The waiting is the hardest part

[saritapie]

t_ruth's "admissions vibes" must be pretty darn powerful: I got a call today from a prospective advisor; he wanted to let me know that my dept. has forwarded my app to the graduate school with a rec for admission and a very very good funding package. Nothing official yet

[UnlikelyGrad]

despite my best efforts I get slightly excited about checking my email and the mail when I get home, even though I know there will probably be nothing, and then I'm disappointed.

I check my email at the lab, but of course, the mail has to wait for later. I had a good laugh today when I got home--I walked in the door and the first words my husband said to me were, "Hi, hon. No exciting mail for you today." Yeah, he knows me, all right...

[linden]

gadhelyn:

Congrats to your cat, too!

[Tonights]

So how is everyone this fine morning? (Well, it's morning where I am, anyway).

I'm having one of those very rare confident days where I'm feeling like I am a shoe-in for admission.

[gadhelyn]

So how is everyone this fine morning? (Well, it's morning where I am, anyway).

I'm having one of those very rare confident days where I'm feeling like I am a shoe-in for admission.

Funny, I feel the same way.

[storiaitaliana]

I was feeling pretty confident, now I'm veering back to unsure. One more month of this waiting -- it is about all I can take!

[Tonights]

I was feeling so good and now I'm in a funk because none of my letters are from well-known folks. I picked people who know my work really, really well - the professor who supervised my fieldwork, my undergraduate adviser who is my biggest fan, and a professor from the school that I transferred out of, but had for three classes. But none of them are exactly famous, so I'm paranoid that their recs will mean nothing.

The only well-known person at my undergrad (who my adviser initially recommended I ask for a letter) is a really terrible professor that I do not get along with one bit, so that went into the bin. Now I'm like "maybe I should have tried to suck up to her more." :/

[fenderpete]

I was feeling so good and now I'm in a funk because none of my letters are from well-known folks. I picked people who know my work really, really well - the professor who supervised my fieldwork, my undergraduate adviser who is my biggest fan, and a professor from the school that I transferred out of, but had for three classes. But none of them are exactly famous, so I'm paranoid that their recs will mean nothing.

The only well-known person at my undergrad (who my adviser initially recommended I ask for a letter) is a really terrible professor that I do not get along with one bit, so that went into the bin. Now I'm like "maybe I should have tried to suck up to her more." :/

I'm a mixed bag there. One internationally renowned who I did research work with, one who is my dissertation tutor (and very well known in his area) but doesn't know me that well and hasn't marked my work, and the ex-head of my department who knows everything I did in terms of mediating students with the department and in terms of extracurriculars. So basically only one of my LORs can really speak to my working ability. Not so good either me thinks :S

The fact that all my people are well known here might also mean nothing in the USA. So I'm not overly optimistic, after having a dreaming of Princeton day yesterday...

[Tonights]

In a perfect world, letters from people who really knew your work would trump letters from known names, but I'm informed that apparently it isn't a perfect world. :?

Your letters seem like a really good mix though.

[linden]

Tonights:

You know, the issue of LORs from well-known people is probably like so much more in the admissions process: a big unknown. Maybe there will be a few professors in your adcoms who will only look at applicants with letters from authorities in their academic areas. And, some other adcoms might have professors who don't give a flying rat's ass about letters from well-known people. Finally, there might personal rivalries, professional jealousies, and who knows how many other situations that may make an LOR from renowned researchers worthless. Finally, let's be honest, how many well-known researchers are going to waste their time with undergrads? Come on, most of us spent our time in the hands of TAs and saw real-life, actual-honest-to-god professors only in senior-level classes. Yes, I am sure there are exceptions. But, I would bet my right pinky most people are going into this without letters--or without strong letters--from well-known professors.

Good luck!

Linden

[Tonights]

Linden, thank you so much for talking some sense into me. My blood pressure is a lot lower now than it was 15 minutes ago.

[willtherebestars]

I got a (superb, thank goodness) letter from my advisor, who is also my thesis advisor, professor, and the Department Chair, a former advisor/professor who knows me well personally, and a current professor who also knows me well personally. For dream school, I got a 4th letter from a former professor of mine who is currently a visiting fellow at that dream school. Hopefully that will be helfpul!

Waiting brings on the worries that these letters won't mean anything because my SOP was weird or too long. That was a terrible part of the app. Writing about myself is severely uncomfortable.

In response to the person considering buying a G1... I feel you! I have been looking on eBay, imagining myself reading important emails on my Sidekick 2008...

Also, congrats t_ruth!

[t_ruth]

The LOR always stress me out! I had a former employer/mentor write me a letter for something and give to me to look over and distribute. Half the letter was about him and very generic stuff about me I really worry that LOR are going to be a big weak spot of my app. Aside from the fact I have none from a professor in my actual field (they are from law professors and colleagues), I feel like no one is really going to be jumping up and down over me in a letter, kwim?

[gadhelyn]

the LoR are the only things I really don't feel any worry about on mine. I've been allowed now to read 2 of my 3 and they are both very supportive. And I've been told that the third is also very good. And they're all from researchers in biochemistry/endocrinology! Only the gpa has me worried, makes me think at times that they'll see that and toss my app out.

[aec]

I got a (superb, thank goodness) letter from my advisor, who is also my thesis advisor, professor, and the Department Chair, a former advisor/professor who knows me well personally, and a current professor who also knows me well personally. For dream school, I got a 4th letter from a former professor of mine who is currently a visiting fellow at that dream school. Hopefully that will be helfpul!

Waiting brings on the worries that these letters won't mean anything because my SOP was weird or too long. That was a terrible part of the app. Writing about myself is severely uncomfortable.

In response to the person considering buying a G1... I feel you! I have been looking on eBay, imagining myself reading important emails on my Sidekick 2008...

Also, congrats t_ruth!

The problem with the Sidekick 2008 (I have one) is that it doesn't have push email, so you don't get updates right away, which is problematic when you want to know right away when you have emails!

[Tonights]

I'm putting off buying a new cell phone until I find out if I'll be in grad school next year. If I do manage to get my sorry ass accepted somewhere, I think I'm definitely going to be buying an email-capable phone with a QWERTY keyboard so I can stay on top of things and take notes on ideas as they occur to me.

Here's a funny story about how fried my brain is and how stressed out I've been. When I typed "QWERTY" up there, I thought to myself for a second "Gee, all the keys for this word are right in a row!" :roll:

I think my statement of purpose is fairly strong. I have a clear research interest, which is good, and I talk about my fieldwork, in which I have confidence. My adviser told me it was really interesting to read, which made me let out a big breath.

It's my writing sample I'm not too keen on. I HATE my writing sample, but I also hated every other piece of writing I had to choose from. My best research hasn't been written up yet because I'm saving it for grad school, and I've been out of academia for a year and a half and I just hate everything I've ever produced and I feel like they're going to laugh me right out of the "maybe" pile.

[t_ruth]

My G1 is also good for checking thegradcafe when I'm up in the middle of the night

[ridgey]

I think my statement of purpose is fairly strong. I have a clear research interest, which is good, and I talk about my fieldwork, in which I have confidence. My adviser told me it was really interesting to read, which made me let out a big breath.

It's my writing sample I'm not too keen on. I HATE my writing sample, but I also hated every other piece of writing I had to choose from. My best research hasn't been written up yet because I'm saving it for grad school, and I've been out of academia for a year and a half and I just hate everything I've ever produced and I feel like they're going to laugh me right out of the "maybe" pile.

ME TOO!!!

I found an older essay to use as a writing sample, one on which the professor had written on the grading sheet "are you considering grad study?" But I found this after I had submitted several applicaitons with a horrid writing sample that I'm embarassed to have put my name on. I re-read my SoP for one of those schools and was starting to feel pretty confident, until I remembered the writing sample.

I wonder if the pre-internet era of grad school applicants found the process, especially the waiting, easier or harder than us? No status check websites, no email, no virtual community of equally anxious folk.

[willtherebestars]

From what I've heard, the graduate school application process used to be a lot simpler and a lot less likely to cause anxiety in applicants. I think this accounts for some professors' lax attitudes toward letters and acceptance chances in general. When I told one of my professors what the GRE entailed and that it was adaptive, he admitted that he was very glad he didn't have to go through what current grad applicants do.

I'm very thankful for this little community because I only know ONE person at my current school (small southern LAC) who is applying to grad school, although she is in a different field. We will be presenting at the same conference, so I'm sure the entire trip there and back will be spent complaining and wondering uselessly about all the aspects of admissions. Although, the conference is in late Feb., so maybe one of us will have heard something by then!

[fenderpete]

I think this is probably 90% of the use my iPhone gets put to lol. I think it does help a lot having access to other prospective grad students because I don't know anyone else on my course/uni who is applying to the USA for anything, let alone grad school! It's a great common denominator, knowing we've all had to jump through the same hoops of GRE, LORs, getting transcripts from angry admin people - all while holding down whatever else it is we're currently trying to finish off.

Thanks very much for the encouragement Tonights - I think being a UK applicant who's not from Oxbridge has me feeling a bit on my own. If I got into a program it'd be absolutely huge and something that AFAIK hasn't happened in years at my uni. We're a good university (top ten, Russell Group) but there seems to be a distinct lack of drive amongst the current crop of students. The only other person I know even considering it is going to get her way paid through Columbia for an MA by mom and dad.

I also feel a real weight of expectation - from my referees, friends and family... So if it's as anticlamactic as I fear it might be, I'm not looking forward to it.

[ewurgler]

I've spent the entire morning reading through all of my SoPs and I am feeling confident with them, but after talking to a friend who applied to various american and performance studies programs (and has been accepted to berkeley performance studies), I'm feeling sick about the length.

I know length is no measurement of quality, but this friend said his SoP was generally around 4 to 5 pages unless there were speicific constraints. Does this sound extremely long to anyone? Mine was a around 700 words (except for one with a 500 word limit), approx. 1 and 1/3 pages single spaced.

Was this a huge mistake? I covered all things I wanted to, just worked incredibly hard to make it so tight that they would be forced to read the entire thing well, and would not be annoyed by rambling.

This is a stupid and trivial question, as all of my apps were submitted long ago, but what was the general length of your SoPs that had no word limits?

[IvyHope]

I'd find it hard to believe that a faculty would be excited to read a 4-5 page statement. I think they appreciate succinct and concise. I wouldn't be too worried- there are many other variables that have played into your friend's acceptance at Berkeley.

[pregasauraus]

Agreed. 4-5 pages seems awfully long. I thought my statement was long at around 2 to 2.25 pages. I'm sure that the admissions board would be happy to see a work that is succinct and compelling amongst all the reading they have to do. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[ewurgler]

Whew! Thanks for the reassurance.

[socialpsych]

A few first-year PhD student friends who were extremely successful in last year's admissions cycle showed me their SsOP, and they were 1 - 2.5 pages. So I think you're fine!