aagrarian

I applied to one graduate program in December after communicating extensively and meeting with a potential advisor and being assured that she wanted to take me and had funding. (I also spent the Spring semester doing an independent study assisting in that professor's research group at her request.) The department claims to have rolling admissions although they list the Fall deadline as March 1st. So it's been about 5 months now, the semester is over, and I haven't heard anything from anyone. When I saw the professor, she usually brought up the application as if I should know the answer and just seemed to shrug it off. She mentioned once that the department had changed chairs, which I expected to cause a slight delay. I've inquired as to the status of the application through admissions but only get an automated response saying that the application is complete and has been sent to the department which "could take several weeks or a few months." I kind of need to move on with planning my life...should I take this as a couldn't-bother-to-write-you rejection?

I am a senior undergraduate in a scientific field at a state university. I am a strong non-traditional student and I have in mine a few alternative graduate degrees choices that would help me pursue the career that I have already started (in industry, not academia). I would like to attend a local state university -- no ambitions toward ivy league schools or anything. I have worked full-time in pharmaceutical research, which I realize is less ideal than having published my own research projects, but it does involve a lot of exposure to various stages of the process. I have maintained a 4.0 GPA so far with a heavy courseload and a wide variety of subjects. I have only ranges for my GRE score estimates so far, but I expect lower 700's on verbal and upper 700's on quantitative with a decent writing score. My resume is strong and I believe that my personal statement will be, also. I would think my chances of admission pretty fair...except for a few things. I returned to school to finish my B.S. around the same time that I had a baby, and in order to be home more and avoid childcare, I have taken courses online whenever available. So although my first two years of college were entirely in-person, my last year has been predominantly distance courses. I wouldn't say these courses were any easier...any math/science courses were proctored. If anything, they just allowed me to take a heavier courseload because I didn't have as many scheduling issues. The fact that these courses were online won't show up on my transcript, but they make getting LOR's much more difficult to me. I am already aware of the stigma around online classes, and I don't feel comfortable asking any professors from those courses to vouch for me if they never met me in person. So this leaves me to reach from my past for references. I have a DVM/PhD who directly supervised me working in academic research that I think would be a good choice and he is happy to do it. I have a PhD who was a friend/mentor for many years when I was a teenager. He knows me really well, but I never took any courses with him so he can attest to character only as opposed to academic strengths. I could also ask PhD researchers for whom I was an investigator in pharmaceutical research, but I am seriously limited as to academic references. The ones that I feel knew me best were from the earlier (lower-level) in-person courses, which means that even top-notch performance there was not very impressive. I feel doubtful about applying unless I can come up with solid LOR's, and I'm not sure how to do that at this point. Any suggestions?