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>