“A” is for Application

Writers of Kern Blogging Challenge (A-Z)

I submitted my grad school application to groups of faculty and administration at a few schools in state this past year. I spent time double checking and triple checking the checklist of items needed to be submitted for consideration, and eventually mailed them all off at the same time while crossing my fingers for luck as I walked out of the local postal office’s door. I waited for a while, and heard back from the school that I was really hoping to attend. It was a short impersonal email rejecting me from entering into the school as a student without any in-depth explanation. I could have clicked out of the email and carried on with my life as a prospective student now excluded from the educational institution she really wanted to get into, but I didn’t. I put my dedication to use and inquired further about my situation.

I eventually stumbled on to another page that categorized the impersonal response from the university into reason codes for denying an applicant. According to the school, I apparently had not sent in all of the materials on my checklist that were needed, even though I remember sending everything in the post. I, of course, was upset, but I decided to take it a few steps further and call the graduate admittance office for some clarification.

I had kept my copy of the receipt with the tracking code on the package that I sent to the university and tried to locate where my future had landed. It was confirmed that the package arrived at the school, but it was nowhere to be found when I called the admissions office for answers.

I played phone tag and listened to holding music for a few hours looking for the explanation that was lacking from the impersonal email I received that day, but I managed to end up speaking with the graduate advisor I initially spoke to several months before for more advice. She too confirmed that my application materials were nowhere to be found and that there were options for reapplying/appealing an admissions decision.

The graduate advisor worked with me, and told me that I could resubmit the materials via email directly to her, so that she could get them over to the group of faculty and administration who would decide my fate. I managed to contact all of the professors I had asked to write a letter of recommendation for me and they agreed to help me resubmit the documents to the advisor. I resubmitted transcripts, my essay, test scores, my resume and work samples in such a state of panic, because for some reason the universe had attempted to take a dump on me and not let me properly apply for grad school, but I kept cool in front of staff and faculty hoping to win them over in a search for graduate students.

After experiencing the worst scenario for a prospective student to possibly have, I did end up getting accepted into the program, and just assumed the universe had a terrible sense of humor psyching me out like that. Thinking back on it now, it seems as though the situation also could have been an elaborate test for me to prove my ability to speak up, work hard and apply myself in order to reach my goals. Either that or the postal service messed up and just lost my package and said otherwise.