RCtheSS

Alright, third day in a row working from home. NOW I'm getting stir crazy from the admissions' waiting game. As rosali suggested, I would look into the admissions website to see if they offer contact resources for prospective students to communicate with current students. As I was applying, I received emails from some programs directing me to current students I could reach out to if I had any questions. If you can't see any specific area on their site dedicated to this, then you could reach out to the admissions' office to ask to put you in contact with someone willing to answer your questions.

Well the federal government is closed today, which means my office is also closed. Yay for working at a non-profit that follows the federal work schedule! I can work done from home, at least. So far I've done a good job of not checking application status pages, but I have started to comb through my schools' websites for any news about potential admitted students' visitation events. I'm glad I did, because my friend's wedding (I'm a bridesmaid) falls on one of the weekends that two schools have planned events for. Doesn't hurt to plan for just-in-case situations.

ATTN: Anyone who applied to masters' programs at Washington Evans and/or Minnesota Humphrey! These two schools have posted dates for their admitted students' visitation events. Washington Evans (April 1 or April 8, 2016): http://evans.uw.edu/prospective-students/register-mpa-admitted-student-open-house Minnesota Humphrey (April 2 or April 9 2016): https://www.hhh.umn.edu/admissions/admitted-student-info Hope this is helpful for others who planned to make campus visits. I haven't heard back from either program yet, but it's better to know ahead of time for potentially travel plans.

Great Lakes is an awesome brewery, and now I have another reason to love them. That porter sounds delicious.

Haha, thanks! I figured I'd make some mulled wine and relax through Saturday and Sunday; the Wild Turkey is for hot toddies. We still have a couple hours before the snow is expected to start falling, and now I'm tempted to pick up another bottle just in case!

I'm about to get snowed in for the weekend by the looks of the latest weather models. My first even real blizzard... even though I've lived in DC for 18 months, I'm a Florida woman at heart. Not sure if I should feel more awestruck or terrified! No worries, I bought two bottles of wine and some Wild Turkey to keep me warm.

I submitted my application January 10, so I don't expect to hear back for another weeks even though I also applied to a special program. Best of luck to you early applicants! I'll be lurking as more notifications come in.

That's exactly how my employer has been! My supervisor and executive director both wrote rec letters on my behalf. All of my colleagues have been very supportive of my next steps; I feel like I lucked out working here, seeing as it's my first job post-undergrad.

I went the entire weekend without checking my email or this forum. I needed that mental break. Only six weeks until I expect to hear back from the majority of the schools I applied to! Time should fly by with all the stuff I have to do at work.

Update to my previous post: 2/3 LOR issues have been resolved! I'm not sure if my last recommender is trolling me or what, because he replied to my email saying he'd submit the letter but has yet to do so. I sent a reminder request through the application itself before he replied to me so he must have seen that in his inbox, right? It shouldn't be in his spam folder because another professor at the same university got the email immediately. So what are you doing, man? Better question is: what am I doing? I have a perfectly good bottle of syrah malbec I have yet to open and refreshing the application page every 10 minutes won't change anything. I hope you all have a great weekend waiting it out, but it's time to sign off here for now and relaaaax.

Oh boy, of course I would run into LOR submission issues with each of my recommenders across three separate applications leading up to today, my final applications' deadline. I just can't seem to locate any more fucks to give...

I wish I could hibernate until March 1. It's like my place of employment sensed that I submitted all my applications this weekend, and decided to ramp up on all work tasks at once!

Hey, we applied to similar programs @lib1845! Cool to see another person in DC going for the public affairs-social work route. I focused in on joint MPP programs, except for Washington and Texas-Austin.

Because graduating from Princeton with a 3.9 GPA doesn't tell the full story. Not to knock your friend, but a university name or a high GPA doesn't guarantee much of anything. Your career goals, your relevant experiences, and how well you can "sell" yourself to others can get you ahead as well. I can't relate to the OP's feelings because I do feel confident in what I have achieved thus far and what I hope to achieve with a graduate school education. I think I explained that clearly in my applications, and I know my LOR writers have vouched for my abilities in the same fashion. I don't know how admissions will shake out in the end, but so long as I'm not in D.C. by the start of fall semester then something went right.

I just submitted the last of my applications, so now I can officially transition into wine and whine territory.

Finished my remainining MSW applications this weekend, and now I can finally say I am done applying for programs this cycle! Honestly, I feel like I'll have no issue waiting out the results from admissions. I don't want to think about this stuff anymore unless I have to, lol.

Here is a list of schools part of the PPIA Consortium that are listed under non-profit management: American University School of International Service American University School of Public Affairs Brandeis University The Heller School for Social Policy and Management Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs Cornell University Cornell Institute for Public Affairs Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Princeton University The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Texas A&M University The Bush School of Government and Public Service University at Albany, SUNY Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Affairs University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy & Strategy University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy University of Texas at Austin The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs

I watched it all in one day. Very well done documentary, in the "this shit makes me so angry!" kind of way. I just restarted Star Trek: The Next Generation since Netflix updated it to the blu-ray version.

aaaand my MPP apps are complete! I look forward to obsessively checking email, admissions sites and the GradCafe results page with you all over the next few months.

What an awesome project, @dbcollies. Thanks for sharing!

My first applications were due December 1, and my last ones will be submitted by tomorrow. I've already set up alerts in my Google Calendar over two weeks (February 28 through March 12) to check each application website, my email inbox, and TheGradCafe results search at least twice a day. I'm hoping to stick to the calendar pop-up notifications so I don't sit at my desk frantically refreshing pages all day!

The importance of prestige will vary largely by your program field and your own short-and-long-term career objectives. But personally, I would not put all my eggs into one basket with graduate school and career pathways, even if you've received some reassurance from someone within the program. You should certainly focus on enhancing your applications materials for the top program, but I think submitting the other applications as well is a safer bet.

I will be submitting my MSW application by this Friday. I'm applying for the dual degree program to concurrently earn an MPP through the Ford School, so my concentration will be Social Policy & Evaluation. I also plan to apply for the National Community Scholars Program. For anyone else who has yet to apply, February 1st is the deadline for special programs and graduate student assistant consideration!

Like other folks in here, I'm mainly a beer drinker but have been trying to expand my wine knowledge. I have 4 more applications to submit by COB Friday before I can twist open a bottle of cheap moscato. Actually, since the temperature has finally decided to dip in my area I can brew up some glühwein to feel all warm and cozy as a marathon Star Trek: TNG! Thanks for getting the Blu-Ray editions up, Netflix.

On the MPP side, I have one application left to submit: UChicago Harris, due this Friday. I plan to have all dual degree materials submitted by Friday so I can stop thinking about graduate school until the first week of March.