Application FAILS!

[FaultyPowers]

Hello all!

 

I thought I would inject an element of humor into this awful process and start a thread about the logistical/technological blunders we encounter while applying to these programs. Other than being a place to vent, it could also end up being helpful to people who encounter the same issues. I'm pretty sure Ohio State is the earliest deadline (for fellowship consideration), so I'll just share what I've experienced. Good luck out there!

 

The Ohio State Blunders:

 

1. Scans of official transcripts must be uploaded!

          No problem! I'm well prepared, so I've already made PDF files of these guys. Except that they want scans of the front AND BACK of each page. And of course I don't have those, or the originals anymore, so it becomes a two-day errand of going to my old schools and buying a whole new set of transcripts.

 

2. List previous schools and upload transcripts!

          Ok, front and back pages scanned, transcripts uploaded....application won't save. Fine, I don't need you to save, I'll just submit...application won't submit. Error messages that reveal nothing about the actual source of error. Through a two hour process of trial and error I finally figure out that if you went to the same school for your MA and your BA, and you list them separately, you break The Ohio State. So you have to list your start date for undergrad and your end date for grad school, making it look like you've been in the same school continuously for the past decade or so. Not a good look, but that's cool, at least the application saves now.

 

3. Upload your statement of purpose!

          Don't look for the "Upload statement of purpose" button though, because you won't find it. What you'll find is a request for your "autobiography", that should be three pages long. What you'll need to keep in mind, however, is that buried deep within the Anthropology pages is zero mention of an autobiography, but a requirement that you upload a statement of purpose that is two pages long, max. You will default to the anthropology request, and take your chances. 

          So you upload your statement and then decide you want to make a few last minute changes, now that you've figured out that whole transcript debacle. Well good f&c%i#@ luck, because when you click on the trashcan icon to delete it, nothing will happen. You will click it again and nothing will happen. You will exclaim, violently, and then decide that you know what?, it's fine. I don't need to make any changes after all, it's fine. So you'll hit submit. Error message! You must attach an autobiography!

          A cold sense of dread will spread throughout your body. But....it's there! You will say, as you point to name of the attached file that you tried, unsuccessfully to delete. So you click on the icon of the paper with the glasses superimposed over it to take a look. File missing or deleted! It will tell you. Your statement will now be Schrodinger's SOP, as it both has and has not been deleted. There's nothing there, and yet because "something is there", you can't upload anything new.

          You will walk away for a little while, hoping that it's a temporary problem. You will come back to exactly the same problem. You will continue trying for an hour until you remember The IT Crowd, and metaphorically, "turn it off and turn it on again".

 

4. Create new user log in and do the whole damn application again!

          Drop one letter from your previous username, triple check every document before uploading, acknowledge that you have spent the past four and a half hours essentially doing two tasks, hit submit and then just WALK AWAY. 

[smg]

You are much more patient than I am.  I would have given up and smashed something.

Edited November 13, 2014 by smg

[awash_]

 

 

Schrodinger's SOP

 

I've lost it.

 

I'm pretty certain something awful is gonna go wrong with my application process, and I'll fall back to this thread.

[Daisy123]

OH GREAT> thank you. It sounds like a hit already. I hope you get in after this torture 

[AKCarlton]

Hahaha, the worst is the fact that these cool websites they set up to make applying to their programs sooooo easy are NEVER updated with your status throughout the entire process.

 

Thus, the numerous phone calls the department receives from us asking for updates is the consequence, when it is probably the easiest thing they could do for us.

[FaultyPowers]

Oh but the blunders continue!

 

5. Give the names, phone numbers, and emails of your Letter of Recommendation writers

          You diligently list your three recommenders....twice, since you have to fill out the application a second time so as to be able to actually submit an SOP which perhaps should have been an autobiography instead. You click submit and brim with pride over a job...done. You email your letter writers "Hi Dr. Blahdiblah! You should have an email from OSU now!" and go to bed.

          You wake up and check your email to find three emails from three Dr. Blahdiblah's informing you that no, they have NOT received any emails from OSU at all. You fly into a mug smashing rage and email the website's tech support. Oh! They email back. That's an issue for the grad school! So you email the grad school and OH! they tell you. That's an issue for tech support! 

          A mystifyingly arbitrary 32 hours after your initial submission, you get an email telling you that you need to make an entirely new student account with OSU...despite not actually being a student yet...so that you can set up your letter of recommendation writers. Because apparently the information you listed on the application was for nothing, went nowhere, and may or may not even actually exist. 

[Daisy123]

okay, so i will NOT be applying to OSU! omg i am so sorry! 

[FaultyPowers]

I'm not even sure you have time to apply at this rate!! The jury's still out on whether I'm even done yet!

[DanJackson]

My addition to this is to be really careful about mailing things overseas. I applied to schools in several countries and many of my applications were just lost in the mail. I had to send a second application, sometimes overnight with FedEx, it was soooo expensive. But at least I got into the schools, though the one I spent the most money mailing applications to was the school that offered me the most funding, but I had to turn them down because of a bad research fit. It's so complicated. Sigh.

[Meglet]

I applied to Boston University for undergraduate in 1998, and this caused a 2 week delay in creating my account to apply.  Their website insisted I must already have a BU ID number, but since I have NO idea what my email address was in high school (something at AOL?), I had to wait for their tech people to track it down and get access to my account for me.  Love/hate technology.

[smg]

Uploaded transcripts corrupted.  Lets try this again. 

[FaultyPowers]

Hi Letter Writer!

 

I just thought I'd send you a quick text to let you know that your letter is due on Tuesday! I don't know if you've gotten my three previous emails about it, since you've never responded to any of them! I do know that you haven't turned your letter in yet though, because I've gotten emails from the school telling me they've gotten everybody else's but not yours! How you uh, how you comin' on that letter you're working on? Huh? Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Gotta, gotta nice little letter you're working on there? Your big letter you've been working on for 2 months? Huh? Gotta, gotta compelling recommendation of me as a prospective doctoral student? Yeah? Gotta description of some obstacles I've overcome? Huh? Gotta recommendation brewing there? Working on, working on that for quite some time? Huh? Yea, talking about that 2 months ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your recommendee is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah? No, no, you deserve some time off. 

[NOWAYNOHOW]

Hi Letter Writer!

 

I just thought I'd send you a quick text to let you know that your letter is due on Tuesday!

This is amazing - I want to send these to my third letter writer.

 

BUT! Most programs and faculty will tell you that recommendations just have to be in by January 1, and that referees aren't held to the same deadlines as the applicants. Committees don't convene this term, so it's not even like they are printing your stuff right now anyway. Relax, I guess. If they haven't submitted after Christmas, I think you can bug them then.

[FaultyPowers]

Anthro pages say application is due December 2nd, grad page says December 1st.

Note to self, always check the year.

Note to Berkeley, really?

Somebody is calling in sick today

[SSCCATAGAPP]

After I already submitted my application to Berkeley - I realized I had two grammatical errors at the end of my SOP. Yikes.

[Daisy123]

I love the family guy reference

hope you get in. hahah lots of luck this year with those applications. I feel jinxed now because for 2 weeks i cannot go into the profile page to finish my application. 

[grad_wannabe]

Hey all, I'm coming over from the Communications board but wanted to chime in on this FAILS thread.

 

I decided to double-check two bits of information in my stanford SOP just minutes before submitting.

 

Thank heavens I did - not only had I spelled an author's name wrong on a paper I was citing, but I also got wrong the title of my POI's book: I'd written something like "Dr. X's book, 'Holiday and Happy' was very influential on my interests...." when the actual title was "Happy and Holiday." Yikes. 

[FaultyPowers]

After I already submitted my application to Berkeley - I realized I had two grammatical errors at the end of my SOP. Yikes.

 

Yep, I found a grammatical error in my statement of personal history. Sigh.

[FaultyPowers]

I love the family guy reference

hope you get in. hahah lots of luck this year with those applications. I feel jinxed now because for 2 weeks i cannot go into the profile page to finish my application. 

 

That sounds like a problem!!! Which application is that for? 

[GCool]

So I think when I apply to OSU I'm going to take a day off to drive to Columbus and hand-write everything.

[museum_geek]

For some reason one of my recommenders isn't getting any emails from Columbia, and they won't send the email to her personal address.  So I have to send them the recommendation via USPS and pray it doesn't get lost in the mail during the cross country trip.  Fingers crossed.

[Meglet]

Speaking of Columbia, I'm thinking that maybe they, like Berkeley, didn't have the most up-to-date deadline information on their page the last time I looked.  I had written down their deadline as December 3, and gave that information to my recommender who is submitting my letters while on sabbatical and relocating.  I went to send him an email reminder that it's the next one due, and it suddenly says December 1.   Anyway, I got my application in yesterday, so I'm not stressed, but...oy.  I'm pretty sure Stanford also changed theirs recently, because I had down December 10, but now it says December 9 at 9pm.  And Boston University says January 15 instead of January 2.

[FaultyPowers]

Ohhhhhhhhh what a day. Last night at around 8 pm, a POI emails me and asks why he can't find my application. I manage not to pee my pants because I know that I definitely did not space out on the date, it definitely IS January 2nd. We have another phone call planned for tomorrow, and he'd wanted to read my LORs, writing sample, and personal statement before then.

 

He wanted to read the entirety of my application before our second phone interview.

 

He wanted to read the entirety of my application before our second phone interview, which is taking place BEFORE the official review process has begun.

 

I mean...I know it's good to be early but, really? I didn't figure that January 2nd meant December 15th! So of course I sat here aaaaall day trying to get together as much material as I could to email him, including emailing all my letter writers to ask if they wouldn't mind informally emailing him their letters. And despite my telling them "I KNOW this is short notice, he just requested these TODAY", etc., each of them wrote back to scold me for giving them such short notice. One actually refused! Thanks guys!!

 

So today I learned that it pays to be early. Really, really, reeeeally early.

[SSCCATAGAPP]

It seems unprofessional on his behalf to make you submit your application before their stated deadline. While it makes sense with him being your POI, the review process should ideally be the same for all applicants.

[FaultyPowers]

He said it "didn't matter"... and yet, if it's not there I clearly haven't submitted it yet. It's like calling somebody to ask whether they're sitting on your lap. Regardless of their answer, you should know already!

He's getting a partial SOP, a writing sample and one unofficial LOR and he's just gonna have to be happy with that.