Secret Squirrel Posted October 30, 2011 Posted October 30, 2011 (edited) I've been on a LaTeX craze lately. Would the adcom think I'm trying too hard if I convert my SOP to LaTeX? Edited October 30, 2011 by Secret Squirrel lindarx18, lesliewu69, jaimevh11 and 2 others 5
RWBG Posted October 30, 2011 Posted October 30, 2011 (edited) I don't submit anything important that isn't formatted in LaTeX. It would be pretty silly for them to think that demonstrates that you're "trying too hard." Edit: Just don't include an abstract Edited October 30, 2011 by RWBG
antikantian Posted October 30, 2011 Posted October 30, 2011 And I thought I was the only weirdo who uses LaTeX for everything. After countless seminar papers, presentation outlines, handouts, etc, formatted in LaTeX, the only time someone ever commented was to say, "I like your formatting -- looks really professional."
Secret Squirrel Posted October 31, 2011 Author Posted October 31, 2011 Thanks. I also spent a portion of the day converting my writing sample into LaTeX to go with it (well, XeLaTeX). The only problem was that I had to use a non-traditional font to accommodate my use of ancient Greek. I'm worried it looks too flowery. Would someone mind taking a look?
gradcafe26 Posted October 31, 2011 Posted October 31, 2011 I have never used it before, but if it affects my chance of admission I will definitely learn to convert my writing sample and SOP into LaTex. Do you think the adcom would think PDF files are informal?
catchermiscount Posted October 31, 2011 Posted October 31, 2011 I have never used it before, but if it affects my chance of admission I will definitely learn to convert my writing sample and SOP into LaTex. Do you think the adcom would think PDF files are informal? No. They may, on the other hand, think .doc files are informal (unlikely).
laosheep Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 But if you use latex, you need to figure out the format. Different paper/institution requires different latex form. Which is better? Who can tell?
catchermiscount Posted November 17, 2011 Posted November 17, 2011 ?? You just need to use the standard document class. I recommend the geometry package to get the margins right and the fancyhdr package with your name and what the document is (SoP, etc.) in the header.
Secret Squirrel Posted November 17, 2011 Author Posted November 17, 2011 Over-hyphenation also looked weird, so I had to get rid of that.
deleteduser0333 Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 I'm wondering if there are any latex apa templates out there? Got one for lyx but I think it's too hard to learn a new software.
laosheep Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 It's much easier than you thought. There must be some others' documents online that you can download, and you just need to put your own word into corresponding places, and you definitely know where they should be. Since you do not need any kind of math formula or diagrams, it's quite simple to do that.
mv0027 Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 Wait, I don't use LaTex much, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, yes, adcoms would think that is weird. are you talking about sending your SOP in like a file that is written in LaTex over a word or PDF doc? From what I understand of LaTex, you use it to make the lives of document editors easier. I don't anyone on the university's end is gonna convert your file into a easy read file. So, the adcom would be looking at your raw text file? Wouldn't they rather just see it in PDF, which is much easier to read? Sending it over like that, in my opinion, shows you don't really understand who does what in the world of publications. Again, I don't know the software well though, so feel free to enlighten me. I would recommend sending it PDF while mentioning in your CV your knowledge of LaTex.
RWBG Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 I think the OP's question is about whether they should send a LaTeX-formatted pdf instead of a word document. Obviously sending the TeX code would be an exceptionally poor idea, and would make absolutely no sense, as they would just be skipping the generate pdf step. Re laosheep's most recent post: That's not a good idea. Editing the text in a pdf directly would only work if both your documents turned out to be the same length; as I understand it, you need to regenerate a pdf to have everything work out properly, which is why the previous poster asked about TeX templates.
mv0027 Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 Oh. In that case, the more professional the better.
laosheep Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 I have both latex-pdf form and word-to-pdf form SOP. Obviously the former looks more professional, it's extremely trim. Yet I can't put all the words into two pages, Since the format is fixed. For the word, since I can adjust the paragraph configuration, I can do that. I think the OP's question is about whether they should send a LaTeX-formatted pdf instead of a word document. Obviously sending the TeX code would be an exceptionally poor idea, and would make absolutely no sense, as they would just be skipping the generate pdf step. Re laosheep's most recent post: That's not a good idea. Editing the text in a pdf directly would only work if both your documents turned out to be the same length; as I understand it, you need to regenerate a pdf to have everything work out properly, which is why the previous poster asked about TeX templates.
hupr Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 I would suggest spending time on your actual application instead of on stuff like this.
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