cmjacob1 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I mean, perhaps you were owed something. It seems ridiculous to think that you got all of those accolades without working your ass of for them... Either way it sucks. Do you have the option of staying in your current program to do a PhD? No, I can't stay at my current program unless I change my entire research proposal. While it's a great place, none of the professors are taking on students in what I'm interested in. It's pretty geographically located and demography specific. Right now I'm looking at independent research grants and think-tank work. Oh, and I'm trying not to have a total melt down. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suerte Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Oh, and I'm trying not to have a total melt down. :-) right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socme123 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Well, I got my rejection from Northwestern today. So far I've been rejected at 8 out of 10 of my schools and I'm expecting rejections from the last two as well. (rejected from Princeton, Stanford, Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Northwestern and Wisconsin. Expecting formal rejections from Chicago and Yale soon) Northwestern was tough because I had received really excellent feedback from numerous professors, two of which went so far as to say that they were looking forward to me being there for the Fall semester. Receiving a rejection with no explanation after that is very confusing. I certainly wasn't expecting to get in everywhere, but I was expecting to at least get in somewhere! Just for morbid, self-pitying fun, here are my stats: Undergrad GPA in Political Science and Sociology from an Ivy - GPA 3.8 Masters from an Ivy in Sociology - GPA 4.0 GRE Verbal: 750 GRE Quant: 800 GRE Analytical: 6.0 4 years of international development and government funded sociology research 3 peer reviewed publications during grad school over 20 awards, scholarships and research grants during undergrad, grad and post-grad excellent recommendations from professors with ties at most of the universities I applied to contacted people at all schools I applied to and received favorable responses from all I've worked very hard to succeed in academia and I thought I had a really good shot at most of these schools. Maybe I was too arrogant in thinking I would be admitted. OMG. Are you 100% sure your recommendations were 100% positive? Because otherwise this makes absolutely no sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmjacob1 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 OMG. Are you 100% sure your recommendations were 100% positive? Because otherwise this makes absolutely no sense. well, no. I guess my recommenders might have said negative things, but I have good relationships with them, I can't think of what they would say, unless they didn't think I was ready for doctoral work. it is possible that they might have been bad recs. that's hard for me to think about though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringo2009 Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 well, no. I guess my recommenders might have said negative things, but I have good relationships with them, I can't think of what they would say, unless they didn't think I was ready for doctoral work. it is possible that they might have been bad recs. that's hard for me to think about though! Sorry it didnt work out for you so far cmjacob. Its tuff and feel free to complain and vent, it will help to clear your head and get a game plan together for your next steps. Because one thing is clear you are a hard worker and probably not a quiter. What I would suggest is once the application seasons blows by, if in fact you dont get any positive responses. Reach out to the Grad Directors at one or two of the schools you applied to and ask to meet with them or have a phone conversation about your application. It will give you a little certainty as to why you were not selected and perhaps help to give you a little more direction in planning next steps. Some of the greatest academics in the world have not succeede their first time around, but went on to greatness! socme123 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlito Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Sorry it didnt work out for you so far cmjacob. Its tuff and feel free to complain and vent, it will help to clear your head and get a game plan together for your next steps. Because one thing is clear you are a hard worker and probably not a quiter. What I would suggest is once the application seasons blows by, if in fact you dont get any positive responses. Reach out to the Grad Directors at one or two of the schools you applied to and ask to meet with them or have a phone conversation about your application. It will give you a little certainty as to why you were not selected and perhaps help to give you a little more direction in planning next steps. Some of the greatest academics in the world have not succeede their first time around, but went on to greatness! This is great advice. There is something wrong out there in your applications...Your stats are stellar, you said you had fit. It must recs I guess, even though it seems weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoobers Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 (edited) Though it's hard to believe, I don't think you can rule out the possibility of bad luck. Usually, applicants with really stellar stats still get rejected from about half the top schools they apply for--and usually it's very hard to predict which schools those would be. This is a tough year, so the rejection rate is probably higher--so let's say the top applicants get rejected from 2/3rds of the top schools choices. So, we can say that, on the average, your probability of getting into any given top department with excellent stats this year was 0.33. That means that (assuming iid) we should expect 0.66^10 = 0.015 top applicants to still get rejected from all 10 schools they apply for by chance alone. You might just be that unlucky 1 in a 100. Another possibility is that a bunch of those schools thought you were certain to get into Harvard, Princeton, or other departments they did not think they could compete with. So, they might not have given you offers simply because they thought that you were very unlikely to go there. Under this logic, the number of departments considering you seriously would be even fewer, and so the chance of a purely random rejection would be higher. Either way, you should most certainly try again next year. Edited February 25, 2011 by hoobers Poppet 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsoc Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 So is it safe to say that having not heard anything from NYU=rejection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roll Right Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Rejected from Notre Dame and Northeastern today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmjacob1 Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Sorry it didnt work out for you so far cmjacob. Its tuff and feel free to complain and vent, it will help to clear your head and get a game plan together for your next steps. Because one thing is clear you are a hard worker and probably not a quiter. What I would suggest is once the application seasons blows by, if in fact you dont get any positive responses. Reach out to the Grad Directors at one or two of the schools you applied to and ask to meet with them or have a phone conversation about your application. It will give you a little certainty as to why you were not selected and perhaps help to give you a little more direction in planning next steps. Some of the greatest academics in the world have not succeede their first time around, but went on to greatness! thank you very much, this is very kind and thoughtful advice. it actually does make me feel better too. i really appreciate that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsoc Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Rejected from Notre Dame and Northeastern today. Yikes, two in the same day is rough. Have you heard any acceptances? I was rejected rather unsurprisingly by Yale yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roll Right Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Yikes, two in the same day is rough. Have you heard any acceptances? I was rejected rather unsurprisingly by Yale yesterday. No I haven't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamart24 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Rejected from Stanford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Rose Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Well, I got my rejection from Northwestern today. So far I've been rejected at 8 out of 10 of my schools and I'm expecting rejections from the last two as well. (rejected from Princeton, Stanford, Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Northwestern and Wisconsin. Expecting formal rejections from Chicago and Yale soon) Northwestern was tough because I had received really excellent feedback from numerous professors, two of which went so far as to say that they were looking forward to me being there for the Fall semester. Receiving a rejection with no explanation after that is very confusing. I certainly wasn't expecting to get in everywhere, but I was expecting to at least get in somewhere! Just for morbid, self-pitying fun, here are my stats: Undergrad GPA in Political Science and Sociology from an Ivy - GPA 3.8 Masters from an Ivy in Sociology - GPA 4.0 GRE Verbal: 750 GRE Quant: 800 GRE Analytical: 6.0 4 years of international development and government funded sociology research 3 peer reviewed publications during grad school over 20 awards, scholarships and research grants during undergrad, grad and post-grad excellent recommendations from professors with ties at most of the universities I applied to contacted people at all schools I applied to and received favorable responses from all I've worked very hard to succeed in academia and I thought I had a really good shot at most of these schools. Maybe I was too arrogant in thinking I would be admitted. your stats are good, but the thing is, all the schools you applied to are very competitive, and pretty much all those who got in have similar stats. i am sure you would get into any second tier school though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roll Right Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Rejected from Vanderbilt. Three left, Boston University, George Mason University, and Baylor University. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heathenist Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Rejected from Vanderbilt. Three left, Boston University, George Mason University, and Baylor University. Got my Vanderbilt rejection a little while ago. Oh well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smaturin Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I'm still waiting for my rejections from Chicago and Columbia. I've seen rejections and acceptances posted to both on the results page. Why can't they just tell me I'm out so I can accept another offer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yaotai Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I contacted the professor that I had been corresponding with and she gave me the bad news. I know they already sent out their acceptances but if you're holding out for a waitlist offer there's probably still hope. I was just told that "the department was unable to support your application this year." I hope others have better luck! My UCLA status has not changed, which displays as "To date, no decision has been made on your application"... anyone has the same situation as me? so...it looks like I'll receive the rej soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Allen Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 My UCLA status has not changed, which displays as "To date, no decision has been made on your application"... anyone has the same situation as me? so...it looks like I'll receive the rej soon yeah, I'm in that boat too. I heard from two separate sources that they already sent out their acceptances (it could just be their first round though, who knows) so the best we can except is a waitlist. A prompt rejection is evidently too much to ask for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smarmie Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 (edited) So I got rejected from Cornell, which was my dream school, on Tuesday morning. I spent the day being all depressed and trying to act like I was interested in what they were trying to teach me in my classes. Today I got an email from my POI at Cornell apologizing that she didn't get a chance to email me before the adcom did. In her email she said that she was very disappointed that I had not been accepted to the program and that she had supported my application and had looked forward to working with me. She went on to say that my application had been in the top group but they were only able to admit 5 people this year. I'm sure she sent this email to make me feel better or something but honestly it made me feel a lot worse. Edited March 11, 2011 by smarmie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred1989 Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 Rejected from Duke (my first preference). I am pretty sad about it as I wanted to study at Duke with my best friend (aside from Duke being my outright top choice for academic reasons). Oh well, I guess rejections aren't solely about the strength or weakness of an application, but about the availability of academic supervision, whether or not the people who read one's writing sample like it, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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