runnernado77

Thanks for the advice. You make a great point. I guess the collaborative atmosphere is a bit new, especially coming from a very competitive undergraduate atmosphere.

Alright, so maybe I'm being a bit of a baby here, but here we go. A new grad student and I were assigned to lead an undergraduate series of workshops at our new school, which is great because we got to arrive and settle in a few months early. While planning these workshops, we had thrown around some ideas, one of which I'd emailed my advisor about several months before arriving. I wanted to conduct a professional development workshop to prepare these undergraduates for both the working world and/or the graduate school world, because I've experienced both. We were discussing the idea again today, and my colleague, while well meaning likes to hear his own voice. A lot. So we were debating ideas about the most effective way to run the workshop and he just KEPT TALKING. This happens a lot so perhaps it irked me even more than it should in today's situation. At the end of said conversation my advisor turns to him and says, perhaps you should assist Dr. whatever with running the workshop. This made me a little angry since I'd come up with the idea initially and he had just taken off and run with it. I know people steal ideas, which is why I rarely discuss mine with other students. That's crappy, but it's life. Is my anger warranted here and should I confront my advisor? I don't want to anger him since I will be spending the next several years under his direction, but I don't want to live in the shadow of my colleague simply because my colleague is comfortable putting himself in everyone's face and manipulating all conversations.

I think a lot of the atmos/meteorology programs are putting out offers at different times depending on the professor. I have friends at a few schools that received offers 3 weeks before I did though we all went to the same visitation weekend. A lot of schools are just putting out offers this week because a lot of visiting weekends were last. Have you been in contact with a POI that you can check in with?

I was literally going for a jog and had almost given up on my dream school. Ironically it was a really sunny and beautiful day, so I decided just relax and forget about applications for a minute while going for my run. I'd just been told by my close second that I would probably get an offer that week so I didn't really care. The first song that came on was "Don't Look Back" by Boston, which I thought was kind of ironic but shrugged off. Two days earlier I had turned off Gmail push notifications because every time one came through for something dumb I got angry it wasn't admissions so I didn't really look at my phone. Before leaving for class I decided to refresh my email, and there was my flawless offer letter from my dream school. I ran around my house screaming and then tried to show restraint by waiting 27 hours to officially accept the offer.

I would think two weeks is probably fine. That's how long I waited. I guess as long as you aren't asking if you got in or not, but are just following up on the initial question you asked. It would at least show you care and you are dedicated. I don't think you could really be penalized for that.

I had similar issues during the initial contact process. I wouldn't think it is out of the question to follow up or even say something along the lines of, "I've been having trouble with my email lately so I wanted to follow up." I did that with a professor who had asked me for my transcripts etc. and asked to schedule a phone conversation. When I sent him everything I had no reply for 2 weeks so I followed up and he was happy about it. It's hard to remember how busy they are when we are 1000% focused on them personally right now, and they are focused on a million things beyond admissions.

It is absolutely the worst! The schools are taking their time dangling our futures in their hands.

Thank you so much! I figured it is probably a brutal process on the school's end. That certainly helps to know when my mind goes to the worst case scenario thinking...What if they changed their mind???

While trying to keep my mind off grad school applications, I have allowed myself to drink beer and watch the Bachelor with my wife (Don't judge guys). Anyway, while watching I kind of could feel the emotions of these poor pitiful women but only because I feel the way they do about the Bachelor toward grad school. We're all just begging these schools to love us back. HA

So I'm hoping I'm not the only one in this situation, but I've been contacted by profs at a few schools who said they really like my application, and would be interested in working with me. We corresponded and there were mentions of the potential for the "next step" in there. And then nothing. Does it take awhile for them to submit paperwork or whatever it is to the graduate school and then for the graduate school to make the official offer? I don't want to bother the profs too much, but when there are offers on the table and the other schools are like well maybe... it makes things a little challenging. I also don't want to get my hopes up, and this waiting process is wearing me out.

Hi everyone, so I have this fantastic offer from a school I would absolutely be honored to attend. The only issue is that I am still waiting on one more school, as I am also really interested in their program. I told the school that gave me the offer I would let them know ASAP, but had a few things to think about (I put it more eloquently). Are they bound to keep my offer til April 15th per CGS if it takes school #2 an excessively long period of time to respond? Also, is it looked down upon if I express excitement about the offer but take time to think it through? I truly respect the person that gave me the offer and do not want to display any disrespect, but I am currently weighing both schools equally in the decision process if both were to give me the offer. The second school is weighted so heavily because I have several people who have spoken to the admissions committee on my behalf, though they have yet to make any decisions.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I was just hesitant to tell the person that they are "off the hook" for a few programs since they work in close proximity with another person writing my recommendations that had responded sooner and had been asked to write for all of the schools, but perhaps I will take that route. It was difficult since my 2nd, 3rd and 4th references all rank equally in my mind. I just selected based on who responded first. This person is always busy so I'm sure they will be happy to have a little less work.

Alright, so I'm facing a bit of a dilemma here. I asked 4 people for reference letters for grad school since I wasn't sure who would get back to me in a timely fashion, and if each person would be able to write a reference, or if they would be able to write one to all of my schools. I sent a list of my schools, and all agreed that they could send a letter for me to every program. Most of my applications have an automated email reference request, and I was inputting the reference emails as they responded to me. I consider all of my references to be equal in importance. Some of the programs only allow for a total of 3 names to be entered, so now I'm not sure how to tell the last person that I have already filled the reference spots for a few of the applications. I don't want to sound rude since they are doing me a huge favor, and this person has been especially helpful in my undergraduate career. I would appreciate any advice here. Thanks!

Thank you so much!

Okay, I have no idea what the protocol in academia is. Is it acceptable to discuss potential projects with 2 professors at one school, or is academia "monogamous" in that aspect. This is just the contacting professors phase of applying, but I wouldn't want to anger anyone.