Someone is reading my application right now

[siitrasn]

On 2/5/2017 at 8:14 AM, CaffeineCardigan said:

@DBear Ah the Monday thing. It's hard sending an email on Friday night and thinking "Well, I probably won't hear back until Tuesday!" It does make the weekend feel really long and makes me even less motivated to get up and go to work on Mondays. 

It's good to hear that just because the application status is "pending" doesn't mean they actually aren't looking at the application yet. Thanks! I feel like I'm flying blind doing all of this by myself from another country. I'm glad I finally joined this forum! 

Always good to meet other people in the same situation! Kind of hard explaining to people around me why I would go back to school because it's not a very common thing in Japan.

23 hours ago, DBear said:

@CaffeineCardigan Right?? Waiting until AT LEAST Tuesday!! Always sucks. 

Yeah, I applied to 7 programs and none of them changed status from the initial "pending" or equivalent status even while I was interviewing and sometimes even after I'd been offered admission. The one time my status changed was when the final decision was made. So no updates in between. I found that once all the materials were submitted, those online status pages really were useless. At least in my case. 

I've found this forum super useful. I know that it's not easy applying from outside the U.S. Even though I know quite a few people applying for U.S. grad schools from Seoul, the approach to the whole process is so different. Also, the field I'm applying to is relatively new/ unknown in Korea so I've found information to be limited. Welcome to the forum, hope it's as helpful to you as it's been to me!

Ugh I just finished traveling through China for a bit over the last several weeks, and not having internet access towards the tail end of the application season has made me an absolute mess. Not to mention the late night calls to the U.S. and everything... Really puts into perspective how tough it is for international students to apply to schools in a foreign country. I'm also lucky enough that I can apply as a native speaker of English (just in Asia for work), but I can imagine how harrowing the experience might be for people who want to study in the U.S. with the current political climate.

[DBear]

@siitrasn OMG - I flew from Seoul to SF recently and my hand was shaking on the flight from internet withdrawal!

Yes, the time difference is challenging even without the language barrier. I'm lucky on the English front, too, but I have friends who aren't as conversant and just 

trying to communicate with admin people and such via email due to the time difference is that much more difficult when you can't make your point clear AND there's the delay in response time due to the time difference.. 

I got so used to checking stuff at night that I've been waking up at least twice a night even though I'm stateside now

[shufflelove]

On 1/6/2017 at 4:57 AM, ruilinch said:

@GeorgeC07 I kept an eye out for application-required information but I didn't find ways to know when I might be getting updates. In my recollection, only one university mentioned in their website the approximate dates that they will be sending out decisions. Did you get to know it via other informal channels, like this forum? 

What I had in mind is very much like your estimation, from late January to early April, but I just got to know, also in this forum, that one university has already sent out interview invitations. BTW, it is UPenn. I didn't apply to their program, but it is still no joy knowing that some of the interviews should start so early. I hope I wouldn't be getting anything during Spring Festival! 

It is always a pleasure to know people with similar backgrounds! There aren't so many Chinese? It is actually very hard for me to tell since i am pretty new here. Just got registered one week or so ago. 

Where did you apply? I am applying to Sociology programs, and I have to say there are so few Chinese students applying to PhD in Sociology! I haven't got anyone to talk to about my application throughout the process, which is pretty frustrating. 

@ruilinch Hi, there! I'm also from China, applying to nine Sociology programs. Nothing yet. Wechat: 327876988 

[Forest Owlet]

On 2/5/2017 at 3:50 AM, DBear said:

@CaffeineCardigan & @siitrasn I applied from Korea, so I believe we're in the same time zone. My whole body clock switched so I ended up staying up all night here on the forum or checking my applications. I recently came to the U.S. on vacation and am in almost the same time zone so if any notifications come, they will come during the day time. I still find myself waking up in the middle of the night to reach for my phone - the habit of waiting all night for notifications seems to be having some lasting effects. Hopefully I'll be able to start sleeping through the night, but I know how it is applying from Asia. 

Also, another thing that happened with me was that on Monday, I'd think "oh, it's a weekday now, maybe I'l hear something" but then I'd realize it's still Sunday in the U.S. and be disappointed. It just made the weekend feel really long. Hopefully this torture will be over soon. 

In terms of admissions notifications - I've received 3, all via email. Most of the schools that I have been admitted to have not changed their online application status (they all say "pending" still). The one school that updated the status didn't send me an automated email to go check the status either. So how you get notified, I think, is really unpredictable as well - Sometimes the results page would be a good indication on how a particular school issues notifications, but especially for int'l students, I wouldn't expect a phone call simply because of the time difference. 

Hahaha... Completely get you! Waking up in the morning is stressful.. the good part is that by the time its morning here, its more or less the end of the day in the US, so I used to check my email and go back to sleep for an hour so, this time peacefully  This worked well till the day I woke up after my peaceful, nothing-is-going-to-happen-now slumber, only to find the golden words awaiting me in my inbox 

Still waiting to hear from a couple of more places, but it's so much better now!

[DBear]

@Forest Owlet Congratulations! A lot of international students are getting their sleep cycles completely messed up! It's going to be a hard habit to break (waking up, checking, back to sleep) even after this is all over but we're closer to this being finished now!

[Feanor]

Congratulations to those who found the golden ticket in the chocolate bar!

It's been a dreadfully silent week in this front...

[DBear]

@Feanor I was thinking the same thing - I felt like the closer we got to mid Feb, the busier it would be, but been really quiet.. There was a flurry of activity the last week of Jan for me and then it all went silent. 

but maybe this is the calm before the storm? 

[Feanor]

Perhaps... This is supposed to be "the week", at least according to the past years data for my unis and subject. So yeah, I'm a little worried.

[DBear]

@Feanor I do feel like I've seen more Mathematics posts on the results page! 9 more schools to hear from, correct? Good luck - this whole waiting/ decision process really sucks.

[RurikNjalsson]

Emailed adcomms at WMU and UofT and both are currently reviewing applications. Supposed to hear something in the next two weeks. ._.

[siitrasn]

Do you think with the new presidency this year and immigration problems, adcomms have been trying to delay decisions/increase deliberation time in order to make sure they don't run into trouble with the number of invites they send out? Could be a factor for international students.

[CaffeineCardigan]

@siitrasn I'm absolutely not at all qualified to answer that question but I've had the same thought. Or if just adcomms are a little delayed because of everything going on politically in the US? I know most of the professors and faculty members I'm friends with on social media have been really caught up in protesting and trying to make a difference politically and a part of me wonders if that is affecting decision making time. 100% speculation on my part, however. 

[Feanor]

There certainly is an impact --- McGill maths, for example, extended application deadlines for people from countries affected by Trump bans, and so they might delay the decisions pertaining to international applicants until that new deadline has passed (ugh).

[hopefulPhD2017]

13 hours ago, CaffeineCardigan said:

@siitrasn I'm absolutely not at all qualified to answer that question but I've had the same thought. Or if just adcomms are a little delayed because of everything going on politically in the US? I know most of the professors and faculty members I'm friends with on social media have been really caught up in protesting and trying to make a difference politically and a part of me wonders if that is affecting decision making time. 100% speculation on my part, however. 

I've wondered this as well. I know it's slowed me down.

Along the same lines: I have been wondering if last year's divisive election spurred more people not just into public service and elected leadership (as it has around here), but also engendered a desire to attain higher education or pursue one's dreams? I've noticed every one of my programs is behind their previous timelines, according to my 5 year historical GC analysis.

[Marshall]

So, I've seen an acceptance or 2 from one of the schools I applied to. The data on them is few and far but based on the total of ~8 updates on the survey the acceptances don't seem to be staggered; however, the rejections all seem to come ~2 months after the acceptances, very close to the April 15th deadline. I'm about 99.999999999(repeating)% sure that this is a rejection for me (based on data, I was told they'd likely only have money to accept one person in my particular sub-field this season!). 

Is it ok to contact the department and check if all of the acceptances or decisions have been sent out? It's early, so IDK if I should preface it with "I've seen that some individuals have received acceptances for Fall 2017. Have all of the accepted been notified? (or have all of the acceptances been sent out)."

 

This is so annoying. its the same school that my app got deleted and i had to redo it.. At this point, I just want to know. I have a few other rejections under my belt so this is looking like a wash for me and I kind of want it to be over.

[DBear]

@Marshall Ugh - so that one school is gonna cause you stress til the end, it seems. I would maybe ask if they had an estimated timeline for notifying applicants of results... Not sure if they'd like to hear about "rumors" of notifications. 

No matter how we're doing in this cycle, I think at this point we're all ready to be DONE. Hopefully you'll get some better news - I had a friend (probably told this story on this forum before) who got 11 or 12 rejections before a waitlist, followed by an admission

 

[clarwyn]

On 1/14/2017 at 0:39 PM, DBear said:

Wonder if @clarwyn's family is still packed and ready to go without a destination still...

My last reply came today. I got all rejections. We are not going anywhere this year. I'm hopeful for next year though! In the meantime I'm going to do some conference presentations, possibly go to a summer training program with one of the professors I want to work with (if I can come up with the money, it's overseas), and hopefully get some more research experience. So hopefully I'll be more competitive next year. Wishing everyone the best of luck!

[DBear]

4 hours ago, clarwyn said:

My last reply came today. I got all rejections. We are not going anywhere this year. I'm hopeful for next year though! In the meantime I'm going to do some conference presentations, possibly go to a summer training program with one of the professors I want to work with (if I can come up with the money, it's overseas), and hopefully get some more research experience. So hopefully I'll be more competitive next year. Wishing everyone the best of luck!

Thank you for the update! With all you have planned, I'm sure the next cycle will go much better. I have many talented friends who ended up with all rejections one year then had too many acceptances to choose from the next - looking forward to seeing you get into the one you really want next year!!

[clarwyn]

Thanks for the encouragement DBear! I hope it's been a successful cycle for you? I haven't kept up with the forum much lately so I don't know whether you've posted any acceptances. I hope you have lots to choose from

I think I'm also going to try to get a school teacher's certificate this year (diversifying my career options, haha) since it's something I've always thought about, and it will keep me busy while I wait! And my husband (no longer semi-estranged) is changing careers, so it's good for him that I'm not locked into a specific location this year. So instead of everyone going where I need to go, we'll be going wherever he needs to go. He's applying to a police program, which I think will be six months of training somewhere. After that, we can play the grad school game again next year!

[DBear]

@clarwyn That sounds like a great plan! Thanks for asking - I got really lucky this year and won't have to go through this again next year - that's just such a relief - the decision-making process was excruciating, but hope you get to be like "oh... that's why Dbear said that last year - this really does suck" - next year! I had a good friend in an earlier iteration of grad school who moved to CA with her husband, who was a police officer and it worked out well for them, so I have a good feeling about this for you too!

If it comes time and you need an extra set of eyes to look for typos in your SOP or something like that - let me know! I have a good memory so will remember you!

[clarwyn]

@DBear that's wonderful, so glad you were successful! I'll definitely remember you too since your screenname is one of my best friend's nicknames, lol. Good luck with your program!