate research. 

All PhD Chemistry Programs give diagnostic exams at the beginning of the year.

You don't have to waste your time apologizing to Prolixity. Prolixity has trolled me as well as others several times. Prolixity also sometimes has inappropriate tones when people ask him questions or respond to his questions.

The Dallas/Ft Worth area is HUGE, so there are always concerts and events going on. Shopping, restaurants, museums, you got 'em. You could probably find any "scene" there you could think of.

That being said, the traffic is terrible. The crime is terrible. The pollution is terrible. The scenery is terrible. I hate to be so negative after ohsnap's positive, but I hate the place. Nothing but concrete in the big city, nothing but cookie cutter suburbs surrounding it.

Just my two cents. Take any opinions on a place with a grain of salt, though, because everyone perceives their surroundings differently.