What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge In Applying To Grad School?

[DrKT]

When I was applying to grad school, I remember that it was kind of easy to get lost in the process. What has been the biggest challenge for you?

Finding reputable information? Getting advice from someone who's been there? Knowing *specifics* about what you need to do to strengthen your application? Knowing what to write about in your SOP? Or anything else?

What would you find helpful in going through the application process?

Air out your challenges here!

Edited April 28, 2011 by DrKT

[nuih]

Convincing myself that I am capable, somewhat at least?? lol.

Second is deciding where to go, and that the school is the right choice for suuuure...

[maelia8]

I found the price to be the most challenging aspect. I felt really guilty about spending so much money on the GRE and the application and mailing fees, especially knowing that even if I got in to one school, I'd still spend so much money applying to at least half a dozen. Getting into my top choice certainly made me feel a bit better, but I still found that aspect the hardest to grapple with.

[Cheshire_Cat]

Wanting my profile to be perfect and not wanting to apply unless it was was certainly an obsticle.  I have a really good GPA, but my GMAT (Business school's version of the GRE) was bad. I hated studying for that test.  And then, I didn't do as well as I wanted to, so I was going to sit it out, study more, and apply next year.  But a professor at a nearby university invited me to a informational meeting, and after I went there, I decided to apply to that school and a couple "reach" schools, knowing that if I didn't get in to any of them, I still had a great job.  I got into the nearby university and I will be going there, and I'm happy about that.  Making sure my LORs got everything in on time was also a little nervewracking.  I knew two out of the three of my LOR writers pretty well, but the third was harder, and one of them was retired and I didn't know if I should bother him or not.  I wrote my SOP in like three hours one night, and then took another couple of hours over the next couple of weeks to perfect it.  It wasn't that hard for me.

[Crucial BBQ]

The biggest challenge for me was financial.  Grad programs are so idiosyncratic that even if I were in the top 90th percentile of applicants the odds would not be in my favor.  Or they might be.  Or not.  Or....If I were to apply to all programs on my finalized list it would cost me roughly $1700 out of my own pocket.  Now, if I were accepted into MIT/WHOI or UCSD Scripps or the Brown MBL (also at WHOI), I'd consider the financial loss as positive.  Otherwise it just seems like a waste to cast such a wide net when in the end you will only attend one.  

[CFBrown]

For myself, the wait to hear back on acceptance or rejection has been the hardest part.  It's been really torturous and all I can think about is how much is riding on this.  I did my best, but I can't stop worrying that my best isn't good enough.

 

I second that one. My professional experience and undergrad GPA give me confidence that I'll get accepted, but my GRE scores being below average have me concerned if I'll barely make the cut let alone receive decent financial opportunities.

 

The waiting is almost over though. I'll at least hear from Syracuse in a week or so.

[victorydance]

The GRE was the toughest for me. In fact, even after months of studying I still didn't get the score I needed and I decided to apply to MAs instead.

 

Everything else was super easy actually. I know all the profs for the most part in my sub-field so I knew exactly what programs to apply to. The SOPs took a long time to finally hash out but it was far from a excruciating process. LORs were a piece of cake. 

Edited February 22, 2015 by victorydance

[lizardclan]

Echoing what two posters said above...

The biggest challenge for me this year was the money. I could only afford to apply to one school. I live on disability, and had a bankruptcy in January 2010.

I haven't been rejected yet, but if I am, I'll apply to 4 or 5 schools next year using recently acquired credit cards.

I'll only apply to schools next year that have an application fee waiver. Then I'll only have to pay for test scores, transcripts, and possibly degree certifications/verifications.

I'm keeping the balances of my two new credit cards at $0.00.

-lizardclan

[jacket24]

I second that one. My professional experience and undergrad GPA give me confidence that I'll get accepted, but my GRE scores being below average have me concerned if I'll barely make the cut let alone receive decent financial opportunities.

 

The waiting is almost over though. I'll at least hear from Syracuse in a week or so.

 

Agreed. For me, the process of applying was fine since there was at least some outlet for the mental energy. Once all of the forms were filled out and the final application was submitted, the anxiety of sitting and twiddling my thumbs set in quickly while waiting for committees to determine the potential course of a major life decision. The wait is without a doubt the toughest part.

[Kleene]

When applying for my masters, I had to bug so many people to get my transcripts. I had taken courses in four different degree programs, two of which had not bothered to enter the English course names in the system. Thus, I had to bug those people to either enter the English names or provide me with an English transcript manually. One of them decided to do the latter and then used the internal post that takes over a week to even leave the university, apparently, while they knew I needed them within two weeks (after weeks of bugging, deadlines were eventually approaching).

 

One university wanted my school leaving certificate, so I needed to get a sworn translator to translate that. Fair enough. Then, this same university started complaining over Christmas (after the deadline) that they wanted my transcripts in the original language as well on the first day after the holidays or my application would not be considered. I had to get some university officials to write to this university that my university does not issue transcripts unless requested, so the original language in which my transcripts were issued was in fact English.

 

So happy that for my PhD none of this nonsense was required. Such is the beauty of applying to stay at your current institution. They simply got my grades of the first term during the admissions process without me having to do anything!

Edited February 23, 2015 by Kleene

[SLPosteriorCricoarytenoid]

I made the horrible mistake of putting a typo in an email address for one of my letter of recommendation writers on EVERY application. That was the biggest headache I had to deal with throughout the process. Not only was it extremely embarrassing on my part, but it was a lot of extra foot work for my letter writer. She had to do hard copies for some since the application portals did not allow the email addresses to be modified after submission. I was lucky enough that my letter writer knows me pretty well and was very understanding. I checked all my applications over multiple times before submitting, but of course the ONE section I didn't check closely had an error. Fail. 

 

I also had multiple transcripts get lost en route to graduate programs. Headache x2. 

[MathCat]

Gosh, everything about this has been hard. Probably the biggest difficulty for me is balancing course work with applications and visits. In the fall, I spent a lot (a LOT) of time studying for the GRE subject test. The moment I finished that, I was working on my SOP and trying to decide exactly which schools to apply to - I had picked a few, but had not finalized my list. This term, the stress of trying to balance course work, visits, refreshing my email/application portals every 13 seconds, and in depth research of the programs I'm seriously considering is very draining. But it is also really exciting!

 

Trying to decide which school to attend is also daunting.

Edited February 23, 2015 by MathCat

[grad_wannabe]

The biggest difficulty for me is a "what if" scenario -- there are a couple schools to which I did not apply, for reasons that in hindsight seem silly, and I'm mightily regretful about it. 

[scarvesandcardigans]

I think the most difficult part was getting everything started in a timely manner. 

 

I researched what schools I was interested in over the summer and began preliminary (opening application account, GRE, research) actions for applying, but didn't really get into it until around October or November. I know this sounds bad. But I was riding on a low motivational level for graduate school applications because I was in my final undergrad semester and taking a graduate-level course at the same time. Things were pretty packed. The last thing that I wanted to do at the end of the day was open a personal statement draft or perfect my essays/past research for submission. 

 

Other than that, the biggest challenge was communicating some needs with my LoR writers. Turns out one of my program deadlines was 2 weeks earlier than what I had thought, so I had to contact my writers and let them know that they kind of had to pick up the pace with writing to submit on time. Of course I worded it differently and KNEW and acknowledged that it was totally my fault if one arrived past-deadline.

 

Mostly it was things that I brought upon myself. 

[statsgirl4]

The whole application cycle has been a mess for me- I'm shifting fields so my application is a little shaky to begin with, and one of my letter writers disappeared on medical leave right as a bunch of applications were due/past due without letters (I hope they're okay but wow). Waiting to hear back is torture.

 

But the hardest part is balancing the dream of what I want to do with realistic possibilities of what I can do in the system as it exists. Yes, I want to go to an amazing program with some of the best faculty, students, and researchers in the field, set up the connections that I lack from my not-very-illustrious undergrad institution. My husband has encouraged me to shoot high- but he's been a model student. But I realize that I'm returning to school and shifting fields, had a rocky start in undergrad due to health issues, not published in anything, my GREs have a perfect score in the wrong category, and are only pretty good in the other. How much should I realistically compromise? Will I accidentally sell myself short or completely overshoot? Is this cycle a waste of time (and money that I barely have)?

 

On another note, I'm pretty sure I'm already bitter about academia coming from a nontraditional background.

[CFBrown]

I think the most difficult part was getting everything started in a timely manner. 

 

I researched what schools I was interested in over the summer and began preliminary (opening application account, GRE, research) actions for applying, but didn't really get into it until around October or November. I know this sounds bad. But I was riding on a low motivational level for graduate school applications because I was in my final undergrad semester and taking a graduate-level course at the same time. Things were pretty packed. The last thing that I wanted to do at the end of the day was open a personal statement draft or perfect my essays/past research for submission. 

 

Other than that, the biggest challenge was communicating some needs with my LoR writers. Turns out one of my program deadlines was 2 weeks earlier than what I had thought, so I had to contact my writers and let them know that they kind of had to pick up the pace with writing to submit on time. Of course I worded it differently and KNEW and acknowledged that it was totally my fault if one arrived past-deadline.

 

Mostly it was things that I brought upon myself. 

 

Don't feel bad about getting a late start. I too only started realizing graduate school was an attractive option late in September/early October after I lost my 4th job coming out of undergrad. I also didn't take studying for the GRE as serious as I should have, choosing until a month before my test date to start cramming.

[eeee1923]

Couple of things:

 

1. One of my LOR writers had a family emergency come up close to the deadline and wasn't able to finish my letters until the day the app was due

 

2. I was coming from such a different background than traditional applicants to most of the PhD programs, that I wasn't sure if my stats (which were all very good) would be helpful enough

 

3. The amount of money that I "invested" in this process - at most programs they are rejecting most of the applicants so why not just charge less money for the app? Some schools did and I appreciated that since my wallet was very devastated after the whole process.

[scarvesandcardigans]

Don't feel bad about getting a late start. I too only started realizing graduate school was an attractive option late in September/early October after I lost my 4th job coming out of undergrad. I also didn't take studying for the GRE as serious as I should have, choosing until a month before my test date to start cramming.

 

I'm so glad that it isn't an out of the ordinary thing. A lot of people that I spoke with must have been super over-achievers because most of them had their applications finished by the November timeframe. One girl I already had one finished in September. 

[Cheshire_Cat]

I didn't have any of mine complete until around the end of December.  I had taken the GMAT, but didn't decide to actually put any aps in until after November 9th, and then I had to get my LORs and write my SOP.

[Rose Tyler]

The biggest difficulty for me is a "what if" scenario -- there are a couple schools to which I did not apply, for reasons that in hindsight seem silly, and I'm mightily regretful about it. 

 

I know the feeling. I had a long list of schools and I was only able to pick a few because of limited finances. A part of me can't help but wonder if things would be different had I picked one school over another.

 

I've had a lot of challenges this application cycle. There's one common theme: I wish I'd started everything earlier. I procrastinated so much and ended up doing a lot of things last-minute that I wish I hadn't. In particular, I should have contacted my letter-writers earlier and stayed in contact more often. I had a bunch of letters go out on the deadline or after. One of my letter-writers got all of his in on the deadline. My applications were mostly due on December 1st which, of course, meant that Thanksgiving break was the week before. The week before that he was at a conference.

 

I didn't study for the GRE as much as I should have, only getting started a couple weeks before my test date. I've always been good at standardized tests so I wasn't all that worried until the date of the test when I turned into a nervous wreck. I didn't perform well and retaking was not an option. I had to take a couple of schools from my list because of percentile cut-offs.

 

Figuring out my interests has been one of the hardest things. I have a number of things I'm interested in, all related, but it's hard for me to explore in order to narrow them down because there aren't any prolific researchers in clinical psychology at my school. This really complicated writing my SOP, where I was trying to explain my interests for graduate study while also discussing my research experience in another (related) field.

[angellily0330]

The hardest part for me was trying to balance school, sports (I'm a student-athlete), and doing the whole application process. I didn't even start researching possible schools until October---I was originally going to apply to MAs only, but my advisor convinced me to try for PhDs. Glad he did! But yeah, the whole process itself was a nightmare, especially since everything was rushed. Writing my personal statement, getting transcripts in order, contacting recommenders, researching programs that fit best---I did all that in about 5 weeks I'd say. On top of that, I had a conference at the end of October, and then my "cold" turned into pneumonia. So basically everything that could possibly happen, happened. 

 

On the bright side, now I'm a second semester senior, my classes are pretty easy, and I have NOTHING to do. Funny how that works. 

[uselesstheory]

1. coming straight out of undergrad from a department that doesn't really provide many (if any at all) opportunities for undergrads to prepare for a phd program, let alone a highly ranked phd program

 

2. anxiety. there were new anxieties and fears at every step of the process, and it was really challenging to push through all of the uncertainty and fear (as such, it was also rewarding to overcome that fear). however, it seriously prevented me from reaching out to POIs as i would have liked to...

 

3. having a very unusual transcript, with mostly part-time semesters and having withdrawn once (but still completing my undergraduate degree in three years -- very confusing, i know)

 

considering these three things, i got into a great program, which says a lot, especially for students with similar backgrounds as my own (unorthodox credit distribution, not reaching out to many faculty, not having years of research experience, no pubs/conferences, etc.)

[FoggyAnhinga]

Probably the greatest challenge I experienced was while sending out emails to many POIs (prior to working on the applications), I had to be EXTRA CAREFUL when copying and pasting one email content addressed to one professor to another email, especially since I was aiming to make myself solely interested in that POI's research (I didn't want to look like I was spam-emailing a bunch of faculty, which I certainly was not doing). I only copy & pasted a short summary of my past research between different emails, but as for my goals and research interests, I had to write every one of them from scratch for every email I was writing. 

 

It's especially frustrating when you get a response from a POI that clearly indicates he/she didn't read your email to its entirety (one POI's email clearly indicated he didn't read my email at all, and told me if I'm interested in applying, I should take GREs asap - I mean seriously, I wouldn't even be preparing to apply if I hadn't taken my GREs!!). 

[HistoryGypsy]

I wish that programs would quit beating around the bush so much and spell out directly the kinds of students they want. Yes, there are some cases where a student may intrigue and surprise them, but the truth is, any established program knows what they want and they know which POIs are going to be able to take on students. It just seems unethical the way that they hide that information in order to get more people to apply, so that they can wrack up more application fees and make their acceptance seem more selective. If you flat out know that Prof A isn't taking on any students this year, it takes less than five minutes to put one sentence stating that on his webpage.

[scarvesandcardigans]

I know the feeling. I had a long list of schools and I was only able to pick a few because of limited finances. A part of me can't help but wonder if things would be different had I picked one school over another.

 

I've had a lot of challenges this application cycle. There's one common theme: I wish I'd started everything earlier. I procrastinated so much and ended up doing a lot of things last-minute that I wish I hadn't. In particular, I should have contacted my letter-writers earlier and stayed in contact more often. I had a bunch of letters go out on the deadline or after. One of my letter-writers got all of his in on the deadline. My applications were mostly due on December 1st which, of course, meant that Thanksgiving break was the week before. The week before that he was at a conference.

 

I didn't study for the GRE as much as I should have, only getting started a couple weeks before my test date. I've always been good at standardized tests so I wasn't all that worried until the date of the test when I turned into a nervous wreck. I didn't perform well and retaking was not an option. I had to take a couple of schools from my list because of percentile cut-offs.

 

Figuring out my interests has been one of the hardest things. I have a number of things I'm interested in, all related, but it's hard for me to explore in order to narrow them down because there aren't any prolific researchers in clinical psychology at my school. This really complicated writing my SOP, where I was trying to explain my interests for graduate study while also discussing my research experience in another (related) field.

 

I did a lot of these things as well. You aren't alone! I really agree that I wish I had started everything earlier and had it out of the way. I had to pester a lot of my writers to get their letters out in a timely manner as well, and it felt awful doing that. I'm going to send them all extreme thank you notes/something like that when all decisions are in.

[FoggyAnhinga]

I wish that programs would quit beating around the bush so much and spell out directly the kinds of students they want. Yes, there are some cases where a student may intrigue and surprise them, but the truth is, any established program knows what they want and they know which POIs are going to be able to take on students. It just seems unethical the way that they hide that information in order to get more people to apply, so that they can wrack up more application fees and make their acceptance seem more selective. If you flat out know that Prof A isn't taking on any students this year, it takes less than five minutes to put one sentence stating that on his webpage.

Couldn't agree more! Why keep it a mystery? If you aren't planning to take in any more students for a particular app season just say so on your website! If I was a professor it'll take me 30 seconds to do it haha. 

 

But then, those professors who explicitly state that they are planning to take in students for this coming fall on their website receive far more emails from prospective students than other professors do, so I guess POI's who don't specify whether they're accepting students or not could be slightly less competitive...