Is this worth an update? (sorry for posting this)

[chaim123]

It's that time of year, and I'm looking for advice on whether to send an update or not. After interviewing in early September/October, I want to remind some schools that I exist. My update would contain:

• Grades for the fall semester
  
• New job (Kaplan instructor)
• Manuscript submitted
• Letter of interest / intent (for that one top school)

Unfortunately, I expected my paper to be accepted by now, but due to some complications it was just submitted this week. I highly doubt it will get accepted in time to let adcoms know about it. What does everyone think?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[halamadrid17]

1. They know you exist, they do not need reminding
2. Do these schools explicitly state they accept updates? If not, hell no, could really hurt your chances
3. You already interviewed, I’m not sure an update would change their minds drastically, but that’s just my two cents

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

The only substance to your update is the new grades, and they are only worth an update if they are significantly different from your current GPA. For example, if you have a 3.2 and got straight A's, then it's worth it, but if you already have a 3.9 then it's not worth it because your GPA isn't the reason you haven't gotten an acceptance.

 

[Welshman]

Manuscript submitted doesn’t mean anything unfortunately, the rest is probably good with the LOI

 

[chaim123]

Somehow the paper got accepted with a 3 week turn around time! What a world

Now I have a question - I sent in a few updates about 2 weeks ago. Just to some schools who hadn't given me an interview yet that I wanted to update on my life. Would it be worth it to send another update 2 short weeks later saying that the paper has been submitted?

 

[doc05]

Somehow the paper got accepted with a 3 week turn around time! What a world

Now I have a question - I sent in a few updates about 2 weeks ago. Just to some schools who hadn't given me an interview yet that I wanted to update on my life. Would it be worth it to send another update 2 short weeks later saying that the paper has been submitted?

Submitting a paper is nice, but doesn't substantially help. After all, I assume you'd already discussed your research involvement.

Now if you're accepted as a first author in a publication in Nature, or maybe if you've won a Nobel prize, then an update would be in order.