American in Beijing

<br /><br /><br /> LOL, my family is the same way. It's really depressing, actually. Fortunately all of my schools had online applications (and I only had to send in a few supplemental things afterwards for one of them, all of which I could do myself), so I didn't have to worry about them "sabatoging" me. They've been coming around lately, though. Maybe yours will too! But yeah . .. I'm totally feeling you on the wishing you had been less vocal about the whole process. I should have just done it secretly so at least the shame of rejection would be milder.

<br /><br /><br /> I actually finished an intensive language program (yeah . . . not so smart to do the semester I'm applying for grad school, I learned . . . at least I have something to blame my impending failure on, lol) and I'm doing a short internship before I start up work teaching English. How about you?

I'm so addicted to checking my e-mail/this site, that I feel I should start this out with a good: "Hi, my name is Larissa and I'm applying to grad school." So basically I'm the American idiot who decided to apply to grad schools while living China. Let me tell you, what seems like a fun and great gap year/opportunity to show grad schools I'm a "go-getter" who can handle living in a 3rd world country, is actually an applicant's nightmare. There's this fun 13-hour time difference that is driving me insane. Basically, most of the time I'm awake, the professors who decide my fate are sound asleep. Every time I sleep . . . people are deciding my fate. This should be good news, right? I mean, all I have to do is fall asleep and then I wake up and Gmail gives me a nice, neat account of what has happened while I was slumbering (i.e. nothing). All in all, I should be spending less time worrying, right? Last night I went to bed, exhausted from a day at my new internship, my first real experience in the real world. What do I dream about? Harvard, of course! I dreamed that I was in a room with a whole bunch of other applicants waiting to hear our results. The dean came in (why the dean, I don't know . . . my dreams are rarely logical) and handed us envelopes with our admissions results inside. Mine was dangerously thin . . . but low and behold, it was an acceptance (I guess Harvard doesn't need to put a lot of promotional material in its acceptance letters, lol). I jumped for joy and performed flawlessly the "Harvard acceptance dance" that I have been so carefully planning for months, as the dean beamed admiringly. The other students, though not as fortunate as I, nevertheless applauded graciously as I clasped the acceptance letter to my chest in a state of pure euphoria (I guess I needed to add some schadenfreude in there to make the dream perfect). I woke up from this lovely fantasy at 4:30 am my time, only to realize that it was all a dream. There's still no word from Harvard, still no word from Columbia, still no word from Berkeley, and even still no word from UCSD (even though a professor directly told me that they were going to make their final decisions last week). I then realized . . . it's 3:30 pm on the East Coast . . . I wonder if anyone has made a decision yet? I should just check really quickly so I can calm my nerves and go back to bed. I have been on Gmail and this site ever since. It is now 7 am. So now I'm about to start getting ready for work. At least that should give me a little break from worrying, right? When I signed on for this internship, I was under the impression that I would be doing translation work/helping design speech recognition software. Guess what my boss has turned my job into? I'm now the Resource Coordination Assistant. What does that mean? It means I find translators/native speakers of obscure languages. Guess what my job essentially entails? . . . Checking my e-mail . . . FML.

I essentially had one of these the other week (although I haven't been formally accepted to the school yet). It freaked me out too, but then once I started I realized it was mostly me talking and not the other way around. I agree with the others, it's just a way for a prof to try to get you to come to that school. They figure if you see how nice this professor is and how much he/she loves the program, you'll go. Just make sure you ask questions about what kind of funding is available (not rude at all), what kinds of resources the school has access to, what the exact layout of the program is (from my very limited experience, the explanations on the website can be more confusing than helpful), and if there are possibly any students in your area that you could speak to if you can't make it to admit day. Remember, you've already been accepted (congrats, btw). This can only be a good thing!

Lol, same here! I was actually incredibly naive and didn't think that schools made decisions until early March . . . then I got an informational interview where the interviewer hinted that one of my schools might be making their decisions last week (they didn't . . .), and it got me thinking . . . oh God, I might hear back SOON! Then I found this place . . .