Dropping applications late in the game?

Graduate School
1

<p>I’m applying to school psych PhD programs this year. So far, I have 14 interview invitations (1 of which I will likely have to drop due to scheduling issues)–including one post-interview waitlist. Other than that, I have two formal pre-interview rejections, and 10 I haven’t heard back from regarding interview invitations (two of those don’t interview). Two of the eight that interview have already sent out interview invitations, so it’s unlikely–though not impossible–that I’ll be getting invites there. Interviews in my field generally run from mid-January to the first week of March, usually on Fridays. I have two Fridays “open” at this point.</p>

<p>I have two programs with February deadlines that I have been planning to apply to. One’s definitely near the top of my list, and I will certainly apply there. The other one is a pretty good fit and is a very good but very competitive program. Letters of Recommendation have already been requested and sent in and transcripts are ready to mail. I’m wondering if I should go through with the latter school. On one hand, seeing that I haven’t actually been admitted any programs, I want to maximize my chances; on the other hand, the process is expensive, and I’ve already gotten a lot of conflicting interview dates.</p>

2

<p>Surely you aren’t a good fit with nearly 30 programs??</p>

3

<p>Fourteen interviews – and you want to apply to more schools? To me, that sounds like overkill. I advise applying to additional schools ONLY if there’s a good chance you would rather go there than to the places where you’ve already been invited. By my count, you’ve already applied to 26 programs. That’s a heckuva lot!</p>

<p>Based on your interview requests, you know that you have a solid application, LORs, and SOP. I would concentrate on your interviews, not on more applications.</p>

4

<p>^
Actually, I just got really lucky with POI “fits” and so was able to apply to a lot schools, which is odd considering that my research interests are pretty “niche.”</p>