RANT: In terms of applications, what we wish schools did better.

[Indecisive Poet]

@victoriansimpkins This is awesome! Hopefully your GRE score won't be viewed against your research and work elsewhere but it certainly helps that it isn't required there at all. Nebraska is on my first-round list at the moment so that sounds like a vote in its favor for sure.

[havemybloodchild]

Everyone already said it but: the GRE is trash.  Considering the schools all get an SoP and WS, the only new information they're getting from the test is your quant.  Which they likely don't care about.  The whole point of app documents (besides talking about your interests and plans) is to show your verbal and writing skills.  Please someone tell me how a timed couple of paragraphs about marketing a golf resort (my writing prompt, what a joy) are adding anything to my application, let alone $27 worth of anything.

I also think app fees should be either gotten rid of or drastically reduced and standardized.  That being said, about 85% of my fees were waived this year (and Loyola doesn't charge a fee at all) due to financial hardship.  If anyone wants any tips on getting fees waived next year...lemme know.  It is really easy at most programs, at least in my experience.  Especially if you qualified for that 50% GRE fee waiver.

I have a friend who applied to 15+ law programs last year and basically every school utilizes a third party app that you put your info into once (ONCE!!!??!!) and then it distributes whatever each school wants to that school.  Can you imagine?  WHY can't English programs do this?  Standardize your damn SoP and WS lengths and don't make us type our demographic/education history/etc over and over again.  It's so inefficient and tedious.

Two part app processes like at Nebraska and Austin drove me nuts.  On the other hand, I thought UCSB's and BU's applications were really clear, easy to work with, and intuitive.  If we move to a standardized system at one point, my vote is it's like one of those

I think @WildeThing said this first, that programs should be more transparent about acceptance dates and about what interests they're looking to add/have room for in the next cohort.  It seems really shite to me that they aren't, considering the hours and dollars and hopes people are spending applying to schools that they may have never had a shot at, simply due to the inner workings of the department.  I feel like the lack of transparency is a real holdover from pretentious and exclusive academic days of olde, and don't reflect the realities of why people get higher education these days, and the cost of doing so.  

All this being said, I actually enjoyed applying.  Not so much paying over $400 to ETS, but the rest of it.  Hitting that first "submit application" button was one of the happiest moments I had all year, which maybe means I need more hobbies, haha, but there it is.