I have browsed extensively on academia.se and generally understand from similar questions (e.g. Doing bad in undergraduate but good in a masters program and How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?) that Ph.D. admissions committees care most about an applicant's most recent performance.  Is this still true even if the poor undergraduate grades were at a highly ranked university, and the good masters grades were at a much less competitive program?  I am interested in applying to top statistics PhD programs, but I have very poor undergraduate grades (2.8 GPA, 3.3 major GPA in math/stats) from a top 15 department. My grades in the masters program are good (>3.9 GPA), but at a state university that is not so highly ranked.  If the grades from the less competitive masters aren't enough to overcome the poor undergraduate grades, is the quality of my masters thesis likely to help me secure admissions to a top PhD program? What about a strong but not top 10-15? There are faculty doing high quality research here that may be able to supervise my thesis.  Edit:  This is not a duplicate of the linked question, while that question has great answers it does not specifically address my situation, namely I am working on a master's thesis and have a particular pattern of grades. Also difference between quality of undergrad and current institution.
718
When applying to a PhD program in the US, how does the admissions process work? If an applicant is weak in a particular area, is it possible to offset that by being strong in a different area?  Note that this question originated from this . Please feel free to edit the question to improve it.
56413
I am applying for a master's program in the US and am not sure how I should present my GPA ethically when discussing it. I have an undergrad total GPA of 3.394 and when asked to put in my undergrad GPA it only gives room for 2 digits and nothing more. EX: 3.0. Can I round up my GPA since it's so close to 3.4, or would this be unethical and I should round down to 3.3?  To make this as general as possible: How should one round their GPA when only 2 digits are accepted, and they're less than .05 away from the next digit?
78265
Few days back while attending a thesis defense, one Professor was asking the defender why does he think, he deserves the degree. I was wondering since then, is there really any general answer for that? or the answer should be given describing my own work and then emphasis them how it is important for research field?  I asked the question here to know your opinion about it and to list down what could be the possible answers to this question.
78022
I have a good GPA (over 3.5) from a top 5 CS school. I also have lots of research experience and a few publications. I also expect to have very good recommendations. The only problem is that I did badly on the GRE general exam (just under below average). The exam seems like a big scam, so studying for it felt like a waste of time.  One of JeffE's  mentions that schools filter applicants into three piles based on GPA and GRE: MAYBE, PROBABLY NOT, and NO. Will my GRE scores land me in the PROBABLY NOT pile, even though I have an otherwise excellent record?  Will my GRE hurt my chances of getting into CMU and Stanford? Should I try to retake them, even though it's getting late? Application deadlines are around December 13.  Edit: should I say something about my bad GRE scores in the statement of purpose, or do something else if I don't end up retaking them?
35066
I have recently passed my qualifiers and research proposal. My research is in computational mechanics. I had two courses (continuum mechanics and finite element method) as part of my research related courses. I will be using the concepts learnt in the courses in my research, though my research will be more applied than theoretical, so will involve utilizing a commercially available software and develop few additional routines for it.  Now, I scored B+ in both the courses (the minimum grade required for being eligible for qualifying exams was a B-). I struggled through few concepts but fared fairly well in the qualifiers and answered most of the questions asked by the committee.  However, I am concerned that my average grades might be an indicator that I might not be fit for the field I have chosen to build a career in. Now, I am confident that I will manage to adequately complete my PhD thesis and publish papers as required.   But, I am worried that academia is going to be a closed door for me. Eventually, if I get tenure track position after my PhD, I will have to teach these subjects (There's no teaching assistantship opportunities in my department for me), and how will I be able to teach something in which I fared poorly? Also, I will have to do theoretical research work after my phd, and I will not fare well in that. What should I do?
63474
I'm currently a junior in mathematics at UIUC. I have been doing pretty well in my math courses (mostly A and A+). I will be completing a graduate course in topology, a second course in abstract algebra, and a complex analysis course before I graduate.  I feel that I can work hard to maintain good grades in my math courses, but my non-math courses are not that good (some B and C's).    Do graduate schools care more about my math courses grades more or my general GPA more?  Will poorer marks in non-math courses hurt my chances of getting into good grad schools?
16459
I recently received my Mathematics GRE subject test score of 650 ( 48%). I know this score is miserable but in my country, I have the option to retake the GRE next year October only.  Assuming otherwise I have a strong profile (with achievements in other examinations in my country and some research experience ) Should I be reporting this score to universities where it is not mandatory (but highly encouraged) to submit Math subject GRE scores? I mean will this score weaken my application?  Before this score, I was thinking of applying to universities like Upenn, Penn State etc but feel really nervous about my admission prospects now..
25564
I know many master's students who get an opportunity to talk to their potential PhD advisors well before applying. In most cases this opportunity is available by the professors with whom they worked for their master's. Moreover, there are many others who establish a contact with professors by mailing them and enquiring about PhD vacancies.   My questions are:   How important is knowing an advisor prior to applying for PhD?  Does an email interaction play a vital role when the department makes its admit decisions? If email contact is important, can a student send out mails to 2-3 professors (working in the same area) in case one of them does not bother to reply? To sum up, is applying of any use (especially in top universities) when you have no contacts and only your credentials to bank on?
101255
Suppose multiple students have asked me for letters of recommendation to the same graduate department in the US. Am I expected to explicitly compare the students to one another? Am I supposed to do this in both letters (assuming they haven't been submitted yet)? Do I need to explicitly state a preference for one over the other, or can I just get away with listing relative strengths and weaknesses (for instance, "X is stronger academically, but Y has more research experience and is a stronger programmer")?
31833
I'm applying for graduate school (PhD in computer science), and I'm considering writing to faculty whose research areas match with what I intend to pursue, to understand:   Whether they'd be looking for new students at all in the coming year? If they did, would they be potentially interested in my profile (I know no-one would guarantee an acceptance without me going through the process of application), but it would help to know if they would not be interested at all in me - which would leave me  free apply to other schools in which I get a neutral/positive response.   Keeping the above in mind, what would be the best way to introduce myself in the first mail?   What should be the salutation - I know "Respected Sir" sounds archaic, but was wondering if "Dear Professor X" sounded too informal or not! Do I state my credentials (details of where I did my undergrads/masters) first, or do I state my purpose in writing to him/her? How to mention my background concisely, without giving too much details, while at the same time not "underselling" myself as a potential grad student? I want to give a link to my resume/profile hosted on my website - should I embed the hyperlink, or is it better to write the link in plain text? How do I end such a letter - the obvious ones (such as "see you soon" or "till we meet again") being not quite suitable in this case)?   I'm basically afraid of saying too much (causing vexation) or too little (resulting in no response to my missive). I understand that the faculty are accustomed to seeing their inbox flooded with such mails each year, few of which ever get a positive response - which may not always be due to lack of an interesting profile, but the manner in which the mail is worded (Many professors have explicitly mentioned on their websites that they would not respond to generic "Do you have funding" type of queries no matter what the credentials of the student are!).   Though my interest is specific to CS, I believe it would apply to other fields as well. Also, I would be interested in the opinions of both present faculty members (who have to sort through such mails), and past applicants to grad-school (who have the experience of successfully writing to their advisers before applying)...
46523
This question is inspired by answers and comments to the question  on this website.  Suppose that an applicant to a graduate program suffered from some mental health issues during the completion of his previous degrees, and that this situation had a noticeable impact on his academic performance (for example, significantly lower grades or part-time status for one or several semesters).  Most graduate school applications have sections dedicated to providing explanations for such special circumstances, and it is of course strongly recommended that any applicant with unusual drops in academic performance should mention something about this in the special circumstances section. Otherwise, the admission committee will be left to guess what might have happened, which is likely to decrease the odds of being admitted (indeed, it seems a consensus that the more tangible information an admission committee has about an applicant, the more confident they can be about the fact that admitting him will be a sound investment).  Many answers/comments to the question  seem to recommend being very careful about revealing details on one's mental health conditions, given that there is still a lot of stigma attached to mental health conditions. However, in the case of PhD applications, not mentioning anything is not an option.  This then leads to the following question: If not making any mention of health issues is not an option (such as in PhD applications), how much details should one go into? To avoid stereotyping associated to any particular disease (such as depression=unreliable, learning disability=not smart) one could limit the description to "health problem", but could this lack of details be seen as suspicious and/or still a situation where the admissions committee will have to do guesswork?
20911
Long story short, I have left behind a toxic PI and now I am considering applying for another labs at different demographic locations, however, I found it little bit harder to make a thorough decision. One of the challenges that hinders me to make a selection is different feedback from many students from different labs, I have asked them and there is their response as follows.   A star professor at a high ranking university:  One of his student told me he doesn't have time to manage the lab by himself and as a sequence, he hired postdocs to be intermediate between him and his students. In retrospect, the student informed that he had tried to leave the lab at the beginning, however, they continue and mentioning that he benefit from his PI's reputation. Adding that, he and other colleagues suffered from anxiety and chronic stress due to the demand of having highly quality research papers. Intermediate professor not very well: His student told me he is not qualified to work with students, but the student told me that she doesn't feel so much pressure on her research. Junior PI: I think it could be risky as I don't have any background about their supervision history. However, what makes interested to contact them as they did good research and we have the same passion for this research line which triggers me to contact them.   My previous experience with ex-PI, he was not junior and not star, but he did research for more than 14 years, however, he didn't help me in my research or even writing papers besides being abusive and very destructive person.  The question is : If am going to select the new PI which very critical decision, how I should consider these scenarios, for sure, I avoid PI in  the influence circle of the ex-PI as I have been advised before, but what are other key corners I should bear in my mind.  I know we cannot make sweeping generalization, however, I would like to hear from the academia community if your have any prior experience or recommendation I should consider to make a reasonable decision regarding the PI selection.
84677
According to Stanford's Computer Science graduate admissions department this year:     110 students were accepted. Nearly all accepted applicants were from Stanford (BS/MS), MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, Michigan, Texas, Washington, Tsinghua, and the other ivy leagues. About 10-20 were from non-top schools.   I am one of these 10-20. I go to a state college and our curriculum is imaginably not up to par with the elite schools.  I'm scared.  Did anyone experience the similar situation?  How would I prepare myself to hang with the smartest people in this Ph.D. process?  If you're a professor, how much does this affect you in choosing a Ph.D. student?
116845
There has been a lot of buzz about how difficult it is to achieve tenure, however, even getting into graduate school seems harder every day. My case (and the case of a lot of people too): I graduated early from school in a developing country and decided to study Biology with more passion than reason (low salaries compared to a Doctor or an Engineering). I completed in four years a five years Bachelor's in a top institution of my country, with some national awards, grants and scholarships. My GPA was among the best %5. I did research since my second year and established good relations with my Professors (their letters of recommendation are fine without bluff).   I applied to some MSc in Europe and US and got rejected the first time. I got the only available (bad paying) job until the next admission period. I lowered the stakes for my second round of applications and got rejected again. With two consecutive rejections, I am starting to think that I am ineligible for any graduate position. Especially considering that I have been off academia for two consecutive years. Why? A MSc in my country, even at a top school, has no international worth. Furthermore, it doesn't have worth in my own country as few positions are available.  I know I have weaknesses:   My college is top in my country, but almost unrecognized internationally. The awards I got have no international value. Although I was in that 5%, I had a harsh beginning. The first page of my transcripts has some bad scores (~2.8, lowest) along good ones (~4). That first page causes a bad impression. The extra course load is irrelevant for the admission committees. I specialized myself too much. While some students attest experience in three or more projects, I focused on one big project since the beginning. Few publications and conferences. In my country, there have been almost no conferences in my field in years and I cannot travel abroad for a presentation.   My future is staring to seem bleak: no job in my country, no graduate school abroad. Overall, I feel a complete failure in what I loved. What should a person in my position do? Should I try again or set new professional goals?
23085
I am a MA student who frequently works with undergraduates on projects. One student has asked me if I can write her a letter of recommendation for graduate school. Are there any risks to me submitting a letter, as opposed to her finding a faculty member (who likely would not be in the same field as her interests)? For graduate school applications how much does the position of the person writing a recommendation letter matter, as opposed to his/her academic familiarity with the student? I have already advised her to check with the programs she is applying to in case they have requirements.  Edit: I realize I left this unclear before-- she has two tenured professors willing to write letters. If I agreed to, I would be the third letter. The department is small, so there might not be too many options for an additional letter.
38135
I am a senior who is graduating in December with a Bachelor's Degree in Pure math. I would really love to apply to the PhD program. However, I have been really depressed because even though I have a good GPA (3.85), and I have gotten mostly A's in all of my math classes (I have taken math classes up to Topology, measure theory, and Algebra), I feel like this is not good enough since I have 8 W's [withdrawals--no grade given] on my transcript. The horrible part is that 6 of these W's are on math courses. All those W's occurred during my first year at my university. The second year up to now I haven't gotten any W's.  My question is: How horrible (by the Committee who selects candidates for the program) is a W seen on a transcript? Is there anything I can do about it?  I feel like I have a big hole on my transcript, and it has been chasing me throughout my undergrad years even though I managed to hide myself from this monster and continued to take a lot of math courses, earning A's (and two B's) in all of them.
121155
I've been considering applying to graduate school of some form or another in Mathematics. During my undergraduate years, I did decently on my undergraduate coursework (mostly A-s, some As, a B) but not stellar, and it wasn't until I started taking graduate courses as a senior that I started buckling down and getting solid As or higher. I also had no research experience at this time.  I eventually want to apply to a Ph. D program in pure mathematics. Since I didn't really click until later in undergraduate years, so I was considering applying to 2-year masters programs in mathematics, and then based on my performance there, decide whether I'm fit to work towards a Ph. D.      My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages to completing a master's program before applying to a separate Ph. D program?   I know masters degrees are sometimes considered terminal degrees. Would doing well in masters coursework be advantageous in applying to Ph. D programs later on as opposed to immediately after undergrad years? Does strong performance as a masters student make one a more attractive candidate, or do programs have less interest in applicants who already have a masters? Is it wiser to apply for a Ph. D directly? I'm sorry if this question is considered too much of a soft question. Thank you.