CherryBlossom_

Committed to the master’s program ♥️ new life ahead of me! So excited! New country, new dreams, new challenges, I can’t wait for it! Next two months: enjoy every second here in my beloved home country/city, with parents and friends!

I know I'm already dead set on a school (ok, 99% on it). But there is this process that didn't come out yet. A master's program in Canada in a good school, with full stipend. It's quite obvious I'm not getting in this late in the application season, but every time I talk to my dad ("dad, I'm going to accept the "99%" offer, ok?") he just sends me away with a flea in my ear: "What about school x? Can't you wait for one more day to accept the offer? What if x gets back to you tomorrow?" And it's driving me crazy. The following paragraph won't be popular, I know =( but it's just me venting. I applied in early December for their master's program and so far I've heard nothing from them. I tried to contact POI twice by e-mail (it's a requirement... to secure a supervisor) and got no response (not even a "sorry, I'm not supervising new students this year"); tried to contact admissions team to submit GRE scores and got no response / tried to contact admissions team to ask about status 3 times in the past 4 months: got no response / tried to call: no success. It makes me kind of mad/sad when I think about it, it's like the process works in a way that the ultimate goal seems to be sacred and unreachable, with applicants having to wait for as long as it takes to have an answer (positive or negative), with no access to details whatsoever. I wasn't in Academia but I, too, had a job (maybe not "as pure") and, yes, I had responsibilities, deadlines and had to manage expectations from both bosses and clients. Guys: we're in MAY, it's MORE THAN A THIRD OF A YEAR. It's people's lives we're talking about. REAL lives =( People moving abroad, people quitting their jobs, people committing all their savings, people investing their mental health on this process. When it comes to my dad's concerns... I know I don't "owe" him explanations (it's my money, my life etc), and that he's just caring about me ❤️ He's the sweetest thing in the whole world and I'm so happy he's helping me decide and giving me advice. After all, I'll commit 70K USD to this new life and, in my currency, "it's money". Probably, he's just scared to have a recently single 29-year-old daughter, who has just quit her high-paying job to move abroad and go back to academia and spend all her money on it. But I'm getting really anxious here. I want to commit to my new life, and I'm really excited about this program/this school in the US. I want to start planning ahead, get the visa, look for condos, buy my air tickets... ❤️ I'm already an overanxious person, this whole process messed up with my anxiety and OCD symptoms like never before, but I'm glad it's closer to an end. ?

All my positive thoughts to you. The first thing that came to my mind when I read your post was the phrase you use as your signature: "I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change... I'm changing the things I cannot accept." You can't change the past... it's done, already happened, gone. What you can do is be outraged by the idea of not succeeding. You can't accept that. You won't. You'll move forward, as you already said.

Don't those things die with undergrad school? ? the last time I got drunk was at my ex's graduation party, almost a life ago With age comes wisdom, hangover aversion and a more refined taste for wines!

That's some good advice! Not only for academia but also for other jobs. Some reverse engineering! I see lots of prospective students/young professionals asking for advice and this kind of search is a good way for one to decide which program/job would be a good fit for you to get where you wanna be. As though as I agree with almost everything said in this thread, this question of prestige... it's a delicate one. We gotta be realistic but careful with our statements. It's a question that - if misinterpreted - might discourage people from applying/pursuing their dreams. One might think, for example, that someone from a different country shouldn't even bother to apply for top-5 programs in the US (yes, I've already heard that one, I'm from South America). However, I have about 5 or 6 classmates at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, MIT and so on.. and yeah, they all carry a "south-american undergraduate degree".

Searching for housing when you're 5150 miles away is overwhelming :S I have 15 open tabs and a huge list of options in a city I've never been to... I'm unsure by nature... and now comes the ultimate challenge haha But it's a good feeling after all ?

Gold piece of advice ❤️ also, I cannot second enough what @bloomeighty said about financial independence! Very true! It's hard when we're used to a place/a situation/people and then life changes and we just have to move on. I'm quite older than you guys (graduated in December 2013) and at the time I think all of us were so tired of school and so eager to "start living" that we didn't feel emotional at all. I think it's more of a cultural thing but here in my country engineering students seem to graduate never wanting to look back haha cursing everyone and everything related to their undergrad experience. I didn't see it that way... I had a great undergrad experience, which gave me my best friend, a 4-year relationship (which ended, but yeah that's another story rs) and great memories... Unfortunately... people move on and it's hard to keep in touch =( we start by meeting once a month, then once every two months, then at birthdays... and then the inevitable happens: meetings at weddings and baby showers! haha your old group of friends is now in their early 30s!! But you know what? That's the beauty of it! I mean... I met my best friend at my very first day in college, 10 years ago. And she's still my best friend. We talk about other things now, but sometimes we just sit and remember classes, teachers, people from college, search their profiles on FB HAHA and it's so much fun. The good ones, the true ones? They'll stay. ❤️ As the time passes by you realize you have less people around, but the ones you have are the real ones! And it'll be a blast for all of you to share all of the milestones of your lives: first job, first salary, first apartment, first marriage and so goes on.

It’s a “peace feeling”, isn’t it? I feel the same! I’m not going to my first choice but I’m going to a good school, the one who wanted me from the beginning and from whom I get a good vibe! We can finally start planning ahead and fall in love with our new countries/cities ♥️

Guys, anybody heard from UIUC (MSc) lately? Someone posted in the results page that (s)he talked to the program director and he told results would come out at once (so: not rolling) before (or on) April 15th. But right after that 3 people posted their acceptances already... and so far all I got was radio silence! I have another acceptance reminding me to accept/register/send them visa documentation literally every day... and I'm starting to worry about the timing of things (visa, looking for a place to stay, renting my place here and even buying a cheaper flight ticket to get there haha - internationals have a lot to worry about haha) Do you have some experience with their admission process? Are they used to admit people way past April 15th?

Guilty pleasure: watching culinary reality shows. Real life: I have 5 delivery apps I use on a daily basis, lunch and dinner. 6 sabbatical months later, doing nothing and being anxious all day, I put on 13 pounds. Nobody notices cause before I was almost *too* thin hahaha but when I look at the scale *I* know, you know? And I feel like doing nothing! In my mind I’ll just start moving on with my life once I know all the results and decide where I’m going!

Thank you very much for your replies, @fireuponthedeep and @GoPackGo89! I’ll definitely look into these ideas when the program starts! As you said, @fireuponthedeep, best case scenario would be to find opportunities within the statistics/applied math departments, but if that’s not the case I wouldn’t mind to get back to my engineering roots, especially because there are some areas there I really like and I used to be good at (process control, for example).

Today I’m in the kitten mood... plus a bottle of white wine and tons of SVU old episodes hahaha

Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but that’s some gold piece of information! I’m about to start a master program without funding in the US (and my currency is devalued when compared to USD :S)! I’ve applied for Statistics/Applied Math programs, but I have practical knowledge with SAS and some other packages (5 years working in Finance), and I graduated as a Chemical Engineer. Does that mean that I could, for example, look for positions in the Chemical Engineering Department? Even though I’m not actually enrolling in a Chemical Engineering post-Grad program? And one more question: to do so... would it be necessary for me to be a licensed engineer in the US? (I mean, to officially register etc?) It would be GREAT should I be able to seek opportunities in other departments (such as the engineering ones)!

This application season is so overwhelming =( I couldn't possibly imagine that I would be affected like that... I mean, I'm not new at adulthood, I'm almost 30, I've been dealing with generalized anxiety and moderate OCD for more than 10 years and even so I'm able to be highly functioning: I worked in Finance for all my life, dealing with all sorts of pressure, deadlines and nasty people (oh, and a plus: I overcame the end of a long-term relationship along the way =/). Finally, FINALLY, I worked up the courage to quit my stable-high paying job and "follow the dream": move abroad, go back to academia, officially changing fields (I'm a Chemical Engineer applying for Statistics/Applied Math programs), and now this whole process is wearing me down. I'm waiting for one last result so I can decide where to go (which University/city in the US), and not knowing and not being in control is driving me crazy and messing up with my OCD symptoms like never before. I took this semester as a sabbatical one (after all those years in the bank I owed me that haha), and I KNOW I should take these last months here in BR to enjoy the city (I'm from São Paulo, it's a huge city, I could basically choose a new restaurant a day to try haha), enjoy the company of my parents, friends, travel to cities nearby etc. I'm moving abroad, after all! It's supposed to be exciting!! But all I can do is WORRY about this result that won't come out and won't even let me be excited about the city I'll move to, because I don't know WHAT IT IS YET. =( I just want this whole application season to be over =( good news or bad news, I just want some closure, please =`(

Don’t give up on hope, @feralgrad! I know where you’re coming from, I’m almost losing it at this point, waiting for the last result to come out and checking the portal every 30 minutes, but I rather think the reasons behind our acceptances/rejections and funding are beyond our control now... we could manage it up until we submitted our docs; from that time on... it’s on their hands, it depends on the number of places available, budgeting, the cohort size and quality... and so on. I’m sending all my positive thoughts to you. I hope we can get some positive news real soon!