mlle

Oh, I didn't notice in the "waiting is the hardest part" thread that there's a whole string of commentary on status page issues. Sorry for the duplicate post :roll: I'm still trying not to freak out about the first problem, though. It's certainly not going to look good that I don't even know how to freakin read instructions. Thanks for the advice.

I submitted one of my applications last week and then noticed that I didn't read the instructions correctly on the part where you list the universities attended. I only listed the schools where I am/was a degree-seeking student. There were two other schools in undergrad where I took summer classes and had the credit transferred into my degree but I didn't list those and didn't have the transcripts sent--I didn't need to list or send transcripts for those schools when I applied for my masters degree so I was a careless jackass and didn't bother reading the fine print for this application. This morning I had my transcripts from the two extra schools sent but I can't update the "universities attended" part. What will they do if I email the admissions office and explain that I have transcripts on the way for unlisted schools? How bad is this? I'm such a moron. Also, the transcripts that I DID send and my GRE scores were sent back in November and according to my status online after I submitted my application, those materials "have not been received." That is such BS, I confirmed with both the schools that sent my transcripts and the ETS that those things were sent out. I had requested my GRE scores over the phone and I don't even know what I did with the copy ETS mailed me anymore. I know I submitted my application less than a week ago, but shouldn't the status say those things were received if they were sent back in November? I am freaking out. I just need to rant. Why can't this process ever go smoothly.

I sent in my ASF to a grad program at UMCP back in November and got a confirmation e-mail that my recommenders had been notified when I submitted my ASF. I emailed my recommenders alerting them that they should have gotten a notification email from UMCP when I submitted the ASF, and none of them told me they didn't, so I assume that means they did . . . I have a general bone to pick regarding the UMCP application system in general, though. It does seem pretty eff'd up. When I submitted the initial grad school application I got a confirmation saying I would get my login info for the ASF emailed to me within a few days, and I never got that email. I finally managed to get into the ASF by fiddling around on the website and figuring out myself what the login code and password must be. When I had technical questions regarding the application, I contacted the grad school and they were complete idiots and didn't even provide an answer for the question I was asking them. They have that part of grad school staffed by grad assistants and the grad assistants just basically copy and past generic answers from an FAQ file and send you an answer regardless of whether it has anything to do with your problem at hand or not. I'm not surprised that you're having issues with the ASF. I went through this with my master's program at UMCP a couple of years ago and there were also problems with them processing my LORs through the ASF.

This is just my rant: I CAN'T STAND diversity statements. I've had to write two at this point and I know my response must've been terribly off with both of them, but I find them to be just so terribly AWKWARD to approach no matter what your background is. They embody such a contradiction--you're not supposed to actually be too personal in your personal statement, and yet the question asks you to disclose what I think are terribly personal things about your background, your "life experiences," all that crap. Oh, please. Maybe I'm a prude, but I am not at all inclined to discuss the relevance of my religion, my cultural background, ethnicity, even my SES, to what I want to study. Sure, it is in fact relevant in its own way, but that still doesn't stifle any desires I have to tell the adcom "None of your beeswax," over and over again for 500 words. ......A very Ferrero-esque thing to do. :twisted:

Thanks for the input. A mixed bag of opinions, I see (Ferrero aside) . . . Hopefully this won't do too much damage.

If I went through and revised my PS to that degree 50 million times every night before bed, I think I would end up throwing myself in front of a bus or something. Honestly :roll: Crap, this is bad news to hear. I haven't even sent in my app for the one school that has rolling admissions.

I'm just about ready to ship off my applications to masters programs in public health and I'm worried b/c in my SOPs I didn't name specific faculty members with whom I'd like to work or whose research I'm interested in, etc. I put in my essays that the specific school to which I'm applying appeals to me because the curriculum would allow me to pursue xyz topics, and because there are faculty in the dept that do research in blah blah focus areas, and/or because there are faculty that have academic backgrounds in a certain discipline (this is public health so faculty come from an assortment of academic backgrounds), but I didn't name any names. How bad is it to NOT name specific faculty members in your SOP? When I picked the schools I'm applying to, I picked them based on the curriculum and the topics I could concentrate on. I wasn't necessarily looking at specific faculty members, so it seems like it would look too obvious for me to name-drop faculty in the SOP just to score brownie points. Someone told me it's only important to name faculty members in the SOP if you're applying for a PhD. Is this true? Is what I did (or didn't do) gonna hurt my application?

yes, I would like to know myself how you found out they sent the wrong scores. That is absolutely terrifying. Incidentally, I tried requesting my scores online and I couldn't even login to do so. I kept getting an error message that I was typing in an invalid web registration confirmation number even though I copied and pasted the confirmation # directly from the email I got when I registered. I ended up having to order the scores over the phone.

Thanks for the reply and info :-) I finally managed to phone this person *and she picked up*---and she said yes, she'd write the letter, thank god. This ordeal was merely to get a hold of her to ask if she'd even write an LOR. I suppose following up on the recommenders to see when they actually get the thing in is going to be another story.....

Okay so I figured out a third recommender to ask (that was all in another question) and he said yes, thankfully. Now, what about thanking for the LORs? How and when? email or snail mail. is it a formal thank you note or a quick "thanks for the letter . . ." and I'm guessing you thank them after they send everything in, right? I've been through LORs the first time around for this masters but never quite figured it out :roll: And now there's another dilemma that's really completely separate from the question above but I don't feel like putting it in another post. How pushy is it okay to be when one of the ppl you're trying to get in touch with to ask for the LOR is completely MIA? I sent one of them an email about a month ago asking to arrange a phone meeting (I know it sounds weird but that's how people typically do it at this agency where I did my internship--this person isn't an on-campus prof, it's my practicum supervisor in another town). She never replied. A week or so later she emailed me a generic invitation to a conference and in my reply I added that I look forward to speaking with you soon, blah blah, and I still never heard from her. So this past Monday I called her office and got her voicemail and I said directly in the voicemail that I was calling about the possibility of her writing a letter of rec for grad school. I know it's only been a few days but I still haven't heard back from her. Is it obnoxious to call again before the end of the week? This doesnt surprise me bc she's very busy, but the application deadline is growing nearer and I really need to know if she's gonna do this for me. As I said before, I really don't have anyone else to ask if she bails on me. Sorry to make this long . . .

This thread is really amusing - I started grad school at age 24 after taking 3 years off (I also did my BA in 3 yrs) and I felt like I was too OLD!! Most of my classmates in my cohort took no more than a year off or they had come straight from undergrad. I felt like such a wandering and directionless loser for doing exactly what tooyoungforgrad wants to do--taking time to just work and "get life experience," "enjoy" my youth or whatever. (FYI I found out the hard way that I couldn't make that much money or get very far with a BA in the social sciences anyway, so taking time off was not very rewarding after all). I completely relate to your experience of your first semester of grad school. It was completely alienating. My classmates were so ambitious and competitive and had already accomplished so much more than me even though they had come straight from undergrad. It all seemed out of my league, I felt like I didn't belong in my program at all, that I had made a huge mistake and picked the wrong field (also the social sciences), etc. etc. Based on my experience, I think a lot of what you're saying has to do with the initial shock and adjustment. I broke into it and started feeling like less of an idiot by the end of my first year. Grad school is evidently demoralizing no matter what your age is, so it's not that you're too young, you just need to be able to suck it up and take it in stride. Good luck.

I think it's obvious to see the irony that is seeping out of ferrero's pores; that doesn't make him any less obnoxious, of course.

Thanks, Linden. It's encouraging to hear that there still might be someone who would be willing to work with me.....and also that there's someone else to commiserate with on these forums!!! I do have an assistantship this year where I am working closely with the higher-ups, but I've only been working there for about a month and I don't think I've been there long enough for them to write me a rec

Hi guys. I tried searching the threads for a question of this sort and have come across lots of LOR questions but none of this flavor; so please refer me to the appropriate thread if I

thanks so much

Does this work on Windows vista? I downloaded the software from the ETS website (or, thought I did) and every time I try to take a practice test the freakin program stalls and I have to exit the program. Is this b/c I have Windows Vista??? Or am I just THAT software illiterate?

uh oh. Now I'm worried that I'm waiting too long. I am planning on applying for programs to start in Fall 2009 and haven't even begun my personal statement yet, much less contacted professors for recs. I had the understanding that as long as you send everything in and contact professors for recs no later than a month before the deadline, you're okay. Am I mistaken?

Well, I really appreciate the replies; thanks. I never got a hold of her by phone b/c she's been out of town, but her reply e-mail was very nice, said don't worry about it, blah blah. This still genuinely sucks, of course.

I have a pretty convoluted question but I'm freaking out so maybe someone has some words of advice, or just commentary/criticism. I'm about to start an internship that's required for my master's program this summer. I had e-mailed my future boss about the start date of the internship. She e-mailed me back, and then added a line about my upcoming defense of my internship proposal with my grad committee: "Good luck with your proposal review, you'll do great. (I just sat in on ____'s review and they really are pretty gentle (don't tell anyone I said that )." Then I forwarded my boss's reply to a close friend of mine who doesn't go to my school, to whine to her about my upcoming proposal defense. The text in my message said, "this is so embarrassing." (I was basically embarrassed that everyone on my committee knows I have a hard time with public speaking stuff, but anyway....) So then my friend just told me that she sent a reply to my forward, but she accidentally sent it to my BOSS instead of ME. The reply said, "Embarrassing? This lady is a goof!" Apparently my friend accidentally replied to the forwarded attachment which had the original message, instead of to me. This is really, really bad. I sent an e-mail to my future boss attempting to explain and apologizing, blah, blah, and I plan on calling her on the phone to fess up in a little bit, but I mean this is REALLY bad. I forwarded a basically private message to a third party. What's going to become of me?? Am I going to get fired? Even if I don't get fired it's basically all over for me. I haven't even started the freakin internship yet.