more grad schools

[nibot]

I just applied to UMN and I am applying to "the" OSU, largely because (1) they are still accepting applications (!), and (2) they have no application fees.

Comments

[ragnus.livejournal.com]

Can you duplicate recommandations or do they have to be specific for each aschool?

[nibot.livejournal.com]

I'm using the Berkeley Letter Service (http://career.berkeley.edu/Letter/Letter.stm), so I just pay them $5 and they send copies of my letters of recommendations to the department of my choice. Pretty good scheme — I wish I started using it earlier. I would probably have applied to tons more places. Asking for letters of recommendation was probably one of the main limiting factors that prevented me from applying everywhere. That and application fees and the time required to put together an application. It takes me about a day to put together a graduate application. Not a full day, but I think I'd go bonkers if I tried to do more than one in a day. After doing the first one, it's pretty easy — just print out transcript, CV, detailed description of research, and tinker with the personal statement to customize it for the department. I suppose the actual tinkering with the personal statement goes pretty quickly too, but it takes a few hours to read through the published information about a department to find what's interesting, what people are working on, etc.

[bobolly.livejournal.com]

You're PAYING good money for letters of recommendation?!?!? Unheard of!

[nibot.livejournal.com]

For the archiving, copying, and mailing of them, yes. Not for the writing!