Aubergine

Brown application submitted! I was anticipating many problems, but actually faced none. Phew! My anxiety levels have paradoxically skyrocketed since clicking submit, alas.

I haven't submitted mine yet! I fear that I might have the same problem when I do, since I actually can't fill out all required fields because of my drop down menu issue, which I'm waiting for Embark to get back to me on. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking onwards towards Thursday's deadline. Gellert, did you try calling Admissions? If so, what did they say?

My deadline is this Thursday (December 15th), but I'm applying to Theatre and Performance Studies.

It's quite possible that this glitch in the system developed recently. Brown was a fairly last minute addition for me (I saw the chair of the department I'm applying to speak a few weeks ago and was totally inspired), so I only opened the application and attempted to generate the LoR prompts a little over a week ago. Gellert, did you receive confirmation that your letters were submitted?

I've already run into another problem with the application. The university where I did one of my degrees (major Canadian research institution) does NOT appear on their drop down menu, and there is no place to write an 'other'... I'm tearing my hair out here!

The email address is graduate_admissions@brown.edu Ask your referees to put your name and the title of the program you're applying to in the subject line of the email, and to add the letter as an attachment. I would ask your letter writers to confirm with you after sending their emails, as we'll have no official confirmation of receipt. The woman in admissions said that I could call in a couple of weeks, however, to confirm that the letters arrived.

Whoops, never mind! Just spoke to an admissions person and apparently their system is having issues. Referees are being asked to email their letters directly to admissions. What a pain!

...is going to give me a heart attack! Is anyone else having trouble with this system sending prompts to your LoR writers? I just found out that none of my referees have received their prompts! Because of this confusing message-- "Both saving and submitting your application will send an automatic notification email to your recommenders to initiate the process"-- I thought that maybe I had to actually submit my application for the prompts to send. But I called the admissions office this morning and the woman on the phone assured me that that was not the case: I need merely to save the application. I asked her how to resend the prompts and she directed me to recommendation.embark.com -- where my login information doesn't work. I'm waiting for lunch hour to end so I can call them back to hopefully resolve this issue. Has anyone else had similar problems?

I had a prof once say that if you think Deleuze is a bad writer, it's the translation. And I totally agree. For me, he's one of the good ones. Spivak, on the other hand, I find difficult. Though I haven't read any in a while. Whitehead is also super difficult, but I adore him anyway.

Feeling... deflated. And like my writing sample is a total fiasco. I probably shoulda just left it alone instead of trying to 'fix' it on the last day. Though I AM feeling grateful that I joined this forum. Otherwise I'd most certainly be annoying a friend or parent about now with my inability to talk about anything but applications.

Duke Literature: an exciting program, indeed! I'm also going to be submitting my applicaiton later today. I feel good about my SoP, but I find myself editing my writing sample yet again after another sort of epiphany last night.