Rose Tyler

My whole family is really naiive. I got a lot of "So where are you going for grad school?" over Christmas and my response of "Wherever will take me" became increasingly sarcastic as time went on. I texted my mom about something else last night and mentioned that I'm feeling significantly less hopeful about my chances of getting into doctoral programs. Her response was "It's still early, don't give up hope" and I had to explain to her that I'd found out that at least two of my schools have already sent out all their invites. I've been purposely not telling her that I should be hearing back right now so that she won't think to ask.

Heard from SDN that one of my schools is done sending invites. I almost think I'd prefer rejections to this radio silence.

I understand if you'd rather not say, but can you PM me who? At this point I'm pretty sure I only have one hope left (besides masters programs that haven't even had a deadline yet).

I feel you. I have a horrible feeling about most of my applications at this point. I only really have hope left for one school as they haven't sent out any invites and as time goes on I feel increasingly like I'm going to get shut out.

It took me a while to get my mom to understand that it's a competitive process, but she gets that. She still has faith that I'm going to get in, keeps talking about interviews like they're a done deal. The other day she asked me when I'll start hearing back from schools and I didn't have the heart to tell her that I probably should've started receiving invites already. Then she went on about how I wouldn't be starting until the fall so it could hypothetically take all summer and I resisted the urge to tell her the APA stipulates that all decisions must be made by April 15th. The rest of my family doesn't get it all, keeps asking me where I'm going to grad school. None of it is helping my stress level.

Does anyone else see invites posted for schools they thought about applying to but ultimately didn't for some reason and wish they had? I'm having that problem.

Could the person waitlisted at UW-Milwaukee please PM me their POI?

Congrats to those who received invites for UT-Knoxville! If I could please know the POI I'd be very grateful.

Congratulations on the invites, guys!

I saw an invite for UW-Milwaukee's counseling program, anyone know if the clinical program is also extending invites yet?

I'm caught up in waiting, too, and I've started to wonder if I should put together information about programs and POI's research. I don't think invites are extended last minute so there should be time. What about brief phone interviews for POIs that conduct them? Should I know all about a POI's research/have questions prepared if the phone rings one day, or will there be warning? It's been a while since I looked them all up and the details are starting to escape me.

I'm always the anxious type but I haven't been anything like this in a long time. This is nothing like undergrad admissions. Applications were simple for those; I only had to write essays for one school. There were no interviews. I had no worries about not getting in anywhere. My ACT score was high and my grades were solid. I knew that if no one else, my second choice would take me. Although I was rejected from my first choice, I got in to two other schools and ended up not even applying to half my list. I don't think it'll be a recurring issue during grad school, because most things I'll be able to prepare for rather than just having to sit and wait. Besides, my biggest worry right now is what I'm going to do if I don't get in.

I have problems with anxiety and I've been going through swings lately. Sometimes I'm okay, sometimes I feel really frantic, and other times I get really down and think there's no way I'm going to get in. It's partially because right now I'm at home and I basically just stay there all day. I've been using Netflix and reading to distract myself a lot lately. I think I'll feel better when I'm back at school. I honestly can't wait just so that I can be busy again. I'm with uselesstheory on the guaranteed date. The worst part is knowing that I could get a call/email at any time...over the next month. There are already a couple reports of interview invites being extended to applicants at schools I've applied to.

I also had problems with one of my three letter writers. Four of my apps were due December 1st and he didn't submit them until two days before. Two weeks before he was gone at a conference followed immediately by Thanksgiving break. I was terrified and picking a back-up wasn't an option because he's PI on all of the research I've done. Then he didn't realize one of them was supposed to be mailed and never did it. I had no idea until three days after the deadline I received an email from the school saying I could still submit it by that Friday (on Wednesday). Mail generally takes three days out of my town so I don't know if it ever made it. Luckily that was my lowest choice. I second contacting professors whose letters are shown as being in progress after a reasonable amount of time. One of my professors started hers and I kept waiting for her to complete it rather than contacting her right off. She ended up asking me to send the notification to her again and got it in the day of the deadline.

It shouldn't be too difficult. Travel-size containers of things like shampoo, conditioner, lotion, etc are quite small and a quart plastic bag is larger than you think it is. I flew to DC for five days with no issues. Don't try to hide things in the rest of your luggage, you don't want to have to spend more time in security than is necessary. When you go through security, you have to take that bag full of liquids out and send it through separately. If all else fails, maybe you could run through a CVS (or similar) for anything you had to leave behind and absolutely require? Or if you're staying at a hotel, you can use their stuff?

Can't say I have anything so bad as POIs accused of murder or having to stay with an ex, but it's still early. Unnecessarily sending paper copies of LORs a week after the application was due (all three of them were already submitted online) because there were two sets of instructions. Told by a school that all of my materials are in and being forwarded to the department the day of the deadline only to receive an email two days later that they’re missing an LOR. An LOR that has to be submitted by post within two days.

Classes for me start back up on January 12th, but as said it varies from school to school.

I was wondering about the POI for the person interviewing for clinical psychology at University of Tennessee and the person at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I understand if they don't want to disclose, I'm just anxiously curious.

Go to your settings and then from the items on the left click "Signature."

It still doesn't feel real to me. It did hit me this morning pretty hard that Christmas is over and I could be hearing back from schools any day now.

Obsessively checking this forum, SDN, and my email. I went to stay with my SO last night and forced myself to leave my laptop at home so that I couldn't check anything. Be lying if I said I didn't think about getting my phone out for just a minute. The holidays should be helping because I know I'm not going to hear anything until they're over, but they're really not. Also a lot of Netflix.

I keep telling myself there's no point in worrying or obsessively checking my email until after Christmas is over. It's not working. I don't know anything about the program or application, but could they have included that information in their personal statement/statement of purpose?

Caught in waiting limbo I've been thinking a lot about back-up plans in the event that I don't get in anywhere this cycle. I'm probably going to also apply to master's programs. I'm thinking about staying at my undergraduate institution, but that's kind of a last resort option. No one there really does research in my interest areas. I've also thought about moving away from home and seeing if I could get a position in a research lab, even if it's not paid. Does anyone else have a back-up plan? For those of you already in programs, if you got shut out before, what did you do? If you didn't get shut out, did you have any plans for if you did?

Thankfully not really. My undergrad school is eight hours away so I only come home for the summer and Christmas break. However, my mom's looking to move too and she wants to consider the area I move to as a potential spot to settle. Gahh not going into animal behavior either, but it's a special interest of mine and I hate that guy. My mom practically worships the ground he walks on and now she wants to be a dog trainer based off his methods. It makes me feel sick.