Sh*t people say when you are applying to grad school

[contretemps]

My friends and even my professors didn't even say "you'll get in somewhere" to me this year. I don't know if I should be happy or sad.

[lslavic12]

I like the response (after having heard from only one school)

"Have you heard from any others?"

My response in my head goes along the lines of

"No I haven't, but thanks for pointing that out. Because I haven't been worrying more and more as time passes and I don't hear from ANY OF THE OTHER SCHOOLS I APPLIED TO! But thanks for asking... EVERY day."

[MYRNIST]

'What's plan B"

'You must keep your options open'

'March-April? You hear from schools that late?'

The first two are excellent advice.

[kbui]

I think some of my favorites are:

1. "Oh... what's the Fulbright?"

2. "You're working on applications, AGAIN?"

3. "Wait, so you're NOT going to medical school?"

4. "Damn, how many things are you applying to?"

5. "That sucks."

6. "You'll be fine." I personally love this one the most, since most of the time when people say this they have no idea what I'm applying for or what the application is like, lol.

[contretemps]

Haha, here's another:

"What's a GRE?"

[koolherc]

Not sure what's funny about people not knowing what the GRE or the Fulbright is.

[Metapod]

My friend the other day...

"Oh...that sounds boring. Why do you want to study that?"

[-hermes-]

I can't believe I forgot to post this!

A relative: Now, you MUST finish your Master's program in one year.

Me: It's a two year program.

Relative: MY daughter finished HER masters in one year! *proceeds to tell family how I shouldn't take more than a year and how wonderful her daughter is*

... Her daughter's program WAS only a one year MA.

Facepalm.

[stephanie.ms.antunes]

You're only applying to (insert low number here, in my case it's 3) schools? Aren't you afraid that you won't get in anywhere? You should have applied to more...

Thanks for the confidence boost

[sansao]

I only applied to four schools. I don't know if it's different in Master's programs, your field, or Canada.. but one of my lor writers, when I announced that I had narrowed my search to 11 schools, and thought that should be sufficient, told me there was no reason to apply to a lot of schools, and that I should cut it down to 3 or 4. But, I'm in geoscience, the US, and applying to PhD programs, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

Look at it this way, there's 9 possible combinations of admissions decisions for your applications. Only one of those is really total disaster (all rejections), though we hope that three waitlists don't happen either.

Good luck!

[oseirus]

I only applied to four schools. I don't know if it's different in Master's programs, your field, or Canada.. but one of my lor writers, when I announced that I had narrowed my search to 11 schools, and thought that should be sufficient, told me there was no reason to apply to a lot of schools, and that I should cut it down to 3 or 4. But, I'm in geoscience, the US, and applying to PhD programs, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

Good luck!

It seems that in the history field, people tend to apply to 6-7 schools on average, as far as PhDs go. I wish I had known about that when I was applying to schools b/c there were a couple of other schools I wanted to apply to but I thought I was being too greedy applying to so many schools. Silly me!

[sansao]

It seems that in the history field, people tend to apply to 6-7 schools on average, as far as PhDs go. I wish I had known about that when I was applying to schools b/c there were a couple of other schools I wanted to apply to but I thought I was being too greedy applying to so many schools. Silly me!

There's no greed in trying to secure your future. You could see if any schools that fit your interests really well still have an open deadline (assuming you can get your professors to write the additional lors).

[aberrant]

I only applied to four schools. I don't know if it's different in Master's programs, your field, or Canada.. but one of my lor writers, when I announced that I had narrowed my search to 11 schools, and thought that should be sufficient, told me there was no reason to apply to a lot of schools, and that I should cut it down to 3 or 4. But, I'm in geoscience, the US, and applying to PhD programs, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

I applied to +20 schools just because I wanted to get in somewhere (as an international) Even though I know that the unofficial average is 6-7 school. it is just extremely competitive for foreign applicants in general, and therefore splashing out money is just necessary..

[hope4fall2012]

I applied to +20 schools just because I wanted to get in somewhere (as an international) Even though I know that the unofficial average is 6-7 school. it is just extremely competitive for foreign applicants in general, and therefore splashing out money is just necessary..

20+ !!! Thats a large large number.. How did you even get people to write your reco letters..Atleast 60 of them..

But what you said about international applicants is scaring me now..

[sansao]

Wow, 20+... the time that must have gone in to prepping your sops is scary. It was hard enough for me to come up with four and feel remotely confident.

[aberrant]

@hope4fall2012: haha I simply told my LOR that I will apply that number for my situation (being an international and NOT competitive) and my LORs are understandable. I have 4 LORs, 2 of them are from foreign country (my home country/town). but it is indeed competitive for international applicants, and I have statistics to show (which is on my blog) if you are interested

@sansao: haha I guess that's a yes and no. it was a pain to come up with a good SOP for almost all the schools, but it's okay when you have finalized one that fits most of the school. Unfortunately, I did not finalized my SOP until early december, which means that schools that I submitted for application before that time would see my poor version of SOP. and of course, I got rejections from many of those schools :/

[kgumps2012]

"Why don't you take the MCATs as a back up?"

haha as if med school was EASIER than grad school (especially since i dont want to be THAT KIND of doctor). plus I would have to-relearn most of o-chem, physics, and calc. blah.

[koolherc]

@hope4fall2012: haha I simply told my LOR that I will apply that number for my situation (being an international and NOT competitive) and my LORs are understandable. I have 4 LORs, 2 of them are from foreign country (my home country/town). but it is indeed competitive for international applicants, and I have statistics to show (which is on my blog) if you are interested

@sansao: haha I guess that's a yes and no. it was a pain to come up with a good SOP for almost all the schools, but it's okay when you have finalized one that fits most of the school. Unfortunately, I did not finalized my SOP until early december, which means that schools that I submitted for application before that time would see my poor version of SOP. and of course, I got rejections from many of those schools :/

I had a tough time just juggling 7 apps. I had 3 more but dropped them. How did you avoid the mistake of putting the wrong program name in the wrong Statement/Essay/etc?

[aberrant]

I had a tough time just juggling 7 apps. I had 3 more but dropped them. How did you avoid the mistake of putting the wrong program name in the wrong Statement/Essay/etc?

For my SOP, my friends told me that it might be easier for me to write a story-like SOP to present myself. I organized my SOP in a way that at specific positions of my SOP, there are the name of the program, the name of the school school, name of faculty members/POI, and their research topic(s) that I'm interested in (with a brief, follow-up statement on what I understood about that topic / what is it interesting / the significance of that topic). Other parts of the statement is just about how I build myself up so that I'm prepared for grad school (or that particular program at that school). To avoid any mistakes, I wrote 1 SOP for 1 school, underlined the "variables", and use it as a template.

In other words, I built a template for almost all the schools and I just fill in the blanks when it is necessary.

And I have a different essay that is more about personal history and background, and I called that personal statement. Some schools required both SOP and PS, and therefore I tried to avoid overlapping information in my two essays/statements.

But I have to emphasize that my strategy only works because of the program that I'm interested in - they tend to ask similar questions (if not the same). I know some other programs require a lot more essays (with different questions). For example, UCSF Pharmacy requires 8 different essays, which ultimately frustrated my friend from completing and submitting his application.

Edited February 6, 2012 by aberrant

[Clou12]

I got this response yesterday when I expressed my concerns of maybe not getting into my top choice school because of my low GRE scores.

"Wel,l so-so was an idiot and got into Columbia."

1. I do agree, I know this person and she was a doofus.

2. However, she is not in the same field as me so being a doofus may be acceptable in her field.

3. I didn't apply to Columbia. But I see what you are trying to say.

4. She could have had stellar GREs that masked her actual incompetence.

As much as I want to believe that whole "holistic" approach that adcoms say they use to review apps. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be overlooked because of a score on a standardized test and not my accomplishments throughout my career. Sigh.

[Tabz]

I've only ever applied to one school for my BA and my MA/MFA so it seems really weird to apply to two schools for my PhD, but I get the "only 2?!" sometimes..

[oseirus]

I got this response yesterday when I expressed my concerns of maybe not getting into my top choice school because of my low GRE scores.

"Wel,l so-so was an idiot and got into Columbia."

1. I do agree, I know this person and she was a doofus.

2. However, she is not in the same field as me so being a doofus may be acceptable in her field.

3. I didn't apply to Columbia. But I see what you are trying to say.

4. She could have had stellar GREs that masked her actual incompetence.

As much as I want to believe that whole "holistic" approach that adcoms say they use to review apps. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be overlooked because of a score on a standardized test and not my accomplishments throughout my career. Sigh.

I am punching anyone who says that line to me ... no two questions about that ... regardless of gender ... straight punch

[cokohlik]

I got this response yesterday when I expressed my concerns of maybe not getting into my top choice school because of my low GRE scores.

"Wel,l so-so was an idiot and got into Columbia."

1. I do agree, I know this person and she was a doofus.

2. However, she is not in the same field as me so being a doofus may be acceptable in her field.

3. I didn't apply to Columbia. But I see what you are trying to say.

4. She could have had stellar GREs that masked her actual incompetence.

As much as I want to believe that whole "holistic" approach that adcoms say they use to review apps. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be overlooked because of a score on a standardized test and not my accomplishments throughout my career. Sigh.

I'm in the same boat as you re: GRE scores! Silly test if you ask me. :/

[oseirus]

I'm in the same boat as you re: GRE scores! Silly test if you ask me. :/

Outside of MAYBE the writing portion, I don't see what the GRE really helps to indicate that someone is going to be a good art historian or any kind of historian. As long as I can I utilize a dictionary, I am good to go!

[Clou12]

cokohlik and oseirus:

That test really doesn't measure competence in my opinion. I think that schools should really interview everyone to see if they know their field, I mean it is like a job right? But hey, I am not on the admissions committee! I am just hoping they don't deny me based on the GRE alone but will truly look at what I could offer the school. Good luck to you guys!