Thank you all
Montanita I went ahead and made further inquiry with admission department, they said they knew of the problem and will take it into account and my referee will be asked about the same.

Dr.jeckyll i spoke with my referee she has agreed and has noted to mention that my marks are good in my cohort and will indicate same in my reference.

Well, i just needed to get this off my head,

I recently graduated with a 64% (first class) in my masters, its considered quite a good thing from where i come from since uni topper stands at 69-70% (it has one of the toughest marking system), so practically i stood at top 30% of the class i even managed top my bachelors degree. Now i feed stupid to even choosing this place as i realize now i would have been better off at other places, one of my friends went elsewhere and scored around 90% and so did most of her colleagues,well that was shock of my life, i have never heard people scoring this high in basic sciences, here!.

Now i am trying to apply for phd abroad i am facing trouble, most supervisors/universities are happy with my cv (i had got internships at top institutes/industries, recognized around the world) but they red flagged my marks. How am i suppose to explain them that those are not bad grades but best a person can get within this university. It will come off as i am defending myself !! because people from other universities (like my friends) stand too high on marks. It hit me this is why people from my university fail to make it to top colleges across the world.

Now, i feel i wasted two years of my life working 12 hours in lab even during vacation and weekends trying to be best and getting into good college, just to be downgraded due to marks and punished for no fault of mine.

But i have decided to apply at as many places i can, it will at least give me peace knowing i could not do anything more and i have nothing nothing to loose its already been lost!!

hi,
Well if you want best B-school in Mumbai it has to be Bajaj institute of management then there is NM college. I have recently heard about Symbiosis in Puna having some good management programs.
But cut off are very high for Bajaj and NM i guess slight below an IIM.

Got it Rina. Thanks a lot!

I had similar experience few days back...... I took up advice given on this blog and sent him a follow up email asking him politely if he had received my earlier email. Lucky for me he revered back and things are falling in line now!!
But be cautious how you frame your email. And still he fails to reply back then I guess you start finding new supervisor its futile to waste your time and you might miss your deadlines for applications!!

Hey,
I am in need of this paper, does anyone have access to it....
Here's the name,

Photosynthetic entrainment of the Arabidopsis thaliana circadian clock
Michael J. Haydon, Olga Mielczarek, Fiona C. Robertson, Katharine E. Hubbard & Alex A. R. Webb

Nature (2013) doi:10.1038/nature12603

ok!!! I too am used to being confused and have tons of self doubt...
It all boils down to what you really want....and i really believe people who are average are the ones who do better than the smarts ones....

And as you said yourself if u don't go you will regret it for life, so best option is you go ahead and join the lab and work hard. If it doesn't work out at least you will have peace of mind that you gave it your best.

I have majored in Biochemistry....and plan to pursue research in plant sciences.

Treeoflife-- I have submitted a proposal before but this is new to me i was taught proposal is suppose to be true idea.

But is it completely fine if i just pick up his details and submit a proposal??

Hi,
In my last post i had asked if it was feasible to sent a reminder email to PhD supervisor. I did and the supervisor replied.
Now i have to draft a proposal as per his instruction.He has provided me with details of his project and has clearly mentioned "You have to do xxxxx" after which "this xxx has to be done". I am confused is he keen on supervising students who will work on his project and proposal should be submitted in line with details provided??. Isn't proposal suppose to be a true concept which we develop and propose.

If anyone would could tell me how to go about this problem, would be of great help

hi,
You might be not doing anything wrong, i too was facing similar troubles. I might have contacted dozens of supervisors out of which 3 replied back. So i would say you do not give up and contact more if you are really keen on pursuing PhD.

But paying attention on how you phrase your email would be helpful, if you sound rude or do not give enough idea about you and your background does affect a supervisors reply. Google how to write to a supervisor...Hope it helps a little..

Thanks, Incognito

I will definitely sent him a reminder. And will update on what happens :)

Hi,

As you said the school is tight knit, i would take a step back and think before talking about your previous supervisor to new one and as said in previous post if u do not have proof at this moment, its better you don't badmouth him/her.
I come from a similar school, believe me if faculty is close to one another they talk and you may never know those two might be close.

Hi all,

I need someone to help me out!!
I did my masters this year and was unsure to pursue PhD, but decided its good to get in touch with potential supervisors, so i contacted many out of which two replied back.

One of them attached details of his projects which are suitable for PhD application and to contact him again for further discussion after reading published papers regarding the project .

I loved one of the topics coz it was something i wanted to do when i ever decided to do a phd.
But i got caught up in confusion, other commitments and didn't revert back immediately.

when i was sure i want to apply i contacted him (after a month), it took time reading all publication and reference he told me to read!. This time i attached my CV for consideration and told him which topic i was interested in, but i clearly didn't tell him for further details.Its been 15 day now he has not replied back. And as per his first email he wants a proposal.
With deadlines in end of November, it leaves me with less time and i want to hurry writing proposal i know how much time they take and research involved.

So my question is shall i sent him a reminder? how to being one i don't want to sound pushy and how to nicely ask him for further details? (i don't expect any one to write it for me, but give me some pointers)



I appreciate all the help!!
Thank you