rainy_day

First off, congrats on the little one! I think you made the correct decision not to mention your baby in the SOP, as it is really a space for academic/professional information and personal anecdotes should be kept to a minimum, if mentioned at all.

Brandeis Grad School has a good conference in early March: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/43969 And the PCA/ACA is in Boston in April and they just extended their submission deadline to 12/22.

I think they want the whole thing, including supplemental LORs sent as on package.

I got an email from them today that said the deadline is midnight, PST!! From the email: So fear not! Also, I found a typo in my SOP literally immediately after hitting submit. Sigh. G'night all! Good luck.

It would be a great consolation to me if you got into UCLA, so I'll send you good vibes. If it helps you at all, I got an email from Michigan that the deadline was midnight pacific time; I'm on the east coast so this surprised me. I'm 2-3 fit sentences away from desert of some kind and a mindless tv show! They are taking an inordinately long amount of time to write.

Okay, I just laughed really loud at Starbucks over that. All sorts of sideways glances came my way. Carry on folks!

Omg, I've been working on them all week! I started submitting them over the weekend, because, yeah, I absolutely could not do 7 in one day. But I'm super beat, all the same. Also, on Dec 1st I had UMinnesota and UCLA due....and I had the flu! I managed to get UMinnesota in; UCLA will forever be "the one that got away." haha. Congrats to you as well! I like to think we're pretty baller for getting through all this.

Ugh, make up your mind, indeed. I simply don't have the time or energy to make this thing that much shorter, so they are just going to have to deal. (and by "deal" I mean plz accept me) Also, bespeckled, I was pretty much in awe of you because at first I thought you had a 4 page single spaced sop!

Bah, more conflicting information! This website says "How long should my statement of purpose be? One to two pages long, single or double spaced." http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/grad/prospective/admissionsFAQ.asp

Thanks for this vote of confidence! That is just what I'll do. Also, sorry about that self-congratulatory "really awesome" bit. Let's just say, comparative to my other essays it earns that title.

bespeckled, from my admittedly suuuuuper burnt out place (I had 7 apps due today), I would totally turn in the same essay I wrote for Michigan.

11 pt font sounds perfect to me! You know it can be single spaced, too, right? Question for y'all about the writing sample: When they say "most are about 25 pgs," do you think it's okay to turn in a 15 pg writing sample? I have a really awesome 15 pg sample. I have another paper, that is 25 pgs, and it's also good, but not quite as strong. What do you think is more important: length or strength? (Oh, god, I did not mean to rhyme. Seriously time for me to be done with this stuff. haha.)

Exactly!!!!! I seriously considered writing a theoretical essay on the many ways a *required* diversity is inherently messed up and reifies the very operating logic it is supposedly attempting to trouble. (If you perform your diversity well enough, we'll accept you and give you money! We will be the judge of your personal experience! Nothing hegemonic to see here!) But I'm not quite that bad ass, and I just wrote something that is moderate at best.

Your recommenders will not be notified, so that will be on you to keep them in the loop when you start hearing back. It's a nice way to swing back and say "thank you" again, too.

Hhahaha. This! I've done 7 now, and I'm very much at that point. I figure maybe they'll appreciate the frank nature of that approach?

Is it before the deadline? I had a typo in one of my apps, and resent the docs. I was told they couldn't remove my original documents, but could add the new ones as an addendum. I was also told that little typos like that aren't taken seriously. good luck!

I would recommend including a cover letter, with your name and the program you are applying to, as well as a list of all enclosed documents. That should help prevent things from getting lost.

Haha, I did that last night for UC Irvine, instead of working on their sop. Or sleeping! It was very late at the time. I'm actually having a hard time envisioning myself *in* another city, probably in part because I have lived in my current city for 9 yrs. (yikes, that makes me feel old.)

Ugh, the personal statement. Honestly, mine is not very good, but at least it is done! I've reached this point where I am super ready to be done with everything, so I'm just hitting "submit" like a mo'fo'. I've yet to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I'm getting things out the door. UMichigan and UC Irvine are my final Dec 15th applications to submit. (I had 7! And 2 from with early Dec dates.) I'm going to try and finish them both tonight, because I have some serious paper writing to do tomorrow.

I think an abstract sounds like a great idea! Because a. you probably don't have that much time to rework the whole thing and b. you'll probably have to sacrifice something in reworking it, and that's a bummer.

What a lovely idea for a thread! I'm most frustrated by the sheer volume of work that is due this week. I have 7 applications due Thursday, and a 20+ and 25+ paper due Friday. Eek. Interestingly, I'm feeling rather zen about the applications, and instead feeling overwhelmed and anxious about these seminar papers. I think I'm projecting my anxiety about applications, so that I can actually hit submit. Which is great! Except it's making writing a painfully slow process. Luckily I only have 2 applications due this week and I'm about over half way done with the papers. Unfortunately, I have 2 more applications due and I'm only half way done with papers! Good luck to everyone!

I can beat all of this. Two years ago when I was applying the first time around, loads of schools wanted you to mail documents. I switched my envelopes, and sent the wrong application to two schools!! Also, despite that, I got in to one of those schools,which suggests that all this time we're spending freaking out over typos is probably largely unnecessary. Man, March is far away!

Hey Sciencegirl, Unfortunately the one that prompted this post is required. And it's exactly this idea that bothers me, that if I've felt hardship/been marginalized (which I have) that I would want to, would be happy to, express it. I don't mind the "option" of these essays at all, as I have just opted out. I specifically resent the required statements as an invasion of privacy.

Can I just vent for a moment? I really, really, really dislike personal history/diversity essays. It's not specifically the extra work involved in these essays (although that is annoying too), but I just don't think my personal history is any of their business. You want to judge me based on the "kind of person" I am? Fine! That's what my LORs are for. You want to judge my commitment to diversity issues in my research? By all means. I've provided a lovely statement of purpose and writing sample. But my personal experience with diversity/hardhsip/etc? It's none of your business! And the fact that I have to trot out these very personal experiences to for others' judgement feels like a very serious invasion of my privacy and, ultimately, kind of offensive. Am I alone in this thinking? How do other people feel about these personal history/diversity statements?