kevinmac

Of the schools I applied to I have been least impressed with how UMD has handled the application process. They were uninformative and failed to respond to several e-mails I sent out and phone calls that I made. When I was applying I considered them to be a serious candidate, but the way they handled the admissions process made me lose respect for the program as a whole.

Indiana told me awards would be going out in mid-April. Illinois said most of their funding is through graduate assistantships which have a separate application process. They want you to enroll in the school and then apply for the assistantship (which I find very frustrating).

I heard back in the affirmative from U of Illinois today, and have now heard back from all the schools to which I've applied. Now I'm just hoping that one of them offers a nice financial package to make my decision easy.

I did ask for a deadline extension, and they told me that due to the large applicant pool this year the March 1 date was firm.

I was admitted to UMD in the middle of January. However, for me they said that I had to make a decision about whether I would attend by March 1. I'm not sure why they would pull this move, since I still haven't heard from one school I applied to and have heard nothing on financing. I liked UMD's program, but they lost a lot of respect from me with this ridiculous deadline.

Wait, so in New Jersey all the gas stations are full service? I'm pretty sure I've never had someone else pump gas for me before, only wash my windshield.

Hey Heather, I didn't mean to imply anything about the actual program at Maryland by my previous comments. I do like the program, that's one of the reasons I applied. My complaint is how they run the admissions process. It's one thing not to know when financial information will be going out, but I found it absolutely unreasonable to require a decision from me by March 1. Not only can I not make an informed decision without financial information, but I wont even have heard back from UIUC by March 1. It sounds like you have a really solid application. I would think that since you have experienced success in a graduate program before you are starting with a leg up on competition coming directly out of undergrad. I applied in the middle of January, and it only took about a week for me to hear back (by mail, so they only had my application a couple of days before they sent out a decision). Since you applied right at the deadline I would imagine that there would be a little more of a backlog and it would take longer. Best of luck to you, -- Kevin

Just to clarify -- I did take the GRE (I had earlier History grad school thoughts) and I submitted my scores, but I just happened to apply to three schools that don't require them. I contacted the two schools at which I was accepted, Maryland and Indiana, regarding financial aid. Maryland was an absolute mess -- they said they didn't know when aid information would go out, but they wanted me to accept or reject their offer by March 1. So I've pretty much written Maryland off completely. Indiana was very positive and told me that I am an excellent candidate for financial aid and that notifications will go out in early to mid-April. I haven't heard anything from U of Illinois, other than what you've heard. I'll keep you posted on what I do hear, though. -- Kevin

Remember on your application that spelling can be very important. "Asses" has a slightly different meaning than "Assess." EDIT: Oops, I missed that this had already been pointed out, didn't mean to beat a dead horse.

Yeah, I'm pretty blown away by how fast they got back to me. I think I have a strong application, but it seems like they hardly had any time to even look at it. Overall, like you said, it makes them seem less legitimate, like a for-profit institution. Well, I don't mind a quick acceptance if they're willing to back it up with a little financing.

I've already heard back now from Indiana and UMD (still waiting on UIUC), and got accepted at both. I'm a little bit amazed at the quick turnaround, as I only submitted my apps a little over a week ago. I was wondering if anyone has experience with when aid decisions might be coming out? The Maryland letter says that they want a response by March 1, which seems a little unreasonable to me since I'm sure I wont know the entire financial picture by that point.

My current plan is to focus on Social Informatics/Community Informatics with the end goal of working in the governmental or nonprofit sectors. I feel relatively secure in my chances at gaining admission to any of the schools, I spent my undergrad thinking I would pursue graduate history studies and I worked really hard to put together a good resume. What worries me more is paying for school. I'm from Chicago, so the only school I could consider without receiving any aid would be Illinois. I'm just crossing my fingers that someone will give me a financial offer I can't refuse. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to happen too often.

Hi all, I'm currently applying to MLS programs for the Fall 2010. I plan on applying to Illinois, Indiana, and Maryland. None of these programs require the GRE, and that made me wonder how competitive is acceptance into these (and any) MLS programs. Without factoring in a standardized test of any kind I feel pretty confident -- I just graduated in 2009 with majors in History and Spanish and a minor in Economics and a GPA of 3.97/4.0. I think my recommenders will write me strong letters and I have research experience, but limited professional experience. Do those of you experienced with the admissions process at library schools think I have a good shot at admission? What about financial assistance? Thanks for the help, -- Kevin