Ideal Impulse

I've noticed in the results forum, people will often post information like "Received funding for $15,000," or "No funding at this time." I gotten two acceptances notices that are just straight up acceptance notices: no mention of money. I applied for fellowships, RAships, etc in addition to just my application. My field is Speech Language Pathology. Does this mean I haven't gotten any financial support? Or is there another time that they will tell me?

I applied to five schools, and spent just over $1000 when everything was said and done: transcripts; GRE reports; fees, etc. The biggest money suck was the fact that I've attended five colleges--my undergrad, a postbac, and three community colleges for prereqs. What was your total cost?

Many of the fellowships I am looking at require a usually fairly short statement, one that's pretty similar to my statement of purpose. However, they want to know why you need financial support, and I'm not really sure what to say. I mean, I need it because I am still really in debt from my undergrad education (not to mention my post bac!), and because I'm really hoping to not have to work at my (unrelated) job throughout grad school. But what specifically are they looking for?

She's a non academic type person. She verbally agreed to write letters for me when I asked her about six weeks ago, but then expressed some hesitation once I put it into e-mail. I changed around my application process to make things easier for her, and explained exactly what her responsibilities were, but I haven't heard back from her in about two weeks. My other recommenders are two professors, both of whom I think can write excellent letters. With the deadlines coming up so quickly, I feel like I need to make a decision ASAP about who my third recommender should be (and none of the options are that great--would two awesome letters cancel out a fairly boring, average one?). Any advice on how to deal with someone who might be getting cold feet?

The background info: I am a postbac in Speech and Hearing Science, currently attending at what is my top choice for graduate school. I am also applying to several other schools. I talked to the graduate advisor in the department at my top choice, who recommended that two of my letters come from professors, and one from someone who can give the admissions committee a fuller picture of me (volunteer supervisor, boss, etc). So that's what I am doing for that school. However, three of the schools I am applying to strongly recommend three professorial letters. I am planning on asking a prof. at my current school; I've taken two classes with her, and although they were both enormous lectures, I did very well in them and often met with her during her office hours. She has basically agreed to write them, but we are meeting next week to discuss it in more detail. However, is it weird to ask her NOT to write the letter for my top choice school, which is also the school she teaches at?

To be fair, she doesn't generally write LOR, and hasn't done many (if any) before. In addition, she is a social worker and very busy. I don't think her nervousness about the letters reflects on her attitude toward me, and I really do have a great relationship with her. She seemed very apologetic when she told me this.

I am applying to a Speech Language Pathology program, and I have two professors who are writing letters (well, filling out forms, really) for me. I also asked a long time volunteer supervisor to write the third; she said she'd love to. Only problem is: I'm applying to four schools, and she doesn't think she has to line to fill out four different forms. Each program has a unique form. I can't write/draft it for it either, since it's a form and not a letter. What do these forms really look like? Is it essentially information she can cop and paste? If not, and it really does require more work on her end, what would you recommend I do in this situation? I'd hate to lose her as a reference, since she's seen me work with the population I want to work with for so many years.