unicornsarereal

The missing school is Columbia; any chance that's one of yours? Yeah, I had already emailed them about the gre ages ago. Looks like I get to hound them down some more!

So, to backtrack to recommendation letter panic—one of my letters still says its not submitted, but that the prof started it a month ago. she's gotten her letter in to all my other schools just fine. The app was due 12/15. I've sent her two reminders, to no avail. Not sure what to do and starting to think the problem might be on the school's end? They're still listing my GRE as not received even though i sent it 2-3 months ago.

Yeah, I submitted my masters dissertation that I did well on and was super proud of. I've had some major cringe sessions since i started research for another topic within the same period—which is interesting, i think!

For the people asking about transcripts: I had the same questions. I checked all my schools; only one needed official official transcripts. Otherwise, it was fine for me to send transcripts I'd downloaded or taken pictures of. It's usually only if you attend that the schools needed official ones straight from schools.

Sorry for the delayed response! Mine were all much shorter, like 450-650. I double spaced or 1.5 spaced. If you are worried about word count, just know that UK schools expect much less fluff in their statements. They just want to know what you've done, what you intend to study. Message me your email and I can send you a few examples if you'd like.

This is not completely applicable to us but does have to do with writing and rejection, so that's enough IMO! http://lithub.com/why-you-should-aim-for-100-rejections-a-year/

I applied to UK schools last year and attended one! Happy to answer questions.

The same thing has happened to me. I sent a generic reminder email from the school. I'd do the same in a day or two. Schools understand this, I think/hope.

Honestly, the opposite! Now I'm anxious about hearing back! Deep breaths...

It turns out ONE of my schools does require them to be sent from my alma maters, which means I'm missing the deadline on those transcripts.

Yeah, I'm seeing that as well at my schools.

I've double checked mine and they are all official, but are being registered as unofficial. As to mailing them, still going through the list but pretty sure none of my schools wants items mailed, but rather all uploaded to the app. This is my anxiety over apps finally kicking in, so please excuse me!!

I saw someone tweeting about how they had to pay to send their transcripts to schools, which got me thinking—I didn't go through any of my schools to send transcripts. I either uploaded an unofficial pdf, an official pdf, or shared a photo of an official printed one because the school doesn't do electronic ones. This is totally a last minute panic about transcripts ignited because I saw one school say they'd gotten unofficial but not official ones. Has anyone else not submitted any official transcripts through their schools?

Nothing can be done until you see where you get in, so parcel up some of your anxiety for when results come out. Otherwise, I have little else to say aside from this sounds like a personal and tough decision!

It appears that I have submitted all my applications. Totally unsure how I feel about all this.... Good luck to everyone else still working!

Oh dude I feel for you having to cut that SOP down. So grateful all mine were 1000. I had the same problem with the writing sample, which was tough too.

The sense I've gotten is that there are no safety schools, and I say that not to freak you out but to help you think differently. Apply to more schools, look beyond the top 30. For a lot of schools you can select to be considered for the MA as well as the PhD program, so make sure you tick that. Honestly, I don't have specific advice other than you never know what's going to happen.

Thanks guys. When I met with an old professor she said that conferences actually don't matter, which I was so surprised to hear. I largely applied to this conference to boost my CV but now I'm trying to think of it as a fun learning experience.

Hello very helpful people! Hope you all are doing well. I've begun submitting my apps—about half way through and have done my top choice because it was due December 1. But on Saturday I found out I've been accepted into a conference for February— a whole other story is how I'm going to prepare for that... My question is: should I reach out to the schools I've submitted my applications to already? I'm going to update my resume and unsubmitted apps to reflect this upcoming conference.

Okay thanks. I'll do the same. I would be super pissed but thankfully another school requires it as well so I've got one.

Anyone else applying to UCLA? The English department doesn't list the personal history statement as a req but when I try to submit the form it's saying I need to fill out that portion. Any idea?

Thanks so much @fuzzylogician and @TakeruK!

All of a sudden I'm second guessing everything including the CV. So far I've got my degrees, gpas, conferences, work experience, miscellaneous stuff. I'm wondering if you're supposed to put down all the relevant courses you've taken as well??

Dude, vent and vent some more. This is stressful. For your letter writer, clarify with her asap what she's going to do, and perhaps ask for guidance about the subject. I've honestly had this before with my MA dissertation. My supervisor was like "no, that's been done before". But now I'm seeing that there are different angles that haven't been done, so maybe there's some miscommunication or you can push your idea in a slightly different direction? If it comes to you writing your own letter, have someone else look it over to make sure you're talking yourself up enough. For the other professor, don't be discouraged, just be realistic. This whole thing is an utter crapshoot. I'm doubting myself a ton too. I'm freaking out because I'm having a hard time finding work and Im second guessing my Masters program some. I think we all are freaking. We're this far in, and we don't know what's going to happen to let's just keep at it.

I'm either okay or freaking out and totally unsure of how to improve my application. I've got to cut down my writing sample for a school that has a 15 page limit, including the bibliography. My bib is 5 pages long, so I'm not sure if I should just skip it all together?? I've got to go over my statement, mostly each school's bit, and work on an essay that of course just one school requires... I'm applying to PhDs at Rutgers Berkeley Emory Austin Brown Maryland Columbia Yale Vanderbilt Stanford Princeton Penn NYU and UCLA.