Cryss

Good luck and good vibes to everyone submitting applications!

I was only an adjunct for 1 year a couple years ago, but I've have 1 or 2 unnecessarily rude students. Others might disagree with me on this, but my opinion is stick to your standard of expectations for students while being beyond kind to all of them, especially the rude ones. Remember email is a paper trail. Not that I think you would do otherwise, but always calm down before responding and respond in a way where you won't be embarrassed if your colleagues or superiors read your responses. This semester is tough because everything is online, but if you have the time, I would go out of m

I was asked if I would have an in-person class, so I would confirm with your school that there is at least 1 in-person class for you to take so you can answer that question truthfully. Hybrid counts as in-person as far as I know, but confirm with your international student office at your new school. You find out immediately if you get approved or rejected, but the amount of time you need to wait to get your passport back varies from embassy to embassy. Mine took 1 business day, others take like 7-14 business days depending on the size of the population the embassy serves, I believe.

Had our visa interview today and got approved! They will be ready for pick up tomorrow afternoon (we did J1 and J2).

Curacao!

Just got an email from my embassy saying they will open limited appointments from July 14th specifically for student visas and petition-based visas. Will keep you guys updated.

Important stuff, thanks for posting. I wonder where that leaves those just starting with new visas and wanting to do a first semester remotely online then start in-person in the spring.

As far as I've heard (from my program), the September deadline isn't school-mandated, it's actually the law (I guess according to USCIS) that if the international student can't arrive by then, they can no longer come for that semester. The fact that a lot of these schools have been cool with us deferring to Spring, I think, is a big plus. Of course, this whole trainwreck of a year is unprecedented, but I was afraid that schools would force students to defer by an entire year since many PhD programs don't allow you to start on a Spring semester. I am glad that (at least for now), we can start i

Just amending my post to say that the end of September is the correct deadline to make it in the US for the semester, not the beginning of the Fall semester.

No slots where I am either. They haven't reopened the appointment system at all yet, although the country is open.

My school told me that legally, international students cannot begin a semester after it has begun, meaning, if you can't make it in time for the start of the Fall semester, you must wait to start in Spring (and of course you can't enter the US more than 30 days before the beginning of that semester).

yay!!! So happy for you!! I've been hoping for good news for you.

I am too!

Yay!!!! Let's do this!

Wait as long as you need. It sure is nice to give a quick answer and free up the waitlist for other people, but you should do that for schools you are sure you will be turning down. Sounds like the responses you're waiting for are essential for you to decide between these 2 schools. Therefore, you shouldn't rush to make a decision when you're still waiting on more information to get the whole picture.