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Yes, my evenings usually proceed as follows: "Ahh, I can't study for the GRE, I need to work on my statement!" *fifteen minutes pass* "Ahh, I can't work on my statement, I need to study for the GRE!"

I'm taking it next Saturday! I'm freaking out because I don't know how to balance study time and writing SOP time.

I would assume 11:59 PM is the deadline, assuming it's not explicitly listed.

Origin: Yikes, I don't know about the UCs. My school was Duke and they seemed fairly lax about it. For what it's worth, I have heard that there is a "grace period" in the sense that ad coms will not actually start reviewing apps until the beginning of January. That information is completely anecdotal and unconfirmed, but it makes sense to me. When you think of how many applications they have to read, ad coms aren't going to want to dive into it until after the semester ends and after the holidays.

Normally I avoid anything College Humor related, but this made me laugh. Hope this brings some levity to this thread!

It's always nice to commiserate, so I'll just let you know that I feel the same. I have little fantasies of getting into my top schools that are abruptly cut off by memories of my rejection letters. Cigarettes help ease the nerves. As do cupcakes. And yes, wine.

Ah, okay. I'm applying to their MA program because, as much as I love, love, love the faculty, Gainseville, well...isn't exactly my thing. I'd have no problem spending two years there, but any longer and I might go a little nutty. Anyway, just wondering!

Timshel, are you applying to UF's PhD or MA program?

At least you guys are getting stuff done throughout the day! I'm at work and can only manage to sneak onto gradcafe every few hours. I won't be able to work on my app until 6:30 tonight!

So for my schools that request a PDF of undergrad transcripts: I have an extra copy of my transcript from last year (when I applied for the first time) and, because it costs money to request transcripts from my university, I plan on just scanning this one and uploading it. But I've moved in the past year, so the address on the transcript is different from my current address (the one I'm listing on all applications). Could this potentially cause a problem? Or will it appear self-evident that I've moved? Am I just going insane and overanalyzing everything? When is this all over?!??

Good news! Duke said they have no problem accepting a late LOR. Just putting this out there in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation and has a near meltdown like I did--check with the department!

For what it's worth, my 15 pg sample has only 8 sources at the moment (I'm still editing, and I may include an additional article that I just read this past week).

Haha, thank you I am of course remaining respectful and diplomatic in my email, but I also don't want to sugarcoat the issue and tell my prof that everything is a-okay.

It's Duke. Totally my dream school and now I am in a state of utter panic over it. I called the graduate office and was told that submitting a letter 2-3 weeks late shouldn't be an issue, but I would need to confirm with the specific department. No one answered at the Literature department office (this was on Wednesday, so I assume they all must have left early for the holiday) so I'll try them again on Monday. I also reached out to another professor from my undergrad institution and am waiting on a reply. In the meantime, I'll be sending my current prof an e-mail and I assure you I shan't mince my words... Ugh. I still kind of want an LOR from him because he's well-connected and is a bit of an academic darling. Is that very shallow of me? (Probably.)

I know That thought has definitely crossed my mind. In his feeble defense, the final paper for the class isn't due until mid-December, so he wasn't anticipating having to read long-ish essays until that time ("And my undergrad class had a paper due on Monday so I have to grade all of those this weekend and blah blah blah") but wtf, he knew that this deadline was coming up... I'm going to call the school and ask if there's any way they will accept one late LOR, but my hopes are not high.

Not really looking for advice here, just want to vent... So the professor of my grad class (which I'm taking as a non-matriculating student) told me MONTHS ago that he'd be more than happy to write a letter for me. Fantastic. I've submitted papers for class and he's read over a very early draft of my SOP. Yesterday after class, I reminded him that my first deadline--December 8th--was approaching. Suddenly, things got weird. He said he wouldn't feel comfortable writing a LOR for me before he read my final, 15 page paper. Okay, that seemed completely understandable to me. I told him that after a few more edits I'd be done with it and would email it to him this weekend, so he could read it over. He hemmed and hawed for a bit and then finally admitted that he had too much work over the next week and wasn't sure if he'd be able to get to it in time. But, he said, he could definitely write LORs for my schools with later deadlines... Aside from feeling peeved (I mean, he was positively effusive about recommending me when we first discussed it AND I told him about this deadline weeks ago), I am now freaking out. There's no way I can contact a professor from undergrad and expect them to whip something up within the next 2 weeks. I'm giving serious consideration to just not applying to this school, even though it's one of my top choices. But, that sucks. And I am simultaneously anxious and depressed. And I hate how emotionally calamitous this application process is. Blergh.

What a crap shoot this all is, indeed. Thanks for the replies, everyone.

In my writing sample, I cite several papers from a professor at my dream school. I am very tempted to draw attention to this in my SOP--something along the lines of, "Hey guys, I'm not kidding when I say I love your program, look at how much Professor X has influenced me," though perhaps a bit more eloquently My question is: will this come off as obnoxious and brown nosing? Nothing in that statement is false; this particular professor HAS influenced me tremendously and I would kill to work with her, but is it in poor taste to harp on that? I understand that there's quite a bit on debate on the topic of listing POIs, and I'm trying to be as diplomatic as possible in my statement (e.g., referring to classes of interest rather than specific professors so as to avoid potentially irritating or marginalizing someone on the ad com), but, ugh, I just love this program so much and want to convey that.

Depends. I'm reapplying to two schools I didn't get into last year, and one does not require resending any material at all, while the other wants me to resend EVERYTHING--meaning I have to pay for and resend my GRE scores to this particular school. ETS wins again.

I'm also working a tedious 9-5 job throughout the week. By Saturday, I'm so mentally exhausted that all I want to do is watch videos of baby otters on Youtube, not revise my writing sample or update my CV. My trick to working on weekends is to give myself two hours of mental vegetation before I dive into my applications. Then I try to just pace myself so that I don't end up pulling my hair out every weekend. But yes, it is very difficult. You're right in pointing out how absolutely fantastic it will be to receive an acceptance after working a mind-numbing job, though it does make the stakes that much higher.

This is helpful, thanks! I've been agonizing over length (what the hell does "a BRIEF statement" mean??) and this gave me a little bit of perspective.

Jesus, no. Not at all. Nope. Some of my MA programs have deadlines as late as February and I know I will be obsessively revising my SOP until the very last day.

Amen to that! And I'm nearby, in """East Williamsburg""" (y'know, that term realty agents made up to move properties)! I'm pretty happy here. As long as the L isn't being an asshole, getting to the city is no problem.

Seconding that. Right now I'm living on a budget very close to that and I can verify that it's doable. You just need to get creative, and sacrifice living in Manhattan (unless you want to live in, say, Washington/Morningside Heights, but then it'd be a pain to get to class; I'm in Brooklyn right now but it only takes me about 20 minutes to get to the CUNY Grad center).

I know there are other threads dedicated to this but I figured I'd start a fresh one... Anyone game for swapping SOPs? For what it's worth, I'm focusing on feminist theory and contemporary American women writers, with a little gender theory and feminist psychoanalysis mixed in. I'm willing to read statements focusing on other areas, though. PM if interested!