Most Annoying Applications: Fall 2013 Edition

[child of 2]

the ETS annoyed the sht out of me

[ProspectStu8735]

I was going to apply to UT Austin, but I quite because their application was so terrible.  My reasoning was that a school that put such little care into the applicant experience probably wouldn't give much thought to its students.  The application really intensified the perception I had of Austin as a giant, bloated, impersonal place - not the kind of place one wants to be doing graduate school.

[ciistai]

File limits for transcript scans were a nightmare indeed!

 

I was also annoyed with Cardiff's character limit on the SOP (instead of word or page limit which would be so much more practical). Not to mention Oxford's request for two writing samples of 2,000 words which I found really frustrating; my best undergraduate work were two papers that were nearly 30 pages long (they were term-long research projects) and selecting an excerpt took way more effort than I appreciated having to spend.

[St Andrews Lynx]

Worst application for me was Temple University, by worst I mean the most stressful. Instead of submitting a reference via the online system I had to hunt down a PDF Reference Report Form, email that to my referees and get them to email it to Temple's Science Graduate Admissions Office. More run-around for me. It was only after I'd emailed them the Form that I realised my signature was needed on it, so I had to hastily print/sign/upload/re-send the Form before my referees submitted the wrong one. At which point I found out that Referee A *did* submit the unsigned one, but assured me that he'd put in a squiggle where my signature should be. I got angry because I thought that if the administrators assumed he'd forged my signature it would be worse for my application than if my signature had just been forgotten (and he got defensively irate in response)...but thankfully he'd emailed Temple the blank copy of the reference by mistake, so was able to re-email a 100% correct Report Form only a few days later.

To make it worse the report form only gave a mailing address, while the PI I was in contact with said 'Just submit it by email to person X', which led to Referee B sending me anxious emails because he thought he'd emailed the wrong person and Referee C snail-mailing it when I thought they email (leading me to panic because I thought their reference should be on the system and it wasn't).

 

...I needed a strong drink and a lie-down after my Temple application was all complete.

[powderpig]

Most annoying:

Stanford - click click click click click to get to the sections of the application you need to edit.

UC Davis - Personal statement, diversity statement, and research summary? It's like writing a bad book. Also, they didn't notice that their application wasn't displaying all of the entry fields until after they had all been submitted.

CU Denver - Poorly written google docs file with generic supplementary materials categories, inability to look at information already on file, and no way to inform reccommenders (had to use a supposedly temporary supplemental app that's been in place for at least 2 years).

 

Best:

UC Berkeley / UCSF - Yay for electronic transcripts and an easily navigable application with satisfying checkmarks for each item.

UWashington - All of the above, but requires only a personal statement and no damn diversity statements (I'm not diverse, I get it. Stop rubbing my face in it, stupid applications!)

[Sio68]

For the life of me I can't remember which school this was (it's all a blur!) but one of them only allowed one scanned page per transcript... my transcripts were two pages long!

[dendy]

Best:

UC Berkeley / UCSF - Yay for electronic transcripts and an easily navigable application with satisfying checkmarks for each item.

UWashington - All of the above, but requires only a personal statement and no damn diversity statements (I'm not diverse, I get it. Stop rubbing my face in it, stupid applications!)

 

For my Berkeley diversity statement I literally just copied and pasted my NSF GRFP personal statement and changed "this fellowship" to "a phd from Berkeley" and I still managed to get an interview mwahaha

[sr0304]

UCSD required two diversity statements, which was annoying

[dendy]

UCSD required two diversity statements, which was annoying

I straight up didn't do my ucsd diversity statements because I waited til the last minute to actually look at the app and I *still* got an interview. Moral of the story: diversity statements are not that important??

[steven.a14]

Having studied abroad a semester in undergrad added an additional layer of difficulty to all of my applications, because nobody really seemed to know exactly what kind of documentation was required or sufficient. One university even required a notarized translation of my transcript from that university (which I did myself) and with the notary's signature across the back of the sealed envelope containing said translation. (The notary even said to me, "Oh, I've never had anybody ask for that before...") Oh, and somehow they expected me to do the translation without breaking the seal on the original envelope that the transcript came in to actually see what I was translating. Fortunately I had to order another one anyways that I COULD open...

[Robin_Sparkles]

DePaul required FIVE essays for the program I applied to.  Five.

 

And amen to the diversity statement.  How is it that applications make me desire to be a low-class, deaf and blind woman from a minority heritage with no previous family ever even graduating from high school, let alone college?  How?  How is that possible?

[viggosloof28]

DePaul required FIVE essays for the program I applied to.  Five.

 

And amen to the diversity statement.  How is it that applications make me desire to be a low-class, deaf and blind woman from a minority heritage with no previous family ever even graduating from high school, let alone college?  How?  How is that possible?

Five essays?!  That's insanity...maybe some crazy method they have for weeding out applicants that don't absolutely want to get into the program?

 

And seriously, I feel you on the diversity statement.  Had to do one for Berkeley and was just like, "er, I'm a white, upper-middle-class girl.  Never had any obstacles put in the way of my personal/educational/professional goals...but I realize other people do!" *derp*

 

Felt like such an idiot writing it, since I really didn't have much to say.  But maybe the diversity statement will mostly be used for funding information and not for admissions? *hopes and prays*

[t1racyjacks]

Five essays?!  That's insanity...maybe some crazy method they have for weeding out applicants that don't absolutely want to get into the program?

 

And seriously, I feel you on the diversity statement.  Had to do one for Berkeley and was just like, "er, I'm a white, upper-middle-class girl.  Never had any obstacles put in the way of my personal/educational/professional goals...but I realize other people do!" *derp*

 

Felt like such an idiot writing it, since I really didn't have much to say.  But maybe the diversity statement will mostly be used for funding information and not for admissions? *hopes and prays*

I'm not white but I'm middle class (and not american). I detailed what it was like teaching underprivileged kids, but being middle class I said that my obstacles were small compared to theirs. which is true anyway. these kids don't have time to study cuz they're supporting their siblings. I mean, I didn't have THAT problem. I only switched to english late (in undergrad).... it's embarrassing to talk about my problems when others have it much worse

[viggosloof28]

I'm not white but I'm middle class (and not american). I detailed what it was like teaching underprivileged kids, but being middle class I said that my obstacles were small compared to theirs. which is true anyway. these kids don't have time to study cuz they're supporting their siblings. I mean, I didn't have THAT problem. I only switched to english late (in undergrad).... it's embarrassing to talk about my problems when others have it much worse

 

Heh - that was the only workable strategy I could figure out, as well.  My MA program (University of Houston) is one of the most diverse schools in the country, so I mainly talked about working with people from a variety of non-traditional backgrounds, etc.

 

Any attempt to talk about my own "barriers" would have been completely contrived (and false!).

[soshy]

Three systems come to mind. In descending order of annoyance:

 

1. Applyweb - why don't you just let me click on the different sections? I'm filling them out of order anyway.

 

2. Applyyourself - it's such a pain when I forgot to log out before I try to access another school's application, and they don't allow re-using the same account across different schools! Oh, that and Purdue's host of spam.

 

3. Texas common app - 12-character limit on first name? Really? I was lucky I could fit in, but my friend has a slightly longer name

[cleverfool]

UIC, definitely. After you submit the first part of the app., you get (eventually...) access to the document uploading system, where you send out recommender requests and upload transcripts/SoP/etc. It was pretty glitchy, and when I would call the university for help, everyone I talked to kept transferring me to someone else, until eventually I would get back to the original person I had called. They told me it was the first year for the electronic app. (?!), and it seemed like no one really knew anything about it. Also, it didn't have a way to recover your password, which I tended to forget pretty often, other than calling them.

[amlobo]

NYU was perhaps the worst interface I have ever seen.  It gave me a headache every time I had to sign in to that garbled mess.

[ShortLong]

Heh - that was the only workable strategy I could figure out, as well.  My MA program (University of Houston) is one of the most diverse schools in the country, so I mainly talked about working with people from a variety of non-traditional backgrounds, etc.

 

Any attempt to talk about my own "barriers" would have been completely contrived (and false!).

 

Luckily, I am a women in engineering, so I was able to talk about being in the minority gender-wise for my Purdue diversity essay. 

[sr0304]

I straight up didn't do my ucsd diversity statements because I waited til the last minute to actually look at the app and I *still* got an interview. Moral of the story: diversity statements are not that important??

i don't know if it matters or not...maybe? i was told that for the humanities, it matters more...which makes sense.

either way, i was annoyed.

i mean, yay diversity, but still.

[sr0304]

DePaul required FIVE essays for the program I applied to.  Five.

 

And amen to the diversity statement.  How is it that applications make me desire to be a low-class, deaf and blind woman from a minority heritage with no previous family ever even graduating from high school, let alone college?  How?  How is that possible?

it's the American dream?

essentially, it's a way for schools to avoid affirmative action. They can say, "Look! Everyone's diverse!"

[sr0304]

I'm not white but I'm middle class (and not american). I detailed what it was like teaching underprivileged kids, but being middle class I said that my obstacles were small compared to theirs. which is true anyway. these kids don't have time to study cuz they're supporting their siblings. I mean, I didn't have THAT problem. I only switched to english late (in undergrad).... it's embarrassing to talk about my problems when others have it much worse

that's the problem with diversity statements...they are this really awkward form of disclosure.

i, too, am white and middle class (American) and didn't want to give some story about how it's tough being a girl (it is but...i'm bored with that story). the only thing i could think of was PTSD, which was a really (reaaaaallly) awkward thing to make into a statement. But hey...they started it. Go big or go home. Bam.

[AGalCanHope]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard anyone affiliated with Berkeley call it Berk. UCB, UC Berkeley, Cal, but not Berk. I thought I'd mention, just in case it makes a difference for you in an interview or something.

 

Oddly, every time I read 'Berk' I think 'Berks,' like Big Berks, the women's studies conference, and I get confused.

 

Apologies for the OT. Carry on!

 

I was going to say the same thing. Having come from the Bay Area, frequently attended Cal games, and known a ton of people who've gone there, I feel pretty certain no one calls it Berk. 

[AGalCanHope]

Also, I echo the UT Austin frustration. I lost a lot of sleep over not being able to change my SOP once I uploaded it. YARGH! 

 

I think I only got to choose my username (or use my email address) on one app. The rest I have to go through my email inbox every time I want to login so I can find the random jumble of letters and numbers they assigned to me (I know, I should probably just put them in a document). And you would think considering most of the apps go through ApplyYourself or whatever it's called, you would be able to transfer basic info like your name, birthdate, address, etc. from one to the other instead of having to write it out each time. If I ruled the world....

[BrookeSnow]

UIC, definitely. After you submit the first part of the app., you get (eventually...) access to the document uploading system, where you send out recommender requests and upload transcripts/SoP/etc. It was pretty glitchy, and when I would call the university for help, everyone I talked to kept transferring me to someone else, until eventually I would get back to the original person I had called. They told me it was the first year for the electronic app. (?!), and it seemed like no one really knew anything about it. Also, it didn't have a way to recover your password, which I tended to forget pretty often, other than calling them.

 

I got so frustrated with their online app that I ended up sending in paper copies of everything. It was not good.

[ion_exchanger]

Ah yes, how could I forget the ApplyYourself's jumble of letters and numbers. I turned on the remember my username feature on my computer, so I only had to remember the first number/letter for each app, which I had on a post it note on my desk.