grad_wannabe

Response to books and hand-written thank-you cards: they went over very well.

No, nothing from usc.

I agree, I think you should retake. I hate the emphasis that the GRE gets in admissions, but I think you'd have a good shot of raising your scores. Also, for what it's worth, you can't re-take just one section -- you have to take all three together, every time.

I tried to space mine out, giving at least a month before each deadline to avoid flooding their inbox, and to my surprise two of my writers requested that I instead do everything at once.

Hark and learn from my tale of woe: One of my letter-writers missed his deadline back in November (despite my every-single-week-leading-up and even day-before, day-of, AND day-after reminder emails), and my application was deemed "incomplete" and bumped to the next decision round at the end of January. This means I won't know that decision until possibly April, rendering that possibility almost moot. REMIND THEM. Don't just email. CALL on the phone, let them hear your voice.

I got each of mine a nice book tailored to their interests and a thank-you card. I'll be presenting them in person to two writers today, I'll post back what the response is.

We have to remember too that the adcomms are piecing together a cohort from among the applicants. No matter how good your GPA, GRE, SOP, and LORs (what an alphabet soup!) if your research interests don't match well with the emergent "cohort theme" or don't overlap well with the other applicants and faculty, then that's just too bad. i visited one campus and spoke to some current students and told them my interests, and they said "oh, we haven't had any students focusing on that area in awhile." That could be very good (i.e. the program might be receptive to more representation of those ideas) or very bad (if the program is trending away from those ideas entirely). It bodes well that the program just hired a new faculty member whose interests are really close to mine, so I'm cautiously optimistic, but we just won't know til spring.

Haha I've had such similar experiences! My top-pick school, top-pick POI: "You need to know that this is an extremely competitive process. We'll get 150 applications, 100 of those will be stellar students. 50 of those will be stellar students AND a great match for the program. When the admit committee meets we have to fight, blood on the floor, for each and every admit." My last-ranked school, so-so POI: "You're perfect for this program! We're going to have to court you pretty hard I imagine, with all your options."

Keep your head up! I can't count the number of times I've seen people on this thread get rejected from State School X while getting into Harvard.

All great ideas, thank you! ps I see that we both applied to HASTS! Luck to us both!

i was thinking about a nice bottle of scotch, but worried I might offend if any of them are recovering alcoholics!

Usually takes a week to 10 days. You should be fine.

You should address this, make sure you're given a byline. I once had a friend ask for my "help" writing her MFA thesis. I was just happy to contribute, I liked her work and enjoyed writing about it. I wrote several chapters, just assuming I'd be credited. Well, later she got it published as a huge shiny coffee-table book. Didn't change a single word of what I'd written. I wasn't credited anywhere. Not even in the dang acknowledgements.

Camping. Skiing. Generally being outside. Give me a cozy fire and a mug of cocoa any day. Edit: this is part of the reason I never felt at home growing up in California. Every friggin' weekend, everyone was either camping at the beach, hiking in the canyons, or going snowboarding. I applied to mostly CA schools in part to move closer to my family, but truth be told, I really don't want to live there.

Well last night i was in a bit of a funk, getting bogged down in a maelstrom of thoughts about apps, academia, POIs, journals, etc. etc, when I happened to visit one of my favorite blogs and saw a lovely bunch of drawings. It kind of hit me, "oh snap, I forgot about beauty." so I'm going to go back to my roots as an art student: start drawing again, visit some art and natural history museums, maybe peruse some art to buy.

This is a great topic, thanks for starting. I have a convoluted academic background. I spent two years at undergrad #1, transferred, then spent four years at undergrad #2, then attended a sort-of artsy master's program housed in a tech school, and am now attempting to transition into communications studies. I've never been quite one thing or the other. In art school I was generally more bookish and quiet than my artsy classmates. Then I got to tech school and was suddenly more artsy than all the engineers. I finally found a home doing theory-based business research, but I'm not quantitative enough to make a career in it. I've been a pea without a pod for a long time. I really, REALLY hope one of the programs to which I've applied will see a method to my madness.

Oh gees, I wish I could put Overanalyzing Emails as a hobby on my OKCupid profile. I spend SO MUCH TIME on it. I emailed one POI (with whom I spent an entire day doing a campus visit) to let her know I'd submitted my app. She replied, "best of luck!" Wait, what? "best of luck"?! I thought we were a team! I thought you were going to advocate for me in the admissions meetings! BEST OF LUCK?!

Getting into a grad program is like dating -- it's not about who's BEST, it's about who's the best MATCH. Same thing for rejections. If they don't want you, there's no point to appealing. It could have been any tiny little thing. It doesn't matter. They felt other applicants were a better match. Best to just move on. Do not expend any more energy on this.

thank you!

Does anyone know when we'll hear from USC, what with the Nov. 1 app date? Someone said they spoke to someone at a conference...

Ooh did you apply for the iSchool as well?? (not sure about their international funding. I'm originally a California resident so I'm hoping that comes in handy somehow.)

Stanford had similar stats, from what I'm told. 150 applications, 3 acceptances. It's SUCH a small number!

I have the same dilemma. I was considering making a donation in their name to a local food bank with a nice thank-you card, but I'm a bit concerned this would come off as sanctimonious or overly earnest ...

You guys. You GUYS. I'm finished. Everything's in. My heart's still pounding. Now for the winter of waiting ...

Something we need to remember as we transition into the anxiety of Acceptance Season. (Also, it always baffles me to see when people didn't get into, say, a ton of state schools and then got in with funding to a top school)