Low GRE scores and GPA...the path to ivy league?

Graduate School
101

<p>StrangeLight,</p>

<p>The lines are definitely blurred, I guess in a way similar to IT and CS, depending on the country and institution.</p>

<p>As mentioned previously, I did not mean to say I had sufficient course preparation for AH, only for CS. WilliamC explained the place of a terminal MA quite well to me, and I did not realise this is what I had, due to the term not being used in Australia.</p>

<p>I am certainly far more interested in an archaeology/anthropology degree than a history degree, and apologise for the confusion. Again, this is due to fields being blurred in some cases, and my study of my MA in AH, actually incorporating a lot of archaeology and anthropology subjects. </p>

<p>When you say:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Are you saying, with already possessing a terminal MA, and getting vastly improved GRE scores and proper LOR’s, that I could still only gain access to a terminal program? What is the point of this, if a terminal program cannot lead to a PhD?</p>

<p>You have said modern languages are necessary for archaeology/anthropology, how necessary would you consider ancient languages such as Latin to be? If they are not strictly required, will my having studied them work in my favour?</p>

<p>I do appreciate your advice, and I have already started taking. My plans at the moment are to:</p>

<p>First, determine which field I will pursue a PhD in, and then study the necessary classes. eg calculus for cs, languages for anthro.</p>

<p>Ace the GRE. Six months of study etc, whichever. I am not worried about this, and confident in my ability to do so. I am more than willing to put in the effort, and more than capable of getting a good result.</p>

<p>I have emailed my previous supervisors and asked about the possibility of a LOR, and if this is not possible, will make sure to formulate relationships from now on.</p>

<p>One important question: should I cancel my current GRE scores, if I am still able to do so?</p>

<p>I do appreciate your advice, and thank you once again.</p>

<p>WilliamC,</p>

<p>Sorry for not being clear, but that is the program I have just completed. The problem, is due to being a distance student, I have a limited selection in the courses I can take. I desperately tried to do research and languages, as well as fieldwork, but all these were not available to me. I ended up being able to do Latin however. I was unable to Greek unfortunately.</p>

<p>I’m actually living in Germany now, and have been for the past year. I probably should have taken advantage of this, but was far to busy with work(Where people speak english) and study, and underestimated the importance. I will however take a graduate course as you suggest.</p>

<p>Just how useful is my terminal MA that I have received? Is it basically equivalent to the one I was interested in at Cornell? Is it quite similar to a post-baccalaureate certificate, as is mentioned in the student profile momwaitingfornew posted?</p>

<p>tx2000,</p>

<p>I don’t think I can do that. I can list many courses that don’t mention calculus as a requirement on their website, but this will not be sufficient for you. Do you really think every single graduate program in the US, Masters or PhD require calculus?</p>

<p>I am sure this is the type of comment some have taken as me disputing peoples advice or feeling like I deserve to get admitted, which is not the case, at all.</p>

<p>plscatamacchia,</p>

<p>Thanks for your post :)</p>

<p>My undergraduate GPA is indeed terrible, but quite a few people have mentioned my graduate GPA’s may be sufficient to overcome this. I have also read that admissions committees may be willing to exclude certain subjects if there is a good enough reason. IN any event, I will not let it stop me from trying.</p>

<p>With due respect, I don’t think I am being selective with the conversions. People are telling me my graduate GPA’s are not special, and I know this to be wrong, which means the scores I gave in my original post must have been wrong. As such, when people continue to ignore that after I explained it, they are wrong.</p>

<p>I also don’t think I have ‘bashed’ people for saying an IT degree translates to a CS degree. Indeed, most people have been saying the exact opposite, and I was pointing out the fields can often be blurred. </p>

<p>Likewise, even in the US, this can be the case, perhaps to a lesser extent. An IT degree is often a full bachelor degree. I often frequent the site slashdot.org for news, which is a well known site in the IT industry. Quite often there are long posts on that site about the differences between IT and CS in the states, and all are full of good examples showing what I am saying to be correct. I would be happy to find some if you like.</p>

<p>With respect to point 33, it’s not nonsense. As I have stated, I have done a lot of CS coursework. With due respect, what is your experience in CS? If you are so sure it is nonsense, perhaps you could provide me with an example of calculus being necessary to illustrate a very common CS principle?</p>

<p>I have already admitted my GRE scores are low. If you had read every post, you would know that I have not been disputing this in the least, and acknowledged from the first few pages that my scores are not sufficient to gain admission.</p>

<p>I understand that I need to study longer for the GRE.</p>

<p>I am not sure where you got the impression that I have “who-cares” LOR’s. As I have said, and which you should know from reading all the posts, I have outstanding LoR’s from people in the industry, and none from people in academia, due to not having any close relationships with lecturers as a consequence of my study mode.</p>

<p>I’m glad you took the GRE as a joke(you must have a bit of money to play around with. How nice.) and managed to get higher than me. Unfortunately due to circumstances in my personal life, I missed out on a fair bit of highschool education. I don’t intend to let this hold me back, and it has not so far.(Well obviously it has for my GRE scores, but not career wise)</p>

<p>My main desire is to study in the states. If I wanted to live in the states, I already have options available to obtain an E3 visa and work there. As stated previously, I have lived in the states previously. With due respect, everyone telling me my grad school GPA’s are not special are not in a position to know. Exactly what are they basing their opinion on? I have 6’s and 7’s on a 7 point scale. I was on the deans list. My scores are far above average. Honestly, where are you drawing your conclusions from?</p>

<p>You say you are not trying to be insulting, but I am having a hard time seeing this. Exactly what is your experience to draw to the conclusion that Australia’s Upper Level education is not reputable? We have some of the best academic institutions in the world. Have you ever heard of the Group of Eight? Seriously, check your facts before shouting your mouth of. My grades may not translate well to the US system if US rules are applied. However, many institutions from what I have read will ask for the grading scale and use that, so conversion is not even necessary.</p>

<p>Again, your jumping to conclusions. Once again, My MA degres are special in terms of grade. If you think they are not, please explain why. Why do yo think you are qualified to make the judgement that I have no idea what I want to do? Would you make that same judgement of anyone with a bachelors and minor research masters in one field, and a terminal ma in a different field? If so, that is a serious flaw in your way of thinking, and all the more reason the US should place more of an emphasis on teaching critical thinking.</p>

<p>And, your final paragraph shows that you have not read every post, at all. I understand exactly how challenging a PhD is, and this is a large part of why I want to do it. Many posters have drawn their own conclusions, and so their output is not terribly useful. Quite a few posters have actually listened to what I said, and I now have excellent advice, a better understanding, and have a much better idea of what I need to do to accomplish my goals.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to be insulting here, but your post just comes across as wanting to put in your own 2c, despite repeating what most people were saying at the start of the thread, with your goal being to make yourself look better by diminishing me. If that is not the case, then I apologise.</p>

<p>plscatamacchia,</p>

<p>According to your second post, you did not actually take the GRE, but a practice test. Well, I scored substantially higher on the practice test as well. How did you do on the actual test?</p>

<p>gooberyglobs,</p>

<p>Where are you getting the impression that I don’t want to study AH/anthro? I want to be actively researching and coming up with new theories and a better understanding. Simply reading other peoples discoveries is not sufficient for me. Likewise, I hope one day to teach students and author papers. I am most certainly interested in an academic career.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to brag here, but I am sure many posters will take this the wrong way. Regardless
I have an excellent memory. I also have an excellent grasp of language, I think I am much stronger with language than maths. I disagree with you that the vocabulary is AH related. I have a PDF file which is a dictionary of all the words in the practice tests and questions with the powerprep software. Most of these words are not necessary to know for the field of AH/anthro
</p>

<p>I am certainly reflecting on a lot of things, and will end up making the right decision, I am sure.</p>

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<p>I don’t have much time but I’ll address a few parts:</p>

<p>“If you are so sure it is nonsense, perhaps you could provide me with an example of calculus being necessary to illustrate a very common CS principle?”</p>

<p>A few things my friends who all graduated last year cum laude to summa, they’d know a bit more than myself:</p>

<p>“There are many problems that are easier to solve in the continuous domain (using methods such as linear programming, Lagrangian relaxation). For example, placing gates and routing wires on circuits is much easier to do continuously, even though the circuits are actually discrete. These methods tend to use methods from calculus/analysis.”</p>

<p>Trajectory Calculations
FFTs (fast fourier transforms)
Image processing
Filtering (audio, video, photo)
radar processing
Any type of simulation of the physical world</p>

<p>Sure, pure CS you’ll find graph theory (used all over the place), set theory, combinatorics, logic, probability theory, and all that kind of stuff, but Calculus is definitely needed on a transcript to compete. Limits (asymptotic behavior, etc.) are also useful. </p>

<p>I can probably think of a few more with more thought</p>

<p>“I’m glad you took the GRE as a joke(you must have a bit of money to play around with. How nice.) and managed to get higher than me. Unfortunately due to circumstances in my personal life, I missed out on a fair bit of highschool education.”</p>

<p>Money had nothing to do with it. Anyone with a minimum wage job could have afforded the test. And to your missing of some HS education
Sorry you had personal problems, but your lack of basic high school fundamental education further backs up that you couldn’t jump into the coursework. </p>

<p>“You say you are not trying to be insulting, but I am having a hard time seeing this. Exactly what is your experience to draw to the conclusion that Australia’s Upper Level education is not reputable? We have some of the best academic institutions in the world. Have you ever heard of the Group of Eight? Seriously, check your facts before shouting your mouth of.”</p>

<p>Well I don’t need to check my facts, but you can check mine for me. Last time I checked only the Australian National (or maybe Melbourne) was in the world rankings for top 100 universities while something like 44 were from the US. Since you say you have attended a distance program I am guessing neither of those are your alma mater. THOSE are the universities Australian students attend and follow it up with a jump to a US top tier program.</p>

<p>“Would you make that same judgement of anyone with a bachelors and minor research masters in one field, and a terminal ma in a different field? If so, that is a serious flaw in your way of thinking, and all the more reason the US should place more of an emphasis on teaching critical thinking.”</p>

<p>Of course not. I would make that judgement of someone with the idea they are going to try to complete either a PhD in CS or AH.</p>

<p>“eg calculus for cs, languages for anthro.”</p>

<p>Wow I just saw you also said this before you addressed me. So here you admit you may need learn these things for the first time (without scanning all the posts again) and then later on in your post you challenge me to give you examples?</p>

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<p>plscatamacchia,</p>

<p>Some points.</p>

<p>Terms such as alma mata, cum laude etc, while applicable in the US, have little or no meaning in most other countries such as Australia. The terms are meaningless.</p>

<p>You’ve give specific research areas where calculus may be necessary. As I said, it will not be necessary for an MA course, and while I am willing to accept it may be necessary for a PhD, I think it would depend on your area of research.</p>

<p>Your arrogance continues on here, with thinking that a lack of HS education is somehow indicative of not being able to jump into coursework. You people who keep saying this, just can’t accept the fact I have already completed substantial coursework, and research.</p>

<p>I think you are also estimating how much the cost of the test is to people on minimum wage. If it was as insignificant an amount as you claim, I doubt ETS would have a need to offer a 50% reduction in price for people working part time. You say you have a parent in academia
you’ve obviously grown up with a bit of money, which has probably contributed to your being out of touch with reality.</p>

<p>So your making that judgement of me because I have not decided which of the two fields I am passionate about I would like to complete a PhD in and dedicate many years of my life to? People have to make hard decisions all the time. This just shows your arrogance, that you think you are in a position to pass judgement over others without having all the necessary info.</p>

<p>As for the ranking of universities, well now that depends. Are you talking about the universities overall? Per specific departments? Based on undergraduate education or postgraduate research? Purely education or the overall ‘student’ experience? You were probably getting your information from the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which is not applicable to this discussion in the least. You may want to look at other rankings, such as THE-QS World University Rankings which has quite a few uk and an Australian uni in the top 20. I’m not disputing for a second the quality of education in the US, but it is very naive of you to dismiss the state and significance of Australia’s universities.</p>

<p>I never disputed that I did not need calculus to be competitive, just that it is not required/necessary, especially for an MA program. If I have high GRE scores and decent LOR’s from my lecturers, I would be sure I could gain admission to most midlevel MA courses in CS in the states. Not a top10 or ivy university of course
</p>

<p>Honestly, it is plain from your post that I was correct. You have little interest in actually giving advice, so much as berating me to make yourself look better, by reiterating what was already covered in the thread at the beginning. Well done.</p>

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<p>Josh,</p>

<p>“Alma mater” translates to something like “mother school” (me no speaky Latinish), and generally refers to your undergrad institution, or occasionally to the institution granting your highest degree.</p>

<p>Cum Laude means “with honors” with varying requirements for the honor, applicable only to bachelors degrees. Magna cum laude and suma cum laude are progressively higher versions of the same. At my undergrad school the three designations meant top 12%, 6%, and 2% respectively.</p>

<p>As an additional comment on the “high school” and calculus comments, you may be right - schools vary considerably, and you may be able to find schools willing to overlook these shortcomings. Most will not. Schools are very picky about their PhD recipients, and the series of qualifying and final exams and defenses include tests on your “general qualifications” in your field. You may have difficulty stepping through these as you currently seem to stand. This expectation does not exist for masters candidates - you could easily get through a masters program with significant education gaps provided they were not directly involved in your studies.</p>

<p>I do agree with you on the relative costs of the exams and materials - they can be daunting for many people, although most on this forum would call them well worth the cost. However, macchia’s parent may not have done well financially. With my undergraduate degree in engineering I was offered starting pay on par with full professors of the arts and humanities at my undergrad. And it took them around 20 years to get to that lofty rank. Entering tenure track professors there make ~40k USD/year.</p>

<p>The perception of arrogance on your part is closely related to your as yet apparently inadequate preparation, coupled with your repeated insistence on a double PhD. I think most if not all of the respondents so far share this perception.</p>

<p>Rankings
 what a mess. There are no good rankings, and THE-QS is widely disputed. The best way perhaps to tell is to see where people go. How many people travel across the world to go to Australian universities because of their academic excellence? Ivy League, Oxbridge, MIT and such all boast huge international communities who sacrificed everything for the opportunity. There are other schools that share this and other distinctions, but they are disproportionately represented by the US. I am not aware of any Australian schools very high up.</p>

<p>Another check is for individual fields - when people talk about the top researchers, where are they?</p>

<p>What is your strategy for getting high GRE’s and decent LOR’s? How will you address your GRE history in your SOP, because they WILL see it and wonder? One bad GRE is a fluke, two are telling, and a couple of low scores followed by a high one scream out “beating the game” instead of “knowledgable person.”</p>

<p>Your LOR’s ARE largely worthless. The only reason schools accept for non-academic LOR’s is if you are so far removed from school that no one will remember you. After 2-3 years out of school get a work reference, after 5-10 get a second, and if it has been 15 years, go ahead and get all three. If you have attended school in that period, why can no one speak for you? Especially if you did research? It looks awful.</p>

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<p>Josh: I understand that you’re interested in an academic career. Your obsession with getting a PhD makes that clear. I just don’t think you see what “active research and coming up with new theories” in AH really consists of. What qualifies you to pooh-pooh the theories of Historians X, Y, and Z and posit your own if your ignorance of languages prevents you from examining the work X, Y, and Z have done with the primary sources – let alone examining the primary sources yourself? You’re utterly dependent on other people’s work in translating and interpreting the primary sources, yet you say “reading other people’s discoveries is not sufficient for you”? PhD programs set up those minimum language requirements for a reason: you simply can’t do scholarship at a high level without them.</p>

<p>I don’t know how representative the first thing that popped up on google (<a href=“https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/vocab/gre_vocab.htm[/url]”>https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/vocab/gre_vocab.htm&lt;/a&gt;) is of what you’re looking at, but I went down that vocab list and found 3 out of one or two hundred (didn’t count them) that I couldn’t define precisely. The fact that I’ve gotten all my knowledge from reading in the humanities and social sciences seems to support my assertion that many of these words are in fact used in those contexts. Especially because, unlike you, I am not gifted with an excellent memory. Even calling mine “good” would be generous – I often need to encounter a new word two or three times to batter its precise definitions into my head permanently. Immediate utility aside, I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to expect anyone called “doctor” due to their work in humanities or SS to be fairly well read.</p>

<p>I’m sure you’ll make the choices that are right for you, and I wish you the best of luck.</p>

<p>PS: “Alma mater” means “nourishing mother”. An “alumnus” is a “nursling”.</p>

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<p>I am really getting tired of defending myself, from people who have only made assumptions without reading my posts. Not the case with you cosmicfish, just saying.</p>

<p>cosmicfish,</p>

<p>I am aware of the latin terms used within the US, but was merely pointing out they tend to be used mainly in the states. They are not used in Australia, or the UK, or, AFAIK, Canada for example.</p>

<p>I agree with you regarding what you said about calculus and the prices of exams. Because it is basically what I have been saying, although perhaps not as clearly as you did. macchia’s parent may well not have done well financially. I certainly hate to make assumptions, but his dismissal of the cost of the test was
misconceived at best.</p>

<p>I also have to stress, I am not insisting on a PhD. I have said I would like to get two PhD, but this is in my lifetime. I am young. If I complete one PhD by 30, Perhaps one day I would like to complete a second one by 50 or 55, which I don’t think is unreasonable considering how much things may have changed by then. In any event, a few pages back, I agreed it made far more sense just to focus on one.</p>

<p>I agree with you that rankings are a mess, but strongly disagree that how far people go is a valid metric. Australia has about 20 million people, and is far, far away from everything else. Our universities are not crowding the top 10(which is partly due to their smaller size, at least in part), so why would people travel that far, when they have better universities in their own hemisphere? Likewise, we have a great many people coming from India and Asia to Australia to study, preferring it over the US, likely because it is closer. I think a great metric is contributions to the academic community, new and innovative research done etc, and Australian universities are quite high as far as this goes.</p>

<p>My strategy for the GRE, is to find out if I can cancel my last score, and then to study for about 6 months, purchasing a book, and doing many of the practice tests with the software. I have emailed my previous lecturers to try and get decent LOR’s, and will wait to hear back from them.</p>

<p>I conceded that my LOR’s are worthless, I have only been pointing out that I had thought it was impossible to get decent LOR’s due to not having a relationships with my lecturers due to my mode of study. My research supervisor never met me, and because Australia does not have the same principle as needing LOR’s from academics, he will not understand the significance and importance of my request(assumption on my part, based on a previous experience). I will await his email however. Hopefully I can get at least a paragraph from one of my lecturers.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input, I hope I’m not coming of as ungrateful, because I certainly am.</p>

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<p>gooberyglobs,</p>

<p>I appreciate your input, and respect your view, but have to disagree. I understand I am “coming off” a certain way on this forum. I can assure you, I do understand what an academic career in AH consists of. As I have stated many times previously, I also understand the importance of needing languages. Where have I disputed them?</p>

<p>I used that vocab list in my studying, and barely any of the words were actually on the practise tests or questions in the software.</p>

<p>This is one of the lists I was using for the test, which I found to be quite accurate. It had almost every word that was in a question in the list.
<a href=“http://www.postech.ac.kr/~gla/gre/us/33new_scram.txt.pdf[/url]”>http://www.postech.ac.kr/~gla/gre/us/33new_scram.txt.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I would not say that most were specific to AH, or necessary for AH more than any other field in any way.</p>

<p>I agree, anyone capable of receiving a PhD should be exceptionally well read, and I feel that I am, at the moment, at least better than average. I would think my score of 6.0 of analytical helps demonstrate this, as otherwise I would have just received a 5 or 5.5 based on my arguments. The reason I fell down, I believe this time, is focusing more on maths, and not having enough time to learn the vocabulary. Unfortunately, I had already paid for my test, and did not want to lose the opportunity to take it.</p>

<p>Many thanks for your input though. When this thread is finally over
, I plan to come back in a year or so and let people know how I went, depending on who will be here.</p>

<p>Anyhoo, thanks for your input :)</p>

108

<p>I had some time to waste so I read through some of this thread. It is hilarious. </p>

<p>Do you really believe he could not afford a $20.00 gre prep book? </p>

<p>Josh kept saying he miscalculated his GPA and left it at that. He never bothered to calculate his “correct” GPA. Do you think that might have been because his goal was to confuse you as much as possible?</p>

<p>Josh has two Masters degrees and not a single person he could get even a minimal reference from. Does that really make any sense?</p>

<p>Josh kept saying the same thing over and over no matter what the advice. He was being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Do you think he really cared about your advice? His only goal was to irritate you.</p>

109

<p>I don’t think he would take the time to spend hours typing up all of these elaborate replies. I’m pretty sure a ■■■■■ wouldn’t have gotten this far, as ■■■■■■■■ is meant to be fun for the ■■■■■, and I doubt it would be fun to keep up with eight pages worth of long replies and respond to every single one of them.</p>

110

<p>I agree with cardfan. I think the title of this thread speaks for itself. I mean, the premise of the discussion is getting into an Ivy League university with very poor academic credentials. Also, some of the “info” that has come up over the course of this 8-page discussion quite simply contradicts itself.</p>

<p>This [person] is part of/owns a successful (?) business venture, yet he cannot afford the $20 for the GRE prep book. He is looking at getting two PhDs (which basically no one ever does) in widely disparate fields (and should he ever obtain his PhD #1, he would never get into unrelated PhD program #2). These degrees are to be backed up by his two (terminal) Master’s degrees, only one of which is in a related field to his prospective PhDs.</p>

<p>Apart from the facts above, as well as a rather poor GPA and terrible GRE scores, the inability to get a proper reference from any professor really represents the nail in the coffin for the ■■■■■’s PhD dream. He seems to have done (not really, but for the sake of my argument
) some sort of long-distance education, online or otherwise, and thus, has not cultivated a relationship with any scholars or teachers. </p>

<p>Most people who have looked into the possibility of doing a PhD (or MA) in the United States would know that academic references and the ability not only to learn from, but to interact with and engage your professors on academic subjects is crucial to an academic education. An unwillingness/inability to have done this this would, perhaps, be the greatest red flag to any admissions office. By the way, they KNOW which LoRs are genuine, and which are fake.</p>

<p>All that being said, I think that I, like everyone else, have just wasted a few minutes of my life.</p>

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<p>cardfan, </p>

<p>I’m sorry you feel that [way]. </p>

<p>I explained that a prep book is not $20 outside of the US, taking into account factors such as exchange rate and delivery costs.</p>

<p>I have also explained that, due to my mode of study, I believed myself unable to get academic references. I don’t see what the problem with that is.</p>

<p>I certainly have not kept saying the same thing over and over, and have taken a lot of the advice on board. </p>

<p>sarbruis,</p>

<p>Thankyou. I am certainly not trying to ■■■■■. I am replying to every reply because I think it is the right thing to do, and do appreciate everyones advice.</p>

<p>EBStenowski,</p>

<p>The thread content has shifted significantly from the original post and premise of the title. None of the information provided contradicts itself, because quite simply, I have not lied at all.</p>

<p>I have said I have a business plan, that I want to work on and find investors for, which is nowhere near the same as owning a venture. I have also explained that the cost of a GRE prepbook is not $20 for me. I have also explained that I am focusing on getting just one PhD, and my second PhD would have been in 20 years or so.</p>

<p>Your comment that my MA in CS is terminal can only be taken as ■■■■■■■■, as it was most certainly not a terminal MA. Both MA’s are related to the respective fields I mentioned doing a PhD in.</p>

<p>My undergraduate GPA is indeed poor, but my MA GPA scores and hopefully decent LOR’s and (eventually) a high GRE should balance this out. You seem here to finally gaps that I did distance education, despite it being mentioned much earlier in the thread, and being given as the reason why I did not have relationships with my professors.</p>

<p>I have looked into study in the states as much as can by reading guides and requirements pages etc. While the importance of LOR’s was stressed, I had not realised it had to be from a professor, and not form industry, which I do now. They will only KNOW LoR’s are fake if they verify them(not that I would ever consider faking them, which would be moronic).</p>

<p>Like so many others that have posted however, the fact that you did not bother to read the thread and only post to insult paints a picture . . . .</p>

112

<p>[Booktopia</a> Search Results for ‘gre’. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.](<a href=“Booktopia Search Results for 'gre'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.”>Booktopia Search Results for 'gre'. We sell books, hardback, paperback, audio, CDs.)</p>

<p>This site has a a large selection of GRE prep books, most of which are priced at 25 US dollars or less.</p>

<p>Also, I didn’t mean genuine/fake LoRs in a literal sense, but genuine/fake as in “have had a (good, constructive) relationship with this student” or “don’t really know who this student is, but sure, I’ll write something.”</p>

113

<p>I was not aware of that booktopia website, although it does not matter. You will see most of those books are around $50 or $60 AUD. $60 AUD is around $45 US. IN any event, as I have said, I am currently living in Germany, so the price increases due to delivery cost and exchange rate. Are you incapable of reading what is written?</p>

<p>I really don’t see what that has to do with anything however.</p>

114

<p>Well, when it comes down to reading - and understanding - what has been written, it is you who clearly demonstrate an inability to do so. People have been trying to tell you - both in gentle and less gentle ways and over the course of EIGHT pages - that you’re not going to be accepted into a Master’s program or PhD program in the United States of America.</p>

<p>Most of the reasons against your being enrolled are found in your first post, but the more information you have put out, the less we all have come to believe in your hope of getting a PhD, let alone an MA, in the United States. Ultimately, we’re all doing you a favor by advising you not to waste good money in application fees to whichever universities you see yourself applying to.</p>

<p>As for the GRE prep books prices: The books costing $50 to $60 AUD include CDs and/or DVDs. The regular books are priced as in the U.S. This applies for Germany, too. Delivery cost and exchange rate? That argument doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. Indeed, you can purchase GRE prep books at most German bookstores, and at the same prices as in the U.S.</p>

<p>“I have also explained that, due to my mode of study, I believed myself unable to get academic references. I don’t see what the problem with that is.”</p>

<p>Again, here is the nail in the coffin for you. You mode of study might have been different, but graduate programs in the U.S. of A. look for students who know what it is like to be STUDENTS, not just students who have been observing from a distance (this literally is the case with you). </p>

<p>The admissions offices will not bend the requirements of admission in “sympathy” with particular applicants with unusual/deficient academic backgrounds. This goes for a lack of high school education as well. Difficulties in our personal lives or not (we all have them), a lack of rudimentary high school math will put all U.S. MA and PhD programs in Computer Science (and Ancient History, I would assume) out of your reach. That is, unless you are willing to make up for it by retaking the math courses and exams, etc. before applying.</p>

<p>P.S.: Since you live in Germany, and German is regarded as a research language in your field of academic interest, why don’t you make an effort learn the language?</p>

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<p>Over the course of 8 pages I have a much clearer idea what is necessary for me to do to be accepted into an MA program in either field and eventually a PhD. The thread has been of great assistance to me. If we remove all the replies like yours it would probably only be 4 pages.</p>

<p>And I’m sorry, but you have n idea what your talking about in regards to book prices. They are more expensive in australia, even without the cd or dvd. The english bookstores I have been to do not sell any GRE books, at all, and I would have to order them from overseas.</p>

<p>Honestly, the rest of your reply
your entire reply, is rehashing stuff that I have already addressed, and it shows you couldn’t be bothered to read the thread. Everything yo have posted that you think you are the first to point out, someone has already pointed out in a far more civil manner, and I explained my reasons to them.</p>

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<p>Josh, GRE prep books are available for free at British Council and EducationUSA libraries worldwide. If students from remote parts of the world manage to find them, I can’t imagine it’s hard to do in Germany. </p>

<p>Also, the term alma mater is used all over the world. Cum laude may not be, but a basic background in Latin would suffice to understand it.</p>

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<p>Guys just let this thread die. I think everyone can agree that he continues to be stubborn and hard headed no matter how people approach him EBsten did not come off as insulting at all and yet he just rambles about how he feel attacked.</p>

<p>He won’t get into to any college here, nor will he have the money to do so. He will obviously not be awarded any type of scholarship and since he can’t afford to pay $60 for a textbook he just can’t do it.</p>

<p>My advice (since you want it): Stop trying to get your PhD. You are obviously not a well off person and putting off your career will only hurt that more so start working. Your dream of studying in the US is futile. Your attitude and credentials prove that. </p>

<p>Edit: Oh yea. Also we have been telling you importance of languages and history and said Germany would be good. You are living in Germany and have not tried to pick up on it? If you are unable than that further proves you are not worthy to be here, sorry.</p>

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<p>kigali,</p>

<p>I was only stating that the books were too expensive for me to afford at the time I took the test. They are certainly not in any libraries here in Germany that I am aware off.</p>

<p>Perhaps it would have been more correct to say the latin terms are not used in any official capacity in most other countries.</p>

<p>plscatamacchia,</p>

<p>You have jumped to conclusions without reading posts. Most posters, such as Strangelight, WilliamC, momwaitingfornew etc have been exceedingly helpful, for which I am very grateful.</p>

<p>With the advice I’ve been given, there is absolutely no reason I will not eventually get admitted to an MA program and then to a PhD program. I’m willing to put in the effort, and more than capable of succeeding.</p>

<p>You will base my entire financial position on the fact that I was unable to afford a GRE prepbook at a particular point in time, without knowing any of the other circumstances. You obviously have no idea as to the significance of money for some people, and I can’t be bothered to explain myself to you.</p>

<p>I have been living in germany for a work contract, where everyone at my work, and my flatmate speaks english. Between work and study I did not feel I had time to learn German, and underestimated the importance(long before I came on this board). I can always learn it at a later stage.</p>

<p>Please, don’t reply, and stop polluting this thread with your arrogance.</p>

<p>Strangelight, Williamc,</p>

<p>Please do not feel put off by the above, and I do wish to hear your responses.</p>

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<p>" was not aware of that booktopia website, although it does not matter. You will see most of those books are around $50 or $60 AUD. $60 AUD is around $45 US. IN any event, as I have said, I am currently living in Germany, so the price increases due to delivery cost and exchange rate. Are you incapable of reading what is written?"</p>

<p>“I was unable to afford a GRE prepbook at a particular point in time”</p>

<p>You just spoke about how you couldn’t afford it right now? </p>

<p>“You obviously have no idea as to the significance of money for some people, and I can’t be bothered to explain myself to you.”</p>

<p>So, from this post and others before it, you obviously feel that if a college aged student has parents who have careers that give them a modest earning (a professor and a nurse for myself) they are not connected to reality? Just because someone has had a more fortunate life than yourself does not mean they are disillusioned. </p>

<p>“With the advice I’ve been given, there is absolutely no reason I will not eventually get admitted to an MA program and then to a PhD program.” </p>

<p>This advice has been given to you by, what, two people? Others tried to explain to you as calmly as possible that it WASN’T possible, but you shut them off and said that only the ones who said what you wanted to hear were right. Well, I am here now to say THEY ARE WRONG. You don’t have a chance.</p>

<p>“I can always learn it at a later stage.”</p>

<p>See, there is that attitude I addressed in my first post when I said you were basically all talk. You admit to knowing it would be good to learn and follow that with saying that you can start learning later. I’m not sure if you have EVER tried learning another language but you will learn it if far better to do in a place that speaks that language. So there you are, in THE country of a language that would be beneficial to learn and you say “later”. PhD, yea right.</p>

<p>Please, stop trying to play the victim. You keep talking about how you are getting attacked and insulted and you turn around and insult people. Grow up.</p>

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<p>You will discover that you can’t cancel your score after you find out your score, only before you find out your score.</p>