How long does it take to get all of your application materials ready?

Anybody with experience applying?

I gave myself about 4 months. Sometimes transcripts and such get "misplaced" or there's a huge fee to have them sent . You never know what could happen. If all your records are in 1 to 2 towns I'd say 3 months. Longer if they are out of state or across state.

Good Luck!!

Recommendations. Get those in the pipeline as soon as possible. It's one thing for you to pull an all-nighter filling out forms and polishing your personal statement, but to miss the deadline and not get in because a professor didn't do the recommendation, or didn't do it on time (and it happens all the time -- voice of experience) would be heartbreaking. So get that going, give them a deadline WELL ahead of the real deadline and have a backup ready just in case.

Also consider time to study for any tests you need to take.

It also depends on how much time you have to work on this. If you're working full time plus taking classes, or can only work on this after you put the kids to bed, 4 months is probably conservative. If you are a student and have time free during the day, it sounds like plenty from where I'm standing!

Basically, I would say start now and do a little but at a time. It couldn't hurt to be early. You always discover things along the way that take a week here, a week there, like letters you need to send off for, or people who are hard to get a hold of. (People even go on leave, get sick etc. So don't assume the person you NEED is just going to be there in Jan.) If that week happens at the end, it becomes a huge deal. And that's also when everybody will be flooding the same office with requests, so it will take 2 weeks, so you might have a problem. Answer that question in Nov., not Feb., and it's a tiny problem, not a big one.

It's what I've been doing.

Good luck, Ted.

Recommendations. Get those in the pipeline as soon as possible. It's one thing for you to pull an all-nighter filling out forms and polishing your personal statement, but to miss the deadline and not get in because a professor didn't do the recommendation, or didn't do it on time (and it happens all the time -- voice of experience) would be heartbreaking. So get that going, give them a deadline WELL ahead of the real deadline and have a backup ready just in case.

Also consider time to study for any tests you need to take.

It also depends on how much time you have to work on this. If you're working full time plus taking classes, or can only work on this after you put the kids to bed, 4 months is probably conservative. If you are a student and have time free during the day, it sounds like plenty from where I'm standing!

Basically, I would say start now and do a little but at a time. It couldn't hurt to be early. You always discover things along the way that take a week here, a week there, like letters you need to send off for, or people who are hard to get a hold of. (People even go on leave, get sick etc. So don't assume the person you NEED is just going to be there in Jan.) If that week happens at the end, it becomes a huge deal. And that's also when everybody will be flooding the same office with requests, so it will take 2 weeks, so you might have a problem. Answer that question in Nov., not Feb., and it's a tiny problem, not a big one.

It's what I've been doing.

Good luck, Ted.

Thanks for the tips! That's a good call about the tests, those might not be available to take whenever I get around to it.

About the references. What's your experience w/ them? Did most places you look at have reference "forms" you had to get filled out? Or were just letters of recommendation good enough? Does it matter if they are a few years old?

It varies with the school. Some still require paper letters, some have it all online.

But there is always, that I'm aware of, a page or two of a checklist that the referee needs to fill out with specific questions about your fitness for study in this kind of program, your emotional maturity, written expression etc. Then they attach a letter. The school usually tells you exactly who they want it to be from, "2 from professors and one from an employer or supervisor" or whatever.

So they need to be new. Not just because they have to fill out the form, but if the letters were written to recommend you for anything else than this program, they won't get the job done.

I'd take a look at the schools you're applying to. The forms (even you file online!) will definitely be ready (or even if they're last year's they're pretty darn close). Look at them closely.

It's really easy to overlook something when there are a million little popup windows and supplemental forms. I advise you to print it all out even if you are filing online. I nearly had a disaster because I missed one tiny little sentence in tiny type on a supplemental form, but because I printed everything out and was compulsively going over everything early, I caught it in time to do something about it. I swear sometimes it's a test to see if you can follow directions.

My bad experience was a long time ago I had a professor who had a heart attack while on sabbatical and couldn't write the recommendations. But the department didn't know to tell me and it was a big mess and I cried. But it's OK now.

So, things happen. Be prepared.