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Sup everyone, My name is Elia and I applied for a Master in Robotics, Systems and Control at ETH. I also applied for the ESOP scholarship. I thought it would be nice to start a new thread for this year's waiting process, in order to share our interviews (if any), advice, etc. Let's see if this works

Hello everyone ! I am an international student, applying to PhD program in Biological and biomedical sciences in USA. I would like to ask about " Writing samples", what are they? I have a master degree thesis, is it suitable to post? Should I post" the introduction, aim of the work, materials and methods, results and discussion" parts? Should i include references or not? Also, can anyone provide me with "samples" of relevant "writing samples" ? Thanks a lot

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to start a forum on those waiting for admission to Fall 2018 University of Michigan School of Information Master's program! Here is a space for you to discuss your worries, get information from others applying, and ask about acceptances/denials. We're all in the same boat! UMSI '18!!

Took the GRE two weeks ago and got the scores (Q169/V161/AW4.0). I'm a non-native English speaker. I think I could probably improve my AWA to 4.5 with enough practices, yet I doubt I could reach the same QV scores again (during mock exams my average is around 323). Just curious if this score is good & safe enough for applying HCI master programs, or is it worth it to retake the test simply for AWA's sake? Other background info: Foreign Languages and Literatures Major - 3.96/4.3 or around 3.7/4.0 GPA 2 years working experiences in digital advertising agency as project planner / product marketer Currently working on UX side projects as I have relatively few experiences in the field I have okay relationships with my professors and boss (I think lol) I am currently researching programs I am interested in and their average/required scores; Sadly, a lot of schools do not have them posted. Any advice would be great and would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Hi I am from a developing country and I got a scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in the U.S. but I failed some courses and I got dismissed. I continued my program in another campus, still in the U.S. but it didn’t work as I wish. Again, I failed some courses but I could not repeat those. The problem was my sponsor. They could not give me another funding to repeat those courses so I had to go home. I realized that I was lack of academic training particularly on courses that I failed. I am applying to other Master in Chemical Engineering because I already have some credit from those campuses with B, A-, and A and I wish to transfer that credits. Any idea on other Master’s program suitable for a student with Chem. Eng. Background? What should I do to strengthen my application due to my shortcomings? Thanks

I have applied to 2019 philosophy MA in Stanford and it has been radio silence since then. My application status is always 'submitted', making me wonder is there even an 'under review' status? I have checked past results posted on this site, the only information I get is that in 2016 someone recieved their MA offer on May 4th and someone else said Stanford forgot to send the rejection letter. I am really anxious since this is my first choice and I have turned down Tufts(and any other funded masters) before April 15th. Anyone heard form Stanford's philosophy MA now? Anyone knows whether there is an 'under review' status in their online application system? Should I solicit their decisions? Any advice/comments/information? Please say something to me! Thank you so much!

Hi y'all! Since the Erasmus Mundus International Master in Central & East European, Russian & Eurasian Studies (IMCEERES) has been revamped and significantly expanded since last year, I created a separate forum thread. Are you as psyched as me about the programme? Are you as stressed as myself about the scholarship? Let's share backgrounds, information, tips and co-ordinate in order to have an as much as stress-free experience as possible and get to know each other! :-) I will start. I am from Greece and I am a journalist! Studied and also worked in London and the FSU region is my life's main interest!

Between Brown Biotechnology (Master) and Northwestern Biotechnology (Master), what should I choose?

Just wanna start a post for Columbia Data Science 2019 fall applicants. Has anyone heard back yet? Or what is your process?

Hello, I have recently got admitted at the computer science programme from the university of Helsinki. Since I am an international student , I was wondering if it is possible to also have a full time job during this time. Is the timetable from the university permissive enough? The job I was thinking to be something IT related of course.

I'm an American applying to masters programs at business schools in France. My GPA is quite low, 2.91, don't have any special work experience, research, etc. I really wanted a high GRE score to make me stand out - also considering most applicants probably aren't anglophones, so the way I see it, a mediocre score reflects particularly badly on me. I've only been studying 6 weeks and I think I could at the latest retake the test in 4 weeks to make the last deadline for an American school I'm applying to as a safety (French schools have later deadlines). Is it worth pushing through another few grueling weeks? Would a higher score really help me?

Hi, I am looking forward to enrolling myself for the fall semester of 2019 period for my graduate studies. I am keen on pursuing a course in behavioral science and taking a track along with marketing. I am lost in figuring out whether will an MBA fit correctly to go forward with or a Masters. If MBA- Which would be a college that you will recommend and why? If Masters- Which would be a college that you will recommend and why? I have done research on my own for this course, but it is all seems to masters by research.

Hi, everybody. I am a senior student from Beihang University in China, studying the aeronautic engineering. I have applied the coursework master of engineering of National University of Singapore & Australia National University as well as University of Melbourne. My average point is over 84% and have lots of awards in school level. I have already gotten the offer of ANU, waiting for the others. Here are some questions. 1、what the possibility of getting an offer of NUS @ UNI of Melb? 2、In nus website, it is said that i will know the result in mid-may, whether i could get it earlier? 3、Best wishes to you all.

I'm an American applying to management programs in France with no background in business (they accept all academic backgrounds). My cv is unfortunately very unimpressive so I'm looking to make the best of what I have. Any tips? The programs are in English so no need for it to be in French.

Dear readers, Hello, I have been recently admitted to Carnegie Mellon University Mechanical Engineering's M.S. - Research Program. The offer letter says that this program is self-funded and there is no available scholarships or fellowships from the department. Does it mean that I cannot take a research assistant position from any laboratories? I thought M.S. students can also receive tuition waive + stipend if they find proper RA position. This is really big deal cause I cannot afford whole expenditures by myself, and then I should decide the university that I admitted as Ph.D. program... I am trying to contact with professors asking possible RA position, but I am not sure this is the way that I can get tuition waiver. Thank you for reading the topic!

Hi everyone! yesterday I had an interview with a professsor. She was trying to show me that I am a over-qualified candidate for the master program... I asked her would it affect my chance? She told me she wouldn’t definitely introduce her ‘personal opinion’ in this decision and she emphasized that will be my decision... after the interview, I think I couldn’t convince her why I applied to the master program (I couldn’t apply for the phd program this year at that school). however, I’m too worried... I haven’t yet received any email regarding my application... should I send a followup email to her telling what my reasons are for applying to the master? Is a ‘over-qualified’ candidate meaningful in a master program in physics? dying out of stress. Any help is appreciated! thanks

I major in biochemistry and graduated with a bachelor degree in Spring 2018. I got a poor GPA (3.0) and a little bit of academic research for 4 semesters, 2 for one semester long and 1 for a year. All of them didn't get to a published paper by the end. I got a research opportunity at the University of Southern California this summer and I'm really excited about this. If there is a chance, I want to be a lab tech in that research lab for next year, which means I need an OPT for that. Also, I accepted an offer at the Tufts University for a one-year master program in infectious diseases and global health. I am trying to decide between these two options and trying to add some impressive stuff to my resume so that I can get into a Ph.D. program (hopefully) in Fall 2019. Which one should I choose?

Can anyone tell me which EU universities offer masters in economics with scholarships that cover tuition and living expenses? I do not want to apply to Britain universities and I know about Bonn, CEMEFI, Carlos, BI, and Tinbergen. I applied them all.

Hi all, Hope everything is well for all of you! Congrats for those who got their invitations and offers! I'm not sure if there's anyone in looking at this post and is at the same stage as me: got nothing but only rejection letters (5/9). I applied for 9 PhD programs and haven't heard from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and UCB, but I see in the cafe that many people have got their invitations, and the interview dates are reasonably close. (One of the disadvatages I have is that I'm an international student, thus we are considered separately because of funding issue.) As a result, I need to move on and work on my plan B. With all the advice I've got from friends, grad students and professors, I don't feel ready to make a solid plan by myself. Thus, I'm posting this up, and, hopefully, we can all share some ideas on how to make an alternative plan. So here's something about me (I'm not sure how detailed should I go for, please let me know if it's not appropriate): I'm currently a senior, international student at UMass Amherst. I'm finishing a dual degree in biology and mathematics (applied/stats track). I have a 3.977/4.000 GPA, and received 40k+ scholarships over the years. In addition to my academic live, I also have 3 years of experience tutoring and 2 years of volunteering (BBBS kid mentoring program). I've only taken GRE once, and I have Q168, V151 and 3.5 (I'll definitely make this looks better if I apply next cycle or later). I'm in the honors college and doing a thesis. I have been in a plant genetics lab since the second month of freshman year, where I had various experience with wet lab experiments and bioinformatics/systems biology analysis. I am co-authoring a paper that will be submitted in February which is about analyzing and interpreting an RNAseq dataset. I'm working with this PI for the 4th year and he said that wrote me a very promising letter. In addition to working with plants, I also had research experience during summers working with mammalian telomeres and interned at MRL at Boston on immuno-oncology targets. As for the computational aspect, my work on analyzing data in lab required me to use R, python and bash scripting. I also had intermediate/entry/entry levels of experience with SAS/Matlab/Java from project-based math/stats courses. My original plan is to go straightly for umbrella PhD programs, which covered computational biology or systems biology. I want to use my advantage where I can do both biology and mathematics and to work in interdisciplinary fields. My passion originated from doing experiments, so I still want to keep up with my web lab skills (i.e. doing gene editing according to the results from computational analysis) which I think would also be valuable when I look for jobs later. For long term goal, I would like to work in the R&D parts of the pharmaceutical industry. From the conversations I had with my co-workers during my internship, career-wise, it would be very helpful to have a PhD degree. Also, I don't want to limit myself to plant biology, so I need the transaction to focus on other systems. Also I want to keep all the lab work I deal with in vitro. However, since the plan going for PhD directly didn't work out well, I need to start thinking alternatives. I think my CV would look better in a year or two when the paper is published (there's another one data analysis based that I'm working on as the first author). Also, there's a gap in between the data analysis I do in the bio lab and what I learned from my math/stats courses: I didn't have experience developing computational/statistical tools. I think it may be a solid plan to do something to fill in that gap. The first thing I'm thinking of is getting a master in biostats. Although the deadlines for submitting applications have passed for a lot of good schools, I'm exploring options that are still available (i.e. Brown, UMich, UMinnesota, UCD, UPittsburgh, CWRU and UMass). One question I have is how much a biostat master degree would help if I want to go back to applying biomedical/compuational PhD programs? I do believe a master in biostats will open a lot of doors if I want to look for jobs, also if I want to switch to tracks such as data science. From what I have seen, all biostats programs offer the opportunity to do a thesis, however, if I want to apply to PhDs during the second year of my master, I don't think the thesis will be ready for publishing and I'm not sure how much points that will add to my application. So should I go for a thesis if I end up going to a master program? The good thing is that, if I stay in the same school, I can finish the master with only one additional year. That being said, if I apply for PhD programs in the next application cycle, a thesis would definitely not in time. Yet, all the courses I take will be very coding heavy and project-oriented so would expand my skill-sets on the computational aspects dramatically. I'm not sure how many bio/mcb master programs are still available now. If not going for biostat programs, I hope to get into schools that may help with my applications later. So please let me know if there's any program worth going for a try. I know the last option I have is the MCB MS at my school, which there's no doubt that I'll get into. One of the reasons I didn't think much of this option is that I need to take classes during the PhD programs anyway so I'd rather do something that I can learn more with the same amount of time and effort. Another option is looking for jobs and gets experiences while working. As an international undergrad, I think it's hard for me to look for jobs in the US (although I have the 36 months OPT available), especially jobs that I can learn as much as a master program. It's hard to imagine finding a job that will allow me to do things that I don't know before (I'm still thinking about filling the gap in my experience/skills). With everything going on in the U.S., I was advised that it's not such a bad idea to look for PhD programs in Europe, since I'll be international anyway. However I have no idea how this would work, so please let me know how I should start looking and what I should be expecting if going to graduate programs in Europe. One addtional note is about grad school funding. My parents are funding me for undergrad (although I tried very hard to get as many scholarships as possible), and they can and are willing to fund for my tuition for master and PhD. However, I find it very not helpful when programs as me to bring my own funding while applying for PhD programs. I completed my undergrad in the U.S. so I'm not eligible for a lot of funding from my own country, also I don't want to sign contracts that force me to go back to work for a few years right after graduation (I'm not against going back but I want to keep all options available). And, to my knowledge, there's no scholarship that I can apply to before being admitted to a program (NSF grant requires citizenship). That leaves me no option to bring my own funding while applying, which makes me less competitive among international or all applicants. I appologized that this is getting way longer that I planned for. Thank you if you have read this far. I'm just going to summary some major questions that I need help with: 1. What can I do better if I apply to PhD programs in the future? (Umbrella programs aiming for computation-based track). Are there any not famous but good phd programs that I can still apply for? I know WPI is still rolling and have a lab that may fit my interest according to a professor I talked to. 2. Is it worth it going for a master in biostats? Is a thesis helpful if it won't be ready as a submitted paper? How much help would it give to a future PhD application (systems bio/computational bio)? What specific programs that are still available? Would I be competitive for such programs? 3. Are there any worthy bio-based (i.e. mcb) master programs still open? 4. Guidelines for looking for jobs as an international undergrad. Is it possible that I can learn how to do more complicated computational analysis even if I had little experience with it before? (Although I can learn from colleagues, I imagine companies will want me to do things that I'm already good at.) 5. Where can I find possible fundings for grad school as an international student? The search engines don't really help much before one is admitted to a program. 6. Any other advice or question? 7. Thanks for reading all these! All the best luck for all of you!

Hi all, Hope everything is well for all of you! Congrats for those who got their invitations and offers! I'm not sure if there's anyone in looking at this post and is at the same stage as me: got nothing but only rejection letters (5/9). I applied for 9 PhD programs and haven't heard from Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and UCB, but I see in the cafe that many people have got their invitations, and the interview dates are reasonably close. (One of the disadvatages I have is that I'm an international student, thus we are considered separately because of funding issue.) As a result, I need to move on and work on my plan B. With all the advice I've got from friends, grad students and professors, I don't feel ready to make a solid plan by myself. Thus, I'm posting this up, and, hopefully, we can all share some ideas on how to make an alternative plan. So here's something about me (I'm not sure how detailed should I go for, please let me know if it's not appropriate): I'm currently a senior, international student at UMass Amherst. I'm finishing a dual degree in biology and mathematics (applied/stats track). I have a 3.977/4.000 GPA, and received 40k+ scholarships over the years. In addition to my academic live, I also have 3 years of experience tutoring and 2 years of volunteering (BBBS kid mentoring program). I've only taken GRE once, and I have Q168, V151 and 3.5 (I'll definitely make this looks better if I apply next cycle or later). I'm in the honors college and doing a thesis. I have been in a plant genetics lab since the second month of freshman year, where I had various experience with wet lab experiments and bioinformatics/systems biology analysis. I am co-authoring a paper that will be submitted in February which is about analyzing and interpreting an RNAseq dataset. I'm working with this PI for the 4th year and he said that wrote me a very promising letter. In addition to working with plants, I also had research experience during summers working with mammalian telomeres and interned at MRL at Boston on immuno-oncology targets. As for the computational aspect, my work on analyzing data in lab required me to use R, python and bash scripting. I also had intermediate/entry/entry levels of experience with SAS/Matlab/Java from project-based math/stats courses. My original plan is to go straightly for umbrella PhD programs, which covered computational biology or systems biology. I want to use my advantage where I can do both biology and mathematics and to work in interdisciplinary fields. My passion originated from doing experiments, so I still want to keep up with my web lab skills (i.e. doing gene editing according to the results from computational analysis) which I think would also be valuable when I look for jobs later. For long term goal, I would like to work in the R&D parts of the pharmaceutical industry. From the conversations I had with my co-workers during my internship, career-wise, it would be very helpful to have a PhD degree. Also, I don't want to limit myself to plant biology, so I need the transaction to focus on other systems. Also I want to keep all the lab work I deal with in vitro. However, since the plan going for PhD directly didn't work out well, I need to start thinking alternatives. I think my CV would look better in a year or two when the paper is published (there's another one data analysis based that I'm working on as the first author). Also, there's a gap in between the data analysis I do in the bio lab and what I learned from my math/stats courses: I didn't have experience developing computational/statistical tools. I think it may be a solid plan to do something to fill in that gap. The first thing I'm thinking of is getting a master in biostats. Although the deadlines for submitting applications have passed for a lot of good schools, I'm exploring options that are still available (i.e. Brown, UMich, UMinnesota, UCD, UPittsburgh, CWRU and UMass). One question I have is how much a biostat master degree would help if I want to go back to applying biomedical/compuational PhD programs? I do believe a master in biostats will open a lot of doors if I want to look for jobs, also if I want to switch to tracks such as data science. From what I have seen, all biostats programs offer the opportunity to do a thesis, however, if I want to apply to PhDs during the second year of my master, I don't think the thesis will be ready for publishing and I'm not sure how much points that will add to my application. So should I go for a thesis if I end up going to a master program? The good thing is that, if I stay in the same school, I can finish the master with only one additional year. That being said, if I apply for PhD programs in the next application cycle, a thesis would definitely not in time. Yet, all the courses I take will be very coding heavy and project-oriented so would expand my skill-sets on the computational aspects dramatically. I'm not sure how many bio/mcb master programs are still available now. If not going for biostat programs, I hope to get into schools that may help with my applications later. So please let me know if there's any program worth going for a try. I know the last option I have is the MCB MS at my school, which there's no doubt that I'll get into. One of the reasons I didn't think much of this option is that I need to take classes during the PhD programs anyway so I'd rather do something that I can learn more with the same amount of time and effort. Another option is looking for jobs and gets experiences while working. As an international undergrad, I think it's hard for me to look for jobs in the US (although I have the 36 months OPT available), especially jobs that I can learn as much as a master program. It's hard to imagine finding a job that will allow me to do things that I don't know before (I'm still thinking about filling the gap in my experience/skills). With everything going on in the U.S., I was advised that it's not such a bad idea to look for PhD programs in Europe, since I'll be international anyway. However I have no idea how this would work, so please let me know how I should start looking and what I should be expecting if going to graduate programs in Europe. One addtional note is about grad school funding. My parents are funding me for undergrad (although I tried very hard to get as many scholarships as possible), and they can and are willing to fund for my tuition for master and PhD. However, I find it very not helpful when programs as me to bring my own funding while applying for PhD programs. I completed my undergrad in the U.S. so I'm not eligible for a lot of funding from my own country, also I don't want to sign contracts that force me to go back to work for a few years right after graduation (I'm not against going back but I want to keep all options available). And, to my knowledge, there's no scholarship that I can apply to before being admitted to a program (NSF grant requires citizenship). That leaves me no option to bring my own funding while applying, which makes me less competitive among international or all applicants. I appologized that this is getting way longer that I planned for. Thank you if you have read this far. I'm just going to summary some major questions that I need help with: 1. What can I do better if I apply to PhD programs in the future? (Umbrella programs aiming for computation-based track). Are there any not famous but good phd programs that I can still apply for? I know WPI is still rolling and have a lab that may fit my interest according to a professor I talked to. 2. Is it worth it going for a master in biostats? Is a thesis helpful if it won't be ready as a submitted paper? How much help would it give to a future PhD application (systems bio/computational bio)? What specific programs that are still available? Would I be competitive for such programs? 3. Are there any worthy bio-based (i.e. mcb) master programs still open? 4. Guidelines for looking for jobs as an international undergrad. Is it possible that I can learn how to do more complicated computational analysis even if I had little experience with it before? (Although I can learn from colleagues, I imagine companies will want me to do things that I'm already good at.) 5. Where can I find possible fundings for grad school as an international student? The search engines don't really help much before one is admitted to a program. 6. Any other advice or question? 7. Thanks for reading all these! All the best luck for all of you!

Hi, I am a foreigner working full-time in New York, holding L1b visa. I would like to apply for Columbia's Master of Science in Computer Science as part-time student. But I am not sure whether they accept part-time students for foreigners, and I don't see such choices in the application system. Does anyone know about this information? Thanks

To all, I am a student attending the last years of a MSc in Economics at Autonoma Barcelona (University within top 75 QS ranking, GPA 4.0, GRE Q 164, good reference letters). I would like to specialize my study towards macroeconomics and financial economics. After applying for Tilburg, I finally got accepted in the Master in Research without funding. Up to now, it's the only option I've got for continuing my studies (I've applied just for three phd positions). Do you believe it's still worth to accept the offer? How actually good is Tilburg's Mres? Should I wait for next year for applying to other phd much more valid (after retaking the GRE)? Furthermore, I would like to ask you whether you are aware of the net for visiting students? How is Tilburg considered among other European university? Has Tilburg any link with US universities? These are more or less my doubts, because constructing an objective idea about this offer and computing the pros and cons is not an easy task. If you know any information, please share! Thank you in advance.

Hi, I wonder how the profile of a strong candidate for Stanford EE MS looks like. I would like to apply but I am not sure if I met their expectations.

I'm a Mechatronics undergrad thinking of applying to the RSC Masters at ETHZ next year, and had a few questions. 1) Anybody know what the admissions statistics are? I already know they're quite high, but it'd help me determine my chances. I tried getting in touch with their admissions department for statistics, but it seems that they don't give them out. 2) Should we reach out to profs with our info (GPA, GRE, research interests) to see if we're a good fit for the program? Wasn't sure if this is appropriate, but I thought it'd be a good way to gauge my chances as well. For reference, my profile is: Mechatronics Engineering Bachelors at top 5 Canadian University GPA 3.9 GRE 170Q/164V/5AW 1 year of work experience 0.5 years of research experience (not in desired field of study though)

Hi All, Anyone applying for the NCSU Master of Analytics program this year (2018). How long does it take to get an update after we submit the application?