grad apps

I did not expect the application process to take this long/ I been at it for three weeks or so now.

I have applied to 10 programs with two more to go. I have to say it is getting hard to be excited about their program. Each school peppers their application with questions about why I am interested in them. At first giving thoughtful answers was easy and took little time but as I progressed through them it got much harder. Suffice it to say I am burned out.

But I knew I would get this way

:-O

Cause I know me, see? So long ago I wrote templates with blanks in them for all my essays and responses. I wrote thoughtful responses to their questions and essay prompts a month go so I wouldn't have to do it now when I'm burned out. Smart on my part. But I can still make mistakes so I fill in the blanks and then wait a day to read it to make sure its seamless and answers the prompt and stuff.

The thing is they all want different things. Except UC schools. They have the same prompts, questions and stuff. I recycled my UC Irvine essay for UC Riverside and switched the names. But I graduated from that school so I had to make it more personal, you know? I probably know the professor who will read my writing sample very well, so I had to.

But I think it was U of Michigan that wanted 2000 word personal statement and u of Florida wanted 500. So I had to write a new one, largely borrowed from the middle of the larger one, but whatever. When I get burned out like this I got to relax, get away from it and recheck everything when I am fresh before I submit it.

Oh, another thing: I didn't know it would cost so much money to apply. Each school charges a fee of about 70 bucks. Venderbilt was free, U of Florida was 30 bucks, UC Riverside was 80 (bastards). I am applying to 12 of them.

KA-CHING.

It cleaned me out. But on top of the application fees you have to send your GRE scores to some of them (not all) at 25 bucks a pop, and your official transcripts have to go to each one, and some want two, and some split their departments, one for writing and one for graduate admissions and they both want two transcripts. At around ten bucks a pop those transcripts add up too, especially when one *&%$&%#^#$^% school wants four of them, two for each department. (UC Irvine said something nice here, they said, "Just send one transcript and if we need an additional copy we will make one. Brilliant! Why can't these other schools discover a copy machine?) Plus packaging, envelopes, paper, pens staples, and mailing. It adds up very quickly. I am keeping track right now, and when I am all done I will post it so you can see the breakdown. GRE scores, transcripts and fees--that's a racket.

Just think last year the U of Michigan in ann arbor made a ton of money from application fees. Even though i dislike it, let's do some math. If around 1,200 people apply to the U of M and each fee is 70 bucks that is around 84,000 dollars-from writers no less. (Bunch of wealthy people, writers.) The company that does GRE testing (I do not like them) ETS charges around 25 bucks to send your scores to colleges (((IMPORTANT: Unless you send the scores the same time as when you take the test, I didn't have the addresses of all the colleges when I took the test.))) so 25 bucks a pop times 1200 people required to send them in is about 30,000 dollars. And that is just one university. Feels like a racket to me. It's like a necessary evil that is unnecessary.

SO if you plan to apply to graduate school here are some tips for you:

1) Start early. Some of them start accepting applications in September of April, others December.
2) Go to each university website and read what they require, they have their prompts available sometimes, and list when they can start accepting applications.
3) Save up about a grand to apply for ten universities (through a wide net to increase your chances of being accepted because they only accept people ONCE a year, and some schools alternate which year they accept majors, ie fiction applicants accepted odd years, poetry applicants accepted even years, so if you miss that then you got to wait two years.
4) Do writing related stuff before you apply, they ask a lot of questions about it and I had very little to add to that because I was only published the one time I tried. Leaving all those questions blank made me feel really bad.

I guess that's all for now, time for bed.

MFA Update

Personal statement has been worked and reworked and in two days and four drafts later it is something I am quite proud of. Of course it wouldn't have been possible without my best friend Mike.

My prose was like a tattered sword; yeah it could kill you but it would take a few swings before it broke the skin. Thanks to Mike that sword would get sharpened to a razors edge so that one clean cut will cleave a man in two. So to speak. The point is the P.S. is sharp now.

Personal Statement: Mission Accomplished
Statement of Purpose: Round One! Fight!!

It doesn't make sense to me, it is so vague:

In an essay, please describe your natural ability and motivation for graduate study in writing, including your preparation for writing, your academic plans or research interests and experience with writing, and your future career goals. Please be specific about why our MFA program would be a good intellectual fit for you.

I will be doing this tomorrow and applying in the evening. If all goes according to plan.

You got it, Teddy!

For the first time I am sitting in my room at my new desk looking out the window and watching the snow fall. I am out of coffee, milk and food. I am hungry. The snow right outside the window blows to the right, further out it blows to the left. My car looks like a frosted miniwheat.

From 10am to midnight yesterday I wrote my personal statement for grad school. And now that I read it over I can see that it is crap--amateur prose that sounds like I am trying to impress someone. Maybe that is what it is supposed to sound like? Maybe the selection committee knows what they are looking for. Either way another round of revision is necessary. And then I move from the personal statement to the statement of purpose. Which is kinda the same thing but with a focus on academics. I don't know what that means. I can't spend too much time on this because I have to modify it to fit each of my choices when I apply, and I haven't applied anywhere yet. As soon as I get this stupid essay done I can start applying. And then I will be free of huge responsibilities for a few months.

In my mind I thought of myself as a strong applicant, but as I write down what I have done I see that I am not, that the University of Michigan will be receiving 800 other personal statements and choosing like 10 people. Maybe my writing samples will wow them. Confidence is not high and I'm hungry. But Teddy Roosevelt said, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."