jujubea

see PM

...Hrmph. I got an e-mail with the subject line "Visit Santa Barbara!" ..... it was just a travel company e-mail...

If your schools are close, I'd say go for it. It was made fairly clear to me that my visits (which I took the initiative to arrange, but was very welcomed) were helpful to the admissions deciders. It was definitely very helpful to me, and I was able to remove one of the programs from my list after seeing how poor of a fit it was. I also got insights into the actual "feel" of the places, the people, the environment, the TA's offices (or lack thereof).. etc..

I submitted my last application!!!! Yay! It feels so good! I don't know how you people with 20 applications did it! Kudos to you!

Haha jeez. Well, you must be a pretty good grad catch then anyway!

Ahahahaha... this looks ridiculous. Just for the record! It was in response to a spam post that repeated the phrase "fond of gaeity in society".... But of course once I reported the spam... it got removed

One of my awesomest POI's emailed today saying they are "eagerly awaiting" my application!!! Yay

This process is detailed in one of the other threads, but what happens is: The Department itself decides they want you and like you and want to give you XYZ package. They send their "recommendation" to a greater school-wide Grad Office (hence the phrasing some of you have been getting, such as "You are being recommended for admission.") The greater school-wide Grad Office apparently almost always agrees with recommendations, but occasionally does not. Once they agree, they notify the Department, and then you get officially notified of acceptance.

You can unsubscribe from a lot of them. Look for the link in teeeeny tiny print at the bottoms of the e-mails.

...and even then... from what I hear, good luck finding a teaching position... Have you PMed or posted on that one thread with the sociology professor willing to answer questions? He offers advice for admissions sure, but I'm sure he knows a thing or two about a thing or two outside of academia too...

I love my partner but sometimes I think he has way too much faith in me. He thinks there's no way I won't get in anywhere. "They will love you," he keeps saying. To the point that when I begin fretting about the possibility of being reject by all three schools, he chuckles! He thinks it's so outside the realm of possibility! Guess that's one reason why I'm marrying him, since he thinks the world of me, right?

I have to just shut my brain out of analyzing the interactions I've had, because I don't want to get my hopes up, or the opposite, don't want to start being so pessimistic.. like, "Wait, what did they mean by that?" When I have gotten very positive e-mails or in-person tidbits from these people I really respect, I have chopped it up to them being nice, courteous, enthusiastic, and maybe optimistic people. I also rationalize it by saying to myself, "If they said something that positive to me, at the very least what it means is that they see potential in me and like me - even if the overall adcomm does not." And that helps me sleep better at night

Hey there - I'm in a different field, but the same relationship boat .. plus kids. My partner and I had many, many discussions about this. When we met, I was looking at programs already. I delayed applying for a year so that after I moved in (from overseas) to be with him and his kids in the U.S., we would have more than a couple months of living together before also moving together. He has geographic limits, which are now my geographic limits. That was the first narrow-down. Within those limits I found all the programs I would like to apply to (there were about 7 or 8). From that list, he looked at the cities and states and decided which he would be OK with living in or not, and which ones actually had a relevant job market for him. If it were just us two, we'd live out of cardboard boxes nearly - we really don't care. But when you have little ones involved, the game gets a lot more stressful, and the stakes are a lot higher. From that list, we looked at which places have decent enough schools. Now we're down to three. And even of those three, there's one he's very uncomfortable with, but he knows it's a dream program, so wants to support me if possible. I think he also feels indebted because I left my supremely posh overseas job to come be with him and help raise his kids. I had to come to the conclusion and agreement with myself, that if he chokes at the last minute, I will still move forward with my graduate career. I can't put my life on hold forever, and I know I would be resentful and unhealthy if I delayed this one more time. It has been a lifelong goal for me to attend graduate school, and is just about the only thing I am not willing to compromise on. I gave up a really sweet deal, a sweet life, job security and money, to come live in a crappy tiny town (I've never lived somewhere so small in my life), got rid of car because I can't afford it being a freelancer, and gritted my teeth at essentially being a stay-at-home stepparent (something I never, ever wanted... the stay-at-home part). So, I feel like I've given up a lot already. I wont' give up my PhD. I'd lose myself. And I think he knows that. We are tremendously stressed out. I basically just finished moving in, and now we have to start packing up so that we can sell the house. We are also supposed to be getting married in the spring. One of our parents just landed in the ICU. We are under ungodly financial pressure for reasons I won't say here. He has a very well established private practice in town, owns his building and his home, and will have to give all of that up to move himself and his kids to ... we don't even know where yet. With some kind of divine fortune, the kids have been kind of wanting to leave this town anyway, because it is so small and they know it. They are brilliant kids so we have to do right by them as far as schools, and keeping them here would be a really poor choice for them. That said, they are also hesitant and worry about going farther away from their other biological parent (even though they rarely see her as it is - once every two months or so), and are generally, normally, healthily worried about moving overall. What my man and I have realized is that if we are able to endure this s*** all at once right at the beginning of our relationship.... then we are probably going to kick butt as a couple through basically anything that is thrown our way. And that gives us the confidence to go forward. And that's how it is.

Few ideas here: 1. It's not that you aren't qualified to be an administrative assistant, it's that you're overqualified. People do not want to hire clearly overqualified candidates because they know that person is just waiting around for something better. They'd rather invest in someone long-term. 2. It's best to do something even tangentially related to what you want to be doing. Otherwise you're kind of going backwards. Retail's not a good idea, unless with your crim justice degree you're thinking about becoming a loss prevention officer or coordinator or manager or something. Since you're taking lowest-level jobs anyways, why not go work low-level in a social organization of some kind? A non-profit that works on reducing recidivism, or that works with those already imprisoned to help them prepare for life after jail? Such places would take you on as an administrative assistant, because they know you want to be in their field. 3. If you can't work somewhere even remotely related, or even if you can, you might also try volunteering somewhere related. For example, there is a nationwide network of organizations that do something called victim-offender reconciliation. Why not become a volunteer mediator there? Or volunteering for a juvenile offender program as a tutor or mentor? Or try interning at a PD instead of becoming a PO. You can also look at the Sheriff's Office not just the PD, and you can also look at the PD training facilities. 4. Reach out to someone in the field who is doing what you want to do. Perhaps that's a Deputy in the field; perhaps that's a researcher profiling criminals; whatever it is, take the time to craft a well thought e-mail and reach out to someone letting them know you're looking for a mentor or at least some short-term guidance. 5. Have you thought about going overseas for work? What about being a research at an overseas university? Many countries are developing their police department and security services to come up to higher standards. I'm sure they can use some of your help and expertise. What do you want to be doing? What are some of your dream jobs?

These two are my favorite: I don't dream/nightmare about the process, or about applications or admissions, or even attending programs. I dream/nightmare about my family (not) adjusting to the new city we move to... In essence, I dream about them "rage-rejecting" me for bringing them out there, haha...

I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty fond of gaiety and society

Congratulations, kicker!

Same here. I quickly got off all those lists... although I occasionally get them still. Today I realized I returned a form as part of the application that was blank.... doh.

Yay Autumn! Congratulations!!!

Hey Masters - I'm in a similar boat as you, with almost the exact same list of things. I decided to include all of them, because they are relevant (although sometimes only tangentially) to the topic, and, as it goes with certain fields... some are more inherently "applied" than others, so I think it is particularly OK to include such things.

Word. But it's an ancient history program, not a compsci program,... right? ...Joking - I'm sure it's a school-wide system. Would be a good fix. Maybe the departments all keep their mouths shut about it/don't have time to "complain" to the IT office about the fixable nuisance... Sorry for your troubles!

Jeez... this thread is making me anxious just reading it! It will all be OK everybody! It will all be OK!!!

I'd bet it's not an issue. And since you've already e-mailed there's not much else you can do unless you try phone calls. If you have been in contact with a POI, I might e-mail them, or the Department's Grad Coordinator, to ask what's up. One of my applications is in limbo like this now too and it's driving me nuts. I emailed Grad Admissions to no resolution. Then I emailed the Department, who told me to email Grad Admissions. I waited a few days to see if it would resolve, then when it didn't resolve, I let the Department know what the GA Office's response was (yes, you have submitted the right materials, but we haven't updated our system to reflect that yet). The person at the Department said they'd make sure my application materials were properly forwarded to the Dept in time for their first meeting to review applications. But the website STILL shows me as missing or incomplete materials. It's driving me a little bonkers.

Congratulations! Ah! Must feel sooooo good!