Dishsoap

Isn't it typical that other schools ask where you're applying? Of the 12 schools I applied to, I'd say about 9-10 of them did this... It's really annoying typing out the same list over and over again. From what I've heard, they use it to judge your likelihood of accepting, so they know about fellowship offers and such.

Surely I'm not the only one who has made a cringe-worthy mistake on their application? Many, many glasses of vodka have been dedicated to the dumb mistakes I've made throughout the application process; I thought it might be therapeutic for us all to gather in a circle and share our woes. Mistake 1: I applied for a fellowship that I haven't gotten (and probably won't). And I listed it under "national awards" on my CV with the word "pending" next to it, per my professor's suggestion. It's not pending. That makes it sound like I've gotten it and am just waiting for the check to be written! It's going to look like either I lied or I'm incompetent. Gah! Mistake 2: Find the error: "Professor So-and-so has assured me that I am an excellent fit for [group], and after visiting his lab, I am agree." Yes. Yes I am. Mistake 3: In my SOP I mentioned that I would be continuing to work with the professors I worked with over the summer. The day after submitting my applications, they informed me that this would no longer be necessary.

For those of you looking for more humorous threads here, I recently found this awesome thread: "When I'm on an admissions committee, I will...". It eventually gets off-topic, but the first page or so is pretty good. On a side note, do admissions officers actually check Facebook and such to scope out prospective students? I have nothing to hide, it just seems like it would be annoying to hunt down that many applicants...

I'm not certain whether the semester starting tomorrow will have a positive or negative effect on my sanity. It will either keep me busy so the days fly by faster, or compound my stress and irritability until I'm a whimpering mass of snarkiness.

It seems like almost every program has started sending out acceptances/rejections, except mine. The results page is devoid of 2016 decisions

Oh, I binge-watched Friends, too! Definitely my favorite.

"How I Met Your Mother" is my spirit animal right now.

Pretty much my only requirement for schools I applied to is that they must get a non-negligible amount of snow each year. I've never lived anywhere but in the heart of Illinois, so I'm not even sure what places see summer and what places don't. So I pretty much drew a line across the US (with a small "Berkeley dip") and applied everywhere north of that line.

I know right? It's crazy! I always schedule my annual-ish doctors' appointments around this time of year, and I had a small existential crisis when they asked what time I'll be available next year.

I wish my amount of care were directly proportional to the excellence of my application

@DrZoidberg Congrats! Though that "might offer you funding" would definitely make me a bit nervous.

Yes, I completely agree! You don't realize how your priority-ranked list looks until you check the gradcafe results and find yourself praying that school X hasn't sent out acceptances yet. I told myself when I applied that I would be grateful to get in anywhere since my subject GRE scores aren't fantastic, but now that I know at least one school is interested in me, I'm getting greedy and hoping for the Ivy Leagues. I really didn't need my ego inflated by an interview invitation! Also, @haltheincandescent, I completely agree. I would be surprised if I heard back from any schools within the next month, yet here I am checking my e-mail 7-8 times per day! You're lucky that you just have to wait a week, though. For me, it's close enough that I can't just forget about it, but far enough away that sleeping 14-16 hours a day just to make the days go faster would have some serious side effects

Interesting. Reading these forums, I've come to the opposite of conclusions. Only 1/12 of my programs (physics) really does interviews, so I just assumed others who were talking about interviews are in the humanities I'm not sure about chemistry and biology, however.

Good idea. That way I can add hospital bills for getting my stomach pumped to my list of grad school expenses...

I swear I've had nightmares like this!