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2015 Application Sweat Thread


Econhead

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I thought certainly that I would not be the first one to populate the sweat thread, but let's get it going.

 

SOP question: I have a very clear break in my performance between years X and Y where my UG grades fell from 3.8 to 2.8ish. This continued until the end of my UG (due to circumstances) with my grades falling to as low as a 1.6. This needs to be addressed, but I don't want to place too much emphasis and I don't want it to come off as whining. As a graduate student my grades have returned to previous levels. Is 3ish sentences enough? I would like to acknowledge that in hindsight I should have gone part time or taken time off altogether, but I was not mature enough to understand that at the time. Is this a misstep?

 

Transcripts: I understand that we are expected to send our fall grades. Are we expected to get an updated Official Transcript to PDF and send, or do they just want a screen capture? For those universities that will now allow you to upload an official transcript, but instead ask that you mail an official transcript, does this mean that you need to send a second official transcript?

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For the SoP, I would do it just as you said. Keep it short and try to connect it with the general theme of the paragraph you put it in. Also, try to convey it as something you learned from.

 

For transcripts - yes, you will need to send an official transcript again. I dont recall any schools demanding your fall grades though, it is students that wanted to send them in.

 

 

 

Also, good luck to you all and may the market clearing conditions be favorable to you!

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Thank you both for your responses =).

 

From the perspective of how many different types of essays each university requires, it's a little disheartening that an SoP is often given as little weight as it is (even though I understand the reasons why). Hopefully in my case, where information cannot easily be garnered from transcripts, it will play a more important role.

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For the SoP, I would do it just as you said. Keep it short and try to connect it with the general theme of the paragraph you put it in. Also, try to convey it as something you learned from.

 

For transcripts - yes, you will need to send an official transcript again. I dont recall any schools demanding your fall grades though, it is students that wanted to send them in.

 

 

 

Also, good luck to you all and may the market clearing conditions be favorable to you!

 

Some of the schools that I applied to did ask me for my fall grades (IIRC, the schools that did were Rice, Ohio State, UNC, and Maryland). While most did not, you do have to be prepared for the possibility that you will be asked for them, and keep that in mind when studying this semester. None of those schools required me to send in an updated official transcript, however. They just wanted an unofficial version with the new grades.

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Another question. Is it 'OK' to send GRE scores before you have finished your online application? I have been nervous about this and have not seen anything from past years. Ohio State's deadline is right at a month from now, and I'd prefer to send them now than closer to the deadline if possible.
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I'm trying to target a couple of lower ranked school, just to keep it safe.. What about U Washington, Urban Champaign and Georgetown? Can they be considered as "safer choices"?
This would depend on your profile and at what rank you would be considered competitive. If you do not know the rank at which you are already applying (and where your professors expect you to place) it is impossible to determine what universities would be considered safeties.
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Another question. Is it 'OK' to send GRE scores before you have finished your online application? I have been nervous about this and have not seen anything from past years. Ohio State's deadline is right at a month from now, and I'd prefer to send them now than closer to the deadline if possible.

 

As far as I know yes it's OK. Matter of fact, you can send your GRE scores even before the application season. (If you say take GRE in the summer and don't wanna let your 4 free score reports go to waste.) The schools will keep it on file. Well, that's what I heard. I may have even emailed a department about this, but I'm not sure anymore. Wait for someone else to confirm to be sure though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some of the universities that I am applying to emphasize the importance of only listing "relevant" work experience. As such I have included (depending on the time frame that they are asking for) only :Instructor, TA, and RA experience. For those that have not emphasized "relevant," I have still done the same. A couple of the applications have stated that you must list "ALL" work experience - are they really asking for traditionally irrelevant work experience? In my case, I have environmental consulting experience, which is only relevant from the viewpoint that I have written sizable, lengthy, and complicated technical reports.

 

Thanks to all that have contributed to this thread so early in the application season. -It keeps the forum a bit neater for relatively specific questions for applications.

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Good luck. Remember, there is a human being on the other side reading your application, and adcoms at any decent university are staffed with professors who are busy working on research and teaching classes. Patience is a scarce resource in this cycle, but by God after your apps are all in at least attempt to do something more worthwhile with your time besides constantly refreshing this page and GradCafe. For those of you in your senior year, cherish your final few months with your friends. Regardless of graduate school, it is incredibly difficult to get together with them for fun after college is over.

 

Sincerely, old 2nd year nerd.

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Does anyone know if you need to resend GRE/TOEFL scores (official ones, through ETS) when you're reapplying? I was applying last year, so I would send the same GRE/TOEFL results - but maybe I don't need to?

 

I will write some e-mails to admission offices, but maybe someone here knows the answer faster.

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Does anyone know if you need to resend GRE/TOEFL scores (official ones, through ETS) when you're reapplying? I was applying last year, so I would send the same GRE/TOEFL results - but maybe I don't need to?

 

I will write some e-mails to admission offices, but maybe someone here knows the answer faster.

 

The answer should be yes, but some of the schools I emailed told me to submit again (I'm convinced it is because whoever answered the email didn't know if they keep the scores and thus just told me the conservative answer)

 

Those who have verified to me that scores are still there (I applied in 2012):

Michigan

NYU

Berkeley

Wisconsin

MIT

Stanford

Yale

Duke

UCSB

 

Those who told me to send again:

Harvard

Davis

 

I plan on calling both Harvard and Davis to doublecheck this with an admissions officer in the GSAS.

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My biggest concern right now is getting As in my math. I'm at the disadvantage of having declared my math minor a little late in the game, so I'm not taking a few of the courses until next term, so I feel like I really need to prove myself with my current grades... and unfortunately in two the best I may be able to do is an A-. But, the first derivative of my grade in those classes is positive, so I'm hoping I can really kill it on the finals and do a little begging. I also had a really terrible episode with my mental illness this semester which will hopefully get me some small nugget of leniency since I had to miss a lot of time due to hospitalization. I do have a definite A in my grad econometrics class though. And I can at least take personal solace in knowing that these two professors I'm struggling with are renowned for their difficulty.
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Is it 2015 already!? I am not even done sending applications and I am already looking at the calendar. Some chat here might help. I have a very bad AW and have no idea if that's going to hurt my application although I know there are a lot of more important things anyway. Maybe the fact that I am not a native speaker will help. (Not looking for advice, just some chat =) )
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Is anyone applying to Stanford? In the online application, there's one question asking about diversity, and I'm just wondering how important this is. I'm not the most diverse applicant you could say.

 

Here's the question:

"Stanford University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your Stanford classmates."

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Is anyone applying to Stanford? In the online application, there's one question asking about diversity, and I'm just wondering how important this is. I'm not the most diverse applicant you could say.

 

Here's the question:

"Stanford University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your Stanford classmates."

 

I am not sure about all california institutions, but as far as I could tell all of the University of California institutions have some type of "diversity" statement like this. Since there is not much that "us white guys" can offer to diversity, I emphasized my work with "diverse populations," including international and low SES students. I tried to emphaisze an ability to understand their perspective and how that has translated into how I interact, and how it has ultimately affected my future.

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I am not sure about all california institutions, but as far as I could tell all of the University of California institutions have some type of "diversity" statement like this.

 

Yeah, as far as I know this has to do with the fact that affirmative action has been banned in CA and this is an alternative way for schools to get a diverse student population. See e.g. Affirmative Action Bans and Black Admission Outcomes: Selection-Corrected Estimates from UC Law Schools. [/end offtopic]

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I think that kind of thing won't help you that much in the application process, or might at most be used as some sort of tie-breaker (this is my guess). What I have heard of is that it might harm you if you don't answer things like this, since it would kind of show that you are not putting your best effort into the application process. Plus, I think Stanford has a word limit to it, so you are only allowed to write a paragraph or so anyways.
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