How many schools are you applying to this year?

[Gvh]

Wow, congrats to you all. I applied for three programs. Really, I struggled to find programs that fit my interests well and also had funding and space available for a new student. I thought about applying to more programs but ultimately decided that if I didn't love the program, it wasn't work attending so why bother applying just to say I got in somewhere. Fingers crossed for these three!

 

My feelings exactly Amrdoyle. Fingers crossed!

[Asperfemme]

I applied to two last year and thank goodness I got admitted because it was enough hard work applying for two! I admire those who apply to many more.

And the reason it was so limited was because I'm tethered to one city.

Yup, same thing for me. I'm applying to one school but essentially two programs within one area. I'm confined to a commuting distance, but it's also a money issue. Applying is darn expensive for someone who lives off money earned from 10 hours of work per week. Part of me also wants to find a full-time job and experience that for a while before getting back into school again (that is, if I do not get accepted, of course!).

Edited December 15, 2014 by Asperfemme

[psych face]

Yup, same thing for me. I'm applying to one school but essentially two programs within one area. I'm confined to a commuting distance, but it's also a money issue. Applying is darn expensive for someone who lives off money earned from 10 hours of work per week. Part of me also wants to find a full-time job and experience that for a while before getting back into school again (that is, if I do not get accepted, of course!).

 

I'm glad a stashed up enough from the student loans to be able to apply to as many as I did. There's some people out there who have no freaking idea how strapped for cash some of us are sometimes. I think they live in that mythical other world.

[museum_geek]

I applied to 10 schools, and I honestly don't know how anyone manages more than that.  I had enough trouble keeping track of LORs and deadlines and miscellaneous minutiae with 10 apps I submitted; I can't imagine doing a dozen or more and staying sane! 

[VulpesZerda]

I applied to 10 schools, and I honestly don't know how anyone manages more than that. I had enough trouble keeping track of LORs and deadlines and miscellaneous minutiae with 10 apps I submitted; I can't imagine doing a dozen or more and staying sane!

I applied to ten, and while it was kind of tricky keeping track of things, it wasn't so bad due to my mega Excel spreadsheet! I have everything imaginable in there, including a column for each LOR writer to individually keep track of their submissions. I also included essential things like deadlines, summaries of POI research, GRE cutoffs, funding info, etc. If anyone is interested I could send them a blank version

[Tolman's Rat]

I applied to 9 and used Evernote to keep everything organized. I just created one big note with a standardized format for each school. It's been nice because I can access it across all platforms, so I can always be thinking about grad school

[isilya]

I've applied to 6 so far, 2 to go. I don't think I could have feasibly done any more...I spent hours and hours crafting my "general" SOP for weeks, and specializing it takes me 3+ hours for each school, which is a lot to pile on top of the amount of schoolwork and research I'm doing now. I am impressed with the people applying to so many!! I just hope 8 is enough to get me in somewhere

[pinkjelly]

10+ is honestly excessive; I don't understand how you would have time to write a decent personalized statement of purpose to that many programs anyways.

 

If your applying to clinical programs its not. My adviser told me to apply to 15-20 schools. It's that competitive. Though I applied to 11.

[EMGagne]

I applied to 8 non-clinical programs (psych, cog neuro, behavior and cognition, all in that ballpark but with various program titles).  From what I've heard clinical PhD programs are more competitive than research.  If that's true (I hope it is) than it's not crazy to apply to 10+ programs - especially if you need funding.  Honestly, I would have applied to 100 programs if there had been faculty that had similar research interests to me, but I just couldn't find many more than the programs I applied to.

[TheMercySeat]

I applied to 10 schools, and I honestly don't know how anyone manages more than that. I had enough trouble keeping track of LORs and deadlines and miscellaneous minutiae with 10 apps I submitted; I can't imagine doing a dozen or more and staying sane!

if you want it badly enough, you make time!

I had to tap into my PTO to manage producing quality app materials without becoming too overwhelmed. Small sacrifices