Already waiting for fall 2011!

[laurend]

Just wanted to see if there is anyone else out there who is already waiting to hear about fall 2011! Obviously it will be a while, but should start hearing in weeks (sure 4-5 weeks), but still weeks for interviews. That is for my field (Neuroscience) at least. I hate this part!

Waiting is the worst!

[balderdash]

I've submitted 7 apps for a PhD in Poli Sci, and I only need one recommender to finish off her letters for them to be complete. So in effect, yeah, I'm waiting.

But unlike yours, I guess, I won't hear until early to mid-March!

[laurend]

Do your programs accept first and then bring for a visit? For neuro, you can hear as early as december for an invitation in mid january-early march. Then you can be accepted as soon as before you leave the interview, or it could be another month!

[adaptations]

Do your programs accept first and then bring for a visit? For neuro, you can hear as early as december for an invitation in mid january-early march. Then you can be accepted as soon as before you leave the interview, or it could be another month!

Almost all of the Poli Sci PhD programs admit students and then have campus visits (there are a couple exceptions). Don't worry Balderdash, quite a few of the Poli Sci programs admit in February. I once did an analysis of admissions timelines that I will update and post later in the cycle, but first I have to submit my apps. Good luck to all.

[balderdash]

Almost all of the Poli Sci PhD programs admit students and then have campus visits (there are a couple exceptions). Don't worry Balderdash, quite a few of the Poli Sci programs admit in February. I once did an analysis of admissions timelines that I will update and post later in the cycle, but first I have to submit my apps. Good luck to all.

Ah, that's good to know. Thanks for the heads-up, and good luck with your apps. I look forward to seeing that analysis.

[gatorgirl]

I am waiting it out too. All of my applications (10 schools) were completed and submitted by the first week of October. I am applying for a Masters in Biomedical Engineering. Being that it is a masters rather than a PhD, I won't be called for interviews and a decision will be made on my application alone. I hope to start hearing back soon, but I know that the decision dates for the schools I applied to range from November to April. I got an email from Penn on October 8th saying that my application was submitted to the department and I should hear back in about 4-6 weeks. Well, friday is 6 weeks. I may be going a little crazy. My massive kinetics test tomorrow has been keeping my mind off of it for the most part. ( I am doing my BS in Chemical Engineering.) I hope to have one acceptance before Christmas, although I doubt that I will hear either way from anyone by then. Its just a nervous waiting game now...

[eklavya]

damn, you folks are early birds!! i turned in mine (7 apps) few weeks ago, and the last LoR made it to the schools last week, for plant breeding phd. prior to submitting the applications, i had talked to few profs in few programs via email, and they indicated interviewees would be invited starting late jan/early feb. this means will i get to hear starting mid december? but inside, i know i won't hear squat at least until jan second week. the wait is indeed a killer!

@gatorgirl: from florida?

[RDX]

Glad to see this one! haha submitted to most schools last night and I'm now officially waiting

[Eigen]

I'll tag on here: My wife finished her submissions a few weeks ago, and has already been accepted for a Neuroscience program starting this spring- she had applied for next fall, but they happened to have an opening early, so she's getting to start ahead of schedule.

It works out really well, since it will put her only 3 semester behind me (same university, different programs) instead of a full 2 years.

Edited November 22, 2010 by Eigen

[laurend]

Wow for neuro Masters or PhD? My impression was that it's very rare to start a PhD for neuro in the spring.

[Eigen]

PhD. And yeah, it's quite rare.

Was a perfect storm of us already being in town, and them having someone drop out of the Fall 2010 spot, leaving them some available funding.

She had applied to start Fall 2011, but since she was local and had her app in, they offered her the chance to start early.

[m.giugno]

I submitted 5 apps and I'm going to submit 2 more.

I'm missing LORs from one professor and transcripts (need to send 'em).

I think I'll know something not before the end of February!

[eklavya]

now that it's finally started to snow around here, am gonna go cartman style and freeze myself till february

[RDX]

Storming here today.. maybe a bad day and I find out my transcripts and/or test scores are still missing. it's like taking forever...

[eklavya]

Storming here today.. maybe a bad day and I find out my transcripts and/or test scores are still missing. it's like taking forever...

for test scores, it seems like schools have different system setups to acquire them (electronic, paper, next day, once a month, twice a month, etc). 2 of my schools haven't received my gre scores which i ordered about a month ago! but some got it the very next day.

[a fragrant plant]

I'm waiting too! Some of you may know that I'm a second round applicant. I've applied to two US schools and two UK schools this year. I've already had an offer from last year (I deferred admission to 2011). I look forward to getting some better offers this year!

[balderdash]

So Columbia says that it takes a week to update your status once materials arrive at the office. Lies. It's taken mine over a month, so I emailed a few weeks back. They responded that they wouldn't even start doing Poli Sci ones until this week. Still no update. Princeton isn't better. They gave a Nov 15th date for when updates would appear, then the entire system went down for about a week. Now they say the 25th to the 26th is when we can check. MIT, Harvard, and Stanford simply have no way of investigating your progress.

Also, my 1 professor still hasn't submitted ANY of her letters for my 7 applications. The first deadline is December 1, and the rest follow shortly.

I'm stressin'.

Edited November 23, 2010 by balderdash

[laurend]

I was in the same situation a few weeks ago.. One professor had not sent a single letter. I emailed him a few times and nothing! Finally one day he just sent them all! That is just how he is though, a little flaky and in need of reminders! Is this how your recommender is as well?

[LJK]

My first deadline was today and one of my two (!) professors who hadn't sent in a recommendation by this morning basically told me that the deadlines are more important for me than for him. Ahhh! The other professor did all the ones he could this evening (I have 2 that won't send him an email until I submit my application and one that is hard-copy). Its probably the case that it isn't a hard deadline for recommenders with the deadline being just before Thanksgiving break, suggesting no one will touch any of it until Monday, but why must he do this to me?!? Its just mean to basically intentionally miss a deadline. (And the killer is he just truly thinks it doesn't matter. I know he likes me and will give me a great letter once he gets around to it).

When I am a professor someday holding my own student's hopes and dreams in my hands I hope I never forget what it feels like to be obsessed and petrified that the smallest thing will get in the way of admission.

[RDX]

So Columbia says that it takes a week to update your status once materials arrive at the office. Lies. It's taken mine over a month, so I emailed a few weeks back. They responded that they wouldn't even start doing Poli Sci ones until this week. Still no update. Princeton isn't better. They gave a Nov 15th date for when updates would appear, then the entire system went down for about a week. Now they say the 25th to the 26th is when we can check. MIT, Harvard, and Stanford simply have no way of investigating your progress.

Also, my 1 professor still hasn't submitted ANY of her letters for my 7 applications. The first deadline is December 1, and the rest follow shortly.

I'm stressin'.

Same here.. very frustrated by columbia, princeton, harvard and stanford.. particularly columbia. I hate a school telling you that you are gonna see updates but then.. nothing happes... Harvard and stanford are much more honest and at least I don't need to keep refreshing their websites.

[RDX]

My first deadline was today and one of my two (!) professors who hadn't sent in a recommendation by this morning basically told me that the deadlines are more important for me than for him. Ahhh! The other professor did all the ones he could this evening (I have 2 that won't send him an email until I submit my application and one that is hard-copy). Its probably the case that it isn't a hard deadline for recommenders with the deadline being just before Thanksgiving break, suggesting no one will touch any of it until Monday, but why must he do this to me?!? Its just mean to basically intentionally miss a deadline. (And the killer is he just truly thinks it doesn't matter. I know he likes me and will give me a great letter once he gets around to it).

When I am a professor someday holding my own student's hopes and dreams in my hands I hope I never forget what it feels like to be obsessed and petrified that the smallest thing will get in the way of admission.

No worries most schools understand you have less control over your professors . deadlines really don't matter for them.

I almost gonna scream at one of my professors today (not really haha ) who just "disappeared." Before I sent out the email, an email popped up saying a recommendation was submitted! So magic. And my professor, after such a looong while, sent me an email saying everything's done and it's easy to write me a strong letter of support. Phew~ assured.

[balderdash]

I definitely agree that it's better at least for schools to not tell you it will update and then never update it. I'd rather have the "Nope, you just have to trust you've sent everything" than keep refreshing the site every day.

My recommender is actually not really the flaky type, which is why it surprises me that she's so behind on it. But that said, with professors I guess it's not so much their personalities that matter but rather how important writing a letter is. I just wish my life's ambitions got momentarily boosted to above "read Book #12523 for my new article."

[eklavya]

all but one of the schools i have applied to update the info on arrived materials online. some schools have the status as 'app sent to the program' whereas others have only acknowledged the arrival of materials. the one which doesn't, i've been in regular contact with the grad secretary and she seems chill. for some reason, (only) this school hasn't received my GRE scores, and she said i could send a scanned copy for admission purpose. sweet!

and the pain from LoR writers... all three of my LoR writers told me that more time (at least few weeks) they have, better the letter comes out. it's not being flaky, if they are not the flaky types. which is a good thing imo. also, when and if we grow up to be profs, i forsee we doing the same thing to our students. it's a universal trend, with few exceptions.

[RDX]

all but one of the schools i have applied to update the info on arrived materials online. some schools have the status as 'app sent to the program' whereas others have only acknowledged the arrival of materials. the one which doesn't, i've been in regular contact with the grad secretary and she seems chill. for some reason, (only) this school hasn't received my GRE scores, and she said i could send a scanned copy for admission purpose. sweet!

and the pain from LoR writers... all three of my LoR writers told me that more time (at least few weeks) they have, better the letter comes out. it's not being flaky, if they are not the flaky types. which is a good thing imo. also, when and if we grow up to be profs, i forsee we doing the same thing to our students. it's a universal trend, with few exceptions.

I foresee the same thing, not because I believe we are all the "flaky types" but because I believe professors are really busy (or am I just naive to believe in their excuses? haha ) Three of my professors, one is on the committee of a lot of foundations, etc, but still wrote me a letter one month before the earliest deadline. Another one, who just submitted, is a director of undergraduate studies and in the midst of a huge department move. The last one, who's been in conferences for the past months, promised to write me a letter on her way back, although on 28/29th. The latter two are already late (I have a school requiring a Dec 1st deadline) but I pretty much understand their work pressures, etc. It seems every professor I know have a huge amount of obligation.... hmmm

[gatorgirl]

damn, you folks are early birds!! i turned in mine (7 apps) few weeks ago, and the last LoR made it to the schools last week, for plant breeding phd. prior to submitting the applications, i had talked to few profs in few programs via email, and they indicated interviewees would be invited starting late jan/early feb. this means will i get to hear starting mid december? but inside, i know i won't hear squat at least until jan second week. the wait is indeed a killer!

@gatorgirl: from florida?

Yes, I am indeed from Florida. I go to UF and I was born and raised in central Florida.