What is you application nightmare?

[milara]

A sort of in the meantime nightmare/fear -- answering the phone and finding its a POI who wants to interview me right then, and not remembering who the POI is. I wrote 9 applications. I read a LOT of potential POI profiles over the course of that process! I'm seriously thinking of not answering unknown numbers until I hear back from most or all of my programs.

If I AM admitted to any programs at all, I'm afraid I'll get difficult choices. Like, for instance, a mediocre program/school with full funding and an excellent school with not-quite-enough funding. Such a choice is highly probable, actually. One of the schools I applied to can accommodate me, but they said themselves that I'd be helping them forge new ties with the CS department. In addition, the funding they can offer is ~ a $12K stipend, which is really small. But it's in a really cool little city, and my partner is probably transferring there and already lives only a two hour drive or so away. What if I have to choose between that and a bigger stipend at a better school/program that's a better match in a crappy, boring location a nine hour drive from my partner? It would be the war of career preferences vs. personal preferences, and I'm really not sure what I'd do. It's not clear that being a trailblazer at a good school would be such a bad thing, and I met at least one faculty member there who I really liked and who is into similar things. But egads. It would be rough.