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OneOther
United States10774 Posts
On January 13 2010 11:49 Cloud wrote: Yes, because it still is not crappy. Being last place at the very top does not make you crappy. It's really up to interpretation but it's crappy in his standards, circumstances and goals. Why can't you let it be? | ||
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Slaughter
United States20254 Posts
On January 13 2010 11:49 Cloud wrote: Yes, because it still is not crappy. Being last place at the very top does not make you crappy. It does if it prevents him from getting accepted. Harvard med will have 1000000x with perfect academic records applying to it. Even the top people don't stand out to much so that is why he feels this way. I say to hell with it though and go for it and just give it your best shot. With strong test scores and good letters and essays or whatever else is required you could defiantly get in. | ||
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akevin
Canada120 Posts
On January 13 2010 11:49 Cloud wrote: Yes, because it still is not crappy. Being last place at the very top does not make you crappy. Well it depends on who you are comparing yourself too. Clearly OP is comparing himself to the very top, because not everyone is going to Harvard. Its like saying a GPA of 2 isn't crappy because there's still even lower people. Or even if you fail it can't be considered crappy because there are plenty of people that don't go to University. There will always be people in a worse situation than yourself so its all relative. People on this site are constantly flaming progamers for "crappy" play yet they are at the very top as well. Maybe "crappy" was a poor choice of words, and OP should have used something like "inadequate" but that's besides the point and I don't believe OP was making a veiled brag or trying to make people feel badly about their own marks. All people have their own expectations. I highly doubt people would start flaming Nony/Ret or whoever if he lost a game and said something like "I didn't play very well that game, it was pretty crappy" even though clearly his "crappy" could crush myself or the majority of the posters here. Sad that people always want to bash others when they are having greater success. Dunno why people can't just wish him luck in his endeavor. | ||
Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21242 Posts
On January 13 2010 12:47 akevin wrote: Sad that people always want to bash others when they are having greater success. Dunno why people can't just wish him luck in his endeavor. JEALOUSY RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE | ||
DivinO
United States4796 Posts
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
I think I worded a certain response poorly. I am sorry if I sounded like a dick. It's my fault and I apologize for being inconsiderate. Like many intelligent posters pointed out, I do not have the ideal grades for Harvard; this is why I am not happy with it (still that is no excuse for me to lash out and call my GPA 'crappy' ) . However, I am still in school so my GPA can still improve (as far as I know, last term I got 4.0 for all 4 courses I took; but those did not get averaged into my current cGPA yet). This is why I am pleadging myself now to go to Harvard because I still have considerable time to prepare before I send in my application. The actual plan involves: > Maintain 4.0 for the winter term; (and maybe take 1 summer course) > Do some research work with 1-2 professors (I am thinking probability theory and/or statistical genetics, whichever interests more at the time) > "pwnzzzor" my GRE; I won't have *too much* to do in summer so I will devote my time for GRE. > If I still have time after all of those, I will try to study for MCAT too. | ||
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starfries
Canada3508 Posts
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Cambium
United States16368 Posts
On January 13 2010 14:16 illu wrote: Alright guys. I think I worded a certain response poorly. I am sorry if I sounded like a dick. It's my fault and I apologize for being inconsiderate. Like many intelligent posters pointed out, I do not have the ideal grades for Harvard; this is why I am not happy with it (still that is no excuse for me to lash out and call my GPA 'crappy' ) . However, I am still in school so my GPA can still improve (as far as I know, last term I got 4.0 for all 4 courses I took; but those did not get averaged into my current cGPA yet). This is why I am pleadging myself now to go to Harvard because I still have considerable time to prepare before I send in my application. The actual plan involves: > Maintain 4.0 for the winter term; (and maybe take 1 summer course) > Do some research work with 1-2 professors (I am thinking probability theory and/or statistical genetics, whichever interests more at the time) > "pwnzzzor" my GRE; I won't have *too much* to do in summer so I will devote my time for GRE. > If I still have time after all of those, I will try to study for MCAT too. From what I know about my friends who got into HBS, they really care about: 1) internship experience (this is for their 2+2) 2) leadership experience HBS probably has a different set of judging criteria than its research programmes. I wish you the very best of luck, and please let us know how that goes  | ||
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On January 13 2010 14:52 Cambium wrote: From what I know about my friends who got into HBS, they really care about: 1) internship experience (this is for their 2+2) 2) leadership experience HBS probably has a different set of judging criteria than its research programmes. I wish you the very best of luck, and please let us know how that goes Business school is a professional school; their criteria are very, very difficult from an academic degree (PhD). | ||
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ero
United States66 Posts
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On January 14 2010 12:36 ero wrote: I'm a PhD student, and I can confirm that this thread is full of terrible advice. Can you offer some good advice then? Please? | ||
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KOFgokuon
United States14893 Posts
On January 14 2010 12:36 ero wrote: I'm a PhD student, and I can confirm that this thread is full of terrible advice. thanks for specific examples I'm sure that every program is EXACTLY like the one that you go to | ||
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ero
United States66 Posts
In the sciences, at least, graduate admissions is largely a crapshoot. Most programs get way more qualified applicants than they have room/funding for. The criterion used for selection from program to program varies; it even varies between years as the admissions committees (usually consisting of 3-4 professors) switch around. Some top programs don't distinguish between a 3.5 and a 4.0 -- GPA being a somewhat useless metric anyway, since a 3.5 at Harvey Mudd is worth a 4.0 at some grade-inflation schools (including Harvard). GRE score importance varies as well. A friend of mine is at Caltech doing his math PhD, and he got below a 50th percentile on his math GRE. Good for Caltech too, since the math GRE is undergoing an identity crisis as it tries to deal with score inflation from the Chinese score-whore automatons. Yet other programs will have strict cutoffs for GRE scores. The bottom line is this: graduate admission in the hard sciences is less formulaic than, say, med school. After a certain point, even if you're well qualified for a program, admissions can be a crapshoot. Good luck with Harvard, but keep an open mind and get a sense of other programs you might be interested in. If you're interested in biostats, maybe consider some computational biology programs, or even computational neuroscience, both "hot", exciting fields right now. | ||
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illu
Canada2531 Posts
On January 14 2010 13:57 ero wrote: Namely, the generalizations. In the sciences, at least, graduate admissions is largely a crapshoot. Most programs get way more qualified applicants than they have room/funding for. The criterion used for selection from program to program varies; it even varies between years as the admissions committees (usually consisting of 3-4 professors) switch around. Some top programs don't distinguish between a 3.5 and a 4.0 -- GPA being a somewhat useless metric anyway, since a 3.5 at Harvey Mudd is worth a 4.0 at some grade-inflation schools (including Harvard). GRE score importance varies as well. A friend of mine is at Caltech doing his math PhD, and he got below a 50th percentile on his math GRE. Good for Caltech too, since the math GRE is undergoing an identity crisis as it tries to deal with score inflation from the Chinese score-whore automatons. Yet other programs will have strict cutoffs for GRE scores. The bottom line is this: graduate admission in the hard sciences is less formulaic than, say, med school. After a certain point, even if you're well qualified for a program, admissions can be a crapshoot. Good luck with Harvard, but keep an open mind and get a sense of other programs you might be interested in. If you're interested in biostats, maybe consider some computational biology programs, or even computational neuroscience, both "hot", exciting fields right now. Which is why I am hoping to do more research in May - December. The ambigious plan for me is publish/co-publish a paper, but that is truly an ambigious plan it's not that easy right now. However, I might be able to get a position as a research assistant for biostatistics fairly easily. | ||
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Pathos
United States94 Posts
On January 14 2010 13:57 ero wrote: GRE score importance varies as well. A friend of mine is at Caltech doing his math PhD, and he got below a 50th percentile on his math GRE. Good for Caltech too, since the math GRE is undergoing an identity crisis as it tries to deal with score inflation from the Chinese score-whore automatons. Yet other programs will have strict cutoffs for GRE scores. While this is a good point, it matters what the context is. For an ASIAN MALE (sadly) candidate, perfect scores/extremely strong technical background is basically assumed. The crapshoot is that it is almost impossible to differentiate these candidates from one another. Your friend is clearly not an international applicant from an Asia (sadly people from those countries do not have the options available to make their applications strong like domestic candidates), otherwise I would be very skeptical of his admission. If main thing going for your application is that you're a score-whore, you better be one of the most attractive in the application pool. Also, Caltech's mathematics department is known to be idiosyncratic in these regards, especially if your friend attended HMC (West coast bias). | ||
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ero
United States66 Posts
On January 14 2010 14:02 illu wrote:Which is why I am hoping to do more research in May - December. The ambigious plan for me is publish/co-publish a paper, but that is truly an ambigious plan it's not that easy right now. However, I might be able to get a position as a research assistant for biostatistics fairly easily. That's good. I've always been under the impression that research experience is somewhat mandatory for the top programs. Keep in mind that there are dozens of "new ivies" -- small, elite liberal arts colleges -- in addition to the MITs and Princetons whose science departments are designed to give research experience to undergraduates. Students from those schools will be part of your competition. Don't discount the opportunity to take a year off to work in a lab after you graduate. | ||
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