I want to...

[JackieW]

My Writing Sample is done. My Statement of Purpose is... well, done. My application is strong--- I've been working on both of these works for MONTHS now.

But I am SO scared of pressing "submit"!

[mudlark]

I read a great book on teaching undergraduate writing that said that while school does a good job teaching students how to write and edit papers, it never deals with the final step: release. It's so hard to hand something in and let it go. I once handed in a key application to my grad chair and then found I couldn't bring myself to leave campus. I sat in a stairwell for ten minutes just getting up the nerve to get on the bus and leave it behind.

Here's my advice. Get a good friend or boy/girlfriend to come over. Buy your favorite alcohol, and ice cream. Open all of the application windows, and load everything up. Have a mock "Clicking Submit!" ceremony. Then crack open the alcohol and ice cream and watch a crappy movie.

Sure, you could kill yourself getting your application from 97% perfect to 97.5% perfect. But that time would probably be better spent on friends, current work, etc. Remember that the work of putting the application together is just the tip of the iceberg. You've been DOING the prep work for years and years. You've already done so much! At this point, moving a few commas around won't make or break you. Do due dilligence, take a deep breath, and let it go.

[coyabean]

I read a great book on teaching undergraduate writing that said that while school does a good job teaching students how to write and edit papers, it never deals with the final step: release. It's so hard to hand something in and let it go. I once handed in a key application to my grad chair and then found I couldn't bring myself to leave campus. I sat in a stairwell for ten minutes just getting up the nerve to get on the bus and leave it behind.

Here's my advice. Get a good friend or boy/girlfriend to come over. Buy your favorite alcohol, and ice cream. Open all of the application windows, and load everything up. Have a mock "Clicking Submit!" ceremony. Then crack open the alcohol and ice cream and watch a crappy movie.

Sure, you could kill yourself getting your application from 97% perfect to 97.5% perfect. But that time would probably be better spent on friends, current work, etc. Remember that the work of putting the application together is just the tip of the iceberg. You've been DOING the prep work for years and years. You've already done so much! At this point, moving a few commas around won't make or break you. Do due dilligence, take a deep breath, and let it go.

I love this advice. My BFF is my designated submitter. I call her and she says,"idiot, hit the button" and strangely enough I do it! LOL

As a writer I feel this times 10. My thing is I want people to read it but i want to be there when they read it so that I can dictate to them. LOL

I'm also submitted an article right now and there's no such thing as a perfect draft. Convincing yourself that the person on the other end won't laugh at you and use you as the academic equivalent of a Cosmo Don't is hard.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I love this advice. My BFF is my designated submitter. I call her and she says,"idiot, hit the button" and strangely enough I do it! LOL

My husband has a hard time hitting the 'submit' button...sometimes he actually has to call me over to press it for him...sometimes he actually has to leave the room because he can't bear to watch!! You could get a BFF to do it for you if you have no SO, of course.

[grad_wannabe]

I just clicked my first "Submit" button about twenty minutes ago and Jesus, I didn't think it'd be that hard. I swooped through the entire application, looking for mistakes and things to change, a dozen fruitless times before allowing myself to click that damn button.

[JackieW]

But you did it, grad_wannabe! Congrats. I think I might submit Rutgers today (my first), and it's giving me hives.

[Ziz]

Princeton lured me to the Submit button by offering a $20 reduction on the fee if I pay by December 1. But then it happened without me even realizing. There was no "are you sure?" or application inspector, or anything. I pressed 'confirm payment' adn that was that!

[Ziz]

Let me just reply that given the suddenness of Princeton's application, I am feeling very uneasy adn convinced that there is a massive typo somewhere in it.

[JackieW]

UPDATE: I applied to two schools last night, and it wasn't as terrifying as I thought. Well, okay. A little bit. But the worst is over, I think.

[Ziz]

Oh god I am having this problem right now. I think part of my anxiety is that a prof (who is also the admissions director) said he was very keen to have me there so I feel like I have a lot to live up to. Also, my LOR is now teaching there and will be on the admissions panel so she will see everything I submit and I don't want to disappoint.

[Ziz]

Ok I did it. And I have the signature change to prove it lol. That was stressful. I can't believe I have to do it 6 more times.

[Maya]

I finally just submitted my first application (Michigan), and it only happened because my boyfriend literally had to come and push my hand down on the mouse...the cursor had been sitting on the submit button for so long that the Embark website had timed out twice lol. So, technically, if he hadn't pushed my hand down I still would not have submitted that application.

[JerryLandis]

I am having trouble keeping myself from submitting my applications before doing more fine tuning. I don't really care anymore. This is, of course, bad in the opposite way - normally my fear of seeming like an idiot and disappointing people is what drives me to do my best in my work. Now that I've kind of stopped caring, that motivation is gone!

[Ziz]

The Edinburgh application was quite confusing and didn't prompt you to include certain things. For example, my program requires a writing sample. The application, however, didn't prompt me to submit a writing sample. I only knew about it from teh department's website so I uploaded it in the "unspecified document upload" section. So now I am panicking that there is something else I was meant to submit but didn't remember.