einalemjs

Rejected from my dream school (UPenn).
That's nearly a wrap on this season, except for a post-bacc program at Columbia I'm waiting on. I only applied to 4 actual MS degree programs, and I have only gotten into one of them (my safety school PSU).
Honestly, I don't really care. We're in a pandemic. Silver linings: My emotionality of this is very, very much filtered through the global crisis. 
But I know that somewhere, I am disappointed--in myself and in this situation. And I'm not really sure what I should do next--go to my safety, which is ranked abysmally, and apply to dreamy schools for a PhD, aggressively doing my best to publish, hoping my GRE skyrockets after the prereqs I want? Should I just go through the cycle again, applying to programs that make more sense? These aren't rhetorical questions, I would love answers here.
I want the chance in this lifetime to go to a school where I feel surrounded by a structured and challenging intellectual environment that goes beyond anything I know, and I don't think I've had this chance in life yet. I want this someday, still.
And I want to remind everyone here that academia is a flawed system. It feels like a cop-out critique since I'm doing it after a rejection, but I've been doing my best to remind myself of this in these weeks leading up to this decision, because I knew I wanted this so damn badly. Much of this process has to do with pure luck, and does not measure your potential, the capacity to which you can be as good as you might have felt if you'd gotten in. It's also kind of horseshit that we can't meet demand for people who want to educate themselves at the highest level possible. Everyone should have the opportunity in life to be as challenged as they want to be. Hopefully someday the process of making that happen is not as demoralizing.
Wishing everyone calm and forgiveness. 

No, it was delivered fresh into my mailbox without me having to ask.

Hi guys, I did reach out to admin and I received a response, this is the meat of it:
"On 13 December 2019, approximately halfway through the validation process, all emails to the applicants stopped, as there was no further action that could be taken by applicants.

The validation process is complete, and all validated applications have been forwarded to the panel. You won't see any additional status updates beyond 'Submitted' on the application until the selection is made in April 2020, at which time all applicants will receive a notification of their selection status.

If additional materials are required for your application, we will contact you directly to request them. Please note that the panelists will not contact you for any reason."
It calmed my nerves quite a bit. It basically sounds like there was a technical limitation after December 13th of some kind that meant applicants could no longer access the application portal. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to rectify any unintended application discrepancies because I didn't receive that second email, but the last line: "If additional materials are required for your application, we will contact you directly to request them."
Best of luck to all of you, and Happy New Year!

No, it was delivered fresh into my mailbox without me having to ask.

No, it was delivered fresh into my mailbox without me having to ask.

Hi guys, I did reach out to admin and I received a response, this is the meat of it:
"On 13 December 2019, approximately halfway through the validation process, all emails to the applicants stopped, as there was no further action that could be taken by applicants.

The validation process is complete, and all validated applications have been forwarded to the panel. You won't see any additional status updates beyond 'Submitted' on the application until the selection is made in April 2020, at which time all applicants will receive a notification of their selection status.

If additional materials are required for your application, we will contact you directly to request them. Please note that the panelists will not contact you for any reason."
It calmed my nerves quite a bit. It basically sounds like there was a technical limitation after December 13th of some kind that meant applicants could no longer access the application portal. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to rectify any unintended application discrepancies because I didn't receive that second email, but the last line: "If additional materials are required for your application, we will contact you directly to request them."
Best of luck to all of you, and Happy New Year!

I wish you the best!  I'd do the same exact thing...explain whatever needs explaining in your personal statement.  That's why it's personal, and don't afraid to get too personal either!  I have a very blunt and trenchant way of speaking and writing, and I'm certainly not afraid to lay it on thick in a personal statement.

Just to double check the app is due 11:59 pm TOMORROW night (Dec 6) not tonight (Dec 5)- right?