Going to submit my apps soon...feeling nervous!

[butterfingers2010]

So I have everything together for the most part. LOR's are all lined up, took the GRE, wrote killer SOP's, and basically have everything I need to apply. The thing is, I am having trouble letting go! I have been essentially slaving away at this for over a month now, and I feel like there's something I am missing or something else I should be doing before I submit everything. I am going to review each application VERY closely before submitting it, but is there anything I should look at specifically?

Has anyone else been through this? I know I am ready to wrap things up and move onto something else (thank god, because this has taken over pretty much all of my free time) but for some reason I can't. Is it a sign I should be spending more time on my apps, or am I just freaking out?

[fuzzylogician]

Obviously there is some measure of freaking out involved in deciding to finally submit the app, and submitting can also feel strangely anti-climactic ---- now what? You go from being very busy working to having lots of free time to sit in front of the computer and refresh your inbox. (or have a life, whatever).

If the schools you're applying to don't have rolling admission, I think it may be advisable to just let the app sit without looking at it for a few weeks, 3-4 if you can afford it. Things change with time and from the perspective of a few weeks of rest and contemplation you may find that you are able to refine some points in your SOP/writing sample or else convince yourself that you've done the best you can in each and every part of the application.

There is nothing in particular that you should pay attention to - the obvious is making sure that you submit everything each school is asking for, making sure you answered all the questions; if you started writing in the summer -- make sure the prompts you were working off of are the same ones that are on the website now (sometimes formats change around September, when apps are reopened). Make sure you have the right school name in each SOP and that you spelled all the profs' names correctly, that kind of things. It's unavoidable that you'll find typos or other small things you're unhappy with later when you review your app so don't even worry about being perfect. Assume that's impossible and go from there..

[fenderpete]

Check you've put the right school names in all your SOPs. In all honesty, I think last minute anxiety is natural. That's how I felt before I submitted all mine. I think also the fact that you know you're submitting before a lot of other folks plays into the 'OMG something must be wrong' mindset.

[butterfingers2010]

Excellent answers, thank you! I have several days of vacation coming up next week so I think I will wait until then and review everything and then submit it..what a way to spend vacation time right

[Gvh]

I'm totally there with you - I just submitted my first app 10 minutes ago (it's a rolling admissions app, wanted to get it in sooner rather than later), and it's kind of scary/relieving,anti-climatic. So yeah, the process of waiting has begun! Sigh, this is going to be a long few months.

[cunninlynguist]

Feel the same way -- I'm ahead of schedule but it's actually a bit disconcerting. I've been working on application stuff for months now and feel very happy about how everything turned out (and nothing needs further revision). Still, it seems early. I'm giving my LOR writers a couple more weeks and then I'll officially submit the applications.

Don't get too consumed by minutia at this point. If you've been putting in genuine effort and have already carefully proofread your SOPs, there's no need to feel like you're cutting the process short. In his book, Donald Asher said that once you feel your SOP is perfect, leave it alone and submit it.