Am I too late?

[Starscream]

Hi!

I have been hearing things like "its too late to apply for Fall 2013 at US grad schools" from people around me. I have been checking the deadlines and while its true that certain unis' deadline for graduate school admission (Engineering) has passed, for most other it seems to fall around late November and early December. I plan to apply to 4 to 5 programmes.

My preparations and question so far:

Have not written an SOP for any program (but I do have a very clear idea of what I want to do). Does writing an SOP require such a long time?

Have not taken TOEFL, but I am fluent in English and do not intend to put much effort in preparation for TOEFL (I hear you only need to clear a very achievable threshold for iBT).

One of my co-authored papers was sent to a top IEEE journal two months ago. I haven't received any updates regarding it. If its status changes to "under review" at the time of applications, how should I go about mentioning in my application?

Are students who submit their applications first at an advantage compared to those who submit late (but before the deadline)?

The purpose of my post is to ask if I am too late in my preparation to put forward a decent application for next fall, and to ask what part(s) of the application process tend to be the most time-confusing and (or) effort-demanding?

Thank you for your time.

[ghanada]

what?? what schools have already passed their deadline for next fall admissions? I think the earliest deadline I have seen might be Nov. 1st, but almost ALL deadlines are like Dec 1 or Jan 1. It might be different for international, but I can't imagine any schools already closed for accepting applications.

Anyways, start your SOP now. It doesn't take a long time to write, it takes a long time to edit. You should get it edited by MANY people...advisors, colleagues, friends, whatever. It is never to early to start putting your app together. Some schools do admissions on a rolling basis so there might be some advantages to getting your app in earlier, but this varies a lot from school to school. I would just shoot to get your apps in a couple weeks earlier than the deadlines though since you want to make sure all your materials get in on time.

[victor.s.andrei]

Does writing an SOP require such a long time?

It can, if you want to write a really good one. Writing a SOP or goal statement often requires very intense and deep soul-searching.

[Casper14]

Hey Starscream, as far as I know the deadlines are only around December 15 for international students, so I don't think you have to worry about that. I am an international student myself, applying for MS/PhD Electrical Engineering, Fall 2013.

As for the TOEFL, if you are fluent in English you should have no problems with it. My English is fluent, and I didn't do any studying for the TOEFL at all, but still scored 117/120. Some universities state that you need more than ~26 for the Speaking Section in order to be considered for a Teaching Assistantship.

The people above mentioning the importance of a nice and early start on the SOP are absolutely correct. I plan on starting mine as soon as I have my GRE scores, so that I may have a better idea of which universities are realistic goals for me. Be sure to write your SOP specific to each university and program, as I have heard that having a generic SOP can severely damage your case.

Have you taken the GRE? I suppose that would be the most important thing to get done straight away. I am writing on Wednesday, and even though I have a strong mathematical background, but I am still pretty nervous.

[Snoq]

Have you taken the GRE? I suppose that would be the most important thing to get done straight away. I am writing on Wednesday, and even though I have a strong mathematical background, but I am still pretty nervous.

I have read in another thread here in Gradcafe that a guy didn't get well in GRE but he was accepted at UC Berkeley for EE or CS, I don't remember. Try to score as high as you can in GRE but don't be nervous, it seems that they doesn't count as much as other things (and their importance may vary from university to university). For example EE at MIT doesn't want GRE scores, which is a good sign that they are not so important as other aspects of your application.

[Starscream]

Thanks all for their valuable suggestions. They are much appreciated. No, I haven't taken the GRE. I plan to take it in early October. I have been practicing and tend to get 165 above on the practice exams (quantitative) and around 155-160 on the verbal ones. The quantitative ones on the GRE Premier CD by Kaplan seem to be much easier compared to those on the PowerPrep II software. But there only two tests (a total of four sections of each type) in the PowerPrep package. Can anyone suggest any good exercise material (preferably free), especially for the verbal and for the writing ability sections?

[Casper14]

You are right, the questions on Kaplan are considerably easier than the real GRE ones. On the official GRE site, you can get this guide to the paper-based one, but the questions are similar so worth doing.

http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/practice_book_GRE_pb_revised_general_test.pdf

Also, you can head over to http://magoosh.com/gre/. The people at Magoosh seem to be quite aware of the level of questions on the actual GRE, or at least that's what I found. They also present some strategies and explanations on some very tricky questions, which is nice. Apart from those, a quick Google search delivers quite a few free resources, just sift through them to find difficult questions.

But without a doubt, the PowerPrep is the closest you can get to the real thing!