Timeline correct?

[tallulah]

Hi there,

I'd like to know two things:

1) Would it be too late to take the GRE on October 30th for Deadlines on December 1st? I saw that submitting the scores officially takes only 10-15 days but still people here seem to take the test earlier..

2) The latest possible notification whether one's accepted or not is April 15th, right? If I get accepted just then, would there be any school visits or other important appointments scheduled shortly after (I'm an international student)? I'll probably have to undergo spine surgery next year around that time and have to plan the date of the surgery accordingly since recovering afterwards will take at least 4 weeks.

Thanks for any advice!

[hippyscientist]

1) You're fine to take the GRE in October...provided you don't need to retake. The reason most of us take the GRE earlier is to allow time to retake if we're dissatisfied with our scores.

As for 2) I'm not sure exactly but by April I will be in the midst of my MSc finals and thesis hell. I too am an international student and will not be able to get to school visits then. However, I should be able to take a day to get to the embassy for visa interviews which will be essential. Theoretically you could be accepted as late as April, but from what I've gathered on these boards, most people find out their acceptances earlier (provided they're not waitlisted). Also, if a school needs you to visit them, I'm sure explaining that you're recovering from spinal surgery would be a good enough reason to not do a transatlantic flight! Just my 2 cents.

Edited August 27, 2015 by piglet33
Grammar

[TakeruK]

1) ETS says you will get your General GRE scores "about 10-15 days after your test" (https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/scores/get/). So, October 30th for Dec 1 deadline should be okay. Most people take it earlier because: i) they want to get it out of the way since October is a busy time for preparing applications, ii) they have to write the Subject GRE as well, which is offered in September and October nowadays, so taking the General GRE this late means study periods overlap, and iii) they want a chance to retake the General GRE if necessary.

2) This is not true. April 15th is not the notification deadline, it is actually the deadline schools will give you to decide on their offer. Not all US schools follow this convention (especially not the ones who do "rolling admissions"). But for those that do, what generally happens is that "first round" offers are made between late-January and early-March, depending on the program. Check the "Results Search" (http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php) here to see when your programs have made decisions in the past. Put your results here when you get them too, to help future students! 

Then, after the offers are made, schools will make arrangements for students to come and visit and/or interview. This usually happens in February to early April. Although the first round of offers have the April 15 decision deadline for applicants, many people will be able to make some sort of decision before April 15. They might have gotten into like 6 programs and already know their top 2 so they might decline the other 4 as early as March. Some people got into their dream program, visit it, are satisfied that it is the best program for them and accept early! In any case, some schools will be able to make a second round of offers before April 15.

However, not all schools will not be able to do this. This means that they might have to wait until the April 15 deadline passes before their offers come back accepted or declined. So, a lot of schools will have a bunch of spots opening up right around the April 15 date. At this time, people may get last minute offers with tight deadlines (sometimes just a few days to decide), especially those who were on a waitlist. Top applicants on a waitlist might even get contacted by the schools that want them to warn them of this possibility. This is why April 15 is the "freakout" week and why we have a forum here titled just that.

That said, as piglet33 suggests, you should get a good sense of how crazy April 15 will be for you by mid-March or so. At this time, if you have offers from your top choices already (or know you got rejected) then you probably won't have to worry about April 15 because at this time, you would already have all the information you need to make a decision. However, if you haven't heard from some of your top choices by late March (neither an accept or reject), the two most common possibilities are a silent reject or a waitlist. You should contact them at this time to find out if you're on a waitlist and if so, you should try to keep the week around April 15 relatively free so that you can consider and respond to any last minute offers. 

I don't know how far in advance you will need to schedule your surgery. If you need to schedule it well before March 2016, then I think you should schedule it no earlier than May 1, just in case, if that is possible. If you do get a last minute acceptance and need to talk to the faculty there, you can do a Skype call. You can also schedule any visits around your surgery--they will understand. Also, keep in mind that many US schools will not have an international student fly out to visit them because the flight is too expensive. If you don't have to schedule it until a few weeks prior to the surgery, then by March 2016, you should have a sense whether or not you need to keep April 15 clear.

Finally, sometimes offers are made really late, like May or June. Some schools might make a last minute offer in July or August or even the week before the term begins because of a last minute change in funding or enrollment. You can't really plan for these though. If your surgery will mean you will be out of email contact for a long time (~a work week) then if you still have not heard from a school, you might want to email them prior to going for surgery and just let them know that in case you are still being considered, you will be away from email for X days etc.

[tallulah]

Thanks to you both, that was really really helpful! This whole surgery thing is real crap (sorry), I have an appointment next week and will ask how soon I have to schedule it, but I'm pretty sure it's something like a few months. I planned to do it as early as possible so that I'd have enough time to recover (no sports for 1 year, no heavy lifting for 1 year etc.. it's going to be fun). Anyway, thank you!!

[TakeruK]

I should add that I think your health should come before any deadlines/issues with applications and admissions. Even if you have to schedule your surgery in, say, February or March, you can make alternate arrangements with schools to do interviews or visits at a later time!

[knp]

Spine surgery's a bitch, PM me if you want to talk to someone who's gone through it. It sounds like we have different problems, but who knows? I might still be able to answer questions.