PPAC: Zero Interviews to Six

This is the community packet. This is where you interview with a few professors from your college and they write a packet letter for your application. It also allows allows you to ask your references to send their letter to be filed in with community packet coordinator months in advance. This sounds like a minor deal but the number one reason I recommend this is that it enables you to submit everything on the very first day the application is available. YOU WANT TO SUBMIT ASAP. Finishing your application a month after the application opens up means that hundreds of interview spots from your school of choice have already been sent out. It was called a PPAC at my school and my PPAC advisor collected my letters of reference and packet letters months before I needed them. The letter of reference can set you back a month or so if your professor is busy. You would be surprised how many LOR requests a professor gets and how much you need to hassle them. The first time I submitted my application it was over two months late since I was waiting on ONE LETTER. Needless to say, I did not get a single interview. The following year, with a PPAC, submitting on day one, I received six interviews out of the nine I applied to.

This is seriously a big deal. The PPAC coordinator collects all of you reference letters, community letters and evaluations and compiles it into one PDF and allows you to submit your application on day one.