Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The Great Apping Season

Here we are.. GRE long over , it is time for the horrendous process of apping to begin.. actually it already has begun torturing me day and night. The only solace I have is also not certain. If (and I must say it is a big if) I get into a good university with sufficient funding I can probably justify all the sleepless nights writing a SOP (Statement of purpose, for those who don't know). I have always considered myself capable of reading simple instructions about filling the forms. But no, this is not the case for filling out all the online appliactions. Its scary I don't know why but it is. The whole graduate studies thing is over hyped, and rightly so, because it is a big deal for many and for me too.

Coming back to the process of Apping, its not just the SOP , you have to write a diversity essay, an accomplishment essay, an essay justifying why the university would give u a few thousand dollars of funding fro their pool... but am I complaining? Well yes, I did complain for a long long time but I think I have settled. Almost settled that is. I can't stop cribbing, its one of my characteristic, without it I wouln't feel like I have worked at all. Ya, the process of apping, I have become used to it. The last minute scramble to do everything ranging from sending packets, sending ETS scores , organizing letters or recommendation to actually uploading the SOP which single handedly has the potential to make or break your chance of studying at an International university is dreadful.

Everyday I come back from office, switch on the laptop, stare at my statement of purpose and think of ways making it better which include evrything from looking at different SOPs, to bugging friends (which I doubt someday will stop them from being my friends), to bugging any person who I know can help me making my sop better , to improving it myself and then discarding all the changes. Its confusing and frustrating and something you cannot do without. So, the point in writing this post is nothing, its just one of the ways for me to complain on a much larger level...

P.S. Its not that bad as I have made it sound, I tend to dramatize things a bit sometimes :)