staceyjo

Have you thought about a MSN? A lot of schools offer a program where you can get your Masters of Nursing in just a year if you already have a BS/BA in any field. Since you were pre-med/psychology chances are you have the prerecs already. And this is in the medical field, which you mentioned regretting not getting into. Or even going to PA school. Maybe someday after doing this program you will decide to go to Med School and you'll have experience in the medical field already. I know doctors that didn't go to Med School until their 40s after they retired from teaching. 26 is still very young. I will be starting a Masters program in Jan at 28. I don't have much money saved up either but, I know I need the Masters to advance in my career path and I'm sucking it up and taking financial aid. I also asked for the books I need for classes for Christmas, so I don't have to take as much aid. I will also be working at least part time, the entire time I'm in the program.

If your first one is due in mid December, you are definitely behind and not giving your recommenders much time to get the letters out. I had to wait an average of 3 weeks for my recommenders to get the letters out to the school. Transcripts also can take quite awhile, esp at this time of year when everyone is applying to grad school. I know my undergrad says between 11/15 and 1/1 to allow at least a month for transcripts to get out.

Since it was your Jr year, I'm assuming you did better your Sr year? I'd say, being able to 1. admit you did something wrong and 2. show that you learned from it (by getting good grades the rest of your time there) could only benefit you. I had a LOT of dropped classes on my transcripts from a random state university and even a semester where I had to withdraw. All of mine were because of medical problems. While I didn't do a separate letter I addressed it in my SOP and tried to spin it to my advantage. I also left a masters program at the beginning of this year for person and family reasons. I didn't address this at all, 3 of the schools I applied to didn't care. Since I had a 3.4 they knew I could handle grad level work. The 4th school called me and asked for a supplemental letter explaining why I left the first program. I ended up getting accepted to my top 2 schools and withdrew my applications to my safety schools before hearing.

I think you're supposed to focus on what you have done to improve yourself as an applicant in the past, I'm guessing, year.

Get the online parts done first. It's the easiest and you will feel accomplished. They will also tell you everything you still need to submit so that will get rid of that problem as well. Get your CV and SOP done so you can give them to the people you are asking for LORs. Don't turn them in for your applications yet but get rough copies you can show to your recommenders. Don't assume the transcripts are the easiest, that was the part I had the most trouble with! My undergrad institution just didn't send mine out, I had to call them everyday for a week to get them out. This was 2 months after I had ordered them!

That's funny that you asked that, because the school I was just accepted to and decided to go to (Georgetown), could care less where I currently reside (Michigan), the only info they cared about was where I was born (Virginia). Since my dad was military I only lived there til I was about 2 years old. I do know my undergrad institution had scholarships for students born in the city where the school is.

How many schools are you looking to apply to? I applied to 4 and had to do 3 completely different SOPs. So first I would start by deciding what schools you are applying to and seeing what they require for SOPs and CVs. I would focus on the CV next. You will need to be able to send it out when you ask for LORs. Esp if the LORs need to come from Profs. They have a lot of students and even if you are a stand out student they may get your work confused with another student. Professors are also quite busy and take a long time to get back to you and get the LORs done, so I'd start requesting those once you have decided where you are applying. For my one SOP I had 6 completely different drafts. But I just started by sitting down and randomly writing. Most of what came out was pretty good and I was able to use, but not all of it. The important thing is that you get anything down. Once you do it's easy to get it polished and finished. I had a recommender ask to read my SOP first before doing the LOR. So be prepared for that. The actual filling out of the applications takes the least amount of time.

I actually have "transferred". I had to apply as a new student and the program only allows 6 credits to transfer (I've done 15), so far I haven't gotten approval to transfer any credits. I looked into this for about a year, and actually completely left my first program and reapplied to 4 other schools. All 4 schools made me apply as a new student and wouldn't guarantee any transfer credits. I know at the school I'm starting at in the Spring if you apply and deny the acceptance or even defer you have to completely reapply. I would contact the school you want to transfer to and the specific department, because I know a friend of mine wanted to transfer Psych PhD programs and was going to be able to just step right in as a 2nd year student. I'm also 90% sure the school I'm starting at in the Spring contacted my original program and asked them about my leaving and to see what the reason was I gave them. I know I had to even produce more application materials than usual because I had left the same program at a different school. I feel for you, I didn't like the faculty at my first program either and in fact the director is refusing to refund me money for a class I never took. Good Luck!

There are a lot of education schools that don't require GREs. I do agree with everyone else though, application fees can be as much as $200 plus the fees for transcripts. Also, unless you are in a field in education that requires a masters to teach, it's going to be a lot harder to find a job with a M ED and 0 experience. In undergrad I was an education major and I can't believe your school hasn't told you to teach first and use your masters for your cont. ed credits.

Have you looked into other distance programs? You said that you didn't have the option of moving so you had to go there, but you're doing a distance program anyway. Just a thought.

I didn't apply to that program, but I did apply to Georgetown and got an email...2 days AFTER I already found my status on the apply yourself. They were closed for about a week because of Sandy, so I'd say things are taking longer than usual. Even still, I applied in July and it took 5 months to get any type of notification!

Check and see what their website says about applicants calling. One of the programs I applied to, said DO NOT call about your admissions status. I just got my decision this week from JULY, and I wasn't even wait listed. Keep in mind everything was on pause during the storm (I'm assuming City College is in NY?). All the schools I applied to were affected by the storm, and the one office actually called me to see if I had gotten my letter. It took the letter over a week to get to me after it was mailed. The guy told my my decision had already been made prior to the storm, but the other applicants that didn't have decisions yet wouldn't be hearing too soon, because of everything still getting caught up on. I would say it's really only been about 4-6 weeks, because you have to allow them a week because they were probably closed, a week because they were dealing with no phones etc, and another week for catch up. I'd give it til Dec 1. I know some schools have said no decisions were going out until Dec 1 because of trying to get everything caught up.

I actually took classes at a community college while in High School, and every school I've applied to have asked for those transcripts. It has also been more than 10 years for me, and all of the classes are on my transcripts from my degree granting university. It's ridiculous, at least this year the CC FINALLY added online ordering.

I didn't have someone to suggest to me to take a leave of absences while I was working on my BS. I was really sick throughout all of undergrad and that resulted in me dropping classes almost every semester and one semester completely withdrawing. The upside is I still managed a 3.5 and I adress it in my SOPs when applying to grad school. I have been accepted to 1 law school and 2 masters programs. Upon starting one of the Masters programs the Ast Program Dir set me down and told me she was impressed that I was able to power through and stay in school being so sick, and graduate with honors in only 5 years. She said it was definitely an asset. So I guess it could work for you, as it did me.

I don't know anything at all about international applicants. I know some schools ask that you start the application process sooner. Where did you apply?

Do they admit a spring/winter class? If they do, I would say don't bother. Although, one school I applied to my first go around admitted me for a semester earlier than I applied (I applied for Fall, they admitted me for summer). If you absolutely just can't take it anymore I would call an admissions assistant and tell them that you didn't see any info on the website and were just curious as to how it worked. That way you don't look impatient.

Agreed. I'm sure that places you are applying for your PhD will be aware of Columbia's grading system as well. You can also call the schools you are applying and ask them. I took classes at a community college while in HS and called a grad school I was interested in to ask about calculating those grades into my GPA since they are on my undergrad transcripts but only as transferred credit. They were very willing to help! That's what the admissions assistants are there for.

The problem I have come across is the difference in what each institution is looking for. I've written SOPs that they only wanted 1 page (I mean come on, what can you really tell about someone from 1 page?). I've written SOPs that were open ended, with absolutely no guidance on what to write about. Then I've written ones that asked specific questions. But my least favorite was the 1 page that asked you to adress 3 different questions. A different school asked for 5 pages on the same 3 questions! I think if you say that your GOAL is to write a dissertation on... you would be better off than simply stating that you WANT to write it on because blah blah blah. Does that make sense? I know my friend working on her PhD in Clinical Psych knew going in what she wanted to write her dissertation on.

It took me almost a week to hear back from someone I requested a letter from. She was actually WRITING the letter before responding to me.

This is definitely my biggest weakness when it comes to everything. Both applying for graduate school and jobs. I'm not good at talking myself up. Also, things other people see as achievements I never would consider an achievement, same goes for skills. Upon leaving my last internship the dir of HR gave me a letter of reference and she said things in the letter about me I would never have thought to mention in an interview. Same goes for my grad school letter of recommendations.

My first go around both of my letters were from previous supervisors and not educational at all. I got in to my first choice with a departmental scholarship. I was applying for a MS in Sport Management. One LOR was from a person who was a supervisor for a volunteer position and I also worked with him at my campus job during undergrad (he just happens to now be a sports reporter), the other was from a previous supervisor at a public library. While Annotomy is educational based and not "profession" based like sports programs it can't hurt to have someone that has worked closely with you that can attest to your work ethic and ability to work well with others etc. I know none of my professors could ever attest to that. Even the ones I had for multiple semesters and frequented their office hours.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I only applied to once school (for Jan) and therefore only asked recommenders to send one letter. Now, I haven't heard so I need to start applying to back up schools. Today I emailed one asking to do it for my back ups and she's getting married in 3 weeks and the next 2 weeks are her busy weeks She essentially told me she could do it only if she had time tomorrow. So hopefully the forms are emailed as soon as you fill out the LOR forms. I would have a back up ready just in case. I have a couple of back ups. I just hate asking people to do them :/

First week of July via phone "you should have a decision by the first week of September" (they contacted me) Via email second week of Sept. "you should have a decision by the end of the week" (upon updating my resume as stated to do on apply yourself) Via email last week "we hope to have decisions out by the end of next week" (upon my asking for a status update) Still no decision and all apply yourself does is say my application is complete and to check back frequently for updates.

Hi! I was wondering if you have heard anything from GU yet? I also applied for an MPS program but not Journalism. When I applied an admissions assistant contacted me and told me I would hear the first week of September. Well, September ended and I never heard anything. So I decided to update my resume, since the job I had was temporary and had ended and I had a new job. When I emailed her about that she emailed me back and said I would hear by the end of the week. That was a week ago yesterday I should have heard. I have been having some trouble with my email account (my bosses emails don't come through) so I emailed to check the status of my application. She emailed me right back and told me they hoped to have decisions out by the end of next week. I don't know if all of the MPS programs follow the same admissions time frame or not. But I also am not in the DC area and don't know anyone that has ever applied to GU for graduate school. Though while looking at the results search it seems GU notifies the accepted a few weeks before the denied. So I'm wondering if perhaps the admissions assistant THOUGHT I'd be offered admissions (or maybe that was her recommendation) and that's why she thought I'd hear last week...but I was actually denied. The time frame matches up...

It varies greatly. NYU says 2-4 weeks ones all materials have been received. Georgetown says 8 weeks (I'm going on 13 weeks with them however). The don't guarantee you have a decision until a 2 weeks before the program starts though.