jeeze, relax already. cornell is great, don't loose your shit over this, it's not worth it.....

ok, and now back to our regularly scheduled program of us whining about these schools that we so desperately want to be a part of....

SCAD has officially lost two letters of recommendation. They even sent me a letter saying they'd recieved part of my application (one of the letters), and now they're saying they haven't recieved any! WTF?!

Has anyone else had a panic attack about grad school yet? Because I think I'm smack dab in the middle of one right now.....and it sucks a little. I'm really starting to worry that I'm planning to uproot myself in 9 months but won't have anywhere to go. Haven't had a panic attack for a while, almost forgot how much fun it was..... :o(

rationalist, that really blows. Is this the part where I make some sort of cliched joke about art schools and disorganization????

I'm rollin' now, peeples. Three applications completely submitted. One more this weekend and the last by Feb. 1st. Then I just have to wait...

I just got home from a wild goose chase all over the Chicago Loop trying to assemble my last three portfolios... Thankfully, they came out well and are safely in my posession. I'll send them out via FedEx tomorrow to Cornell, Penn, and Columbia. I need to finish my statement of purpose for Columbia and send that out with the portfolio as well.

My statement for Cornell is now done, and I still need to do my statement for Penn. Those will be submitted online Monday, which will finally be the end of this whole application process.

After that, I move into FAFSA / scholarship application mode. :(

let's talk about FAFSA / Scholarship applications....

how much work is the fafsa? what about scholarships for the ivy schools? i want free money but damn am i burnt out from portfolio/essays/etc

Good luck, LIG. I think you'll get multiple acceptances.

FAFSA is a pain, but the nice part about it is that you only have to do it once per year. The form is then electronically transmitted to each of the schools you specify. It mainly involves filling in information from your W2 forms and/or tax returns.

As for scholarship applications, I'm still learning the process myself. Columbia has a huge 4-page application that asks pretty much every detail of both my own financial background as well as that of my parents (regardless of the fact that I'm 31 and my parents aren't paying a dime of my grad school bill). It's a huge hassle, but I guess the university wants to be sure that mommy and daddy won't be paying my way if I don't get a scholarship. Not a problem there.

As for the other Ivies, stay tuned, as I'm still gathering information about what they each require. Some seem to rely soley on the FAFSA and the information provided on the application itself, while other schools have a supplemental form and/or essay.

Baboomba: Thanks for the confidence boost. If I manage to get into some of these programs (and better yet, get some scholarship money for them), I'll have the Archinect community to thank for it.

what's the deal with them asking parents assets? my parents aren't going to give me a dime for grad school and listing their assets will only hurt my case for financial aid. what are they gonna do if i leave that part blank? i think i might have to - i asked my parents and they won't even tell me what their income and assets are.

I imagine that if you don't get the info and don't submit the completed application for aid then you won't be eligible for aid, or atleast not as much. If you are under 23 you are basically screwed. You have to submit parent info regardless of what your actual financial situation is with your parents because the federal government considers you a dependent.

Yale has the same thing that LIG described about Columbia. Its frickin' long and rediculous. Its like 80% speculation about how you will have money in the next 2 years. Thats a pretty good question that I wish I had an answer to.

What if you are exactly 23?

well, if i submit the completed application with what my parents' actual assets are, i won't be elibible for aid either... unless there's a box to check that says my parent's aren't going to let me use any of their money and that i'm on my own

don't you love extra apostrophe's?

WonderK I had a whole 2 week panic attack. I lost my appetite for nearly the entire first 2 weeks of December (5th-15th when my first apps/portfolios were due) and was shaky and nervous the whole time. It's partly my work mode monomania but also a lot of nervousness. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

so can i assume that schools will give me a status of what they've received? or at least let me know if they're missing something?

no. Call or email and check.

Rationalist: I think if you're 23 or younger, the feds consider you a dependent student. If you're 24 or older, you're an independent student. Yes, it's stupid and completely arbitrary. I was living independently at the ripe old age of 21, but the feds were still considering me a dependent student and calculating my financial aid accordingly, which is a big reason I couldn't afford to stay in school at the time. I think schools have the ability to override the dependent/independent designation if you can submit some sort of evidence, but I'm not sure what the process for doing that is.

When you fill out the fafsa there is a section where they ask you about seven questions in a row. the first one is asking you if you were born before a certain date and then I am pretty sure they ask if you are going into a program where you will recieve a masters or professional degree. There are a few other random ones as well. Anyways, if you can answer yes to any one of those seven or so questions, then you don't have to provide your parents info.

The other apps that are independent of the fafsa and specific to a certain school however, will ask you to submit parent info no matter what. But like LIG said, maybe there is a way around that.

Gin- yeah, same age for me, too. But at the time it helped, because there was a real reason that my parents stopped helping me. I had the joy of reporting to financial aid that my crummy independent contracting work was the only work in my family for a while. The next year I was pretty well covered.

The fafsa considering me dependent might be a dealbreaker for me to be honest. If that turns out to be the case, I'll try to defer an acceptance because my parents aren't going to help me on this one.

Last three portfolios as well as the application and statement for GSAPP were handed over to FedEx today. I'll get an email notification when they're delivered to their respective destinations.

To-do list: Finish statement for UPenn, submit online applications for Cornell and UPenn as soon as I have the money for the application fees (Monday at the latest), apply for financial aid at all five schools, and finish undergraduate degree.

whoo, SCAD found my recommendations. Apparently they put them in another place until your official application is recieved, and they have to be told to retrieve them from the other place before your application is all joined together. Wierd system.

All 6 applications are done!! Just need to mail out portfolios to 2 schools tomorrow and I can stop thinking about grad school apps for a little bit and leave my apartment.

oh my god, finishing touches on my one and only portfolio going out are taking much too long. Goal is to print that this evening whilst doing laundry, making dinner, packing, and starting on FAFSA......and not freaking out....

a couple of things...

for those of you applying to ucla, i just found out that they won't be updating the online application status info on the graduate division website, so don't bother checking there. once they finish filing everything in mid-january they'll eventually send out emails letting people know if their package is complete or missing anything. so you'll have another opportunity to plug any gaps.

secondly, i'm wondering what the value is for me to fill out a fafsa. my wife and i both make decent money to where i certainly won't qualify for any need-based funds, but once i quit my job for full-time school, we'll be hard-pressed to cover the bills on one salary. given generalized assumptions, can anyone clue me in on the impacts of filling out a fafsa vs not bothering in my case?

I would fill it in, and then immediately (before you even get your aid award if possible) fill out the school's appeal form, stating that your circumstances will change if you enroll in their school so the fafsa doesn't accurately reflect what your income will be in the coming year.

If you don't fill out the fafsa, they won't give a damn about your appeal form because you won't have applied for financial aid in the first place. If you fill out the fafsa, then you'll have a file and an 'award' (or non-award as the case may be) for you to appeal.

gotcha. thanks rationalist. i got my undergrad through uncle sam, so the whole financial aid thing is completely new to me.

It's worth filling out the FAFSA not only because of what rationalist said, but also because you can still get Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans regardless of income.

LiG -- Are those the loans that are generally deferred and lower interest rates? Well, lower than a credit card at least?

yeah, financial aid is old hat to me.... I managed to get pretty good at working the system by my fifth year at a private school. I love USC, but practically speaking, I should have gone to ASU instead.

my unsubsidizeds had deferred payments, but I don't think the interest was deferred, and were way lower interest than private loans (which are already way lower than credit cards!)

cool. i guess i should just plan on doing it if for no other reason than to possibly qualify for the better loans.

Since we are on the topic of financial aid, do all the schools that didnt have grant applications like Harvard, UT Austin, OSH, and UC use the FAFSA form for their Grant applications, or are those only GPA /portfolio based?

Is filling out the FAFSA all you need to do to apply to the different school's need based scholarships?

Thanks for the help....

FAFSA is what every school uses for financial aid. some schools have their own supplemental forms that you will need to fill out as well but you have to fill out a FAFSA to get any sort of aid from any school.

Check with the schools website under financial aid. It will tell you if they have any other forms to fill out. I know Yale does for sure and Harvard has a Tier 2 grant sheet that your parents need to fill out that can qualify you for better grants if your parents are broke as dirt.

Not worried about FAFSA yet. Still have to finish these apps first. Is anyone submitting a statement of intent over the limit? I've chopped, sliced and diced the hell out of my Harvard SOI but am still 50 words over Columbia's limit.
Thanks in advance

Hell, I came in at 150+ words over Columbia's limit. But since it's submitted it via hard copy, there's no way they'll know unless somebody sits down and physically counts each word. I figure if they're that anal, my tuition money is better spent elsewhere.

Thanks LIG
They're going to have to live with 524.

i think if i reduce the spacing between characters i can get away with 750

Don't do it!!!! Stay legible. Reduce your text size and/or leading before you reduce your tracking. Go to a 10pt text with 12pt (or even 11.5 depending on font) leading, and you'll get lots more words in without the letters being all smushed together. Keep in mind that books are 9-11pt, so 12pt text is actually really big.

I used a 12-point font, but reduced the size of the margins to get it all on one page. MS-Word's default margins are absurdly huge to begin with, anyway.

I don't know if I know what leading is. However, I think I used 11-pt Helvetica and it was legible.

All I know is UT Austin's specs required the statement of intent to be "typed and double-spaced", and when I double-spaced it, it looked like crap. 1.5 spacing it is then.

Yikes... Why double-spaced? Are they planning on marking it up and handing it back to you?

leading is the space between lines of text...named for the amount of lead that used to be placed between rows of letters back when type was laid out manually letter by letter in the old printing presses.

Has anyone had to send a letter of recommendation late? I'm still waiting for all 3 of my LOR's for my Columbia app. I'm picking up one later today literally at a street corner. I'll have to beat the one from my boss out of him tomorrow morning and my last one just told me he would try to finish it up but he wouldn't give me a time it would be ready. eeerrrrr he's been sitting on it for 2 months!

Hey, WonderK, you're applying to UT?

If she is, I'm gonna apply to UT too, just to stalk her....=)

And throw masked parties....

is anyone get a confirmation mail after they download all online documents from GSD?

lullaby

I received a confirmation from GSD on Jan.3rd. With all the horror stories of admissions office's misplacing documents I'd play it safe and give them a call.

I got an email confirmation from GSD as well.

I just submitted my last two applications online.... Two less things on my plate!

By the way, I just received email confirmations from Cornell and UPenn within seconds of submitting the online applications.

argh - seriously? I haven't heard from GSD either. Anyone know if they're still sifting through them? I'll be ringing them v soon.