Grad School Applications

[kenjari]

I should be done with all my grad school application stuff before Christmas, even though the remaining three deadlines are not until January. Michigan has a December 1 deadline, but I got that one completed and in the mail before Thanksgiving.
I'm not nearly as stressed about it as other folks. I guess that's because this is my fourth time through the grad school application process. Also, it's because I don't think putting together the applications is really the worst part of it. At least when I am filling out forms, visiting schools, and assembling my portfolio, I am doing something. I am actively affecting my chances of acceptance, hopefully for the better. I can relax through January and February, knowing I got everything done.
No, the worst part is coming in a few months. It starts in March and goes through mid-April. It's the part where I start receiving the letters. Checking the mail when I come home from work is no longer a routine, mindless chore. Instead, it becomes an exercise in anxiety. At the beginning of March, I start walking out to the mailbox at a noticeably slower pace. By mid-March, my heart starts pounding on the way, and soon after that my palms start sweating while I'm opening the mailbox. And all I can do at that point is wait passively for the judgements to be handed down.
At least I don't have to take the Music GRE subject test.

Comments

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

everything I hear is that the mailbox is irrelevant at this point. Good news comes by phone or email; bad news comes by email or never.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I guess music departments are still in the dark ages, because they send letters for both acceptances and rejections. And they don't send any of the acceptance-related materials with the initial letter. So you can't get any clues from envelope thickness, either.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

and I'm afraid that it WON'T be a passive wait; that there will be a round of wait-listed secondary interviews etc. to add to the FUN FUN FUN.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Your programs have wait-listing and secondary interviews? Mine don't do that - you're either accepted or rejected and that's that. I'm not sure if this is better or worse.