First Deadline--Missed!

[ktwho]

Devastated! Was submitting SOP right at midnight--the last document--and poof! Gone. I'm an idiot. Good-bye, UC-B! See you next year. Changing my work life is now a priority. I haven't been able to dedicate enough time to my future because of the incredibly busy job I'm currently in...that has no career track. What an idiot.

[ay761]

I would email the admissions office immediately.... see if they can make an exception? It couldn't hurt.

I did a similarly dumb thing. This whole time, I thought one of my PhD programs was due on Dec. 31st. I was putting that application off because I thought I had so much time, and then finally got around to doing some in depth research on the site after all the other apps were submitted and discovered the due date was Dec. 1st! I logged into my app, and it still said Dec. 31st... but it turns out I accidentally selected MA rather than PhD. So now I am going to go ahead and apply for the MA program... may as well, since my professors already submitted the letters!

I'm also working 60 hours a week -- it's really hard to manage all the small details of this process with a busy schedule. Don't be too hard on yourself!

But yeah, I'm kicking myself too, I was applying to 5 PhD programs and now it is only 4.

[ktwho]

What a kind reply! I took yesterday off to focus and try to finish. The Berkeley application (for a foreign lit program) is incredibly extensive. You have to provide an SOP, a diversity statement, a 15-20 page paper in Spanish, a coursework outline, etc... THEN if you want to apply for a teaching assistantship, there's a separate application. I don't know how I'd missed just how long it was. You have to record yourself speaking the the target language for 3-5 minutes, which, of course, means you have to write/plan what you're going to say, and then burn it onto a CD. I haven't burned a cd in, ooooh, at least 5 years. So, I'm getting tons of stuff done, right? And then the grad coordinator kindly emailed me to tell me not to worry about the assistantship application til January. I'd managed to expand my 10-page paper to 15, but just this week, I was supposed to meet with a native speaking friend to have her review my foreign language paper---and she had her baby three weeks early! Of course, she couldn't meet. Then my MA advisor disappeared and I had to get another one at the last minute--Wednesday.

It's all my fault, really.....I'm working full-time, teaching 2 courses, and commuting an average of 2 hours/day. It's SO hard to manage my "free" time. I did email the department to see if anything can be done. Really, I'm an idiot, because I KNOW that if I'd just uploaded SOMETHING to the SOP and paid the DGS, then the department would probably accept an the final SOP or whatever was missing next week. After all, the department's closed until January anyway! :...(

A former professor told me that the biggest hurdle to get into a UC is being a CA resident....well, now I'm thinking the second is just finding the time to get all the application materials together! My other two deadlines are in January and I'm almost finished with the apps and two profs have already submitted their letters. PHEW.

[ay761]

Ah, I guess it probably did just delete your whole app, that's really too bad! I applied to Berkeley too but in the education department, wow, sounds like a much more intensive process in your department. It is really difficult to manage time -- I can think of so many things I will do differently next year if I don't get in this year (my job contract is up in July, so I will utilize 4 months solely for the purpose of grad school apps & improving my GRE... though I really hope I won't have to). Maybe you'll get into one of your other schools, and if not at least you have been through the process so you can probably make your application even better next year!

[ktwho]

The DGS says to contact the department, which I've done, so I'll just wait and see what they say.

Yes, I was already planning on applying for 2 rounds and my GRE SUCKS, so there is a positive side. I know I'm lucky to have a full-time job in education, but there seriously is no career track, so I'm just mad that I created my own hurdle. Ugh.

I have 2.5 weeks between jobs this summer and may just do a GRE course and apply for Fulbright.

[alf10087]

I have seen at some schools that they still accept documents after the deadline, if your application is incomplete.

For example, in the Harvard Kennedy School, they send mails saying something like "If you still have pending documents, we will contact you, and they will be sent by mail" and in Columbia, it says that if they detect an honest intention to finish the application, but something is missing, they will contact you in order for you to send what's missing.

So basically, they are more flexible than what it looks. I guess they use the timeline to organize everything, and to avoid too many people sending documents after the deadline, but that doesn't mean that if you miss something by a few minutes, you're dead.

Edited December 15, 2012 by alf10087

[ktwho]

The grad. coordinator is really nice and emailed me right away yesterday. The teaching application goes directly to the department, so since I'm local, I'd asked if I could just drop it off. That's when she said they really needed it next month.

So, I hope you're right!!

[ktwho]

A big fat no. Another year LOST.

[DontHate]

God, I'm so sorry that happend to you! At least there are other schools with later deadlines, so it's not a total loss for this year.

[bamafan]

Sorry to hear about the application, where else are you applying? Don't waste any more emotion on something that's in the past and put it towards making sure you get your other apps in and that they kick total ass. 

 

Also, I'm not sure the CA resident thing matters as much (at all?) for graduate school, compared to UG, where a ridiculous >90% admits are CA.

[juilletmercredi]

The year isn't lost!  It's another year of your life, right?  You won't be in graduate school next year, but that doesn't mean that this year or the next is a *waste*.  It's your life…enjoy it!

[damequixote]

Hey ktwho, 

 

There are bunches of schools with late December and January deadlines. Go for it!

[ktwho]

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys.  I love my life, my hubs, my job's alright.....hell, we're in NorCal.  Of course I love the weather.  And all the wine. It will be a good year, I was just upset at myself for not allowing more time to work on apps.  I'm very overqualified for my current job, so since I missed that deadline, I've had some very positive conversations with the new Dean about expanding my responsibilities, which will happen this week. So, now I don't feel like the year is professionally "wasted" as it was in my despair a few weeks ago.  And I was overly dramatic in using that word! 

 

What other schools have deadlines in January?

[damequixote]

Well, it depends on your program. But, for example, English PhD deadlines that are still meet-able include Carnegie Mellon, Ohio University, Arizona State University, Illinois State University, Syracuse, Purdue, and Penn State (to name a few).  

[ktwho]

Hmm, hmm, hmm.  I'm in Spanish and a little geographically bound to CA this year for my husband's work.  I plan on expanding my number applications next year  to include other regions (assuming that I don't get into the two I'm applying to!)

[chron]

I think I'm going to miss a couple of deadlines too, the main problem for me being that some schools require things to be mailed to them and I am experiencing unexpected delays - I mailed a transcript order and my university unexpectedly hasn't even received the form. I underestimated how long it takes for transcripts to be processed/mailed. I wonder if I can get electronic official transcripts to be sent more quickly - IDK if they would accept that at least temporarily. Also I submitted an electronic application for a school, only to realize afterwards the rest of the documents were supposed to be mailed not done electronically. I just hope I don't waste my money applying to schools that won't look at my application because they don't receive mailed transcripts by the deadline. I hope they will be flexible with the deadline if I submit the rest of my application by time, but IDK.

 

Anyway, good luck to you ktwho.

[ktwho]

There could be a whole different thread on ordering transcripts---and having major errors corrected in transcripts!!! I feel you, chron!! Good luck!