Cool your jets, man. Check the dates on the first posts in those threads, I think some of them are from last year.

Now, take a deep breath....

and call all the admissions offices of above mentioned schools every day for the next month or so.

I doubt it...I just got a number of "your application is complete" letters.

End of March man. I think Penn says they tell you by April 2nd or something and it's due the 15th (when I applied). I heard back on like...April 9th. Seriously, try to relax. It's a whole lotta stress for nothing. The envelopes will get there when they get there. But yeah, it does suck.

As I was finishing up my apps I hadn't figured I would feel anxious at all. Hard stuff out of the way right?
Sure enough, its already starting to happen, doubts creeping in. Surely I will find myself mad by March.

Seem that April 1 is when acceptance letters are mailed out. I wonder if it would be worth a phone call on April 1 to the admissions offices to find out then and there. Probably so. Although, you'd be setting yourself up for one cruel as hell april fool's joke.

Nothing like having your fate sealed in a fedex envelope on the way for other people to decide where you'll spend the next year of your life.

wow. that's a bit dramatic. life goes on wherever and whenever you get in to grad school.

Let me ask you all something, does every school send out the "application is complete" letters/cards?

I only got one from Harvard and Columbia although everything went out at the same time? Did I just shit myself? Did the other schools not get a completed application?

No. Not all do. I would call in to be safe. If you have a certified mail receipt from when you initially sent it or did delivery confirmation, then you have that to back you up down the line.

have people visited all the schools they applied for? what if you get acceptance letter(s) and you want to visit the school(s) before you accept but the time frame is not conducive to that? does anyone have experience with that? i know its jumping the gun here. but i, too, am getting anxious about this whole process. i'm afraid i'll make some sort of poor and uninformed descision when the time comes.

i just recieved an email from yale this morning - i was missing my GRE scores which is understandable bc I took it two weeks ago. I didn't think my chances would be great for them to continue going through my application out of the 500+ they have to look at. I still have some hope. Then again - I didnt do too well on my GRE.

8888: the deadlines to respond are usually about 2 weeks after you get the letters. Almost all schools host a spring open house for accepted students sometime in the middle of those two weeks. If you decide to visit them at that point, and if you get accepted to multiple schools, it can be very hectic. I did 3 open houses in 1 week, which involved a lot of travel and was pretty overwhelming.
It may be a good idea to visit your schools sooner (or at least some of them.) It's often a better picture of what the school is really like if you visit during a time when they're not expecting guests anyway, talk to students then, etc.. The open houses of course are presenting a best-case-scenario (their best lecture of the semester is usuall the day of the open house, there's usually one or more interesting crits that day, there's a lot of student work displayed, and students have been hand-picked to talk to prospects.)

If you run into a situation in which School A's deadline for deciding whether to attend is earlier than School B's (or if you haven't even heard from School B yet with an acceptance letter) then you can usually explain this to School A and stall for up to a couple weeks. That happens all the time, but it's a good idea to make sure they know you're still deciding so they don't just assume you aren't interested.

thanks formerlyunknown
i know its stupid for me to think that i'll get into a few programs, or even one. however, its scary to think that i'll have to hop a plane and jet to a few places all in one week. my mom tried to convince me that i should visit the schools that i can get to by a short car trip (of which there are a few) but i'm afraid i'll somehow jinx myself and / or get excited about a program that i ultimately won't get into anyways. and if i don't know if its necessary to visit those programs, i don't want to waste vacation days from work which i might need later to fly to visit schools that i DID get into. i know, ridiculous thoughts i'm having here.
has anyone else been thinking about this stuff?

8888 - don't underestimate yourself. you'll get into a good number of schools and your concern about visiting them is smart. in my opinion, you should check out as many schools as you can or, at the very least, contact some current students and ask them to be candid about their experience. find out about faculty, find out about surrounding location, find out about expenses, find out about the nature of your coursework - is it carved in stone or flexible, find out how many people drop out of the program and why, find out why people love their school. an m.arch program is rigorous to begin with, so thoughtfully choosing the one that best suits your educational goals and personality is smart. otherwise, 3+ years will feel like an eternity.

Defenitely call the schools to find out if all your application materials are received. Most places say they will send out an e-mail atleast saying that they have received your shit, but I haven't gotten any yet (except Columbia) so I had to call. Luckily they all went through ok, but w/o the call, I'd still be wondering. There is enough to worry about w/o having to worry that they didn't get everything. It is defenitely worth the call.

8888-

i know what you mean though. you don't want to set yourself up to be letdown. i thought about telling my PM that i might not be available for a few days the first week or two of april... but decided that murphy's law will inevitably try to make a pass at me. so i will plan on working all through the first week of april...

right. the other concern i have is something that was brought up either in this thread or another. that is, how accurate of a picture are you seeing during the visit weekends? what's the truth and what's the pretty picture that the schools are trying to paint for you and how do you figure see through the potential bs?

I have not visited many of the schools that I applied to... actually I haven't even visited one. I would love to go in the first week of april as well, but who knows what will happen.

I keep thinking there's no way I will get in... then the next day I am driving down the street thinking... I think I have a really good chance Harvard here I come... God I can't wait to find out.

One of my friends applied to med school a couple years back and he didn't get in anywhere. he said the first letter wasn't so bad... it was the seventh sorry we regret to inform you letter that really makes you cry. but now he is in med school because he worked on his application all year and low and behold got in exactly where he wanted.

there's always next year right?

ugh.... my girlfriend who is NOT applying to arch programs but for other things has gotten accepted to two schools already. one of which had a february 1 deadline...

not fair.

good point... j

when is the last time that I did anything in a timely manner.
I'm sure I'll be a brilliant professor someday that specializes is procrastination as well.

Columbia.....sends out an e-mail confirmation straight away.

UCLA....apparently no news is good news. They are only sending out e-mails to people right now who are missing things. A call to the arch dept can confirm that have received your materials. Just don't call during their lunch hour. Mailing out decisions btw early March and early April.

UPenn....If you applied online, their online update is now updated and you can confirm receipt that way.

IIT....I couldn't log into my acc't for some reason to check the status, but if I had, I would have found that all my stuff was there....which I found out through calling their admissions office.

i got a confirmation email from UCLA a few days ago actually.

no, i will tell you what is even worse. my friend and his girl friend (grad school for chem eng. and her for med school) found out a month after they applied.

A MONTH!

My relief was when I told him that at this schools, he is nothing more than a scantron. I mean honestly...these kids study hard enough for that 4.0 and their apps will just slide through that scantron machine. BASTARDS!

in all fairness they work hard too...but yea, i totally hear ya A Center for Ants?

Harvard - sent a postcard saying application was received a while ago
MIT - sent an e-mail confirming application complete a few weeks ago
UPenn - as someone else posted before, provides online status update
UOregon - someone actually called me 'cause there was a computer glitch or something, and I needed to update my info. Then I received a cruel large envelope, with a letter sarting out "We are please to . . . " and then go on to state that they have received my application, it's being reviewed, but in the meantime - here, look at this housing brochure. What the . . .?!?

those oregon jerks.... I will give them credit for being a blue state though.

Foun dout I got into Texas A&M's program yesterday... its like the biggest weight ever has been lifted off my shoulders.... still waiting on UVA and U-Texas, but I think my mind is pretty set....

Good luck to everyone else!

hehe, that happened to me last year when i applied to oregon, but i got the last laugh when i denied them a month later.

"UOregon - ...Then I received a cruel large envelope, with a letter sarting out "We are please to . . . " and then go on to state that they have received my application, it's being reviewed, but in the meantime - here, look at this housing brochure. What the . . .?!?"

laxchc11. have fun at Texas A&M. a ton of my graduate studio is made up of A&M Environmental Design students. I have a friend at A&M grad now and she enjoys it.

laxchc11 - congratulations on both getting accepted to Texas A&M and doing it so early on in the waiting game. best of luck to you!!

yeah, its just now starting to set in.... please, if anyone else finds out from A&M/ knows about anyone who got in, please let me know... it'd be nice to make some connections prior.

Holy shit....when was the A&M application due? That is rediculously early. Congratulations on the peace of mind you now have!!!

Which program were you accepted to at A&M?

actually, i think you can apply all the way up to march 15, but to apply for scholarships its january 15

career change, even though im not really changing my career...... oh well, its pretty much the equivalent to a first prof. program at any other grad program

Just to set expectations:

If you get into Harvard - Toshiko calls you personally (March 1- 15 is when this takes place) - no lie.

If you get into Columbia - you will be notified by mail.

If you get into UVA - you will be notified by mail.

If you get into Cincy - you will be notified by email - they have a very quick turnaround.

If you get into Princeton - you will be notified by mail.

If you get into UCLA - you will be notified by mail.

These are all I can remember from when I was going through all of this. Good luck to all of you!

really? she calls? how oddly fantastic.

you sound like you speak from experience, my friend. Did you get into all of those schools? If so, where did you end up going?

toshiko does not call everyone who gets in......i know this for a fact

hmmm....i wonder who she calls, based on what? interesting and quite segregating.

i'm sure it'll falsely pump some jagg-off's ego just the same.

i don't know any MArchII's who got a call from her recently....

Any other MARCH II's in on this? Just curious. Seems difficult to discern btw topics that lean towards MARCH I's vs II's.

1st acceptance letter recieved with offer of tuition waiver and stipend (Miami of Ohio - M.Arch2). This is to my backup which, all things considered, is also my 1st/2nd choice out of 5.

Much much relief.

WOW ... tution waiver?? and stipend???

nice .....

heres a question: do schools usually give you monetary offers AFTER you reply to their offer of acceptance? They mentioned at A&M when i met with their that they usually are successful in getting instate tuition for their 1st Prof students, but in their acceptance letter they stated that I should take their offer of acceptance based upon my desire to go their, not money.

and on another note, who else here applied to a MARCH I program?

*met with them

Congratulations SuperHeavy! You must be a talented individual. What's your background?

laxchc11: no, usually most schools will give you a financial offer before you accept, though it sometimes comes under separate cover than your acceptance letter. For example, at a lot of schools you may get an acceptance letter that mentions a "merit award" of a few thousand dollars, granted by the admissions committee (though that amount is usually for your first year only, and non-renewable) but your financial aid letter will arrive separately. The financial aid letter is more likely to include larger university grants, and whatever the school imagines you'd want to take out in loans, and sometimes an amount of work-study funding that you'd be eligible for if you choose to take a work-study job.

If I get in anywhere else I applied, I may (MAY) merit the term talent. But for now, I think it has more to do with a handful of school visits and developing a good professional relationship with the graduate admissions coordinator.

and to clarify, this is included as part of an assistantship, meaning that I am 'working' for it. I included in my personal statement a desire to be a student assistant for undergraduate design classes as I thought it would be great experience for a few of my possible future trajectories.

Interestingly enough, Minnesota wouldn't tell me if I had any aid or assistantship until AFTER I accepted. Cincinnati also didn't promise anything to me until after also, but they stated that they currently had no money set aside for their school to give to students, and it wasn't until a couple month's afterwards that they offered me money because only then did they know they had any...

Tuition Waiver for an MARCH II....me....envious and slightly optimistic that I will get atleast some free $$$ for my MARCH II.

I received a small thin envelope in the mail yesterday from upenn. I was thinking "you gotta be kidding me -rejected this early?!"
Turns out it was just a bulk-mailed financial aid letter. so cruel....

beatle,
me too. got the letter, no money. i accepted anyway, got another letter giving me full tuition for the year. getting a little worried about next year, though...