felicidad

Out of curiosity, how does one acquire a letter from a university president?

Well, I got the acceptance e-mail this morning at like 8am central time with the subject heading, "Hoping to welcome you to Penn." The e-mail said that I would be offered a funding package competitive for other top universities and that more details were coming soon. They were trying to set up a visiting day some time in March. I don't know why my test scores didn't show upon when I posted on the results survey. V:162, Q: 152, Analytica 5.5. Solid, but hardly likely to put me at the top of the pile. My GPA was 3.4, 3.6 major. However, my school started a pretty heavy campaign of grade deflation my first year. I have three years of teaching experience, and great recs.

Super, I think that some people get their jollies from feeding into others' insecurities under the guise of being "realistic." I think that there are a lot of worthwhile suggestions in this thread, notwithstanding the misguided statement that if you didn't get into UT, then you must not have a chance at the other schools to which you applied. But here's the thing. You haven't heard back from everywhere yet. You've only heard back from one place. It's too early to be throwing in the towel, buddy. Chin up! Have a bit this Nutella I'm eating out of the jar.

Do you have any research experience? How good are your letters of recommendation? I assume this is for a PhD?

Why don't you search for admittances for the programs you are interested in on the Results Survey page, and check out the figures for the accepted students? Find the lowest GPA you can, and then use that to figure out if it's possible for you. For example, my GPA is a 3.3 but people were admitted to my program last year with 3.0 and less (top 5 sociology) so I am not going to discount myself. Obviously they look at other things.

Unless you're strapped for cash, I don't see why you wouldn't bother. If you feel it's a reach, so what? Everyone should apply to at least one reach school. Have some confidence/hope!

I sent handwritten thank you cards to each of my recommenders. If and when I get accepted into a program, I am going to send them a small token from my school of choice, such as a coffee mug.

I am confused. I went to the website to see, but I don't see July 1st listed anywhere. This is what I saw: The application deadlines for the graduate program are: January 1 for admission for the Fall semester August 1 for admission for the Spring semester These deadlines are strictly enforced. This is due to several reasons, among them that all of our PhD students are fully supported and we need to plan our financial aid as well as to allow time for international students to obtain visas. Also, keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of the students enters the program in the Fall semester. A list of general university deadlines can be found at http://ogs.tamu.edu/calendar. Is this the right program? http://www.che.tamu.edu/graduate-program/application-deadlines/ If so, it would seem that you could apply for the Spring semester.

This reminds me of my own high school recommendation experiences. I asked my 12th grade English teacher to write me a recommendation and she gladly agreed. However, over the course of the application process, she discouraged me from applying to any competitive colleges - without having access to my resume, my GPA, or my SAT scores which were extremely high. I was too naive to understand why my favorite teacher, in whose class I had earned an A+, did not have confidence that I would be admitted to even a mid-tier school. I got the picture when she gave me my recommendation letter to read over and she said that I was destined to be the next "Oprah." In her opinion, I was nothing more than a precocious black girl who was unlikely to measure up to the demands of a rigorous college program but who would certainly reach my full potential (as an African-American). I showed my parents the letter and cried. My parents who were born in the 60s told me to suck it up. In the end, I sent the letter but if I recall, I asked the teacher to remove the bit about Oprah. Oh, and I got into a top 5 university. The other girl who went to that university with me had a similar experience. She was white, but poor (although that's not relevant to the following anecdote). She asked for a recommendation from our eleventh grade English teacher, as did I. When she didn't end up applying to Harvard, she broke the cardinal rule and looked at the recommendation he had written. It was four mediocre lines long. After the experience with my 12th grade English teacher, I only trusted one of my teachers, so I ended up sending a different set of recommendations to all of the schools I applied to. Luckily, I also decided not to apply to Harvard and therefore didn't send that teacher's recommendation. I have a feeling it was the exact same letter. A lot of students asked him to write their letters to Ivies and no one but the two of us, who didn't send his letter, got into one. I've always wondered if he was the reason why....

That's what happened to me with UPenn. I called the office and asked why my application still said incomplete, and the woman who answered the phone said "Oh that's just a technical error" and changed my status instantly. I refreshed my page and it said "Completed." So maybe call?

You actually don't know that they haven't written them. You just know that they haven't submitted them. For all you know, they drafted their recommendations on paper and haven't gotten around to typing them up and submitting them yet. Honestly, I really didn't fret as much as most people on this forum seem to do about recommendation letters. I suppose it helped that my thesis advisor who is on several admissions councils admitted that they wouldn't be looked at for weeks anyway. But seriously, give your professors time. In my opinion, if you reminded them today, you shouldn't send another reminder until the last weekend of January, and then if necessary, one the night before. Professors are extremely busy and like everyone else, they prioritize things in terms of deadlines. It's a bit naive to expect them to finish a recommendation a month in advance of the deadline when in all probability they have other more imminent deadlines. Finally, even if they haven't written your recommendation yet, it shouldn't take very long for a seasoned recommender to put together a stellar recommendation. It definitely shouldn't take more than a week of diligence. You should only be concerned if your professors are not responding to your e-mails at all.

I agree with Gellert about this. If she was honest enough to tell you that she didn't think you were ready for graduate school, she will be honest enough to tell you whether or not she is willing to write you a strong applicant. So you could ask her. On the other hand, writing a recommendation means staking your reputation on someone else's potential. Therefore if she really does think you're not ready for graduate school, and she's willing to write you a strong recommendation, I would question her judgment. In any case, the reason why I posted was to tell you not to be afraid to ask that other recommender to come through. Since she is not in your department, she will understand (and agree) that your ideal recommenders would have been from your department. Explain to her that you would like to request her recommendation for these other schools after all, and if she asks why, be honest. Don't feel guilty about withdrawing your request from the other professor. Surely she would understand if you were concerned about such a lukewarm response.