I’ve reached a noteworthy milestone in the early stages of my doctoral pursuit. All of my applications have been submitted and all of my supplemental materials and transcripts have been sent. At this point nothing is officially required of me, though I plan to continue with a strategic email assault on faculty at each of the institutions. I’ll definitely be publishing a “lessons learned” post in the future, but for now want to share three things, which I have divided into categories based on the classic Clint Eastwood western, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
THE GOOD
Some of my applications were submitted just days before the official deadlines, but most were submitting weeks, if not months, before due dates. A good reason to have everything in really early is that if programs have not yet received an overwhelming number of applications they seem more likely to spend a little quality time on the few submittals they have (actually reading your writing and digesting your profile).
This is doubly good for me, because believing that someone is actually looking at my information keeps alive the hope that this crazy gamble might just pay off. However, knowing that they are actually reading your information feels even better. How do I know this to be true? Well, late last week, I received an unsolicited email from the program director at Oklahoma State. I’ve received enough electronic correspondence in my lifetime to spot a form-generated email and I was impressed to see that this contact was intentional and personal. He told me which items he had received and asked about those he had not yet seen, including my GMAT scores. I sent him PDF copies of everything he hadn’t seen and took the opportunity to craft a sentence testing the strength of my GMAT score.
Even more impressive than his initiative to contact me was his almost immediate reply to my response. The content of the email was even better: the GMAT score was workable, he was a fan of my engineering background, he wanted to know my top schools, and he was curious why their program interested me. I carefully created a brief explanation of my evaluation criteria, listed my top schools, and gave him specific feedback on why Oklahoma State was on my list. Again, I received a surprisingly prompt response and became excited that I had engaged in real dialogue that was progressively getting deeper.
I have an on-again/off-again relationship with superstition, so I sincerely hope that I am not jinxing anything by revealing the pinnacle of our email conversation that afternoon. Here goes: I have tentatively been invited for an official campus visit in January to tour the facilities and visit with faculty. And, the director is going to see about getting the university to cover some of my costs.
THE BAD
Unfortunately, I have been enduring a lingering dose of bad the past three weeks. It pains me on many levels to write this, but one of my recommenders has not submitted the vast majority of letters and evaluation forms. A few deadlines have passed without documentation being submitted, which is noticeably affecting my anxiety level and, to a degree, my ability to focus on the task at hand. At some point, I am sure that I will look back and mark this as a growth exercise in trust, patience, and control. Right now I seem a little stuck with the mindset that this is not good. It is…well…bad.
When something isn’t in my control, I begin to evaluate every possible scenario in my mind. Most of these scenarios are pretty extreme and most are likely, and hopefully, pretty inaccurate. At this point I have imagined, with alarming clarity, multiple programs sitting down at a circular conference table to review my application package only to discover that this letter is missing. Immediately, they all look up, lock eyes, and nod in unison. Without a word, every member of the admissions committee turns and chunks my application materials into the recycling bin. Another equally alarming vision involves my application package actually getting reviewed, only to be discounted because the credibility of this recommender has been damaged due to the tardiness of the submittal. If you want to imagine what this feels like, picture yourself learning that, in a critical college course, you missed riding the curve to a higher letter grade by one tenth of a point. So, close, but…
Again, these examples are potentially extreme and probably not entirely accurate. Certainly, it would be best for all of my information to be there on time, but that’s clearly not the case right now. Fortunately, the bad isn’t quite so bad at every program. I have received notification for a few schools that they will honor my status as an early or on-time applicant, provided that the outstanding letter arrive by the next deadline. My biggest hope is that I don’t have to test this policy at many institutions, but it’s nice to know that some things are not turning out as bad as I have imagined or as rigid as described on some PhD program web sites.
THE UGLY
As pleasant and encouraging as the email from Oklahoma State was, it largely stands alone at this point. In fact, more than one email I have received from a few schools has been short, terse, and/or dismissive. AKA, ugly.
In one instance, I could not locate some information about the application materials anywhere on the program website. Not wanting to create confusion by sending the wrong information, not enough information, or too much information (see extreme fears referenced in the section above), I decided to email the program director and confirm what they needed and where they wanted it sent. He had sent me an email previously indicating that follow-up was acceptable and my email was very specific and very brief. The response I received was even more brief, but nowhere near as specific: “look at our website…”. Literally. That was all it said.
Responses like at are gut-wrenching. Again, my mind works in extremes, so when I read that I instantly question whether to bother to submit the application because I am sure that this director has written my name on an index card with a black sharpie marker, added the “no smoking” circle and slash to my name with a red sharpie marker, and affixed the index card to his bulletin board as a reminder that I am not to be considered as a viable candidate.
SUMMARY
All in all, the good, combined with the satisfaction of having everything submitted, is providing enough hope to outweigh the bad and the ugly. I suspect it will be quiet for the next few weeks, given the holidays, and then I believe I’ll begin to receive more responses. Hopefully, the good will begin to overwhelm the bad and the ugly at that point.
In the meantime, I am definitely pulling for Oklahoma State in their bowl game.
III
A Few Things Worth Mentioning 