Bunsen Honeydew

Financial aid just came in. $15k/yr plus I guess I was unceremoniously awarded the w.w. norton fellowship...which is cool

Still waiting on aid. Is anyone else bringing their dog to Europe?

Got my acceptance to SAIS Bologna- no word on funding. !

Arabic gives you a baseline from which you can learn dialect for many important countries. I would also advise you to consider the region you want to work in and go from there. If you learn something like Pashtu, Tajiki, etc, you are going to be working a lot in impoverished areas.

Historically it seemed like today and tomorrow. Their FB page says "mid-march"- no specific date. Womp womp...

For those that applied to GT, they just posted on their twitter that decisions would be released by end of March. The wait continues...

I applied to their IR Distance program (rolling admission) several months back and was notified about 3 weeks after I submitted.

looks like 9 more days still...

When I applied to American University, the graduate coordinator was responsible for putting together complete packages to present to the admissions committee. He would contact me to check the status on missing documents. It was a very small program. On the other hand, applying to the bigger programs, I did receive some 'automated'-like emails when they were waiting for the official transcripts to arrive. There was a snafu on their end with application payment so I had to call their offices. After I spoke to them on the phone, I got a personal email from them saying everything was good to go. If I had to guess, I would say that whoever is responsible for making sure the adcom gets completed applications is doing his/her job. Thats the pragmatic view. The optimist view would be that the adcom has already seen your package, noticed it missing, and liked what they saw enough to request it. Its all speculatory.

Pop some adderall and get on magoosh! the best part about the quant section is its more logic than actual math...and its gameable. Simply memorize a few formulas, practice the problem sets a million times, and watch all the magoosh math videos. That is, if you don't get in this time around. I hadn't taken a real math class since high school (8 years) and managed to squeeze out a 160. Its totally doable. I would also be prepared to have a reasonable answer if you are asked about it in an interview. Make sure you schmooze it a little bit. Good luck killer.

For the GRE, Magoosh was an invaluable resource. I studied vocabulary intently by writing short stories using new words daily. I used Magoosh for everything else and was able to bring my GRE from shit in practice tests to less-shit (165/160). For the SOP, just reading, mostly non-fiction. I thought really thought deeply about what the evaluators might see on the other side. For example, they have my resume, so there's really no point in re-living my life in the SOP (especially if its only 500-600 words). As a more unconventional applicant, I didn't want to bore the admissions panel with the same tired format. Some observations over the course of writing the various SOPs and then reading lots online: 1. Write drunk, edit sober 2. If you have an incredible stroke of genius, write it down immediately (I have Evernote on my phone). 3. Don't fall too hard for your first concept. I don't think a single sentence of my first draft made it into the final, even though I thought it was perfect at the time. 4. Write a new SOP for each school based on the program. After reading a lot of others' work, its becomes pretty obvious where they just plugged in classes, professors, and school names. 5. Wait until the final week to submit, even if you are done early. I submitted my first choice school (because the dead-line was earlier), had a stroke of genius, and completely re-wrote the concept for other schools. 6. If you hate your SOP the more you read it, its time for a re-write. 7. Make your voice both confident and humble. 8. If you did something notable, don't self-suck about it all the way through your essays. Imagine your friends rolling their eyes hearing the same stories again and again. 9. Don't try to make people feel sorry for you when they probably shouldn't. If you fought through serious adversity to make it, good on you. Having to take adderall is not adversity. I'd like to be prescribed amphetamines too. 10. Get people that know you to proofread and some who don't. Be weary about over-edits, as they have the tendency to strip out uniqueness. 11. Don't be afraid to go unconventional, especially for fellowships with boring topics (Why do you want to get money from us?) 12. Let your freak flag fly, politely. 13. Have a purpose in your statement of purpose. All things considered, I've only been notified for acceptance by one school so far (that had rolling admission). Take this advice with a grain of salt.

Re: Katrun- http://www.reddit.com/r/Proofreading/search?q=review+my+essay&sort=relevance&restrict_sr=on&t=all Re: DupontCircle- couldn't find where you were talking about

Here's the email from the university. Both the WW Norton and Priscilla Mason require separate applications.

I'd be happy to look your essays over, though I am by no means an authority on writing.

Yeah man- some are intrinsic to the application, but there are a few that have separate requirements. I think they are all due March 1 so no worries on deadlines. Link: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/graduate-studies/admissions-and-aid/tuition-aid/fellowships/apply

JHU SAIS has all candidates send materials for both applications and fellowships to the SAIS admissions office. I am curious to know if the same committee that decides admittance also decides fellowship awards. In that, does the committee examine all materials sent (i.e. essays for the WW Norton Fellowship and Priscilla Mason Fellowship and application essays)? Or do they decide acceptance first based on your initial application and then further examine your fellowship applications? This may seem a rather trivial question, but personally, all four essays I wrote for the application and fellowships give a much more rounded view than the two application essays alone.