Poll: When did you submit your apps?

[poiuyt]

I'd love to see how many people were like me, hitting submit on the last day and making the Berkeley system crash...

*edit: That was supposed to be plural - as in "In general, when did you submit your apps?"

[frankdux]

i voted "a month before". i had varying deadlines from January 1st to February 1st and i got 10 out of 11 of them done by early december. i put together one last minute app a week ago right around the time of one program's suggested-but-not-strictly-enforced deadline of mid February. that app was basically a last ditch "why the hell not" effort to ever so slightly decrease my odds of getting straight across the board rejections.

[Phoenix Rising]

The week before.

[fuzzylogician]

I voted "the week before" but it really varied according to the deadline. For the earlier December 15 deadlines I had plenty of time and everything went out about two weeks before the deadline. For the January 1 deadlines I was starting to get pressed for time and was done with the apps about a week before the deadline, sometimes less. Probably a good average for me would have been ~10 days before the deadline.

[belowthree]

I did 11 apps over three weekdays. I didn't care about when any of them other than the first ones were due, I just started them before the first deadline and kept going until they were all done. My first apps were due Dec 15, so they got done two weeks before right alongside the apps with the Jan 15 deadlines.

I got them done early to make sure that my LoR writers all got e-mails two weeks before the deadlines so there was nothing preventing my LoR writers from going ahead on submitting the letters to the online systems.

This, naturally, did nothing from preventing one of my letter writers from submitting his at the beginning of February. Ah well.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Mine were in by Dec 15 (for Jan 15 deadlines, mostly). My LoR writers were done by Dec 24--I told them Dec 20 was the deadline. Now transcripts, on the other hand,were a royal PITA. I had most ordered by Dec 8, the rest by Dec 15. But some of them didn't arrive until after the Jan 15 deadline. :x

[feisty]

During the week before or the day (night, I mean) of. Cornell and Princeton about 2 weeks early since their deadline was so late, and I had all the material ready from doing the other ones.

My LOR's were submitted at the eleventh hour--there's a reason I was friends with these certain professors.

[t_ruth]

I wish we could select more than one option.

The 12/15 apps I meant to do the week before, but we lost power and internet for six days that week! I ended up going to my in-laws to do them the day before (since this wasn't an option I checked day of).

Those due in January I all did before 1/1 (though they were due between 1/1 and 1/15). Those due in Feb/March I did the last week of January.

[piccali]

Most I submitted about 3 weeks before the deadline, though one wasn't due til Feb. 15th, so that was submitted a good 3 months, if not more, ahead of time. I've heard from everyone except that school. Wait, wait, wait...

[ridgey]

I took advantage of being an ocean away and was working on them when my calendar said it was the day after deadline.

My last application I submitted two days early, or three if you allow for the time difference. At the time, that was evidence of a new found dedication and the end of my habit of procrastinating. Turns out, not so much!

[Victory]

I'm really happy to see that so many of you waited until the night/day before to submit! I thought I was in the minority. I submitted all my apps on the night they were due within hours of the deadline.

When I applied to ugrad, I submitted my online app at 11:55pm with a cut off at 12am. It was a last minute decision to apply to a reach school. I got in. :mrgreen:

[lifeincartoonmotion]

I submitted one in November for a Jan. 15th deadline(I thought-turns out the deadline is in April!) and the other Jan. 15th deadline I overnight two seperate packages, because I had decided not to apply but did because someone had already turned in a recommendationa and I didn't want them to have wasted their time.

[psycholinguist]

I finished two or three applications in November and submitted them in order to get them out of the way. The rest were finished one by one; I got one due on 1 December in on the day, a couple due 15 December in a few days early, and the ones due on 15 January in on the day of, having more or less ignored them over my entire winter break.

[synthla]

September. Once I've decided to do something, I prefer just to get it done.

[void]

I was working on my SOP for each school up until the very last second and then spent a fortune on overnight mail.

[SelenityK]

I submitted my online application on 11/30 but the university didn't receive everything until about two weeks before the due date, which was on 2/1. I only applied to one school (my top choice) and was accepted.

[slowbro]

I started early on my applications because I didn't want to rush to submit them at the last minute. My strategy failed miserably, though: despite working on them for an insane amount of time, I couldn't ever bring myself to submit them early because they never seemed to reach the "good enough" point.

[yivorechecho]

September. Once I've decided to do something, I prefer just to get it done.

Ditto.

Well, I had most of my stuff submitted in early October (first deadline was Jan. 15). 2 of my recommenders were extremely quick in responding to me and had my letters submitted within a couple weeks after that. The third submitted the online ones over Xmas break, and gave me the 2 paper ones in class after break ended. Those programs wanted them all collected and sent together, so I wasn't complete there until a couple days before the deadline, despite having my app submitted months earlier. It was a little stressful waiting for her to get me those envelopes!

Oh, and then that program lost a community college transcript that only had 6 credits from summer 2006 on it in irrelevant courses whose credits I never used or transferred. I re-sent in 3 times. The deadline was 6 weeks ago and I still don't know if my file there was ever completed. But I got into some other places already, so I don't care any more.

How do you lose 3 transcripts? And it cost me $5 each time, too!

[GirlattheHelm]

I spent about 4 months writing up my 'Master List' of places to apply. In the midst I wrote my letter of intent/statement of purpose. Then I slowly weeded out places I didn't like from my 'List' by a weighing of whether or not I would rather sell my kidney than go to said school, depending on how well I felt the department fit. And, well, there was the other issues such as: Location, location, location... I then planned everything out like I was trying to take over the world - from administering tables and graphs and lists and charts; then adding explicitly detailed and informed pamphlets to all my LOR writers; and neatly doing everything with perfectionism that could possibly be intense enough to call Obsessive Compulsive.

As it went, I got all of my January 15th applications the week before. However, I had to overnight my Cornell application because that was due on January 10th. Slightly tricky affair, that.

My poor Montana deadline was on February 15th and I sent that one overnight that - praying the terms "Sent out by" meant, "We'll accept a postmark!" It took two days to get there but all I can do is hope the postmark holds.

Who knows, though. It was a little last minute since my mother was on the other end of the phone going, "APPLYTOMONTANA!!! Don'tyouknowyourfatherandIreallywanttolivethere!!! HISS! [Expletive -expletive-expletive]!!" I had to remind her that she was not going with me and she calmly responded, "Well... you never know." :shock:

Anyway, I pacified her and my final application was to UVM - which I can't even utter without deep pessimism. UVM is the program I want to get into with all my heart and soul, even though everyone else keeps calling it just another master's program, and yet I've a sneaking suspicion I probably won't get in.

Anyway, I sent that overnight two weeks ago and the due date is March 1st. I never looked more pathetic when, on wobbly knees, I handing over that package - my final application to the semi-demonic postal lady. And, despite said postal lady's fangs and dagger like eyes peering over those reading glasses, she finds me sad and pathetic enough to smile at me and go, "Well I see you're'ah still applyin' to these schools. Well, I wish you dah best of luck... would yah like to buy ah booklet of stamps wit this purchase...?" She has this weird thick accent I can't really describe. Sort of a Cajun-Brooklyn thing going on. Definitely pure evil.

Anyway, I'd say at least about a week in advance all mine went out, give or take some drama...

8)

[Nikki]

I turned in all five of my applications in November for deadlines in Dec and Jan.

[was1984]

Anywhere from 1-2 weeks before the deadlines.