gradstudent84

Haha talk about shooting my own foot....that would be terrible.

The only reason I ask is because I was actually quite surprised at the negative responses from professors who write letters for students, and how they felt extremely weird receiving them. I understand how it may be perceived as a "bribe". But personally for me, I was extremely happy and thankful (assuming that they submit the letters on time..which is a whole other issue) that my professors said they'd write letters for me, and I applied to a lengthy list of schools (13 to be exact). Also, these were the same professors who are also writing for God knows how many other students, with equally numerous schools....I'm sure letter writing is an overwhelming and exhausting task..I can't imagine how time consuming it must be. I gave them a really small box of chocolates (maybe like, 4 pieces) with a $5 gift card that came with the box, and a handwritten card, and this was months after they agreed to write letters for me, and after one professor had submitted at least 1 letter electronically (which I didn't find out unti later). Would such small thank you gift be a cause of awkwardness/discomfort? I wanted to show my appreciation in my own way, without going too overboard. Also, I used to be a teacher at a secondary level and I wouldn't have minded a little gift, esp. if I was taking care of so many letters. Many students gave me birthday gifts, baked goods (those crazy high school kids...) and wrote cards without spending a lot of money and not once did I ever take them as signs of bribery. But then again, that's just me. Edit: I also forgot to mention that not only was I thankful for the letters, but also because they were genuinely very good professors and held their positions with dignity and professionalism, which I admire very much. I expressed these in the cards as well.

Shoot. I already gave them thank you cards/small gifts before all the letters were submitted....

Thanks everyone.... I took the GRE last night (yes, on a Sunday night), which is also ONE DAY before finals...I just finished my first final this morning...so I'm pretty tense at the moment. I called one of my programs and they did not receive anything from my recommenders yet, so this freaked me out for like 5 minutes but then I reminded myself I will be sending them reminders so I felt better. I wish this process were over. i've applied and gotten into grad programs before but I don't remember ever feeling this anxious and tense then.

Small amount of money. Like a $5 gift card.

I've actually done some research on this, and many people were against giving gifts to professors. I disagree with this. I think it's perfectly okay, as long as it's not too much. Yes it's the professors' jobs to write letters but it can be quite overwhelming. I wrote handwritten cards and gave chocolates including a gift card with a small amount, and it was fine.

Thank you. Next week is finals week and I don't want to email on the week of Christmas so I am thinking of doing it sometime next week or the week after.

So I stopped by my recommenders' offices today just to give thank you notes and a small gift for my appreciation and thanks for teaching as well as writing me letters. I asked them both if they had any questions about the letters and one said that she had none and she will definitely let me know if she does, and the other said he'd already sent out a couple. I checked when I got home and he didn't submit any yet, so I am thinking he confused me with someone else. Would it be too pushy of me to send friendly reminder emails later this month before the holidays? a couple of my top choices have deadlines in the first week of January and I think its a good idea to do so, but I already saw them today...I didn't want to seem too aggressive.

Actually yes, the school I'm referring to uses Embark as well....thank you. whew!

Okay that helps.. because I highly doubted that the third recommender that I registered would be on the computer at work the same time i added him and therefore register right away..while the other two recommenders did not go on the link even though i added them a week ago. So I guess I won't have to worry about anything. Besides, I sent the first two an email (the two "unconfirmed" registered people) saying that they've been added and neither of them told me anything

So I registered my third recommender and immediately the status read "recommender confirmed", while the previous two (which I registered exactly 1 week ago) read "recommender UNconfirmed". Should I worry about this? The schools' website doesn't say anything about this and the instructions merely say that now it's up to the recommenders to read instructions, upload letters, and submit them, after which we will both receive confirmation emails.

That's good to know Thanks for your reply!

Some of the schools I'm applying to request that my former schools send an official transcript directly to their (the schools I'm applying to) office. The thing is, is it ever too early to have them sent out? For example, some of the schools have a deadline in the months of February and March. If I were to have the registrar's office send out my transcripts in December, I'm worried that schools will lose the documents because I've sent them out way too soon. I know I sound a bit too paranoid but I know these things happen and in the past I've had situations backfire on me for being TOO conscientious about things like timing. I want to get as much done as possible within a good time span that's why.

I've already come across a few applications that ask me to list other schools i'm planning to apply to...any idea why they would ask that? I don't recall being asked this several years back ..is it for survey purposes?

sorry, i guess it was just only me...turns out that it does work after all. It seems like there is a new website for registering for the GRE....takethegre.com and the original ets.org site (which I tried to go on and didn't work)

I'm trying to register to take the general GRE but the website isnt' working...is it just me?

Are you in the field of SLP or audiology?I'm also curious as to know what program you're in. I've been hearing it from a department chair at my school where i'm taking pre requisites and I wouldn't be surprised if at my school the rumors were made to be malicious as well. I will definitely consider other states as well as funding once I get acceptance letters, but the department chair has been discouraging everyone from even dreaming about getting into california grad programs. He's been saying that unless you have a GPA of 4.0, it is next to impossible to get into california programs, which has all the students taking pre requisite courses fiercely competitive and panicked, as many of them do not have that elusive 4.0. He also made it clear that even private schools (loma linda and even redlands) only accept 5 (yes, FIVE) students per YEAR and all of them have GPAs within the median 3.8-4.0 range.

thanks for the encouragement

I visited a second professor earlier and because this is my first time having him as my teacher i thought it too soon to ask him for a letter..i did mention to him that i had a good feeling about the class and i'd like to ask him in the future since he is reading over my statement of purpose. he said there would be nothing to write as the quarter started a few weeks ago, and he doesn't really know me, but a good time to ask would be a couple months from now. I am planning on asking again early November, and I'm hoping it won't be too late because i have a lot of schools to consider. but I do feel more at ease reading your replies...these days i've been hearing and seeing a lot of discouragement from the people at school and I felt that the doors were closing on me...and that response about 15 schools possibly being too much from someone was totally what put me down. For all of my academic life I've been put under a lot of pressure and to go through it again hasn't been any easier this time around.

Just now I narrowed down the list to 12..which is still a lot though, but less work than 15. Yeah, I talked to one professor and he agreed to write one for me..I know they use the same layout but tweak it here and there to make it more "personal"

I am planning on applying to grad schools for speech language pathology (SLP) and because the current school i'm going to for completing pre requisite classes has all of the students anxious about getting in (they keep telling us how IMPOSSIBLE it is to get admitted to schools in California), i have a list of schools I want to get into, which is 15. I know it's a lot, but I would rather be safe than sorry. My question is, do teachers have a limit on how many copies they can give a student? I have my three professors picked out, but I'm wondering if it's too much of an inconvenience for them to make copies or submit electronically for 15 schools. I talked to the lady at the department desk who usually helps out with scantron purchase, paperwork, general FAQ but every response shes' been giving me so far has been extremely negative, and she said 15 is simply too much, and that usually students pick out 5 schools. We were encouraged by the department chairs that we should appy to as many as possible, and what she told me contradicts what we were told by chairs. How many schools have everyone else picked out? I would think students applying to med school have more than 5 schools to apply to since it is extremely competitive. Any comments would be appreciated!