jalison

They never confirmed with me that they received my application - I emailed (in a mild panic) and they informed me that they had received it weeks ago. Always good to check but it seems that their confirmation mechanism may not be 100%

Thanks for your replies! I think I agree with the general consensus and I'm just going to go for it and deal with that little "employment" issue when I get to it - hopefully my career advisors/connections/higher qualifications can help me out!

I was accepted to a masters program that I really want to go to! But they give me the option to defer my acceptance for a year which is kind of intriguing. I would be going to school directly out of undergrad - so when I graduate I would have no "real life" work experience (except for summer jobs at restaurants). I'm worried that when I graduate even though I have a masters degree I will be less-than-employable due to my lack of experience. I wonder if I should defer and try to get an internship for a year (although I can't guarantee that I would even GET an internship because I don't have one lined up) or whether I should just go for it and deal with my lack of experience on the other side - and hope that the school I am going to can try to help me out in finding a job. I have a week to decide. What would you do?

Thanks guys I got into the University of Glasgow - I am only applying to schools in the EU/UK - many of them have rolling admissions which is awesome since I got my apps in pretty early

I had a really good interview with one school and then this morning I heard from one of my top choices and I got in!!! Before this I actually wasn't convinced I would get in anywhere - now (assuming I get in to other places since I got into this place that is fairly highly ranked) I guess I have to start to weigh my options between school ranking and research interest....

My second recommender got back to me! YAY!

soooo one of the profs that I was going to ask for a LOR isn't replying to my email.... I then googled her and found out she may be working at a different university and there is an email listed - is it weird/creepy/aggressive/impatient if I just copy the email that I originally sent and send it to this new email too and just say something like "wasn't sure if you were checking your other email blah blah" - I can't send my recommendation requests until I have both profs on board and the other prof is ready and waiting!

Everything is done except my transcripts... need to wait until my grades from this semester are uploaded and then get them sent (aka overnighted) to the schools in time. Also one of my prospective recommenders isn't replying to my emails and we live on different continents! I will be glad when this is over

Definitely remind them - profs are busy and they forget things and they will be happy that you reminded them - just do it in a nice way!

Its actually pretty shocking how much harder the SOPs are than I thought they would be! At first I thought it would be easy - just an essay on why you are interested and why you fit - once you realize they are basically the only thing you have control of its a pretty stressful experience! I'm still working through them and currently only sending them to a select few (my siblings, close friends who I can trust) until I get them basically where I want, at which point I will bring them to a professor that has been working with me on my apps. As for typos I would recommend literally looking at every individual word on your SOP - I accidentally typed "ethnic" instead of "ethic" and no one that read it noticed and since ethnic is a word it also didn't get caught by spellcheck - and it would have been a pretty awkward typo to make!

I spoke to a professor about this and they said that it is good to be early but its sometimes annoying for them if you ask TOO early. Most of my apps are due January 15 so they said to approach around the beginning of December - this gives them time to do it and is before exams/christmas break. Because your apps are due earlier, you dont need to give them a month and a half of time. Approaching them now is probably the right time to do it. Another piece of advice I received from multiple professors is to remind them - often. They said they dont get annoying if you remind them fairly often and its more annoying for them if you dont remind them because they have so much else going on that they probably won't always remember.

A lot of programs in Europe also do not require LoRs

Have you emailed any of the people in the department? If you email them saying "hi my name is _______,I'm graduating from _________ with ________ (or graduated from) and I am applying to ________ program. I'm really interested in your research on blah blah blah etc." - try to start a dialogue with people before you do the application. If it goes well then you can mention them in the SoP and say "I've even discussed with Professor Jones about blah research" and they might even talk to the adcomm about how you seem like a good fit to the program. I had an advisor suggest to me to do this for each school and they said I should expect about 50% of profs to reply.

Are you applying to MA or PhD programs? I am applying to masters programs and my advisers said it was not an issue at all. From what I understand (from talking to people, advisers, this forum) it is more of an big deal for PhD programs. That being said, if your application is strong otherwise I wouldn't think it would be a big deal. THAT being said - I am still in undergrad so don't take my word for it!

^ re: my previous comment: I misread the context of that comment, sorry. I actually agree - they definitely will not look down on you for being thorough and double-checking your applications and wanting to correct a mistake.