Applications

My friend Dave told me that he was happy if he could do one application per week. I thought that since I had a fair amount of time to dedicate that I should be able to do them at least that fast. As it turns out, the more time you have, the more you spend. I've submitted two applications and each has taken me 60-80 hours.

Applications consist of applications, referrals, transcripts, interviews (on site) and essays. Essays alone are likely to take 20-30 hours, especially if you've not written in a while like myself. Getting warmed up to write something meaningful took me 3 days. Writing took me two days and then revisions are seemingly endless. There's no such thing as a perfect essay. Too many "I believe" phrases then too many "I hope" statements... argh!

The hardest part about essays is keeping them short. Can you say everything you want people to know about you in one page? It reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle.