nandelle

My initial predictions: Admitted: OSU, with funding UC Irvine, with no funding UBC, admitted with funding (OPTIMISTIC) Waitlisted: UMinn Rejected: UW UBC (PESSIMISTIC) Actual so far: Admitted: UMinn, no funding UC Irvine, no funding Waitlisted: Rejected: UW Unknown: UBC, OSU. No funding yet, and I"m praying that either UBC or OSU comes through for me...

Hi all, So I'm in a sticky situation, letter of recommendation-wise...and could use a little bit of advice. I asked a certain professor I'd had in University to write me a letter. He said that he would be delighted to write, and right around January 1st (my first deadline) he sent me an e-mail letting me know that he'd mailed out the letters. Shortly after, my first two schools indicated that they'd received the letter. A week and a half ago, I get an e-mail from UC Irvine, indicating that they hadn't received the letter from this prof. I figured, no big deal, administrative or postal mixup, and I e-mail the professor saying "hey, don't know what happened, but would you mind resending this letter?". He answered graciously and said no problem (this was on February 5th). The next day, I get an e-mail from UBC, saying that they also are missing the letter from this prof. Now I'm beginning to suspect that he only sent letters out to the first two schools and not the rest. I reply to the prof's e-mail (saying he'd send the rec. to Irvine) saying "thank you so much for resending the Irvine letter, oh, and would you also mind resending it to UBC? I got an e-mail from them as well" I never heard back from him. So today (2/17) I get an e-mail from Irvine, saying that they are STILL missing a letter from this professor. I also sent "can you please check and make sure my LoRs were received?" e-mails to OSU and UBC, who don't have online tracking, and didn't hear back from either one. I don't know what to do - the professor would rather not submit them online (sigh...older professors...), but I have no clue how to handle this. I don't want to bug him, but I REALLY need that LoR to those schools, esp. Irvine, where I've been conditionally admitted (conditional on having all my stuff together!) and UBC, my top choice. I'd go see him, but I'm on the other side of the country. So should I send him another e-mail (it's been a week since I e-mailed him to ask him to send the letter to UBC), and if not, how long should I wait before I contact him again? I don't want to accuse him of not doing something he said he did...but I gave him the addresses for Irvine and UBC multiple times and none of the other professors had difficulty getting the letters there (which means that the address was good). And I'm nervous about the other two schools that aren't contacting me...because ti's coming from Canada, if the letter's not there, it will take awhile to get there. I don't know if I could have it there in under a week. Sooo frustrating. And I haven't received funding anywhere yet, so I'm really hoping for OSU and UBC...and I don't know what to do. So I guess the advice I'm looking for is *should I be worried? *how should I approach this with the professor/the schools in the least annoying fashion to get this resolved as quickly as humanly possible? Thanks for helping Noelle

I'm in statistics...kind of similar to applied math. All my acceptances/rejects were unsolicited e-mails from the departments or the graduate school. And you have some kind of fortitude if you can make it till mid march before e-mailing!! I'm way too impatient

Yes, I focused mine on three areas: *my background, experience, and preparation for graduate study *my career goals, short and long term *why exactly I wanted to attend that particular university - why their program, and what I could bring to their program. It wound up being about 2 pages, single spaced, but I have a tendency to write a LOT when i write.

Congratulations! I heard back last night at about 6:00pm that I was accepted to UC Irvine!! No funding for master's students, so between U Irvine + no funding and Minnesota + no funding, I'd choose minnesota, but hey it's always awesome to get an admittance rather than a rejection

Wow, that's awesome. I'm not sure what you should expect (which makes this kind of a pointless post, doesn't it?) but it definitely sounds like they are still interested in you. I hope it goes well!

That's awesomely exciting!! Hope that it works out for you But I don't blame you for not being all that hungry!

I re-read them a bunch of times before submitting them, and then never afterward...What's the point? If I found an error, there's nothing I can do about it and it would only stress me out more than I'm already stressed...and I'm about homicidal at this point

This is an awesome topic! Yes, I totally had a huge crush on one of my stats professors in college. And I would get really nervous and flustered around him which always resulted in my making an ass out of myself. It's hilarious in retrospect

UBC MS Statistics is probably my #1 choice...but I haven't gotten in yet!!

I guess it depends on the program - if your program doesn't usually offer funding, then yes, it makes sense to only apply to programs that you could afford. However, if you're applying to a program that usually funds grad students, then I think it definitely makes sense to have a school that you would go to if you got funding, but not if you didn't. I feel that way about a couple on my list - that I would be less inclined to go there if there was no funding offer, just because I wouldn't want to put myself in thousands of dollars of debt if I could go to another school for much less (or with funding).

...aaand UBC is missing a letter from the SAME professor...something tells me he only mailed out the letters for programs with earlier deadlines (despite telling me he mailed them ALL out). and I reallyreallyreally want funding at UBC and am just so frustrated that that application is not complete - I REALLY THOUGHT that since all the profs said they got my stuff out by mid-january (last one mailed stuff like jan 19th), this application would be complete. And he (the prof) hasn't answered my additional e-mail asking him to re-send the UBC letter...but I really hope he can get it out today or tomorrow...I really don't want to be seen as a pest, but I'm going to have to contact him again if I don't hear by Friday from either him or UBC that the letter got there, because I"m just running out of time. So far I have not had one application that has not had a LOR issue.

My parents are supportive but hands-off...I get the impression that my mom would rather have me get a job and start climbing the corporate ladder than go to grad school, but with the current economic situation she's starting to come around. My Dad is cool with just about anything, I think. So they listen and are sympathetic when I talk to them about grad school stuff, and give me advice when I ask, and my mom read one of my essays once, but they don't really ask questions about the process, or ask if I've heard back, etc.

Thanks so much, sunshine! I guess I am thankful to know back - one way or the other! I bet you'll be getting acceptance letters any day now :-)

the inevitable rejection from University of Washington arrived. Oh well... Now I *really* hope UBC comes through for me...because I didn't get funding at Minnesota, and Irvine is likely not to give funding either.

I feel your pain - after another day like today at work, I'd be willing to go anywhere that would pay me to go back to being a student!!

That's very interesting - I'll definitely look into those programs. I don't think I qualify for many, since I haven't lived in New Zealand for a long time and I'm currently living in the states. Tuition is ridiculously low, though, compared to US schools! True! That does help a lot. Although after going to Canada for undergraduate, I'm a little more wary. When I started undergrad, the exchange rate was something like 1.35 Canadian/1.00 US, and by the time I graduated, it was .95 Canadian/1.00 US. Kind of painful on the tuition bills!!

I didn't apply anywhere I couldn't see myself attending. I'd rather go somewhere a little more prestigious than my 5th choice school, but if I got in there with full funding (and not elsewhere) I would have trouble saying no - besides I like the location. My top choice school coincidentally happens to be in-state for me, so even if I didn't get funding (I am applying for Master's programs), I would be tempted to use savings/work to go there. If I don't get funding *anywhere* my backup plan is to work through the summer and apply for schools in Australia and New Zealand. I'm a dual citizen (US/NZ) so I could go there for not a whole lot, tuition wise. The disadvantage is that at least University of Auckland (the best for my program) doesn't offer much funding. So we'll see! Perhaps tomorrow will bring good news in my mailbox or inbox!

I assume the weight of GRE scores depends on the department... the GRE quant tests pretty basic high school math. So for those of us going into math related fields, close to 800 is nearly expected...if you get 800Q, it doesn't help you all that much, but a low score can really hurt.

UC Irvine never got one of my letters of recommendation...they were listed as "not received" but the program said not to e-mail about document receipt until February 1st. So I did, and they confirmed that it wasn't in my file, or anywhere else for that matter. I'm pretty sure the professor sent out, because all of my other schools received it. So I e-mailed the professor and asked him if he wouldn't mind resending it...he's a good guy, so he agreed. However, he's not a tech person, so he wanted to snail mail it...from Montreal. Now I'm scared it's going to get caught at the border and my application status is "waiting for supplemental documents", and the program deadline was January 15th. Head, meet desk. Also, it's great fun to have programs that don't have an online tracking system...I have to e-mail Washington to ask if they got the snail-mailed letter, and UBC to make sure they got anything at all...aahrgh. I would rather leave them alone and not e-mail them at all because I don't want to seem annoying, but at the same time I don't want my application held up/to miss funding opportunities.

Sundays are the hardest! Fortunately I have a ski class (avalanche awareness) before work tomorrow and tuesday, so I won't be able to check my e-mail either day until about 9pm. That will save me from my obsessive "check every five minutes" routine. But it's KILLING me that two of my schools had later deadlines (UBC February 7th and OSU at Feb 15th) and thus it means it'll be even later before I hear back...I thought it would be better once I heard back from the first school, but that's only made it worse. Glad to know other people are stressing out too!! In a couple months it will all be over with.

I applied for a master's in statistics from University of Washington, University of British Columbia, University of Minnesota, and UC Irvine...so far I've only heard back from Minnesota (admitted, yay!) but UW is my top choice, and so far...nothing. Their deadline was Jan. 1st so I'm getting a little nervous! To the OP - congratulations on CMU! That's awesome.