Applying to any graduate program can be a long, stressful, sometimes tear-inducing journey. It takes a lot of time and preparation to make sure you’ve done everything the program requires, and to make sure your application stands out from the rest. Sometimes it doesn’t always end up in our favor, but we can’t help but try our best. In an effort to laugh through all of the painful, funny, and exciting aspects of applying to grad school (and to procrastinate my own application), here is what applying to graduate school is like, as told by gifs from The Office!
Trying to find a program that’s a perfect match
When you see how many prerequisites you need
And when you realize you need more extracurricular activities on your application
Using those extracurricular activities to show how versatile you are
Trying to fit everything in your Statement of Purpose and stay within the word count
When the application due date starts getting closer
After sacrificing your social life, sleep schedule, and sanity to make sure everything on your application is perfect
Nailing your interview
When you find out how many other people have applied to the same program as you
When you’re waiting to find out if you were accepted
And when you finally get the acceptance/rejection letter
If you got accepted
If you got rejected
But there’s always next year
If you’re in the process of applying to grad school, I wish you the best of luck and I completely sympathize with you! If you aren’t applying to grad school but still read this article, hopefully it didn’t scare you away from considering applying to one.