I feel like if you applied in such a way that you almost surely get in somewhere but have a good chance of being the marginal student at a school you're +EV.

I have 4 reaches, 5 targets, and 2 safeties. A family friend who has some knowledge of the grad school game but no idea about econ says her "gut" says 4 schools for me. That's probably as good a guess as I can come up with.

Also you were Econ too right? You should PM or sumfin what schools you applied to.

**** you. I didn't get one.

EDIT: As a graduate student, I feel like I could field questions for perspective chemistry and physics students.

alright, so i am in a dilemma. there is a class offered in the physics graduate department (very irregularly) this spring semester called Methods For Complex Systems. This is exactly what I am interested in doing research in and will likely be applying to graduate programs primarily in the field (I am a junior).

The issue is that it is scheduled at pretty much the worst block of time (Tu-Th 1:00-4:00pm). I have two other classes in that time block (a GE and a writing class) each with no other sections open anymore and both required to graduate (though i don't HAVE to take then this semester).

the issue is there is that every other class i could take next semester to replace those two are either in the same time block or conflict with another class. I emailed the professor to ask if he knows if the class will tend to go the full 3 hours (some classes don't use the entire time block) because if so i could managed to only put off one class (the writing class starts at 3:30 so if the grad class ends early it could work).

since this class is so specific to my field of interest is it worth it to potentially put off two classes so i can take this one class? any other class and i'd say "**** it, its not worth the scheduling hassle down the road" but this one is so specific to my interests that it is hard to pass up. Hopefully the class doesn't run the full 3 hours and i can only put off one class but worst case scenario its hard to tell if it is worth it. also remember the class is irregular so i doubt it will be offered again before i graduate.

Take the class you're interested in. Take a different gen ed and/or writing class, this semester or another.

You don't care if it's great american novels or shakespeare or greek mythology, but you do care about the physics topic.

yeah, this is what i am leaning towards. ideally i would just take another GE and writing class but all the ones that fill the requirement i need are filled at this point so it would definitely need to be another semester. I'm going to email my advisor and see what I can do about getting this class to fill a technical requirement or something.

or get on the waitlist for some gen-eds.

believe me i tried to go this route, the only other GE that fits the requirement i need also is in the time block i'm trying to open up

youre like a sophomore, right? Don't worry about all that. You'll want a gen-ed when you're a senior.

junior, but yeah. the nice thing is i get to take the GE pass/fail (you're allowed to have 1 of 6 be p/f). i'm more concerned about the writing class that i don't want to put off, hopefully i won't have to.

after a some creative scheduling i found there is exactly 1 upper division math class i haven't taken that can count for my minor that will fit in my schedule, and it is an ordinary differential equations class which focuses on nonlinear systems and chaos. should go well with complex systems class, hopefully this all works out

puke

i mean, cool i hope you enjoy it

haha, yeah i was looking forward to a light semester but oh well, hopefully it will be a big positive long run

Any advice on getting recommenders to send in their ****ing letters? My first wave is due Jan 1st, I asked for Rec's at LEAST 6 weeks ago (some as long as beginning of Fall Semester) and the dept should have contacted all of these profs by now.

Yet none are submitted and it's on break so I can't get ahold of them. wtf do you do?

Most schools have options to send a reminder e-mail. Other than doing that and emailing/calling them yourself there isn't much you can do. I'm sure they are just waiting to do it at the last minute. I ran into the same problem with the NSF fellowship, but they all got them in in time. Just got to have faith, they are busy people.

i just had this issue on a scholarship, it got sent in 8am the morning it was due but it got there. i feel like they understand how important this stuff is, they just put it off

Aight. I know it's like 10 days out still but this process sucks enough without 3rd party stuff out of your control going wrong.

most profs will appreciate a reminder. send them a reminder/thank you/happy holidays note, personalized ldo not a mass email. I like recommending students but hate writing letters. I always get it done but at the last minute.

gl!

Alright, so wondering about next summer now. So far I've been planning to continue doing research to look good for applications. I hadn't really considered anything else as private industry doesn't interest me greatly for the most part.

A wrench sort of got thrown into this plan as I've recently started to be recruited by a major web company. I don't know the specifics, all I know is that I was contacted early in the semester, never really continued with the interview process, was contacted again recently and basically told them I am interested in research and don't have much interest in software development. The recruiter responded but didn't give any real reply and instead just told me my new point of contact would be this woman who is a recruiter specifically for my school.

Haven't gotten any response from the new recruiter, but if I am still really focused on grad school is it worth considering or is it better to just focus on research?

I've heard most schools are lenient with folks getting letters in a bit late. Thankfully all my recommenders submitted fairly early. One final pain in the ass: figuring out who needs fall grades and how to submit them.

fury, I would keep my options open. If you can't get an REU or RA position next summer an internship would still be experience.

I highly recommend research at a different school over the summer. It'll add to you research experiences and you'll have an additional person to write you a letter of recommendation.

yeah, I agree, this is what I did last summer and it was great. That is what I've been planning on doing, I just hadn't considered this other option until now. I guess I'll see what the recruiter says and go off of that.

You should try to contact possible people you want to do your PhD work with. It's so much easier when a professor wants to work with you and actively recruits you for their research group. It takes a ton of pressure on you for standardized tests and applications because they'll just push you through.

Easier said than done, at least in my field (Biostatistics). The only case where I know that's made a difference in our admissions is when one guy got a job with one of our faculty for a whole summer and impressed her enough that she wrote a stellar letter of recommendation for him. Obviously a letter of recommendation from one of our own carries a lot of weight.

But just pinging faculty and saying "I'm interested in your research, let me work with you when I come to your school," while a positive thing to do, isn't going to get enough attention to matter for admissions in my opinion.

I'd suggest a little more than just saying that you're interested; along the lines of purposing possible courses of direction to do your own research with them, asking about recent papers, and just general "What is this?". They love this stuff and they do have a ton of pull if they want a particular student.

That may be true in other departments; I just know that as far as mine, we don't have a ton of faculty knocking on our doors during admissions meetings saying "I want this student."

On the other hand, our department chair has certainly made the effort to push some people in that caught his eye (he's not formally on the admissions committee but he does keep his hand in the pot). But aside from that and the one other guy, it just doesn't seem to happen here. Granted my experience is just from being a student rep on the admissions committee, this year and last.