“I see you shiver with antici…“

I’m finally done with my applications for graduate school. I’ve applied to six schools with programs in clinical and counseling psychology, as well as public health.

And now all I can do is wait and wait and wait….

As of the date I am writing this article, I’ve only heard back from the University of South Alabama who, to my excitement, has offered me an interview. This is great because it means I’m that much closer to an acceptance, not to mention I’m really good at interviews.

But after the interview I’ll have to wait and, well, you get the idea.

As anyone who has ever applied for anything can relate to, whether it is a job, college, graduate school, or a scholarship, it’s a relief to finally finish your application, especially when you have many of them. That relief allows you to relax, for a time.

But once it wears off, the symptoms of “application anxiety” set in. These include compulsive checking of inboxes and mailboxes, constantly asking everyone when you think you’ll find out, constantly getting asked by everyone if you’ve found out, and coming up with the worst possible scenarios for why your application may of not been seen. (For example, the mailman will get shot to death, the envelope will not seal, and the stamp will be in the wrong denomination.)

The best thing you can do, as counterintuitive and impossible as it sounds, is to try not to worry. As long as you put in your best effort, there’s really nothing left to do. Enjoy that! There’s a sort of terrifying freedom in not having any control. But that’s okay. Sooner or later, you have to find something out, whether it is good or bad, and once you do you can start to celebrate, or cope.

If waiting is really causing you major issues, then reach out to someone who might be able to tell you if your application was reviewed or give you a definitive answer as to when you will find out. Just don’t do it more than twice – once before they give you a date, and once after that date has passed.

So here’s hoping to hearing back from all my graduate schools soon, whether the answers are yes or no.

“…pation.”