A Show of Who’s With and Behind the Times
I finished making my application checklists this afternoon while I went around and accessed (or attempted to) all of the applications. A few things to note: Stanford’s online app system was down, so I have to go back tomorrow in order to create my profile there. USC’s application only provides one blank for a program to apply to, so since there are two different ones I’m interested in there, I’m most likely going to be in contact with them sometime this week about what to do. Carnegie Mellon has no centralized application system, but instead directs people to the individual program/school websites. The Entertainment Technology Center prefers a completely paper-based application procedure, the only one of the four school like that. Finally, the Guildhall at SMU can’t code a website to save it’s life, but I think everything should be in order there.
Overall, the grad school application process seems a lot less well defined than undergrad does. Maybe that’s because they expect grad applicants to not need as much “hand holding”, maybe I just have a skewed view since the only school I actually applied to was UTD. Either way, I’m definitely glad that I’m starting now so that whatever happens down the road, a time crunch hopefully shouldn’t be in the cards.