Fall 2014 applicants??

[repentwalpurgis]

Last night I laid down before bed and finally breezed my way through The Book of my Fathers by Miklós Vámos, which is a fictional family history set mainly in Hungary and spanning 300+ years, à la Middlesex, kinda.  I nearly cried - it felt so good to just read.  Also, it's just an amazing book.  And then I woke up in the morning and remembered I still haven't started tweaking my Georgetown writing sample yet - the ONE school on my list that requires 8-10 pages instead of 15-20.  I also nearly cried, for different reasons.  At the very least, a few apps are already in and the others are getting close.  We're getting there.

[Imaginary]

Holy crap. I've actually applied for grad school- for the third time- but this time I've actually applied to enough schools, and adequately prepared, so I might get an acceptance or two.

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

I ordered my toefl score report on Dec. 5 and I'm afraid it won't be delivered until Monday/Tuesday, i.e., 3-4 days after the deadline. Am I in danger? 

[jazzyd]

So pissed. Or more so, STRESSED. I submitted my first app on Tuesday. It required a 10-15 page writing sample. Or so I was pretty positive about. 

 

I look on the grad admissions page (they sent me a confirmation link about supplemental materials/official docs/etc. post-applying.) Under Literature MA it said required materials was a writing sample 15-20 PAGES.

 

I was at 11. I was at ***&*&^*% 11, and submitted it at 11, because it said clearly on the app 10-15. 

 

I'm effed. 

 

Can you contact the grad department and explain your dilemma? It's really their fault if they have conflicting information on their pages. Do you have a longer version of your sample that would be fit to submit? It's so early in the process, they'll probably allow you to submit another sample if indeed they want a longer paper.

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

Just discovered my first grammar error, first page, first paragraph... There is no turning back. I'm screwed. 

[gatz]

Anyone else applying to UT? Does your status checker thing say that the gre scores are received? I sent mine forever ago but it that part is still incomplete. Trying to gauge if this is a 'normal' incomplete or I need to try and get it fixed.

[ComeBackZinc]

I ordered my toefl score report on Dec. 5 and I'm afraid it won't be delivered until Monday/Tuesday, i.e., 3-4 days after the deadline. Am I in danger? 

 

No.

[champagne]

Just discovered my first grammar error, first page, first paragraph... There is no turning back. I'm screwed. 

Me too! Huzzah!

 

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

I wonder how much they can tolerate grammar and/or spelling mistakes???

[semicolon2013]

Me three!  Two errors in fact...one in WS and one in SOP!

[Katia_chan]

I know this is absolutely not going to happen, but my advice would be to get off GradCafe from Feb-March. I drove myself absolutely NUTS running coming to this site multiple times a day (multiple times an hour) refreshing the results search page to see if a school was sending out offers yet. If they were, then I was just sitting nervously by my phone and inbox praying that I, too, had gotten the golden ticket. 

 

It also made me less appreciative of the acceptances I did get. There would be euphoria and excitement and a feeling of self-affirmation for awhile... and then I'd check Gradcafe and see that X University was sending out offers today and then the nail-biting would resume.

 

At the time I told myself "I'd rather know, than not know" and I'm sure some of y'all are thinking the same.... but there's really something to be said for not knowing, at least while the first round of notifications are going out. If it gets to Marchish and you haven't heard anything, then maybe poke around here to see what's up.

 

Again, I'm pretty sure nobody is going to follow this advice, but just throwing that out there as an option 

 

Listen to Jazz--it's good advice.  Esp for those of you who are doing this for the first time.  I drove myself to more than one mental breakdown, sobbing in a chair while clutching my (disapproving) cat.

 

 

I made a bargain with myself--I would let myself be on the forum part, but I could only check the results page every week or so.  That way, if places had notified, usually I would find out after the fact.  It was heart crushing, but at least I didn't have to resist the temptation to glue my phone to my forehead so I'd never miss a call.

 

Also there were more pages to scroll through, and that took up more time, which was a plus.

[gk210]

Can you contact the grad department and explain your dilemma? It's really their fault if they have conflicting information on their pages. Do you have a longer version of your sample that would be fit to submit? It's so early in the process, they'll probably allow you to submit another sample if indeed they want a longer paper.

I guess I can try that. Someone told me that, but then again another person told me that they wouldn't be likely to just completely throw out my application right away just from checking the amount of pages of writing samples. Either way, I'll just reach out to them and see what they say.

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

Listen to Jazz--it's good advice.  Esp for those of you who are doing this for the first time.  I drove myself to more than one mental breakdown, sobbing in a chair while clutching my (disapproving) cat.

 

 

I made a bargain with myself--I would let myself be on the forum part, but I could only check the results page every week or so.  That way, if places had notified, usually I would find out after the fact.  It was heart crushing, but at least I didn't have to resist the temptation to glue my phone to my forehead so I'd never miss a call.

 

Also there were more pages to scroll through, and that took up more time, which was a plus.

Can we start a new thread on coping strategies? 

What do I do when my top choice rejects me?

What do I do when my top choice accepts me?

 

[Creffecreve]

^Here's a strategy that I did decide to follow: Do not have a top school. Just don't. I made that mistake in undergrad, and was way more heartbroken than I needed to be. I'm very happy with where I ended up, and all the places I applied to are places I can see myself going and that have strong programs. Do not pin your hopes to one program.

[Creffecreve]

^What happens when I get rejected from everywhere though is anyone's guess.

[Datatape]

 

6. Datatape's gifs. 'Nuff said.

 

[jazzyd]

Can we start a new thread on coping strategies? 

What do I do when my top choice rejects me?

What do I do when my top choice accepts me?

 

 

In either case,

[Creffecreve]

So, since all of my schools had mid-december deadlines, they won't get to see my grades from this semester since they'll come out maybe next week or so. I would've really liked for them to have seen these grades because I studied abroad for a semester last year, so they only have one set of grades from the last two years of college-- they are good grades, but since I think I did well this semester, I would've liked them to have seen those grades as well. Would it make sense to mail out official transcripts to my schools after my grades for this semester come out? Or would they not get looked at/be perceived as annoying?

[Swagato]

You can let coordinators know about this. I suspect they'll be acceptable since you'll send them in just a week hence. It often takes at least a week just to consolidate all the incoming applications into files. 

[champagne]

Is the general consensus at programs that they don't expect letters of recommendation to arrive precisely by established deadlines? My letter writers are understandably a little spottier in being able to submit my letters to different programs since the semester ended, and I have four due over the next two days. If they expect LOR's to be in the same day as the application, then my application won't be completed with LOR's by the deadline, so should I just count on being summarily rejected from all of these programs?

[jamc8383]

Is the general consensus at programs that they don't expect letters of recommendation to arrive precisely by established deadlines? My letter writers are understandably a little spottier in being able to submit my letters to different programs since the semester ended, and I have four due over the next two days. If they expect LOR's to be in the same day as the application, then my application won't be completed with LOR's by the deadline, so should I just count on being summarily rejected from all of these programs?

 

It has been my experience that there are varying degrees of flexibility regarding LOR deadlines.  Princeton gives recommenders two weeks beyond the December 15th application deadline to get letters in.  UChicago stated very emphatically (on their website) that for an application to be considered "on time" all supplementary materials (including LORs) would have to be submitted by December 10th.  I would say, check the program websites or contact the graduate studies departments.

[smellybug]

You can let coordinators know about this. I suspect they'll be acceptable since you'll send them in just a week hence. It often takes at least a week just to consolidate all the incoming applications into files. 

 Did you just say "a week hence"? 

[Swagato]

 Did you just say "a week hence"? 

? Am I missing something...

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

In either case,

YES! 

 

^Here's a strategy that I did decide to follow: Do not have a top school. Just don't. I made that mistake in undergrad, and was way more heartbroken than I needed to be. I'm very happy with where I ended up, and all the places I applied to are places I can see myself going and that have strong programs. Do not pin your hopes to one program.

I use the term "top choice" very loosely. Obviously my top choice is anywhere and my bottom choice is nowhere.

[champagne]

I might actually get pretty good at this whole "filling out applications" thing by the time this is all over.

 

This part has been pretty insufferable. When I was working on my sample and SOP, I felt purposeful and had fun because I was doing something I enjoyed. The tedious process of actually filling out the damn things is miserable, though.