Growing piles of files

The general deadline of January 15 for our master’s-level programs is a week away, but more and more applications are ready to be reviewed by Admissions Committee members.  Even further along the preparation track are the PhD applications, which were due on January 1.  There’s a lot of material in those files — all the regular stuff, plus a dissertation proposal and a master’s thesis — and they’re definitely a challenge to carry around.  Peering out my door as I write, I can see a tower of these plump files, ready to go to the PhD Admissions Committee for review.  The two additional weeks are fully utilized — a lot of professors will have a look at the PhD files as they work their way through the process.

This week and next, we’ll receive multiple buckets of mail every day.  I hope readers will understand that it takes us time to process the mail, which involves opening it, matching it with an application (when the application is here already), and logging it in.  Until then, the application management system won’t know if your transcript/recommendation/whatever is in the office.  Please give us a couple of weeks before you panic.

I’m going to bring some applications home this weekend.  Might as well get some reading done now, and possibly free up a couple of hours in February!