Stanford GSE 2021

[Toyo]

1 hour ago, Jeanne A. said:

Hi again jk25✋ sorry I do not know whether you are a man or a woman...wanted to ask: did you have an interview? (sorry if you mentioned that earlier, I might forget this among all different nicks and a lot of info..

I do not know how men deal with stress. It's good I am a lady and can afford crying. Its 2.26 at night here. I was trying to fall asleep but could not keep all this stress inside me, so i went to the bathroom and was crying. And I cannot sleep at all. I mean, i do want to sleep (my body) but my mind, my head is thinking over and over. 

I think that the fact that I did not have an interview diminishes my chances so much.

And it looks like there is no way that I will get asleep tonight, and the coming nights....

 

There is a saying in my culture about karma and dharma. Something like we must do what we have to do without worrying about the result. This seemed like nonsense from successful people (words from a God’s reincarnation on Earth) to me before I entered this application cycle. I have done what I could do. Now things are out of my hand. Many factors influence the decision and my merit is not the only consideration. So, I will wait for now. Knowing that many good people like yourself are my companions on this journey has been soothing. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Toyo

[FreeZapata]

I agree @Toyothe SOP I wrote wasn't about accomplishments. Neither was my interview. It was much more about why do you want to do a PhD. 

[whatisyoursoulspurpose]

1 hour ago, FreeZapata said:

After many webinars, youtube channels, and forums the very best advice I got was from the GSE website itself. This  small article is only 3 pages long but there is sooooo much to breakdown. You would need to really pick out all the little clues they are giving you. Here are the main points that forced me to think if GSE is the right place for me at this moment in time. It could very well be that I need to grow more before I give it another shot. But I think it's important to not give up on yourself regardless of the outcome:

"The statement should be narrowly focused on convincing the intended reader – i.e., a professor at GSE who teaches in the program to which you are applying – that you have a serious and well-considered purpose in applying to that program. A compelling statement will convince the reader that you are the kind of student likely to thrive in the program to which you are admitted and who would contribute to (and not merely benefit from) our academic community. Too often, statements of purpose are poorly focused, vaguely autobiographical essays, in which case they become inadvertent disclosures of purposelessness.

The reader of your file will make a judgment about whether you merit admission on the basis of many considerations, and your file will include much material including your transcripts, what your referees say about you, etc., that reveal your academic and other accomplishments. There is no harm in mentioning a particular accomplishment in passing in your statement when this is relevant to explaining your purpose in applying to the program. But statements go astray once the author assumes that his or her purpose is to persuade the reader that he or she is highly qualified for admission. Remember that we will be quick to deny admission if we have insufficient evidence that the candidate is well-suited to the program by virtue of his or her interests and ambitions, regardless of how intellectually well qualified the applicant might be. The statement of purpose is usually the only part of the applicant’s file where one can find strong evidence of whether the program will really mesh with the applicant’s interests and ambitions. If you devote the statement to a list of the things, the great things you have done, then you will merely exasperate the reader.

When your file is being read by members of the faculty, it will be reading it alongside many other files, and they will typically be reading under severe time constraints. People tend not to be especially tolerant of verbosity under these circumstances, to put it mildly. If your reader has evidence that you will take ten words to say something that another, equally qualified candidate will say in six, you might well find that the other candidate will be preferred over you."

Good luck to everyone here. The hardest part of the application is sometimes the waiting. But you've already come this far. 

Do you have a link to this article?

[FreeZapata]

I googled GSE SOP and it's the second item that comes up @mkkenny13.

?

[gvjcb1000000]

4 minutes ago, mkkenny13 said:

Do you have a link to this article?

https://ed.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/statement-of-purpose_revised_4.pdf

[Toyo]

3 minutes ago, FreeZapata said:

I agree @Toyothe SOP I wrote wasn't about accomplishments. Neither was my interview. It was much more about why do you want to do a PhD. 

I did not get invited for an interview so I don’t know where I stand. My SoP covered my journey till this point in my life which is essentially the reason why I have applied to SGSE and what I want to accomplish in the future.

[FreeZapata]

1 minute ago, Toyo said:

I did not get invited for an interview so I don’t know where I stand. My SoP covered my journey till this point in my life which is essentially the reason why I have applied to SGSE and what I want to accomplish in the future.

I know many other programs give you a prompt, want a statement of purpose, and interview. I remember one of the admission officers said they don't provide one in order to leave it completely up to the applicant to make their own best case forward. That gave me words of comfort. Because it meant there are many paths that can lead to a great SOP. 

My POI confirmed that an interview is up to each faculty and goes on a case by case basis rather than the norm or rule.

I hope you do extremely well where ever your journey takes you now and in the future. 

[Toyo]

7 minutes ago, FreeZapata said:

I know many other programs give you a prompt, want a statement of purpose, and interview. I remember one of the admission officers said they don't provide one in order to leave it completely up to the applicant to make their own best case forward. That gave me words of comfort. Because it meant there are many paths that can lead to a great SOP. 

My POI confirmed that an interview is up to each faculty and goes on a case by case basis rather than the norm or rule.

I hope you do extremely well where ever your journey takes you now and in the future. 

Thank you! I wish you the same!

[applicant227]

Like many of you I am still waiting. Nervously, and checking on it daily. 

My application status has been standing steady at "submitted".  I applied for ICE with my second choice being RILE. 

There's something quite comforting in reading what you've all written. Let's see what our valentine has in store for us.  

[applicant227]

On 2/1/2021 at 7:32 PM, ngdt said:

I see "submitted" on the main page, when I first log into the application. But when I click on "view checklist", I see "complete" under the application status. 

I just did the same, and I saw that it showed "complete". 

[applicant227]

On 2/3/2021 at 7:59 AM, Lara-55555 said:

Wow. That’s interesting. I didn’t know about that. Do you know how popular their ICE PhD program is? Thanks for any insight. 

I too would like to find out how popular their ICE program is as it's my first choice. 

[Toyo]

So am I the only one who is still stuck with an “incomplete”? I doubt it is going to change now! ?

[jk25]

4 hours ago, Jeanne A. said:

Hi again jk25✋ sorry I do not know whether you are a man or a woman...wanted to ask: did you have an interview? (sorry if you mentioned that earlier, I might forget this among all different nicks and a lot of info..

I do not know how men deal with stress. It's good I am a lady and can afford crying. Its 2.26 at night here. I was trying to fall asleep but could not keep all this stress inside me, so i went to the bathroom and was crying. And I cannot sleep at all. I mean, i do want to sleep (my body) but my mind, my head is thinking over and over. 

I think that the fact that I did not have an interview diminishes my chances so much.

And it looks like there is no way that I will get asleep tonight, and the coming nights....

 

No, I did not get an interview. In fact, I got very little feedback from the POIs contacted.

[jk25]

12 minutes ago, Toyo said:

So am I the only one who is still stuck with an “incomplete”? I doubt it is going to change now! ?

Mine has been complete for a while, but I don't think that means much.

[FreeZapata]

2 hours ago, Toyo said:

So am I the only one who is still stuck with an “incomplete”? I doubt it is going to change now! ?

Dear @ToyoI did a quick search of "incomplete applications" and there are a surprisingly large amounts of results that show up across all schools/disciplines/degrees. It seems that each department goes in and can access the information from the main office of Graduate Admissions so I would say your applications has been seen/reviewed. However, the main system (The Office of Graduate Admissions) that oversees notifications and updates does not always reflect where your application is at that point in time with the School of Education.

Just as an example. When I attended the webinars this past fall with the school of education office they were quite frustrated with tech updates from the Graduate Admissions department. The application didn't even open up until more than 3 weeks after the timeline on the School of Education's website. There were a few folks voicing their concerns as well because they had tighter deadlines in Nov for various scholarships. It seems like the Graduate School of Education was the very last school to undergo the tech updates necessary to handle the large volume of applications coming in over the last few years. Apparently they (G Admissions) were restructuring tech/departments/people but Covid 19 had severely messed with their plans.

But the admissions officer particular to the School of Education reassured us that they would reach out if anything was missing.  I hope this helps a little.

Edited February 8, 2021 by FreeZapata

[FreeZapata]

I forgot to mention @Toyothat @Jeanne A. had asked in a previous post why certain people got phone calls and emails and other did not. In light of the information I posted in my previous post it really seems to be the case that it was just more practical and personal. I mean instead of the Dean's or faculty waiting for the info to travel and get stuck inside the system they went old school and either picked up the phone or emailed the person directly. It really seemed to be a matter of speed and they had probably been dealing with tech issues for some time (hence the massive restructuring) that was supposed to happen pre Covid 19.

[Toyo]

23 minutes ago, FreeZapata said:

Dear @ToyoI did a quick search of "incomplete applications" and there are a surprisingly large amounts of results that show up across all schools/disciplines/degrees. It seems that each department goes in and can access the information from the main office of Graduate Admissions so I would say your applications has been seen/reviewed. However, the main system (The Office of Graduate Admissions) that oversees notifications and updates does not always reflect where your application is at that point in time with the School of Education.

Just as an example. When I attended the webinars this past fall with the school of education office they were quite frustrated with tech updates from the Graduate Admissions department. The application didn't even open up until more than 3 weeks after the timeline on the School of Education's website. There were a few folks voicing their concerns as well because they had tighter deadlines in Nov for various scholarships. It seems like the Graduate School of Education was the very last school to undergo the tech updates necessary to handle the large volume of applications coming in over the last few years. Apparently they (G Admissions) were restructuring tech/departments/people but Covid 19 had severely messed with their plans.

But the admissions officer particular to the School of Education reassured us that they would reach out if anything was missing.  I hope this helps a little.

Thank you, @FreeZapata! Yes, at this point, I am sure they must have seen my application. If they hadn’t, I assume, they would have put up a notice about needing more time to review applications. Anyhow, only a few days to go. Whatever is to happen will happen and I shall know what to do next.

[crocophil]

6 hours ago, Toyo said:

So am I the only one who is still stuck with an “incomplete”? I doubt it is going to change now! ?

You are not the only one, it is the same for me and it is so frustrating... I think our applications might not have been read just because of a stupid wrong technical manipulation  ? 

[Toyo]

16 minutes ago, crocophil said:

You are not the only one, it is the same for me and it is so frustrating... I think our applications might not have been read just because of a stupid wrong technical manipulation  ? 

Oh yes! @crocophil I was hoping your status had changed. It's okay! They definitely got to our applications. They would otherwise need more time. Can't finish reviewing the remaining applications in a week's time which they need to use to decide and send out letters. So rest assured and hope that they just didn't feel the need to get additional information for positive reasons! Ha ha! This is what I  telling myself; that my objectives were specific and did not need further discussion. My childhood Yoga life is coming handy now! 

[Jeanne A.]

9 hours ago, FreeZapata said:

I agree @Toyothe SOP I wrote wasn't about accomplishments. Neither was my interview. It was much more about why do you want to do a PhD. 

Hi guys!!!@Toyo  @FreeZapata??Just wanted to share: after reading you this morning I went to my SOP to read it again and to make sure I did everything according to that 3 pages doc...?‍♀️ and also, yes I remembered that I found that doc too, while preparing my SOP, I think I was in October-November 2020.. 

Well...after reading my SOP I can say that I am not sure if it is exactly what they wanted?‍♀️

But anyway...I am trying to fix my emotions and be ready for whatever comes.

And I am soooooo grateful for the person who created this chat for those who applied this year.. because it seems like sharing my feelings with you here guys is really saving me from panic attacks  ? to which I guess I am closer and closer with every day of waiting ??

[Jeanne A.]

9 hours ago, Toyo said:

There is a saying in my culture about karma and dharma. Something like we must do what we have to do without worrying about the result. This seemed like nonsense from successful people (words from a God’s reincarnation on Earth) to me before I entered this application cycle. I have done what I could do. Now things are out of my hand. Many factors influence the decision and my merit is not the only consideration. So, I will wait for now. Knowing that many good people like yourself are my companions on this journey has been soothing. 

???

[Jeanne A.]

9 hours ago, FreeZapata said:

I know many other programs give you a prompt, want a statement of purpose, and interview. I remember one of the admission officers said they don't provide one in order to leave it completely up to the applicant to make their own best case forward. That gave me words of comfort. Because it meant there are many paths that can lead to a great SOP. 

My POI confirmed that an interview is up to each faculty and goes on a case by case basis rather than the norm or rule.

I hope you do extremely well where ever your journey takes you now and in the future. 

You have been soooo helpful and supporting! ??

[jk25]

So I just logged in to Stanford's application page to check my status, and for a while the page was unaccessible. I thought maybe they were updating our records, and for 5 whole seconds the tension was real! I was eventually able to access the page, but no new updates ?

[Angeli9222]

Hello everyone, 

Thank you for all your shares. I can definitely relate to you all. I’m so nervous. I was wondering if anyone knows when POLS decisions will approximately come out? Thank you. 

[ngdt]

1 hour ago, jk25 said:

So I just logged in to Stanford's application page to check my status, and for a while the page was unaccessible. I thought maybe they were updating our records, and for 5 whole seconds the tension was real! I was eventually able to access the page, but no new updates ?

I used to check the portal all the time, too! Then I realized that I could still access my (rejected) application from a few years ago. That application still says "submitted." ? So my best guess is that we'll hear via email, which was also how I received the decision last time. 

Update: just realized that my comment only applies to rejected applications. I don't know how those lucky few who were admitted got their decision. Maybe/hopefully by carrier pigeons like @FreeZapata mused.

Edited February 8, 2021 by ngdt