Plan accordingly

I'm a big post-apocalyptic movie and book geek. So this was the first image I thought of when I wrote the subject line of this post "plan accordingly."

Because I did NOT plan accordingly, I was only able to apply to two schools - Long Island University and Touro College. By the time I had enough prerequisites, it was Dec 2011 and the application due dates had passed for most of the major schools. If I had just quit my job 6 months earlier and started my prerequisites then, I would have had enough completed to apply in the Fall 2010 for Summer/Fall 2011 admission for several more schools.

Know the timeline for PT applications. Start your personal essay early. Trust that the mail system will let you down and your transcript will get lost in the abyss. Build a lot of cushion into the application process.

Plan accordingly.