emilymstar

Hey y’all! This forum has been so super helpful to me during the admissions process. I feel like there’s still so much content to be made surrounding this whole experience, so I decided to jump in and start a YouTube channel. I’m planning to make videos about the application process including a crash course on personal statements because that’s something that I think helped my application stand out and it’s something that concerns a lot of people. So anyway, if you’re interested, I made a short introductory video and I’d really appreciate it if you checked it out ☺️ And please let me know if there’s any videos about this whole topic that you’d like to see in the future! https://youtu.be/FnuqG8eBQog

Hi everyone! I couldn't find a facebook group thread so I thought I would just drop my cohort's group here. If you've accepted your offer here feel free to join! ETA: I forgot to post the link lol https://www.facebook.com/groups/264768627737397/

I'm staying at my undergraduate university and my commute can easily be over an hour, and I've been doing 5 days a week most semesters between classes and my campus job. I think the benefits outweigh the crappiness of the commute, and you'll find a way to make it more bearable. Listening to podcasts makes the drive go by a lot faster!

I don't know if it is far and away the most important thing, but I am glad that I was fortunate enough to be able to visit two programs. It really helped me make my decision. For instance, I visited UNT which was one of my top choices and was blown away by their clinic, but less than impressed when I saw the (lack of) diversity in their cohort/accepted students. That may not be important to everyone, but those kind of details helped me solidify my decision and I wouldn't have known that if I didn't visit. So if you can visit, I recommend it.

I just declined my offers at UNT and UTHSCSA. It was a reeeeaaaally difficult decision, but I decided to stay at my undergraduate school for mostly financial reasons. I hope this helps someone get into one of these awesome programs!

My GRE score was not impressive, so I think what brought be over the edge was my SOPs. I work as a writing tutor/teacher and got a whole lot of feedback from coworkers and such so I felt really really confident submitting them. I think without that I wouldn’t have gotten into as many programs as I have. I also think that at least 2/3 of my LORs were very strong (didn’t read either of them so can’t say for sure). One of them was a professor I did research with and another was a professor that I recruited to do a training at my workplace (it’s kind of difficult to explain I a few words but basically I used that professor as a link between my major and a seemingly-unrelated job). So yeah, I thought my GRE was going to tank my app but I think the written portions really helped me out.

Right now I'm stuck between UNT and UH. I was really impressed with UNT when I went to visit, their clinic was huge and so well-resourced and the faculty seems great. But here at UH, I have my job and I live at home so I have very few expenses. I already do research with a professor and it makes me sad to think about giving that up. Is it worth it to leave and go into a considerable amount of debt? I feel like I'd get a similar type of education either way. I don't know!

I’m also still waiting on UTD, I feel like at this point there’s no way I’ve gotten in cause I completed my application on Jan 1st. But even if I get in, I probably won’t go because I won’t have time to visit them and I’ve seen that they’ve accepted people after the April 15th deadline. I’m also an undergrad at UH, right now I’m thinking I’ll probably go to UNT but if I get into UH it’ll be a hard decision.

I've thought about trying to start freelance writing.. has anyone done this during graduate school? Is it worth your while?

Yeah I still haven't heard anything and I'm starting to feel bummed but I'm holding out hope!

I got an email on Sunday afternoon!

Hey everyone! I recently got accepted to this program and noticed some other people did as well. I was hoping I could reach out here to any current students or anyone who knows about accreditation in general. I know that this school is a "candidate for accreditation" and I know it's important to go somewhere that is accredited. I've seen mixed opinions on whether or not the candidacy status matters- some people say it's okay, and others say that it could hurt you in the future if they end up not getting accredited. I'm going to the tour next week so it'd be helpful to know what kind of questions to ask or things to look out for. I'm really happy about this first result but I'm also on the fence! Any input is appreciated!

Did anyone else applying to this program get an email from them this morning? It basically told me my application is complete (which it has been for weeks now lol) and listed the process going forward. I'm just a little confused because they're saying that they'll be contacting people for interviews and making admissions decisions through October... was this just a mistake or did I apply to the wrong program or something?? I'll probably end up emailing them but I just wanted to check here first.

I hope that's the case! I've just seen other people getting accepted the past few days and it would be really nice to hear something, maybe it would help me stop looking at this website so much...

So I've been obsessing over my application to this program because they do rolling admissions so I know I could hear from them earlier than my other programs. But my status on their portal is confusing and I've emailed them with no response so I'm hoping someone who applied/is in the program could give me some guidance! My status says "awaiting documents", and like a week ago it said that I needed to send in my official transcript. What's interesting is that on their website, they say they don't need official transcripts until after admission. But I haven't heard anything and I didn't want to be held back by anything so I went ahead and sent a copy of my official transcript. Then, I got an email from the graduate school this morning that said I needed to send my FINAL transcript, which I of course don't have because I'm still in my last semester. My portal also still says "awaiting documents" but now it says I need my final transcript. I'm hoping this means I will hear something soon? I've seen others in the past say their status has stayed the same but they received an email directly from Dr. Stillman, the program head, that they were accepted. I'm just so anxious and confused and I've already tried to email the program and haven't heard anything back so I thought I would reach out here. Thanks!