guys again, where are the recs?!?!?! like how do we give our teachers the recs?
sorry, but bump!!!
Sorry but I find it ironic that you are applying to the most competitive and top research program in the country/world and you can’t figure out how to get the recommendations sent in.
@foreverprongs I think it’s just a generic letter (at least that’s how I interpret what they’ve said). Just send your recommenders your resume along with information about the program and have them send the letter attached to the email sent by your school administrator or through slideroom.
@falcon1 I find the recommendation system somewhat confusing as well and I don’t think it’s anything against my intelligence…lol
@foreverprongs; @coffeeaddicted Yeah you have to send your teachers a link via Slideroom, through which they send a generic letter.
In section II, where it asks for you to rate your own skills… how conservative are you being with self-rating? 
Obviously this isn’t the place to be “modest,” but I sincerely don’t know if something would count as “no experience” or “beginner”-- ex: opening up Mathematica for 15 minutes and learning how to enter some equations
^^I wasn’t sure about this either. What if I used Python to script a software but didn’t learn more than the basic syntax and a few commands? Would this be “beginner” or should I learn more of the language to qualify as this?
^^Same question here – if I’ve created several documents for distribution using TeX, but didn’t do too much “intense stuff” with it (like macros or making my own packages), is this “intermediate” or “advanced”?
Under Applicant Awards and Achievements, when it says to list these activities, do they want a literal list with short descriptions separated by line breaks, or do they want sentences/paragraphs?
For our Personal Statements, will it be really negative if we can’t use up the entire character limit? I see they’ve reduced the character limits for some of them, but even with the reductions I’m not really sure if I have 3000 characters’ worth of computer experience, and it seems like for the first essay, they’ll be looking for some in depth knowledge of the topic instead of just interest in the topic - the essays seem to be so much longer this year. 
And just wondering, does anyone know why they ask about familiarity with Windows NT instead of just Windows?
Sorry for so many questions, and thanks
Hi goonersfan17!
I will try to answer some of your questions to the best of my knowledge. I don’t know about the TeX and Windows questions and am actually wondering about that myself too.
Under Awards and Achievements, I simply listed my activities in chronological order. I think I might have included a one sentence description for 2 or 3 of the activities just to clear things up.
For Personal Statements, I think that you should write as much as you have to say. If you don’t have anymore to say, then don’t elaborate unnecessarily. Try to keep it concise.
On average, my personal statements use somewhere between 60-70% of the character limit.
How much are the rest of you guys writing for these??
on the topic of essays, how did you guys go about answering the first personal statement? Like the questions that you want to answer in your field.
On average, my personal statements use somewhere between 60-70% of the character limit.
How much are the rest of you guys writing for these??
@Dfalcon123 Don’t worry too much on the length – quality over quantity is a good principle to have.
@Runkeeper I think that sounds good
Also, do you guys know if we have to adhere to a specific list of subfields, or if we can kind of choose our own?
@Emblem You can choose your own.
What sort of topics did you guys write about for the question in your field? Im p curious/confused about this one
@Runkeeper Thanks! That helps a bunch 
@Dfalcon123 I haven’t decided on anything yet, but I’ve heard that it helps to do a bit of preliminary research on the topic and see what interests you.
I plan on looking into certain topics before I write my essay, but I haven’t done any “research” before. Is anyone else in the same situation/have any advice for going about the research fields?
@angie414 I would think of things you’ve learned in school, articles you’ve read (maybe look on sites like science daily to see what specifically fascinates you) when choosing topics and subtopics
So I was wondering if there’s a huge distinction for what you put as your primary and secondary topics. I’ve done research in one topic but I prefer another closely-related topic and would like to do research in the second one if accepted. Does it make a huge difference what I put 1st and 2nd, both in getting accepted and lab placement?
Do you guys know how to cancel a recommendation request for someone whom we’ve already sent a slide room link to? If we want to use a different teacher instead?
rt @Runkeeper how long are y’all going to make your personal statements??
@heslumbersnot probably around 75% or more depending on the prompt. But it all depends on what/how you write. Quality > quantity!
Are any of you guys going for mathematics? I’m interested in science too, but I don’t know how much my lack of science experience would put me at a disadvantage.