Two questions:

>statement of purpose
actually pretty hard to write, but don't think you're exceptional by not being exceptional, most people are in your shoes. I would legitimately say if you really don't know why you entered your field, create some reason that is unable to be proven false (i was watching tv as a kid and saw blah blah blah)
>Second: How the fuck do you get letters of recommendation from professors?
fun fact, they dont all have to be professors, one of mine was from my retail boss of 4 years (7 years total working) and i know it was hugely beneficial because she's an excellent writer and would talk of my professionalism/punctuality/ability to work with all types of people far stronger than any professor would be able to. And it worked, I got into half of the programs i applied to.

Which field? Masters or PhD?

>Just want to explore unknowns in science
>To do so you have to compete for the privilege of participating in the most cutthroat rat-race of all

biochem PhD

Masters student in CS. I have 1 solid recommender, and 2 ok recommenders.

My research is pretty shit, as pretty much all of my projects were over ambitious, took months, and ended up failing, so I don't actually have any publications, although I at least have enough of paper trail to show I was doing something this whole time.

GREs are high, GPA is high. My school is essentially an unknown name, as are all of my recommenders. I will be applying to Machine learning and computational neuroscience focused groups for my PhD, do I even stand a chance?

>My research is pretty shit, as pretty much all of my projects were over ambitious, took months, and ended up failing, so I don't actually have any publications, although I at least have enough of paper trail to show I was doing something this whole time.
as long as you have any sort of research that's what matters, not necessarily success in the research, or publications (although obviously that will only help your chances)

yes you absolutely do stand a chance. My school and recommends were also "unknowns" but it doesnt really matter, what matters if that they are willing to vouch for your professionalism and willingness to go into a graduate program, as well as a bit of background information to make sure you're not a complete shitter.

you sound okay

How hard is the GRE? I'm not worried about the quantitative portion; I will be graduating with a math minor and feel I can handle that much. But the Verbal and Analytical portions are making me anxious. It's not that I'm a fucking retard when it comes to the English language or sperg out when writing essays, but it seems like absolute horse shit to test students on such subjective things. I understand the GRE only exists to Jew students out of as much money as possible before they go on to Grad School, but it still seems ridiculous. Perhaps I'm just letting my indignation at the concept cloud my judgement about it. I've studied the Verbal portion and it doesn't seem like it would be too hard, but then I won't actually know until after I've taken the tes.t

If it's of any importance I'm in the last year of my chem bachelor's and looking to apply for an economics PhD in the coming fall.

It's really easy.

It's a problem solving test, not a knowledge test.

I have 90th to 95th percentile GRE scores, but a mediocre 3.2 GPA and and some research I didn't finish due to a health crisis. Can I still get into a good graduate program?

Can I leverage the fact that I have an autoimmune disease that may or may not make me go blind for muh diversity points?

extremely easy, coming from a non math major (up to calc 2). the math is laughable comparison stuff, the verbal is much harder (tons of words that all have the same yet extremely subtly different meanings, im pretty fucking well read and didnt know a solid 25% of them). Writing section is mostly about ability to form an argument and typing speed.

I took it with intention to take it again, and the first time produced such a good result i was like "eh, fuck it".

GRE percentile is great, GPA wont matter as much with GRE like that propping it up. With strong letters of rec you should be a great candidate

I'm heavily aspergers, and have very awkward relationships with my professors. I feel very weird asking them for recommendations. What do?

Are you more talented than you are autistic, or are you more autistic than you are talented?

If the former, go for it. If the latter, use caution. I know that feel though.

Retired Prof here, first, read this:
princetonreview.com/grad-school-advice/statement-of-purpose
second: go to your primary prof and tell him what you are feeling as you wrote here. Profs are there to help students, and usually like to do so but, like you, can be withholding, unless asked.
third: ask your other profs for letters. It doesn't matter if you were there for just a semester. We have form recommendations for that.
Last: go over your statement again and again. If you will have a board, practice what you will say. Your primary Prof should help you if you ask. Just my 2c, that's how it woulds on the west coast.....

Wow why are you still on here? You gotta be like 70 years old.

Actually no, just old enough to be your daddy. Go to bed, you have school tomorrow. Make sure you read this first post on this thread. It's the closest you will get to grad school.

Bit off topic, but about applying to graduate school.

So , I'm now a sophomore in Physics in shit-tier unranked uni. I feel like I've wasted a lot of time in highschool/freshman years. If I go full-on berserk in my study for two years, what is really required to get into top/upper-level PhD program ? How common is it for undergraduates to get published ? And do you chances increase if you opt for Masters at your local uni ?

And also, can someone provide timeline for things needed to apply ? It's my understanding that you do GRE/Subject/REUs/all you research/connections before the fall semester of senior year. And, fuck, it feels like I already lack time to do that.

>tfw when top researchers in your field will write you LoR's to get into just about any school of my choosing.

>tfw no money for grad school.

Not that other guy, but so do I , are you in physics?

Grad school usually doesn't cost anything, especially in STEM. If you're an English major then sorry

Yes. About a semester's worth. Hopefully doing more this upcoming semester with a distinguished professor. Also did independent study over this summer.
Some good replies here all. Thanks.

Does it matter if your research isn't in the field you want to study?

I want to go to grad school for molecular bio, but did all of my undergrad research in physics.

Not OP, but what do I do if my college's physics department doesn't do #3, and only did a single summer internship?

Freshman year: Get good grades, start to become familiar with faculty. Ambitious students sometimes start doing research here.

Sophomore year: Start research here at the very least. It gives you a solid amount of time to get some work done and establish a relationship with a professor/mentor. Ask around your uni's physics department, meet with profs in person. It shows more dedication than sending emails en mass. Don't be disheartened- at my school many students wanted research positions and I got turned down like 4 times before I found a lab. Apply for REUs your sophomore year. At least 10. I had a mediocre gpa and still got into one, sometimes it's a matter of luck.

Junior Year: Do well in courses, continue steady research. If possible, do it for course credit. Helps bump up your gpa if your first few years were not stellar. Look into grad programs. Apply to REUs if you didn't get into any, or try to find if your institution has a summer research program. I would suggest doing research at your uni at least one summer, if it can be the same lab/project as your semester work. Really helps to have dedicated time to the lab outside of coursework.

Summer before Senior year: Look into programs more, assemble who will write letters, study for the GRE. Consider taking the subject test, depending on the program. Even if not required, if you do well on the GRE Subject test, it can show admissions that you still know your shit. Especially helps if your program is rather 'unknown'.

Senior year: Take the GRE either early in the semester or in mid-late summer. Prepare your statements. Have professors you trust help you edit it. Compile what programs you are applying to, their deadline, and any additional information into a spreadsheet. Send the information to your recommenders. This helps a lot.

your school doesn't have a research-based senior thesis? Are there any faculty that have undergrad research students, even if not for a thesis?

My professor has given me experimental research to do, but the equipment (whether it be Helmholtz coils or detectors, or crystal samples) keeps turning out to be too weak to get data, meaning I keep being given a new thing to experiment on.

Man did I fuck this up. Freshman-early Junior year I didn't do shit. Not because I was lazy, but because I just didn't know..

From what Ive heard, it is still good research because it shows that you can do it and have that experience, although having related research would be a smidge better

Gonna drop this link here

debarghyadas.com/writes/the-grad-school-statistics-we-never-had/

tl;dr: The average accepted applicant to a top 30 school has a 3.8 + GPA and a GRE in the 95th percentile.

*Top 20, not 30

>last year of my chem bachelor's and looking to apply for an economics PhD in the coming fall.

You can just completely change fields for your PhD?

can tell you're lying since stem grad school is paid for

Numbers like those are why I won't even bother.

It's possible. Anything is possible if you are well enough liked and have good social skills.

You don't have to go to a top 20 school. You could go to a decent state school with average stats.

I'm in a top 20 and have no where near those stats.

It's all about research experience and letters of recommendation.

What about the Putnam Exam? Does that help for math majors?

Why bother? To become a top of the line researcher coming from a state school is vastly, vastly more difficult.

Anything remotely like this for top European institutions?

I'd like to see what it would take to get a position over there.

That attitude is what got you the mediocre grades in the first place, user

You can try gradcafe

No, I'm entering the IST school this year

>Why bother doing something if you aren't going to be the literal best and do groundbreaking work and get a wikipedia page named after you for it?

This is why you have no motivation and are mediocre

Grades aren't take bad, just not 3.8+. First two years of college were terrible though, for family reasons.

Someone got accepted to TUM with a 3.28, how is that possible? I though they were very competitive.

Could be a different country's system. Could be unfunded. Could be a liar. Use your imagination.

I'm one of the top students of my class and have a good relationship with a lot of my professors but i'm too shy to ask them stuff like this, what do?

grow a pair and ask

Cut your own dick off and give it to them as a peace offering.

"yo, prof, write me a letter?"

Literally sufficient.

ask them to discuss grad school with you for half an hour. Most PhD's love to give advice and talk about their experience. Ask them how easy/hard it was for them, what they would do differently, get their opinion on your application plans etc.

Then ask towards the end of the conversation if they would be willing to write a reference letter. Don't freak out if they say no, just accept whatever answer they give.

a grad statement of purpose is just that: a statement of PURPOSE
it is not an undergrad essay
if you have no clear idea why you're pursuing the subject you're pursuing, and where you're pursuing it to, and you have no ability charisma or ability to "bullshit," then why the fuck are you applying to grad school (for a PhD i'm assuming, masters are much less stringent)?

i mean you CAN do science on your own, no one is stopping you
but you're going to need the capital to finance a lab and some incredibly expensive equipment unless you're doing something like math (in which case the necessary background knowledge alone will be enough of a barrier for you)

so yeah, if you want someone else to let you play with their fancy toys you're going to need to prove to them you're worth the time and risk

by the way, i got into an ivy league grad school in my field for a phd coming from a literal no-name shit-tier undergrad and i'm no genius by far
so it's not impossible, you just need to have a clear goal in mind or at least give the impression that you do

same guy

Just to share my experience and vent for anyone listening
I'm starting applications to PhD programs now.

I have a BS in physics and a MSc in photonics (studied in the UK). I got my MSc in 2013 and have been working since then in two photonics related positions, one at a very well-known goverment lab with very well-known scientists for the last 2.5 years.

I took the GRE once and aced the verbal (97) but did shit on Math (73) b/c I took the test directly adjacent to a construction site where people were jackhammering during the math section. I was so mad about that that I've refused to re-take the test and give the GRE-jew more money.

I also had a pretty shit undergrad GPA (3.22), but I had the highest grade in my MSc class.

I applied to PhD programs immediately after my MSc and had no idea why I was doing it. This, combined with my lack of accomplishments and shitty reference letters, got me into only one shit-tier school and I decided to just go to work and try to keep the PhD dream alive. I started out at a company that manufactures laser products, where I was underemployed. After 9 months I landed a sort of dream-job where I conduct research alongside PhDs and do all of the technical tasks that a post-doc or early career scientist would do.

At my most recent job I have published 5 papers, presented at 2 major conferences, and have co-authored 2 patent applications. I have also made direct connections with professors at some very high-ranking universities (I live in the Boston area, take a few guesses).

In regards to the the statement of purpose: Hopefully you know why you're applying to a certain grad school. You should have a general idea of what you want to research and who you might do it with. I didn't when I first applied. Now I know very well where my talents lie and what I plan to do. Having a sense of direction formed over 4 years was a big help to me and I will try to capture that in my statements of purpose.

What'd you do to get in? Are you a white male?

nice to know you're not going to amount to anything in life instead of actually applying yourself and perhaps becoming a footnote in history

>below 3.8
>not bad
you're joking

if you can get a non-zero score that's good enough to put on a fucking résumé
so yes, it's worth it to at least try
it's also super fun

i'm a white """hispanic""" but from what i've observed good grad programs don't give a shit about diversity quotas since at least 70% of the other students were chinks and a good chunk of the rest were pajeets
there were more blue eyed aryans in my program than fellow spics

i'm a great writer, did a summer REU and presented a posterboard based on my research, and earned two bachelors. apart from that i don't think i was really anything special.
3.70 GPA and 99% GREs (except the writing GRE because literally who cares about that garbage)

oh btw of course i'm male

99% is impressive. Intensive studying?

nah, the GRE wasn't that hard it was basically like the SAT

I was an ACT man myself. Fucking hated the SAT

>t.grade inflation

>tries to claim he doesn't have shit grades despite being a low-energy faggot with no motivation
>brags about a sub 3.8 GPA
so you're low IQ as well?

i never took the ACT, always wondered what it was like but i never felt the need since the SAT went by so smoothly (after the third attempt)

With all those unfounded assumptions and failures to comprehend basic English I'd be tempted to ask you the same. Regardless, that's not even the point. At no decent institution sans significant grade inflation is a 3.8 the cut-off for "good."

Took it once compared to the three times I took the SAT. Thanks for the advice user

no prob user, 頑張って!

you're right, the cutoff is around 3.9
god you're pathetic and delusional; good luck getting accepted literally anywhere (except you won't because you don't even have the will to apply)

cont'd

When writing a statement of purpose you should give the impression that you have a plan, even if it's partial.

For me the structure might look like this

1. My background:
Where did I go to school?
Why were my undergraduate grades marginal at best?
Have things turned around and why?

2. My 4 years after school
What have I accomplished since then?
What about my work has made me want to go back to school for a PhD?

3. What I plan to do at this school
Why this school in particular?
What can I contribute?
What specific topics would I be interested in?

4. What I plan to do afterwards, assuming I end up with PhD degree
Industry, Goverment, or academia?
This is a bullshit cliche question that every grad school admissions department expects you to answer. For most people including me, the answer is "I'm not sure and I want to explore that while I'm doing a PhD." However, the real questions that they should be asking (and you should be answering) are
"If you could tailor your PhD experience to a certain 'deam-job' what would that job be and what would be the necessary experience to get that job?" Here you might say "I want to become a highly capable theorist and work on basic science problems that are found in academic departments" or "I would like to work in a national lab on practical engineering problems, so I plan to emphasize technical skills" and elaborate from there. Even if it's a completely hypothetical plan that you may never follow, just write a potential career path for yourself so they know you can think a decade or so into the future. It's not like they'll require you to follow that plan when you're admitted

cont'd
Another question to answer is
"Given that you are studying [major] and specializing in [focus], in what professional environment do you expect that the most opportunities will lie, and what are those opportunities?"
My specialty is in photonics, and this field is rapidly transitioning from academia to industry and government as it becomes less scientific and more engineering-based. So I'll probably say I will look into these areas because of the potential impact that commercialization and refinement of this sort of technology can make.

Hopefully this helps.

Kek, you're cracking me up. Post some more gold

I'm that guy I don't know why, but I thought you take GRE somewhere in junior year or pre-senior year, apply somewhere in the the middle of the senior year, get accepted in spring, get you Bcs and then start PhD in the fall of the same year. But, what you saying is that you only start it next year ? Or do apply for like a spring semester ?

Can someone confirm what he is saying ? Sorry, I might be retarded.

>How the fuck do you write a statement of purpose? (for grad school)
Be specific in what you want to accomplish in your field, and why proceeding to a PhD program would be the best means for you to do what you want to accomplish. You don't need to write a fairy tale about how you fell in love with science as a child or some nonsense. You can talk about a class or research experience that lit a fire in you in undergrad. Regardless of what it was, it was something that led you to the path that you're on.

>How the fuck do you get letters of recommendation from professors?
You need PhDs to testify to your abilities and potential as a researcher. Do you have research advisors? Collaborators? PhD-level staff scientists or PhDs in industry R&D that you've worked with? Those letters go farther than letters from professors about your abilities in the classroom -- in graduate school you are judged on your research, not your coursework.

>Does it matter if your research isn't in the field you want to study?
Depends on the field.

>I want to go to grad school for molecular bio, but did all of my undergrad research in physics.
That's a jump that you'll be able to make easily. In fact, I'd bet that professors would be very interested in you given your background. Biomedical research is becoming more and more quantitative, and a degree in physics or math will serve you well. You could apply to biophysics or bioinformatics or other quantitative biology programs; your background would fit well with most applicants. If you applied to more traditional biochemistry or molecular/cellular biology programs, your application would stand out coming from a physics background.

what's it like knowing that 20 year olds on the internet can call you a cuckold and get away with it, mr professor

My main reason for looking at grad school now is the following: I love learning and I don't want to stop learning physics at the undergraduate level, a level that just touches the surface of what the field has to offer.

better than mine OP, i just hate normie conversation and normie activities and wanted to limit my exposure to them. Literal ivory tower reasons, it's sad

Actually, you don't always have to get them from professors. They're good go-to's, but not the only place for a letter of rec. If you know important or interesting people, it can suffice based on what they do/did. Also, you really only need two or three.

My former store owner worked for the CIA and relatively recently had his funsies with Cuba's banking infrastructure declassified. He wrote me a letter based on my time working as a wageslave at his store and how hard I worked, what kind of person I am, examples of my diligence, etc.

My other came from my professor who I did and am doing research for currently. This is the best place to get a letter--some research. If you have research experience, you're fine.

For the statement of purpose, you just have to fake it 'til you make it. Awaken your inner Trump and boast about how great and fantastic everything is. Positivity gets people in a good mood.

For the recommendations. The profs know you will need them. Give them something to write about. If you are rich, just go to the same fund raiser dinner event thing as they do, and save them from boring people and make them look good in front of their friends. (i.e. kiss ass) Get to know them. Tell them briefly about your plans. Alternatively just bribe them. (good tickets to a game) And the less work they have to do the better. Write them a draft (or a list of things to put in your recommendation (do not assume they remember you))

that's a terrible reason to go to grad school for a PhD
grad school is much more about getting ready to engage in research than in taking classes and learning new things; if you can't show that you have the initiative or desire to do research you don't stand a good chance of either getting into a good school or surviving in a good program if you do manage to get in
your statement of purpose will reflect this

seriously reconsider your ambitions and if you can't come up with a better reason to go to grad school then reconsider your future
you can always study a subject on your own if you're actually that interested, and if you're not then you probably wouldn't have done well in grad school anyways

>99% GREs
that's actually literally impossible on the current GRE. perfect quant score is 96th right now. I got 168/170 (1 or 2 questions wrong) and that's 94th

jesus christ don't listen to this faggot holy christ
don't try to bribe your professors and don't try to kiss their ass
do well in your professors' classes, take an interest in their research, and try to build a genuine connection with them unless you want to be a faggot like this guy

got a 99 on the literature and a 9-whatever on the math; can't be arsed to go recheck my scores
the point being that the GREs are just a retard litmus test; show that you have a pulse and it really isn't all that important
by far the most influential parts of my getting accepted were my past research, my statement of purpose, and my letters of rec

keep in mind this was a couple of years ago; don't know if the GRE has changed at all since then

still an undergrad here, literally got my scores this morning. i've heard a lot of adcoms literally only look at your GRE scores once as part of initial filtering, then they never look at it again

not doubting/challenging you, they keep changing it. the huge amount of international STEM students just obliterated the curve

>i've heard a lot of adcoms literally only look at your GRE scores once as part of initial filtering, then they never look at it again
this is largely correct for general GRE scores and even for subject scores to a fair extent
I'm speaking from the POV of math and theoretical comp sci grad programs, but i think people put a bit too much emphasis on GRE scores; as long as they're not below 90 percentile i think you have more important things to worry about

for reference i took my general GREs twice, and from checking my scores just now i improved 10 points on my quant and 5 on my lit

turns out i only got an 85 percentile on my quant by the way, which i think just goes to show how little admissions committees really care about it

good luck though, user
where are you applying and for what subject?

computer """science""" junior. hopefully will do an REU next summer
i'm probably going to fall for the machine learning meme like literally everyone else