The OH SH** moments...

[katiemk1230]

Maybe venting them will help release a little stress?

I had my first today. I applied to a huge university(finished/submitted the app about a month ago) and thought everything was relatively under control. My status was "missing transcript" which I had re-sent. Today, I emailed them to make sure they got the transcript. Not only had they still not received or processed it (apparently they're so big that even when things are received, they don't even begin to be put into your file until almost a month after they arrive), but apparently they "hadn't received" my reference letters. Don't even get me started on the lack of communication between grad. admissions and the department I'm applying to...suffice it to say, I had originally been told to go ahead and send everything, including my LORs to one dept, and now its turning out that these get lost between the two and everyone is telling me contradictory things about the status of these items. Oh but it gets better.

Now, apparently I'm supposed to have completed a separate "departmental application" - which I swear was mentioned nowhere, at any point during my application. Apparently I filled out the graduate school's general application, and even though I selected my program and submitted an essay about it, that's not enough. Now, since I was supposed to know through ESP, I have to do an entire new application, plus another essay, and the best part? I get to have my references write ALL NEW LETTERS to conform to the specific questions for this application. Oh yeah, and this is all due there by mail, in 5 days. I live in MA, the school is in FL, and my references (who have to recieve the form asap to fill it out plus write the letters and physically mail all this in) are about 1 1/2 hours away from me. ::cries::

I know this is my fault - I should have been scouring every possible page of every possible link of every possible site. But for a school that made me create a username, get a user ID, and wait 24 hours just to set up an account in order to set up *another* account that then made me create new usernames and IDs and wait 3 days before I could even pay for my application to be submitted, I think it's obvious that they don't exactly make the process user friendly. I suppose they're weeding people like me out...but this was my last application and I was so burned out, and I really thought I had everything in!!!

Thanks for listening. I'd like to hear from the cafe community - what are some of your "FML" moments of the grad school application process?? Has anyone had any that defeated them (hopefully not!) ? How did you overcome them?

[felicite]

I sent a writing sample in analyzing a play. I mentioned the play in the title and it wasn't correct. The play's title is "for colored girls" my paper's titled had it as "for color girls." I didn't notice this until after I sent it out to three programs. One program had a deadline that had already passed. I emailed them but my application was considered complete and to resubmit the paper, it wouldn't be complete on time. The other two programs had no problems with me submitting a different version of the paper and replacing it. So, I am still waiting for that rejection. I imagine much laughter after they notice my title gaffe. I can only hope the laughter isn't carried over to the rejection email.

Your problem sounds much worse and without great amounts of driving and overnight shipping, I don't see a solution. But I hope hearing this cheers you a bit.

[CarlieE]

I misspelled the last name of a professor I wanted to work with. I wrote Bower instead of Bowie. Yeah..... that was definitely a FML!!!! moment. There was nothing I could do change that..

At least you have a chance to make amends.

[quantitative]

Let me preface this with I'm so bad with returning phone calls in general.

Anyways, I checked my phone 2 nights ago to check if I missed any calls. I sometimes get these political calls from weird numbers, so I noticed I had this weird number. I called back like 1am and it had this weird message about how the phone number's person wasn't available. I wrote it off as a political recording.

Then, I was downstairs this morning when I realized my friend was supposed to call me. I checked my phone and I see the person called again. I got really annoyed and I called back prepared to tell them to stop calling me.... Um, it was one of my top schools telling me I was accepted. oops.

OP, I had an issue that the Applyyourself system would not work with my school's email, aka my profs not even getting emails (at random too!). So, I had to call the grad coordinator at each school to work out to ask how to fix it, figure out who to mail the letters to and figure out which adviser received which email. In the end, they opted to just send hard copies just to make it less confusing. I applied to 10 schools, so I'm really surprised I didn't have a complete meltdown. Then, one letter went missing at one school. I think I told my friend: FATE DOES NOT WANT ME TO GO TO GRADUATE SCHOOL.

Edited February 11, 2012 by quantitative

[mandabeth]

I just noticed this week that my GRE scores are missing from a school I applied to (even though I definitely sent them.) Luckily, I've already been accepted to a better school, so I'm not going to bother to pay to resend them. I'm just waiting for the rejection.

[MonkeyPants]

Got this email from assistant dean at my first choice school on Feb 8th:

"On looking over your application, I see that you are missing a letter of recommendation from [NAME]. You may want to remind Mr. [NAME] about this. On the other hand, we do only request 4 letters of recommendation and you have several more than that.

We are also missing an official copy of your GRE scores. If you have an unofficial copy, I will be more than happy to accept that. You can either scan this over to me or send it via fax [NUMBER]"

Cue rising panic. Sent the scores, she confirmed they arrived, no word since then. Freaking out!

[We regret to inform you]

you have more than 4 letters of recommendation?

[CarlieE]

Got this email from assistant dean at my first choice school on Feb 8th:

"On looking over your application, I see that you are missing a letter of recommendation from [NAME]. You may want to remind Mr. [NAME] about this. On the other hand, we do only request 4 letters of recommendation and you have several more than that.

We are also missing an official copy of your GRE scores. If you have an unofficial copy, I will be more than happy to accept that. You can either scan this over to me or send it via fax [NUMBER]"

Cue rising panic. Sent the scores, she confirmed they arrived, no word since then. Freaking out!

My GRE scores were also missing from my file, but ETS assured me they had been sent. I wouldn't worry TOO much; I was notified of the absence in an email from the POI and he asked me to just send him the numbers in email. The hiccup didn't prevent me from getting an interview, or getting accepted. ...

Also, I too got more LORs than needed.... I got 6 but generally only needed 4 and I depending on the school, I mix-n-matched my LORs.

[MonkeyPants]

you have more than 4 letters of recommendation?

i have eight for one program and seven for the rest. i wasn't taking any chances- if one didn't arrive, i wanted to have as much backup as possible.

[CookiesForDinner]

I've had some problems with ETS either sending my scores or my schools getting them. But since everything else got to my school in a very timely manner (and onto my online application), I'm going to assume that ETS messed this one up..

[MonkeyPants]

oh boy, now this face is making me freak out. did i screw up by doing this??

[R Deckard]

oh boy, now this face is making me freak out. did i screw up by doing this??

I sent only the minimum number of letters to each school (3 in most cases, 4 in one) because I only wanted programs to see my "strongest" letters. No need to dilute my application with semi-strong letters. If you had 8 exceptional letters, though, I'm sure that sending them all can only help (unless they said not to send more than exactly n letters).

[TexanLex]

I remember when I clicked submit for one of my applications and then re-read over all of the qualifications and directions and realized that they required for the CV to be no more than 2 pages and mine was 3. Freaked out for a bit before I realized there was nothing I could do and that maybe I was just being silly. But hey, I got in!

[emmm]

I would not have been able to get 8 good LORs -- 4-5 maybe, but I would have been getting letters from people in a completely different field than the ine I was trying to enter. As it was, I learned from one program that not having letters from people they knew/recognized was hurting my application (of course, not having the experience that letters from such people would have implied was what was really the issue . . .). What I did have: 3 letters from people who knew me, liked me, and really were rooting for me to get in .

[MonkeyPants]

I would not have been able to get 8 good LORs -- 4-5 maybe, but I would have been getting letters from people in a completely different field than the ine I was trying to enter. As it was, I learned from one program that not having letters from people they knew/recognized was hurting my application (of course, not having the experience that letters from such people would have implied was what was really the issue . . .). What I did have: 3 letters from people who knew me, liked me, and really were rooting for me to get in .

Of course, not being able to read the letters throws me off a bit, but the people who wrote them have known me for years and know what i'm capable of, so i'm certain they're strong. Three are from semi-famous faculty, and i've worked with them fairly extensively. The rest are from professional colleagues. So that part of the application, i think, is strong.

When i spoke with the assistant dean, she dropped this gem, "I can't guarantee that the committee will read everyone's letters, but we do look at how many you have and the names on them." So...?