surprisecake

oooo. Do you think I can send this in instead of my SOP to the rest of my schools?

I'm more surprised about Turkey!

Indian student? A 73% in engineering is quite awesome and most people at admissions know it. Your GRE or GPA can pretty much qualify you for anything you want to apply for. You should only worry about the rest of your application.

There's definitely an advantage in *some* schools. I have been submitting all my applications a day or so before the deadline, and I got the shock of my life when someone on this forum reported their admit to a school only a few days after I had submitted mine! In DECEMBER 0_o

aw. Gradcafe is the nicest forum ever. I've got two votes for "No". On any other forum on the entire interwebs I would have gotten 60 "yes"es and several suggestions about how to do it.

I'm laughing about it now. Too many things have gone wrong with that school... I'm going to leave it to fate.

I would be very offended if someone mistook me for a man! She had slicked back hair and a fully buttoned mens' shirt on. But now that I think about it, I realise her name isn't *that* unisex I just let myself think it was because I was so convinced she was a man at first glance. Worse, she may think I just picked out her name by random without knowing anything about her. I searched for her papers, her students' papers, her interviews. Just... not her gender. I don't know whether to email her and thereby ENSURE she sees my application (and thereby guarantee a mortifying situation) or hope that my application is accepted by the admissions committee without her ever seeing it. Do you think that since i've named her in my SOP she will definitely be forwarded my application to take a look at? I'm thinking in that case, I should try and make an good impression by email at the very least to cushion the "him" bomb.

I don't know why, but GRE always has some random "date reported on" until your actual scores come in. They mean nothing. You should get your scores in the 2nd week of December and the "date reported on" will be updated to the right thing. its bizarre!

It seems there is no end to the ridiculousness of my application woes. There isn't even an appropriate forum for me to put this :S So, all of my SOPs specifically mention a faculty member from that school that I am most excited to work with. At a particular school, lets say Y, there was this professor X. So my SOP says "I would be most excited to work with prof X, our research interests align and it was be an invaluable experience to learn from him". And i submitted my application. 4 days later, I decide to send an email to professor X, because my application doesnt really describe my background well, as i'm a non traditional applicant. The university webpage didnt have much about him, so I googled him to search for any articles. I found one that quotes Prof X, claiming "she works at Y school" I laughed at the stupid reporter who assumed that Prof X was a woman because it was a kind of unisex name. I found another one. "Prof X said........ She believes........" SHE?? No way right? I saw his picture on the faculty page. Then i found a picture of a "prof X", showing him in profile. .... including ... a ponytail. I thought.. two people named prof X at Y school?? No way. I go back to the faculty page. Its the same person. but in the face-on pic, her hair is slicked back and i thought ... (dies).... it was a man. I called her a him in my SOP!!!! Its not even a he/she mistake that could be a typo. Oh my god. WHAT A RIDICULOUS THING TO HAPPEN TO SOMEONE. There's no one else at that school that matches my research interests. my toefl scores arent in yet, so they wont have got my application yet. I don't know what to do. I could call and say I want to change ONE WORD on my SOP. I dont know whether to make something up or tell the truth and risk the person on the phone thinking its funny, or that im a psychopath. I really want to work with her!!

WOAH how did that happen! I barely got done with submitting my SPEA app this week.... also... CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

greysquirrel: how long did your cat hate you after? I have to move my three cats to the other side of the planet. Its not going to be fun. I think the submitting part wouldn't have been so hard if I had left myself more time to do it. I figured that if i didn't have good scores to put in the application, there's no point leaving myself so much time for them. So i spent a year finishing up projects, getting published, cramming for the GRE.... and started working on submissions one week before my finals were due to begin. This is... really... not going well for me. I think the inherent easiness or difficulty of each part gets totally voided if you don't manage time. Subissions should not have been so hard!!

The SOP and supplemental essays were the easiest part of my application process. For me, the worst bits were preparing for the GRE and prodding professors to get their letters in on time. All my deadlines are during my finals I'm always disbelieving when people say waiting was harder than applying!

What was hardest, in your experience? Preparing to apply, sending in the applications, waiting for replies, deciding where to go, or moving where you got in

sarandipity- the first thing that the ETS employee on the phone offered me was an official letter from ETS explaining the problem to my schools. I think the next time someone calls me i am going to say JUST GIMME THE SCORES JUST GIMME THE SCORES over and over until someone just gives me the scores. thanks for the supportive suggestions You know whats hilarious? I am a shy public speaker, and on one of my four speaking tasks, i made a somewhat embarrassing mistake and I was so mortified that I slapped my forehead, stop speaking mid sentence and just waited for the last few seconds of the clock to count down. It might have been as long as 8 seconds. However, my other 3 tasks sounded like I was a normal human being. I have this horrible, sinking feeling that they thought my actual silence was a mic error. Or i'm being ridiculous. I don't know.

Hahah. Whoops. I got sick of getting dreamschool's voicemail and called the admissions director's office. After I hyperventilated and babbled for a while, she told me I just had to have taken the test by the deadline. Its ok if the scores come later. Apparently the first guy who had replied to me hadn't even read my mail, or didn't care enough to give me the right information. Phew, my top 2 schools have okayed the situation. I'm only worried about one of my meh schools, because i've already spent the time and (lots of) money on them. Crisis averted! Sorry for the drama, gradcafe. I will still keep everyone posted about what ETS offers me as a solution

Thank you, newms. Its very comforting to hear a voice of reason. I also just contacted someone I met through Gradcafe a year ago, who got into my dreamschool last year... and she is super, super helpful. Thank god for this place! I am going to keep updating this thread til my scores are in. Someone from ETS is also going to call me back in 48 hours. I asked them to re-score my test as if I just stayed quiet during the speaking question. I don't wont those 30 points! i'm sure i'll still be over 80. I also demanded that they give me my scores in a day after i take it on the 12th. Haha. I'm dying inside but I am aware of what an entitled princess I acted like with ETS. They had better fix this!!

I'm really not sure. Like I said, the mail was a generic response, I'm not sure they really understood the case, and they haven't given me any specific answers. On the one hand the email said: "Late applications and materials may still be submitted after this date, but I cannot guarantee that your file will be reviewed by the Committee. Such applications will only be considered on a "space available" basis." and then it went on to say: "The Admissions Committee will not be able to review your application file until all materials, including the GRE, have been received." I don't know if that means that they will put me up for consideration when my TOEFL scores arrive, or because my application is not complete by the deadline, it won't be considered with the on-time applicants even if my scores TECHNICALLY arrive at the same time the other ones are being considered. I'm sorry if i'm being unclear... i'm very confused myself. I dont know how to put it, there are so many eventualities!

There's 2 issues with that: First, about mailing the advisors- I am applying to a mix of programs, some MS's and some soft interdisciplinary degrees. My dream school offers a soft degree- which means no one gets that excited about a particular graduate student anyway. I was under the impression that you can try and form a relationship with an advisor at the Phd level, or wherever there's resesarch involved. I just don't know why anyone would want to back my application given there are no hardcore research labs associated with this program. Second, I'm VERY sure they won't get around to really sorting through applications before my new test scores arrive, but the email response was firm that if my application package comes in late (which it will), it won't be considered with all the applications that were recieved before the deadline... to be fair to the people who managed to stick to the deadline, i guess. So even if I get my application in while they are still considering the others, it appears they are not going to get around to it unless there is an unfilled spot from the first batch! I'm guessing this makes it worse since the international pool is smaller than the general pool. Im thinking, best case scenario i will be on waitlisted, and I have no hope of being offered financial aid.

I mailed my dream school. I got a very terse, generic reply saying my application cannot be considered unless it is complete and that if i send it late, it may be considered on a "space available" basis. I've been working toward THIS school for more than a year of my life. All my other applications are doppelgangers. I feel like my life is over.... because I can't prove that I speak english. What kind of cruel punishment is this!!

Got through to Indiana. Again, she was very nice about it and told me I could explain the situation and send in my scores letter... but they can't waive it unless I got my undergraduate degree from the US. I tried to sound as englishly proficient as possible over the phone (haha), but no luck!

newms, how did you get them to waive the toefl requirement for you?

I got through to one of the two schools with deadlines tomorrow (Berkeley) and she was quite nice about it. She said she'd never heard of this happening to anyone and that its okay if my scores arrive later. I will be retaking it on the 11th of Dec - right in between the final finals of my 5 year degree - fantastic. I must have sounded like the miserable little girl that I feel like right now because she told me not to worry about it as long as I took it soon. Indiana (SPEA) refuse to pick up their phones and I spent a 10 minute international call listening to their hold music. Thank god for this place. If i had nowhere to vent about this, I would have gone insane.

English is the ONLY language I have ever been able to speak, I wrote for the most widely circulated english daily publication on the planet (largely due to Indians being the most number of anything), have 2 peer reviewed publications in english journals and scored 740 V in the GRE and if the TOEFL ruins this application cycle for me, I am really going to spontaneously combust in misery. God knows I tried to find a way out of it but I have been told by almost everyone I asked that the toefl is *COMPULSORY FOR ALL INDIANS*

Gave the test on Nov 13th... waited for my scores to come before the my Dec 1st deadlines... I get this email today Dear *******************, We are writing to you regarding the iBT TOEFL that you had taken on November 13, 2010. Please accept our apologies for the delay in reporting your test scores. Unfortunately we are not able to score your test due to problems scoring the speaking section of your test. When the raters attempted to score your speaking section, they could not hear your responses. Please use the voucher authorization number below and also listed on your web TOEFL iBT profile to schedule another test date. The voucher number will pay for the test. WHY DONTCHA JUST SHOOT ME IN THE FACE!

I figured if I unofficially report my scores before the deadline, it'll be added to my application and they'll have something to work with if they get to my application before my official scores arrive.