mb712

I can't work up the courage to send any emails to POIs even though the silence is driving me insane.

For me it's apply to lab manager positions basically anywhere in the country. Otherwise I guess I could stick around my current school another year, add a minor at the last minute and put off graduation? Graduate and ask the labs I'm at to take pity on me and let me stick around, maybe submit some things for publication? Move into my parents' basement and study for the GRE all day for 6 months?
 
Otherwise, I could go for the Starbucks position. I'm a coffee addict already, might as well. A Chick-fil-A is being built by my house so I guess if I really hit rock bottom...
 
It's probably a little early for me to be dramatic.

I would suggest more research. Quality, not quantity.
 
I had a weird undergraduate path as well, including a multiyear gap between dropping out after a bunch of bad grades my freshman year and resuming my bachelor's well into my 20s. My saving grace is probably that I have four years of great research experience, and I've had several faculty members tell me this. 
 
If it helps your mindset, an impressive faculty member told me that in their mind, "nontraditional" students are much more focused (and sometimes more desirable) especially if they had to put some serious effort into coming back to school. I know the lower GPA and the messy transcript look scary to you (they do to me too) but you never know who you're going to impress by showing resilience and a little educational determination. Some people like the polished shiny 22 year old 4th generation college students with 3.9 GPAs, some people like students who had to get through some uncontrollable life obstacles in order to get to where they are. You can't go back and change anything, so just make sure everything you do from now on shows potential programs how much you deserve to be there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWyzwo1xg0
 
This song just keeps playing my mind.... 

"Subject: application status update

Dear xxx,

Your departmental graduate application status has been updated. Your application status in the department is now:

Under Review. Reviewers have been assigned to review your application and will soon be making recommendations."

Thanks for the heart attack to tell me what I already knew!

The silence from Clark is weird given I was sent at least a few automated email reminders about finishing my application. You would think they would do the same after the fact, at least with stages or something since they were so thorough about people finishing open applications.

I've refrained from posting POI information publicly because a) it's really easy to take things online the wrong way and I don't want that to happen with any of my grad cafe posts (especially if I've shown preferences for certain schools, etc.) just incase schools are lurking & the privacy thing somebody else mentioned, the school/POI doesn't post a list of interviewing applicants for everyone to see so I feel it's proper to give the same privacy in return, yenno?

Posting POIs is probably harmless in the long run but you never know! Plus I have a feeling we've all had it beaten into us that everything online is public & will be seen by people like future employers, so we might be hesitant to post identifiable things to begin with.

I've refrained from posting POI information publicly because a) it's really easy to take things online the wrong way and I don't want that to happen with any of my grad cafe posts (especially if I've shown preferences for certain schools, etc.) just incase schools are lurking & the privacy thing somebody else mentioned, the school/POI doesn't post a list of interviewing applicants for everyone to see so I feel it's proper to give the same privacy in return, yenno?

Posting POIs is probably harmless in the long run but you never know! Plus I have a feeling we've all had it beaten into us that everything online is public & will be seen by people like future employers, so we might be hesitant to post identifiable things to begin with.

I've refrained from posting POI information publicly because a) it's really easy to take things online the wrong way and I don't want that to happen with any of my grad cafe posts (especially if I've shown preferences for certain schools, etc.) just incase schools are lurking & the privacy thing somebody else mentioned, the school/POI doesn't post a list of interviewing applicants for everyone to see so I feel it's proper to give the same privacy in return, yenno?

Posting POIs is probably harmless in the long run but you never know! Plus I have a feeling we've all had it beaten into us that everything online is public & will be seen by people like future employers, so we might be hesitant to post identifiable things to begin with.

I started with a list of about 15 programs and ended up applying to around 10. It seems like the 5 I eliminated are the 5 who have sent out definitive information to applicants already.

This post brought to you by my silence induced nervousness increase.

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

Haha! I'm not surprised either, but it isn't stopping me from stressing out.

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

Anybody else temporarily wish they were going into clinical so they would have probably heard some results by now?

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

And suddenly the cops are at your door.

I reviewed my applications before submitting them but refuse to look again while waiting to hear back. Don't torture yourself! You're human, little errors happen.