Sunshinegrl456

Oops, did the classic "attempt to write "b.)" turns into a dude with sunglasses after I hit post. My bad.

Gooooooood morning! Whilst waiting for little critters to finish telling me how well they can read via state testing, I have a few goodies for gradcafe! 1. A current EPM student told me her cohort is putting together a packet of current leases they all have to pass forward to next years cohort. I'm not certain every program is doing this but a) it doesn't seem unlikely, so keep an eye out! and if not, I will share when I can 2. A friend who has lived in Cambridge for the last, gosh.....8 years now highly recommends looking into Inman Square and Huron Village as more cost-effective Cambridge alternatives to Harvard Sq. and Central Sq. 3. I feel like there was something else....oh! The COOP - free shipping?!? What?!?!

I bought a hoodie Friday about two hours after getting my acceptance letter! Rather less cool compared to a jersey but likely equally exciting

This makes me sad I've heard of people getting in after reapplying!! Might just be an off year

Still pinching myself that this is real that I get to go to Harvard! And freaking out about how expensive housing is. Open call for roommates starts now! P.S. I infiltrated the 12-13 EPM group on FB inquiring about housing and so far have gotten this from a generous soul (she shared this openly on an open FB group so I figure it's ok to turn around and share with you guys ) "My roommate (also EPM) and I have an awesome apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, $1000 each, a 7 minute walk to the School of Education, very safe area, fully furnished, and recently renovated. If you're interested, you can contact Carole & Gordon Talley (carole.talley@charlesbankRE.com or 617-492-2265)" First one to the phone wins!

It's a yes :DDDDDDDDD BEST OF WISHES TO ALL THIS EVENING! To those with the same news as me, CAN"T WAIT to meet you guys soon! For those going elsewhere, here's to a common dream of a better educated world! Thank you ALL so much for the support and shared insanity this last week, I am absolutely sure I could not have handled the stress as well without it!!

Yep. Letters are up online. Can't bring myself to open mine yet.

LITERALLY JUST GOT MINE TOO! I'd already gotten confirmation my application was complete via email from rep I'd spoken to on the phone so I totally wasn't expecting the official, automated email and literally lurched when I opened my gmail just now! At least now I know how fast my heart will race when the real HGSE email comes!

ASzofer, totally feel you, totally in the same spot currently. I got tapped last week for a fellowship that I absolutely did not think would be a possibility at this point in the game. As of now, where I'm at is that of the other schools I'm looking at, the job is winner, but Harvard would be worth the drop and run. I'm sort of inclined to think that "school will always be there" but hey, getting into Harvard one year doesn't necessarily mean you will the next. And as awesome as the job is, at the end of the day it's the not only place with this specific job. I think I'm just dazzled by the idea that someone thinks I'm a great fit for exactly what I want to do with my life.......but then again, I can only hope that HGSE sees that in me, too!

Totally regretting telling so many people Tuesday was probably the day because now the "so I'm assuming you didn't get in because we haven't heard from you" questions are starting to roll in Also, I'm in sort of weird back and forth with the Fin Aid office; they told me over the phone yesterday my tax return was incomplete for who knows why, but then I got an email from the person I talked to saying my application was complete. They haven't responded to my, "does that mean all the parts are there even if the return isn't complete?" question and OF COURSE I'm totally psyching myself out that the reason they haven't responded is because they know I'm not getting in and thus don't want to have to take the time to deal with a financial aid app that will be worthless soon anyway. Ramble over. Focusing at work is so hard these days!!

I concur about the access route. Although at first I thought it had to do with whether or not I'd already logged in since opening the browser but debunked that pretty quickly. Then I thought it had to do with the browser type but debunked that too. And then I gave up because the crazy was getting to me. Crazy crazayyyy! (to the tune of fishy fishayyyy)

Not to get everyone's hopes up, by my email from Penn came at 1:30am EST so it seems that around the clock is not an total impossibility!

All I have to say is that if their software works such that they have to manually go into each account and manually indicate our statuses (v. a mass upload) - I'm really glad I don't work in admissions!

I'm going to be the bitter pessimist of the group and say NEXT Tuesday at 3:30pm. I figure if I shoot for next week, it'll be easier not to think about it this week and then I'll be pleasantly surprised/relieved if it happens sooner.

I want to vote this up so hard but reached my quota!! And I thought I was being sparing!

Nervous face.

I'm a changee now too It took a closing and reopening of my browser Ah the crazy! I drive an hour to and from work each day too! So glad to know I'm not the only one who does that!! The sadly rather mindless work of prepping state testing materials today is giving my brain way too much room to wander.....

I'm literally sitting here trying to convince myself that the reason that I'm not observing the same thing ISN'T because I'm a non-acceptee. Holy cow the craziness!

I just put two bottles of bubbly in the fridge to have on hand tomorrow evening; a nice one for celebration and a cheap one for commiseration!! (you know you have a champagne problem when you just happen to already have both these on hand??)

TC Next Step website says this: "Early Deadline: Applicants that met the early deadline for our programs that begin in the fall can expect to receive an admission decision via email around the middle-to-end of March." Whether it's done in a mass blast or a rolling trickle, got me coach! I'm not particularly placing my bets on hearing from them tomorrow or anytime until later in the month, given that their application deadline was after HGSEs.....and Penn is on week six with my application and I still haven't heard a peep so I'm waxing cynical........

In conversation with an admissions rep a couple months ago, she confirmed that EPM is actually one of their larger programs (not by much though). She also REALLY stressed that the reason they don't publish program specific acceptance rates is because they try to keep total applicant pool in mind - one program one year might have a really strong pool so they'll take more there, but less in another program, etc. and consequently it varies from program to program, year to year. It seems that this is their way of ensuring "quality control" across the programs instead of one program being really competitive and another being known for weaker cohorts, etc. She did say that despite the larger size, EPM comes out a little more competitive (along with Higher Ed) because it's also one of their higher applied to programs. Anyone else already trying to figure out how to stall life for a year and reapply if they don't get in? (after all these weeks, I still don't feel good at all about my SOP which is probably the key sign that bad news is coming).

I submitted my 1040A for free with HR Block last week and am just waiting for it go through with the IRS so I can update my FAFSA with the auto-import.

Also, Edugy that is hilarious and brilliant all at once!! I had a little flip out when LinkedIn told me an "academic manager" at HGSE had viewed my profile! No idea what that position is but it sure sounds admissions related!

I now have an image in my head of a group of serious, shrewd academics sitting at a dark wood table in a dim room all throwing around my application and remarking collectively "this is the idiot that said this...." and "she's so naive to think that......" and then all laughing judgmentally at my inadequacy. Clearly, this waiting game is not proving beneficial to my self-esteem! My only hope here is that state standardized testing starts next week and since I have the joyful task of being district test coordinator, I'm already sure i'll be too frentic to be truly phrased if bad news is coming my way. Thank goodness for high-stakes testing???

Day 1 of the waiting game begins! Happy HGSE games, may the odds be ever in your favor! I've read that the acceptance rates for Ed. M in EPM is about 50/50 - has anyone heard otherwise? Also, for those that expressed concern over SOP length, my SOP ended up being around 1800 words - I was an international relations major in my undergrad so it took a little while to explain how I ended up in domestic education policy. I called the admissions office about it and was told they absolutely won't be checking word counts, as long as your essay doesn't appear alarming long (the example the admissions officer used was "don't send us something that's 10 pages long") you should be fine. Hopefully, the person reading my essay agrees........