Keeping the Application Process Organized

[pepsi]

i'm curious as to how all of you kept all your school info (gre scores, transcripts, application deadlines, links, emails, etc) organized during the application process

i set up a local wiki for info like schools, deadlines, links; and a dropbox account for files like transcripts and my SOP. it worked pretty well for me. whatd you guys do?

[adinutzyc]

Folders? Folders within folders? Folders within folders within folders!

Well, I have a big shortcut on my desktop called (suggestively) "Future", in which I have

• a SOPs folder, which has SOPs suggestively having as title the name of the school I applied to; I also have some research papers I wrote on various occasions there, that were needed for one of the applications
• a confirms folder, containing all the payment/submission confirmations I actually saved as pdfs
• a Documents folder, containing transcripts, midyear grades, my Resume, and which also has another folder called Extra Docs inside containing my old TOEFL score, scan of passport, and a "notes" doc (needed at one school)
• an Acceptances folder -- all awards etc.
• an Applications document, which lists all the schools I applied to, including deadlines, I color coded applications received, applications rejected and applications incomplete

I actually didn't put these anywhere online, but used a memory stick...

Hope that helps someone. It really worked well for me, I believe the Applications document was the most useful -- I had 16 applications I've successfully kept track of!

[edvolkov]

I used excel table with schools info and folder structure as prev poster. Also I've created another excel table wchich lists the info if school received my GRE or TOEFL scores, transcripts, application status (complete/incomlete), submission status etc

[choco]

Folders for me, everywhere!

1) A folder with sub-folders for each university I applied. Each folder contained all the submitted documents. In this way, I avoided uploading the wrong SoP to the wrong school (otherwise, probably I would have done it).

2) A folder for each university in my Firefox bookmarks with all the useful links.

3) A folder for each university in my Outlook Express to manage the received e-mails from each school.

4) Finally, like the previous poster, I created an excel table with info about each university (deadline, address, GRE/TOFL codes, etc.) to keep track of the submitted and received documents.

It was a full time job to do all these things and, especially, because I applied to many schools. But, now that this process ended, I really don’t remember how much tired and fed up I was during the previous months. I only keep the joy that I have been accepted.

[closetgeek]

hah, I had one folder labeled "grad" and thats pretty much it. SOPs were tracked by nameofschoolSOP . transcripts, gre scorse, and other documents were just thrown in there. deadlines were listed on a single txt document. lol I live a disorganized life. this was actually better than I would usually do. I was able to keep track of things, no prob.

[ChavezRavine]

I uploaded all of my docs on a FTP server. That way, I can edit it anywhere I go (i.e. work, school, home). Subfolders galore.

[garbledy]

I just used Google Docs and spreadsheets to make sure all my materials got in, what is left, etc. I also kept a text document of status websites, etc. It was pretty painless!

[ruslik]

OneNote - a single place where you can gather all of your notes and information.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/

Very recommended!!!