Graduate School Flail

[ceitfianna]

Help me flist, these two friends came over for dinner and first off I found out that because I went to Michigan, apparently I wasn't going to be given a chance to make this artist's business card. The reason it hadn't been done before, he hadn't gotten the work scanned and to me so that's a chance for about fifty dollars I might have earned gone.

Then I'm talking about my application and he says well you have to be sure. At this point I have almost everything on this online application filled out though the recommendation bit is a little odd and I keep worrying about it.

My transcript hasn't arrived from NZ yet and there's only so much I can do for that and all the recommenders are going to mail their letters in their own time but I can at least tell them the deadline and hope that hurries them.

Should I be worried that all these pieces of information won't be there right on the dot on the date? I emailed the people in admissions at Michigan but my good mood is ruined and I'm kind of freaking out, help.

Also instead of going up and enjoying the sunset like I wanted to, I'm down here since I wanted to send the folks in Michigan an email at once and I'll call them tomorrow just to double check, but god damn it, I was feeling good!

Comments

[cursedpanda.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you told your referrers the deadline when you first asked them to write letters of recommendation for you? If that's the case, a polite call to them saying "the deadline is coming up, have you mailed in my recommendation yet?" wouldn't be out of order. And if you didn't tell them the date in the first place, telling them they have a deadline would probably definitely speed them up! They're writing the letters in order to be helpful to you, after all. :D

Aaaaaand as for the transcript, that's really not your fault, so all you can do is talk to the people at Michigan, which it seems you've already done. Odds are they'll be understanding about the whole "it's hard to get things from overseas sometimes" thing.

So really, there's not much need to worry now? *comforts in an arbitrary way*

[ceitfianna]

That does help and yes two out of three do know and its taken longer to get in touch with the third one but I think when I talk to her and let her know the deadline, she'll send it off ASAP.

I've been trying to keep the people at Michigan informed to the point where they're probably annoyed at my emails but I want this and when this guy went well having that contact with them probably doesn't mean anything, it just set off the panic.

[cursedpanda.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's true, the contact not meaning anything. Most university staff are impressed by students/potential students who are willing to contact and stay in contact with them, especially through problems or hitches in the process. That's always been my experience, anyway, and I say this as a person who ended up calling my college nearly every day for a month trying to iron out financial glitches as an incoming freshman.

Me, I say you can totally do it, and don't be afraid to "bug" them.

[ceitfianna]

Thanks, I'm not sure what he was thinking. He's a philosophy professor for context.

[cursedpanda.livejournal.com]

Meh, those philosophy professors. Always have their heads in the clouds with folks like Aristotle and Socrates. Pff.

...I kid, I kid. But yeah, there's no telling what he was thinking. I think you're super-fine.

[ceitfianna]

:-) Its all good and thanks again. Hee Robin in the sky.

[the_croupier]

I think the crucial thing is transparency (a word you'll be hearing a lot at SI).

You're doing the best thing you can do: keeping in touch with whoever is your contact in the admissions office. Let them know you're on the problem as much as you can be, and if you learn anything new about any part of your application, pass that information on to admissions right away (bad news as well as good).

Showing SI that you're trying will help your cause.

Email is good for most things, but if you learn anything significant this week (like a recommender saying they sent their letter), you might give admissions a phone call instead. That really shows them you're on this, and you might some good feedback from them too.

If you do send an email to nudge a recommender, make sure someone reads it over first. You want to be sure it's completely respectful and upbeat.

[ceitfianna]

I'm going to be calling one of my recommenders soon, she's a busy lady and that's why its taken so long to get it going and I'm going to offer to if I can pay so she can mail it really quickly.

Also a phone call sounds like a good idea anyway just to check in and all. I like transparency, its how I work and something the New Zealand Ministry of Health didn't like, telling people how quickly the government works is not a good idea apparently.

[moofoot.livejournal.com]

I found a lovely banner that might be pretty to remake a userinfo for Demeter with, if you like it I might tool around with something later, it's here in this post:

http://sunlitdays.livejournal.com/64821.html

The bottom one with the yellow grass and purple flowers.

[ceitfianna]

Oh that is nice but you had found another one that was simply wheat fields somewhere about or maybe I found that one.

[whisper2ascream.livejournal.com]

It's all right, but definitely keep after them. Even if it seems nagging since they got so much paperwork to keep track of, easy to lose track what's what. Definitely mention the deadline with hey, thank you for your help, the school's being insistent.

*snugs* Everything will come together, ok?

[ceitfianna]

Thank you, I'm feeling better about it and I will since I do want this so much.