wow - i don't have the balls to bug the schools i applied to!

Just resent my resume and essay to Yale with a printout of the online application status showing that they did not receive these documents even though FEDEX delivered everything 6 weeks ago.

I just got an email from Parsons saying i have to have a third party "translate" my undergrad transcripts for UBC in Vancouver, because they are Canadian.

Absolutely absurd!

UBC is an English speaking school which has the same grading system as the US. Canada couldn't be more like the states if it tried. Parsons is the only school that I applied to which asks for it. And I didn't know about it before because I am an American and didn't click on the international student link. So now I have to drop another $350+ on getting this rip-off business to translate my stupid transcript into what? English? A's, B's, C's? Its already both of those things. There are 12 business days till the application is due and this "translation" takes 7 business days to do this.

Is this really happening to me?

And still no submission from my recommender to UT Austin's website. Great. I am out soooo much time and money if these two schools fall through. And this is before they even CONSIDER my application.

And to think my New Years resolution was to not stress out so much.

Wow that sounds ridiculous (Parsons). Have you tried calling the school and explaining your situation?? Maybe it was a blanket email to all applicatnts who went to school out of the country. If they insist, though, I say get the translation done, otherwise you dont do justice to all the time and expense you've already put into this application. I guess try to stay optimistic, you're almost done.

And as for UT Austin, remember what we all have heard and read, that deadlines are more lenient for LORs. In this case its due to a technical failure on UT's part, and I doubt you're the only one having this problem; this should give them even greater cause to forgive 'late' LORs.

ha!! andimdone, ithats ridicolous!!

Does anyone know if Pratt has a way to check on your recommendation status? I just got an email from a prof saying he couldn't remember if he sent it in or not and I couldn't seem to find anything on the website.

Just when I thought I was finished with this stuff...

jhooper, this is the only info i know about Pratt notifications, according to its website:

"Applicants will be notified by email that their application is complete and ready for review. Please check the email address you gave us. We will also notify applicants who are missing an item or items in enough time for them to complete their application. Please do not call or email the admissions office since we are opening mail and assembling files for the next two months. Decisions will be mailed by April 1."

Weird though, he doesn't remember?

Thanks jaymo. I probably applied to too many schools this year and confused him. He finished all of the online ones, but the pratt and risd ones were offline. I got a letter from risd saying they received everything, so we'll see. Hopefully he did them together.

Yale has finally received all of my application documents. I had to resend two pages for them to update my file online.

Did anyone applying to Penn send a pdf portfolio? if so, how many pages was your pdf?

Also,
Can you fill out one fafsa for all the schools or do you need different info for each one>

Cartegna-- My missing Yale stuff just all appeared on the website yesterday as well. Others should check if they have been missing things.

10-- I sent Penn a PDF portfolio as well. It was 12 pages total, but I saved in INDD using spreads [10] so it would be viewed as it would if it were a book. Also, if I remember correctly from undergrad, the FAFSA is filled out once online. You simply indicate all the schools where it needs to be sent, and they take care of the rest.

10, re: FAFSA: I think it's possible that some schools and some states have additional forms to submit. You should probably verify.

Hey 10 - I sent my port. to UPenn on a CD as well. My pdf was technically 13 pages/spreads, but that's cuz I decided to interpret their limit of 12 as excluding the cover page ;) We'll see how that's accepted... How many was yours?

Can I also ask you and gs11 what you guys made of UPenn's instruction on digital portfolios?: "...screen resolution [72 dpi] ONLY should be submitted..."

Oh yeah, and all my Yale application materials are counted for as well! yesssss! Good luck to all of the other 999 applicants...!...

My Penn portfolio was 12 pages, I reformatted my printed portfolio into 10x12 spreads (single page, just horizontal format), and cut a lot of the unnecessary spacing. It was actually a good exercise, although slightly alarming to see how little "content" I actually put forward.

The dpi thing is understandable, they are trying to limit file sizes, and in my experience 72dpi looks great on most lcd monitors. I do not consider this to be a big deal.

Well everything is submitted (save my MIA recommender) and now the question is, should I be relieved or just now feeling the nerves?

Good luck to everyone, hopefully the next 8 weeks passes quickly enough and we all enjoy the weeks after that!

Di-C: I didn't follow the letter of the law on the Penn Portfolio with regards to dpi. I just made sure my file was small [under 5MB] and that it opened quickly on my old computer. I ended up with a 150dpi file. I worried that a lower dpi would effect the quality, but I think "10" is right that you can't really tell on an LCD screen anyway.

thanks for your guy's response. I'm still confused what the school's screen resolution (in dpi) has to do with my file's image resolution (in ppi) but nonetheless, I think what you say about it being about a small file size is right. Mine was under 7MB, though the resolution was a bit higher, so I think I'll be alright.

an important thing to keep in mind is that even thought people are finishing portfolios and getting recommenders' rears in gear, financial aid deadlines are coming up soon. Columbia's deadline was yesterday, yale wants fasfa info by feb 2. If nothing else it should help keep us busy for a bit longer.

Ok, I'm a bit confused here. For everyone who applied to Penn, the maximum number of pages is 20 no larger than 10x12's, correct? I might have put way too much stuff in there, because my format was 8x10 and I had a full 20 pages without cover or content page. And to top it of, I had to shave about 10 pages from my fortfolio to fit their requirement.

Ok...my Columbia Financial aid was shipped out overnight on the 14th and should have been there on the 15th. Coming from Chicago though, I'm pretty sure it was delayed by the insane weather we're having, and I saw that it just arrived in New York today. I know it said in bold at the top no applications accepted after the 15th...but come on!!!

jhooper -- Very good point about the fin aid deadlines. I'm sure it'll be tight to get things done by early February, especially when I just received my W-2 and am still waiting on 1099s.

Does anyone understand Yale's explanation about providing parent financial information. I haven't called them yet, but the website explanation seems vague to me. It sounds like a "you can, but don't have to, but might not receive as much aid" situation. Am I off base here?

NAA.yet -- I'm in Chicago as well and called them on Wednesday, it must be "submitted" by the 15th. The woman on the phone told me to just make sure it was postmarked by yesterday [the 15th], so you should be good!

Yeah, I am hoping Columbia is a day lenient on that scholarship deadline too. Mine got there at 10:00am this morning, close enough, right? My thought is, if they show it as 'received' on my online application, then they are going to consider it. And so far it doesnt show up there, but its only been a few hours.

I dont know how others handled it, but I didn't give financial info for my parents. They aren't paying a cent for my grad school and didn't want their financial info floating around if it wasn't necessary or relevant, which I totally understood.

is anyone applying at Princeton?

My columbia scholarship stuff isn't showing up as received either, and I sent it out last Monday. Probably just have a large pile of mail to go through. I did put my parents info down (I had to really convince them)...anything that can help my case to get $$$.

1 more app to go (Rice) then it's the waiting game.

So I'm guessing UCLA isn't bothering with their online status upkeep? I applied for the concurrent degree program, and both of them listed say absolutely nothing has been turned it, but it also says the page hasn't been touched since 12/15/08.

Just lazy I guess?

@ NotAnArchitect.yet

same here. just checked the UCLA status page and it has nothing except the online app and my GRE score. it hasn't been updated since 12/11, so i guess arch is one of the UCLA departments not even using that page. i'm pretty nervous something isn't there...oh well.

My first confirmation of a complete application, UMich! Only 3 more to confirm and I can relax just a little. On a side not I finished my taxes and submitted my FAFSA, so all the necessary paper work is all finished.

ugh, my last recommender FINALLY submitted his letter.... only a week late, hope it won't do any harm. I also have online status from UBC saying everything is received, yay! Now there really is nothing left to do but wait. sigh.
Does anyone know what the deadlines are for canadian student loans? I guess I have to start thinking about that soon. It's been so long since I've been in school I forget the process. well, that'll keep me busy :)

When people are physically submitting a financial aid package to the GSAPP, where on the website is this mentioned? Am I wrong in thinking I submitted my financial aid when I applied for FAFSA online? Is there another step?

freezingtimbers,

As far as I know, there was a Scholarship Form which was due the 15th of January, and then FAFSA online. It talks about it here:

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/admissions/howto.html

I decided to print a portfolio at kinko's after realizing it wasn't that expensive. Having it neatly bound makes a big difference. If anyone had the dumb idea I did of just sticking the pages into a generic itoya-style portfolio, I suggest against it.

yeah, admission people say not to spend a lot of money on bindings, etc, but I have a feeling that anything you can do to help your portfolio look more finished will help it stand out among the hundreds of others.... i hope...

Just got a confirmation e-mail from my uni. They said the number of applications is overwhelming so it took them 2 and a half weeks to confirm that all the docs are received.

where did you apply archiwhat?

has anyone had any sort of confirmation of applications being received from U Washington? I sent all my stuff in and have fedex confirmation but nothing updated on the website...anyone know the deal?

Oh and GOBAMA!!!

andimdone,

Do you mean U Washington in Seattle?

andimdone,

if you are talking about UW, I have not received any confirmation as well.

If it is UW Seattle... I sent them an email a while back asking why my information was not coming up on the Graduate website. and also if they had received my stuff. They told me that they don't post things on that site. Also, if they saw that anything was missing, by the time they finished going through all the portfolios, then they would notify me.

Don't mean to steal any thunder from you 2009ers, but any advice for a 2010er? anything you wish you shoulda have done this time last year?

SamSam,

get started early. the earlier you can check things off the list the better:

1. Start reworking older projects into a cohesive format as soon as you're comfortable
2. Take the GRE early and study as much as you can for it
3. Look critically at all the schools you are interested in and spend the time to do the research and find the right schools.

This is not in any particular order but it is good to see you are thinking about it now, my problem was I spent too much time just thinking about it and had to do a lot the last 2-3 months that put unnecessary pressure on the situation.

samsam

i agree w/ sleepy, the only thing i'd add is to get your physics and calc requirements out of the way.

lost in stress

Delft

SamSam

The only thing I'd add is to think about who you'd like to write your Letters of Recommendation and contact them early. And once they've said 'yes', make the process as simple as you can for them, especially if you are applying to a lot of schools, and keep in touch with them throughout.

SamSam,

Two things that my prof's told me to do but I couldn't because of time, go visit all your schools during final review. It gives you an idea of the level they are working at and the kind of product you should be putting out. Also, most don't require an interview but schedule one with someone on the admissions committee. This shows them how committed you are to the field and their school. And like everyone said, start early on your application material, don't underestimate how much time you're going to put into the statement, portfolio, application and everything else. Also get as many opinions from you faculty as possible.

Hey guys ^ Thanks so much! This will help me out immensely! Good luck with in the next couple of months when the responses start rolling!

silent thread... zzz... any status updates yet?

i wish!

i just know that everyone has everything...

visiting ann arbor next weekend to see the boyfriend and meet with financial aid. maybe i'll go sneak around tcaup and oogle at the studio again. crossing fingers!

Still waiting for status updates on everything. I have confirmations of delivery from USPS and I know the apps were all submitted (online) because they took the money from me already, I would just like to see it on the "Status" page.

Still MIA on recommendation and I'm looking for a backup currently but the pickings are SLIM at this point.

any thoughts on how to make the next couple months go quickly? It's already driving me insane! I also want to try to learn some software.... I'm a 30 year old dinosaur who only knows how to draft and photoshop, haha. Which programs can I learn for free that would be useful for being back in school? I'm also on a Mac, which makes things difficult.

On another note... I had a mini heart attack a few days ago when I got an email from the school saying my application status had changed. I got all panicky, worrying about whether I should check it at work or wait til I got home.... finally opened it up, shaky hands and all, and it was just the fact that my last letter had been received and my app is now 'complete'.
sheesh.

i'd like to try to learn sketchup... just a matter of finding the time at the end of the day after work! i'm on a mac as well.

i'll be rowing in some crazy dragonboat races in an attempt to distract myself. also - a trip to montreal in february! maybe i'll get brainfreeze and forget about the apps. ;)