ciptasari

Hi everyone! Please look at my profile and tell me your thoughts and feedback. As an International student from quite un-kown university and no MS degree, I am still pretty much on the fence about the whole applying to PhD thing. Do you guys think I have a chance at all on this or am I really just delusional? Should I just go find a master degree first from a reputable US or at least top European schools then come back later? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! International female student from a Non Popular International University (Though top research one in my country) major : Pharmaceutical Science | GPA: 3.60 GRE : 322 (163Q159V) | TOEFL: 119/120 Research Experience: 2 years (started as senior thesis and now still working on it as research assistant) - the use of protein cytotoxicity on breast cancer cell (including nanoparticle formulation, antibody conjugation, cell cultures, electrophoresis, etc) 1 summer internship in Serbia - examining substance's anti-genotoxic effect on damaged cells (comet assay) 1 short (5 months) independent group research project on in-vivo test of plant extracts One publication under review on international journal (middle author) and one paper still on writing stage (probably won't help any) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Government research grant - for the group project Uni merit-based scholarship for one academic year Finalist on International chemical product design competition Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 1 Semester TA in lab 1 month RnD Intern at pharmaceutical company Currently research assistant in my undergrad uni I am applying to PhD in these universities: PennState University - Molecular and Cell Biology University of Maryland, College Park - Biological Science Georgetown University - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Florida State University - Cell, Molecular Biology University of Delaware - Biological Science Let me know what you think, thanks!

I thought sharing a link to another sites is okay as long as it is relevant, helpful, and not intended as advertisement or such. I could be wrong, though. I think it is quite unfortunate that ETS does not provide the explanation of PowerPrep II questions. Anyway, I did a practice test with PowerPrep II yesterday and found explanations in PowerScore site if you haven't stumbled into it yet.

Hi, you wrote a nice and well structured essay. There are still some areas that I think you could improve on, though. First of all, you mentioned that you tried to use your new GRE vocabularies in the essay. This is a good idea but in my opinion you should only use a word in your essay when you really understand not only the meaning or synonym but also how they are usually used in a sentence. Otherwise, the improper use of high-level words could hurts rather than helps your score. For example, when you use the word 'to bolster', it should be followed by the object. Rather than saying You could say: "Fortunately, the government can create a funding or loans for the companies to bolster their growing economy" You should also be more careful to ensure lucidity of the idea when creating a complex sentence. More importantly when it comes to thesis statement. I think that this sentence is quite convoluted and can be simplified while still maintaining a certain variety of style: You could instead rephrase it into: "Therefore I content that the influence of government should be moderated to a certain degree. While small companies should be able to reap the benefits of financial helps from the government, their progress should not be impaired by strict policies." This sentence should also be re-evaluated: The first part of the sentence is a bit confusing when followed by another shift. You could edit it a bit by saying: ".. to have intricate knowledge and experience in marketing, financing, and designing the product or service...", and the second part could even stand as its own sentence is you start it with 'Nonetheless' or 'Nevertheless.' Also a few small error in the last body paragraph that could be quite confusing: "...customers are receiving what they are advertised" should be "...customers are receiving what were advertised to them." "...a committee filled distinct voices.." should be either "..a committee filled with distinct voices.." or "a distinct-voices-filled committee.." I am sorry that I could only give input regarding the language use as I am also a student preparing for the GRE. I hope my inputs can help your preparation. Could you perhaps help evaluate my essay, too? Here's the link: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-analysis-issue/157879-im-taking-gre-4-day-please-help-evaluate-my-practice-essay.html#post1005351. Any comments will be appreciated :)

Hi, You have written a very well structured and elaborated essay. Nevertheless, I think there are still a few areas that you could improve on. First of all, I think it's good that you created a clear thesis statement in the beginning. However in my opinion your stance on the issue is a too far or at least much stronger than necessary. The prompt asks your stance on whether universities should require the students to study only their field of interest. While you disagree with the statement, you could still put yourself on a more beneficial position that ensure the students still have room and flexibility to study other fields, rather than stating that the universities should require them to studies other fields they are not interested in. The same benefits of learning other study fields outside of ones' interest as you laid out in body paragraphs will still work with this adjusted position. I think that when you are saying the university should require the students to study outside of their interest, you are giving yourself an additional burden to explain why it is okay for them to be forced to do so and how they would still be able to gain effective learning experience when they study it only because they are forced to. These are just the questions that pop up in my head while I was reading your essay. There are few grammatical errors but I don't think they really hamper the progression of your thoughts so those should be okay. Since I am just another student preparing for the GRE I am not quite sure if my inputs will really be helpful. I hope you could benefit from them! Could you help evaluate my essay, too? Here's the link: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-analysis-issue/157879-im-taking-gre-4-day-please-help-evaluate-my-practice-essay.html#post1005351 Thanks and good luck!

Hi there! I think your essay is generally well-thought out. However, I think there are still a few areas in which you could improve on. As mentioned by Lambda, I also think that your introduction paragraph should be more precise and clear. You only need to show where you stand on the issue clearly without any need to provide elaborate examples or analysis. Those could go along way in developing your body paragraphs. Another thing that I think should be noted is that I somehow feel as if you are trying really hard to put in GRE level words into the essay. In my opinion it is better to use college level words or even simple yet unambiguous words which you really understand front and back. Putting a high-level word will only increase the chance of improper use of the words that could hurt your score. For your contention paragraph, you could reinforce your idea by adding something along the lines of: 'Nonetheless, when the views that contradicts each other is communicated through a non aggravating manner, both sides will be able to learn and gain better understanding of the issue at hand.' Also, your conclusion paragraph could be improved by rephrasing the main reasoning you used to support your position rather than emphasizing the contention point regarding stress that inhibits learning. I hope these inputs could help! Could you please help evaluate my essay, too? Here's the link: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-analysis-issue/157879-im-taking-gre-4-day-please-help-evaluate-my-practice-essay.html Thanks and good luck!

I am going to sit for the test in just a few more days. Currently, I am keeping myself busy with Manhattan practice tests. Here is an essay I did today on my practice test. Any comments, critics, or evaluations will be very much appreciated! I could help read and evaluate your essay, too, if you want. Thanks in advance! _________________________________________________________________________________ Governments should invest as much in the arts as they do in the military. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position. Government all over the world has been investing a huge amount of money in the national military for ever. In the status quo, many people believe that other aspects of civilization such as arts are just as important for the society and therefore the government should invest in them as much as they do in military. While arts is admittedly one of the important aspects of great civilization and a government investment in it is a good idea, proposing that the government should invest as much in arts as they do in the military is quite unnecessary. First and foremost, investment in military is an investment in the whole population's security and well-being. It is one utilitarian function that will benefit everyone in the whole nation regardless of their gender, belief, or interest. At the other hand, an investment in arts, though useful, will only benefits certain parts of the society who love to create or enjoy these arts in the very first place. Admittedly, there area big section of the population who either love to create or enjoy arts. Nonetheless, it is justified for the government to prioritize aspects that will be more useful for the whole society when using the money that comes from the whole nation's pocket to begin with. If the government choose to adopt the recommendation, there will be parts of society that will feel as though most of their tax money is unfairly being used in an area that does not benefits them, and thus they will think that the government has misplaced their trust in prioritizing the society's needs. Not only that military is an investment that will benefits every single person in the nation, the need of security it protects is one basic and primary need that should come before other things such as arts and other secondary needs. The hierarchy of the rights and necessity of human surely puts security before arts because the society will only think of arts and entertainment as their needs once their security is fulfilled in the first place. Without the ability to feel secure and free from dangers, no society will even be able to think about creating or enjoying arts in their free time. For instance, if the recommendation is being put into place in a nation that still feel that their life is in a certain kind of danger and threat from other nation, even though the investment provided for arts is humongous, not many people will really be able to take advantage of this investment because they feel as though they could not think about entertainment while their heads are full of worries of their families' safety. Another thing to be noted is that by default, military funding is a huge one due to the default expensiveness of the things being needed to protect a country. By contrast, the money needed to create and ensure arts are being enjoyed does not have to come in such great expenses. Of course, some aspects of art making is expensive, but we surely can not compare the price or the research for military defense to the creation of an album or even a theater production. The arts and creativity of a nation still could be supported by the government to a far extend without needing the equalize the money invested in it to the ones in the military. Sure, investment in arts by the government is surely beneficial to develop the nation's civilization and moral. However, to invest as much money in arts as the government currently do in military is quite unnecessary and unjustifiable in the eyes of many people. In conclusion, I think that that the government should still invest a fair amount of money in the development of arts in the country but there is no need to make it to the equal amount of money they invest in the nation's military.

Hello! Firstly, I am also a student preparing for the GRE so my input might or might not be very helpful. From perusing the examples on the Official Guide, I think your essay hovers somewhere between 4 and 5. Here's what I think you might be able to do to improve your essay and hopefully get it closer to grade 5 than 4: In the first paragraph, you might want to tailor your word choices to the specific instruction that they gives. They specifically use the word specific evidences needed to be proven in the instruction. understand that you mean more or less the same thing but in my opinion by saying that the argument lack 'evidence' rather than 'assumptions' and 'clarification or elaboration' you shows the reader that you really paid attention to what is being asked by the question. I think you could say something along the line of: In your first body paragraph you did a good job on explaining the lack of specific evidence and how if certain type of evidence if given, they could weakened the argument. However, you could also elaborated this by giving a short example of evidence that will strengthen the argument, too. You could say: Your second body argument also provided a good point in the weakness of the argument, but again, you need to shape it to specifically address the questions. You listed quite a plethora of plausible reasons on why the local companies retracted their advertisement without providing explanation on how these specific reasons will either weakened or strengthened the argument. This is just an example on how I would address shape this paragraph: I also think that conclusion paragraph could use one or two more sentences. I am not sure about the GRE essay grader but some people are quite picky whether or not there is a minimum number of sentences to build a paragraph. You could probably add something like: I hope they help. Good luck for all of us preparing for the test!