The waiting is the hardest part

[storiaitaliana]

Okay, my apps are all in -- now to sit tight until late Feb/early March -- arghh!! Anyone else climbing the walls??

[MAN]

I had one school with rolling admissions e-mail me and said that they'd get back to me with the results in about 2 weeks. It has been 3 and a half weeks so far. Still haven't heard from them.

I'm assuming they are being held up because they have to get the record-setting jumbo-sized financial aid package they are giving me approved.

[dans595]

Yeah... the next few months are going to feel like eons.

[Dreams]

I think with all the time spent preparing these applications, it will feel good not to think about them for a few months. I don't mind waiting for the results.

[cammarp]

Oddly enough, one of the programs I am applying to for Fall 2009 already responded with an acceptance (rolling admissions I guess). No word from the other programs yet.

[Minnesotan]

I think with all the time spent preparing these applications, it will feel good not to think about them for a few months.

Hypothetically speaking, of course...

[storiaitaliana]

Wow, congrats cammarp! I'm pretty sure I will have to sit tight a lot longer than that.

[speechiegirl]

I just got an email from a school that they have received my completed application. It feels funny that I frantically went about putting my application together and now...I wait.

[MAN]

Colorado State (the school I mentioned earlier in this thread) just posted my admission status on the website. I've been accepted. Now I just have to see what kind of financial package I get (if any).

[weeble]

Congrats!!

[Dreams]

Colorado State ... I've been accepted....

Way to go. Let's hope they pull out the bucks for you.

[commoner]

I'm just so happy to have them all in now, I can't help but relax. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.

[storiaitaliana]

I don't blame you commoner, with all those schools! There is basically one school in the country that specializes in my field, so I did not have the stressful application process you did!

[storiaitaliana]

Not for sure, but I have a feeling that schools are going to be backed up sorting through the stacks of applicants who've decided to return to school due to the recession.

I know it, and I'm pretty bummed about that, since it wasn't the recession that prompted me to do this.

[Minnesotan]

If you're in the humanities, you might not be so bad off. The Chronicle reports that ETS is predicting much lower numbers of GRE takers this year. If there are more applicants, it will come from a much higher percentage of non-trads. While this makes sense, will the number of folks being laid off and returning to school make up for the number of folks who aren't applying out of undergrad?

[linden]

I posted this quip in the Government Affairs board, but I thought it might interest those of you following this discussion.

"As a result of the financial crisis, [Kennedy School Dean] Ellwood said, the school anticipates a sharp rise in domestic applications for next year, citing an 80 percent increase in applications for the Kennedy School

[lauras]

No, I haven't read anything exactly on point. I did google around to see what was up and I came back with several articles in 2001 and 2004 about how during a recession, folks head to grad school.

In retrospect, I think we're 8 years into this recession.

Of course, people who make rational business decisions wait until they lose their job or run into a wall as far as promotions go and then head to business school or public policy school. I think the numbers Linden cites, less graduate testing over all coupled with an increase in professional school applications, signals that the humanities may have less applicants this year.

...but those of us that want that English Phd, we're going to apply no matter what, because clearly we don't think about what's in our best financial interest. I know if I did, I'd hang on to my sweet job at a large law firm instead of taking the vow of poverty for 7-8 years.

[storiaitaliana]

Here's an article that speaks to this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/educa ... .html?_r=1

December 9, 2008

Those Taking Graduate Test Abruptly Drop in Number

By TAMAR LEWIN

In bad times, the conventional wisdom has it, people flock to graduate school. But there is at least one sign that in this recession, that may not happen.

After years of steady growth, the number of students taking the Graduate Record Examination, which is required for most graduate programs, is on course to decline this year.

At the start of the year, the Educational Testing Service, which administers the $140 exam, projected that 675,000 students would take it by year

[seunghwane]

Oh geez I cannot wait any longer.

[aec]

edit: nm, i am crazy

[t_ruth]

How do you all stand it? This break time is the worst, because I *know* there won't be any activity on my apps, so it is useless to even refresh any status pages (and I still have some apps to finish up and last-minute transcripts to get since I ran out, and I can't do anything on those either!).

[frankdux]

interesting. i'm not anxious at all, and i have no idea why. i want to go back to school more than anything, but i'm completely calm about the whole thing.

[linden]

I've been actually thinking about forcing myself to stop checking this forum. I am also trying to give up the fantasy that the staff of the schools to which I applied will come in during the Winter Break just to send me an email about my admission. Right. I have also promised myself I will not check the online countdown calendar I set up. (Seventy-six days to go till March 13, when I am predicting I will hear from my top choice.)

Linden

[fenderpete]

Staff do seem to be working on apps at the minute a bit though, Princeton and Penn updated to say that had my official GRE scores on Christmas eve! Good to see the USPS is still working too lol.

[Dreams]

(Seventy-six days to go till March 16...)

Only 76 days left? Man time is flying. I remember when I had 150 days until mid March. At this rate, coupled with some filler activities for the next few months, that date will arrive in no time hopefully with some good news for you - and everyone else too