frankdux

I just checked my email and I too just got rejected. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[seinfeld] What's the deal with this? [/seinfeld] i've called about 3 or 4 times and am always told "you should hear by the end of this week". LIES!!!

suck it up and take it like a man. you're not getting in. unless they literally told you to, "go fuck yourself for wasting our time", then a simply stated rejection letter is not worth blowing up over.

i believe the original poster's example of GRE scores was meant as an example of how ridiculous people sound by complaining about "low" GRE scores. I don't believe those were the OP's actual GRE scores.

I just had a telephone interview this morning. (and i was gonna make a thread about it too!) so yeah, i can't really tell at all. i kinda feel like i rambled a bit. but all in all, i answered all the questions. i think i made myself seem like a person with a unique perspective of life + school + work + worldly experience. but i dont know. i feel like i asked good questions as well. in the end i'd say the tone of the interview was something inbetween neutral and positive. at the program i'm applying to i do feel slightly "outclassed" when i look at some of the previous students but i also think i have a history of slightly doubting myself and slightly lowering my own standards. could i get some advice on 3 specific points from anyone else who's gone through an interview process: 1. the only thing that troubles me is when the professor asked me what other schools i was applying to, and i mentioned X university the professor said something like "oh, i know some people there and i hope you've gotten a chance to get in touch with them" (i can't recall the exact words but it was basically this with a neutral/positive tone). was this just a nice gesture wishing me success in all of my grad school endeavors? or was this a subtle indication of "best to look elsewhere cause your chances are slim here"? 2. the professor told me that if i had any further questions about the program that i should send him an email later on. is this a good sign? or merely a "courtesy"? 3. he also specifically discussed the april 15th deadline and indicated to me that this school makes decisions a bit late. i dont know if this was an indication that if i have an offer elsewhere to take it, or was he merely indicating that because the decision will be made late that i wouldn't have a lot of time to make a decision on multiple acceptances?

i used this book: http://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Admissio ... 911&sr=8-1 i guess i'll see how well it worked for me in the coming weeks. :wink: although i can say right away that a few of their suggestions seemed a bit gimmicky. the author recommends starting your essay with some sort of unique life experience that you should then tie into your graduate interests. perhaps easier said than done. the example essays provided start out with statements like "Seeing my father held up at gunpoint...", "Having earned a helicopter license by age 9 I decided to...", "By the time i entered 4th grade I had 3 patents and 2 more pending...". These are insane. Still, most of the advice in the book sounded very reasonable and justifiable.

^^^ the original poster said they DID have their interview weekends already. I too am waiting on one particular school that MUST have had interviews already, at least if past years are any indication of the timeline they are working on. are interviews typically ONLY for applicants a school is interested in? or are interviews often for borderline cases where they need more info from the applicant - and really good applicants are accepted without interviews?

i agree. but seeing as how others have gotten interviews already, i've pretty much been rejected. why can't they just tell the rejectees sooner?

i've sent two emails in two weeks and neither was responded to. quite odd. and i'm basically assuming rejection at this point, since i've heard no word of an interview.

what did you score on the verbal section?

i already have a masters in math education. i want to go back for a ph.d. in applied math (with a masters along the way) with the goal of being a professor. so i'd like to think that my first masters is closely enough related to the programs i am applying to so that they would see it as a positive. as if my first masters opened up my eyes to an even bigger possibility i've discovered for myself. my only concern is if they see that as me not really being sure what i want to do with my life. if i was trying to get into a ph.d. program in something completely unrelated, like say psychology or religious studies or something, then i think my first masters would probably count against me as making me look uncertain.

the JET experience is a total crapshoot with regards to almost everything; placement, living conditions, working conditions, responsibilities, & expenses. the only constants are the salary, health insurance, paid plane tickets, and the length of stay. with regards to the following: placement: you could be placed anywhere, but most likely in the middle of nowhere. this is because the big cities have opted out of JET and have gone with private companies instead. you can list 'preferences' on your application, but this is typically meaningless. people who pick okinawa might end up in hokkaido - happens all the time. people who pick 'urban' might end up in a town of 2,000 people. living conditions: this is set up for you before you arrive. accomodations range from dormitory style apartments with shared kitchens and bathrooms (kinda rare) all the way to 2 story houses just for one person. typically, the smaller the town the bigger the place you get. working conditions & responsibilities: you could be placed in a primary school, jr high, or high school. you could be at a very prestigious school or a school in complete shambles. you could be assigned legitimate teaching duties in which you are the teacher with a full 20+ class load a week, or you could be given less than 10 classes a week where you do nothing but recite some lines out of a textbook when the teacher asks you to. you might be asked to form an english club or you might be asked to coach a speech team. you might even be asked to come in on weekends and help with sports. however the JET contract is pretty standard across the board, you are only obligated to be at school 35 hrs a week, any more is optional. also, be aware that teachers have varying attitudes towards you. some are glad you are there to help, others may treat you as if you are worthless and may actually resent your presence. expenses: rent and bills vary. typically the smaller the town the cheaper your place will be. sometimes your school even pays part of your rent every month. basically rent ranges from FREE to up to $600 a month. usually the more rural, the cheaper the rent, and ironically the bigger the place. lots of people who live in incredibly small towns pay between 0-100 for a two story house. bills also vary. however, heat is more expensive in japan than america and houses and apartments arent insulated, unless you live in hokkaido, the northernmost prefecture. other bills are comparable to bills in america. salary is 3,600,000 yen a year. depending on the exchange rate, thats roughly $32,000. and japan is not as expensive as people say it is - unless you eat kobe beef steaks every night. by the time the year is over i should probably have saved over $8,000. i go to tokyo about one weekend a month. i live about 60 miles away so i can get there by bullet train in 40 minutes, or the regular cheaper JR line in about 90 minutes. tokyo is awesome - where i live really isnt. so i've been considering moving to tokyo next year and taking a less 'prestigious' english teaching gig (as well as a slight paycut) just so i can live in tokyo. its a lot more exciting and interesting and just a lot more fun. if you wanna kill a year and you dont care where you live in japan and dont really care if you are given a lot of work to do (it sounds more awesome than it actually is) and you wanna save a few grand then JET might be for you. if you wanna live in tokyo, osaka, kyoto, kobe or any other specific major city and you dont care too much about saving a ton of money, then go with a private english teaching gig.

in the fall of '06 i was in my final semester of a masters in math education and i was too busy student teaching to think about further grad school, however it was somewhere in the back of my mind. the following spring i took the general GRE and decided in the coming fall i would apply to go for a ph.d. in applied mathematics. in the meantime I joined the JET program and am currently teaching english in two high schools in japan. so when it came time to apply i actually only ended up applying to two schools which now seems incredibly stupid. but i just applied to 2 schools that really interested me that seemed within my reach that also didnt require the GRE subject test - which i prefered to avoid out of fear of bombing it. again, this was pretty stupid. if i am rejected from both schools i will take both the general gre (again) and the subject GRE and go back and apply to at least 7-8 schools next year. in the meantime i am debating whether or not to stay in japan for another year.

and isnt this why so many of us decide to continue on with our education. 8)

Answer the phone like Kramer by either picking up and saying "Go!" or by pretending to be MovieFone. Then, when asked about your research interests go off on a tangent about your friend Bob Sacamano. Also, you should take the call while in the middle of an hour long shower where you are preparing a meal for elaine and puddy.

STILL NO RESPONSE and its been 5 days since the woman said i should hear something in a day or two. :x what should i do?

ah ok. i understand. i submitted my application back in november i think. they just told me they start going over applications in late january. i know one of the other posters here just got an email about an interview tonight from the head of the department. so i'm expecting either an interview or rejection in the next few days. good luck!

sent out invitations to people who applied? if so, when? have you applied? if so, have you heard anything at all from the department since applying?

i have found NOTHING regarding last year's procedures. but the procedures in 2006 according to the 2 people on this site who posted info from then is that there were interviews in the last week of january and then acceptances given out in the first week of march. here's where i found that out: http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php ... na&t=a&o=p unless they changed their procedures and/or timeline i am leaning towards a rejection at this point since i haven't been contacted in anyway at all. in fact, in one of my emails with the graduate coordinator a few months ago, she said they would start looking at applications at the end of january (which would correspond to initial interviews at the end of january like in 2006) and i sent in my application back in november. however, if the two of you guys (i quoted you) also have not been interviewed or contacted by now and you are both very strong candidates and we dont feel that its likely that all 3 of us could have been rejected then perhaps they did in fact change their procedures. also, the woman lied to me when telling me they would contact me in a day or two. they have not contacted me and i kind of expected that too. additionally, this makes me lean even more towards rejection. wouldn't they want to contact their accepted students as soon as possible? isnt this about the time that acceptances and rejections should be rolling in?

why dont you do us both a favor and call and find out. that way we can figure this out by reason. 1. if we are both on "the list" then they probably don't tell people results over the phone. (since 3 or 4 of us on this board applied to the same program and no one has gotten results back either way) 2. if they tell you right away if you are or are not accepted instead of telling you that you are on "the list". then i'd most likely have the opposite result of you. (oh yeah, and i still haven't gotten an email back. the person said 1 or 2 days which would imply saturday. but do professors do this kind of stuff on saturdays?)

i prefer this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEbPq-pJTco

university of arizona, applied math i called earlier today to find out the status of my application. the lady on the end of the phone said "i see your name on the list. you should be receiving an email from the head of the department in the next day or two." i didnt have it in me to ask "what list is this? the acceptance list, the waitlist list, the rejections list?" UGGGHHHH!!!! if they dont give you an answer over the phone does that typically mean they dont give answers for any decision over the phone? or it was definitely rejection and they dont have it in them to give rejections over the phone? or did i misinterpret what she said and "the list" meant i am in? does an email from the head of the department typically mean something good? or do letters of rejection typically come from the head of the department as well? i'm gonna beat myself to death thinking about this over the next day or so. thoughts? comments? similar experiences to share? Thanks.

a 3.5 is still a competitive GPA. in fact, i've heard that 3.5 is unofficially the 'cutoff' for most competitive programs. do well in your last year and you should be ok for getting into some solid schools.

i went to Indiana University. majored in math. minored in astronomy. gpa 3.66. graduated may '02. i did one semester of community college AFTER in order to take some inexpensive computer science classes to beef up my resume and because i didnt really take any computer science classes in college. actually i took 1 java class as a requirement, but i couldnt remember a thing from that class. so i took 3 computer classes at this community college, got all A's. also, i'll admit it was because i still wasnt sure what i wanted to do with my life. (perhaps these extra A's boosted my gpa up to a 3.69 i think) afterwards, i worked full time for a year (as a manager at a Trader Joes) while deciding what career path i wanted to take. then i decided to go to UIC thinking i really wanted to be a high school math teacher. over the course of 3 years while going to school at the minimum full time level while working part time/full time at a Best Buy, i got an MST degree with a 3.64 gpa. it was a 74 credit program. i really liked going back to school and i took quite a few extra classes too. so i ended up graduating with 102 credits. i also took a few extra independent study math courses the summer before my final semester - the semester i did my student teaching. these extra courses seriously inspired me. i realized after the following semester of student teaching that i couldnt simply JUST teach for the rest of my life. i really liked learning mathematics on my own, as i was doing in my independent study courses over that summer. i realized that what would make me most happy was if i could learn math, do research in math, and teach math for the rest of my life. at the time i had reached this 'epiphany' it was too late to take the GRE (which i didnt need for my MST) and to apply for grad school. (this was around january of '07). so i decided to put it off for next year. in the meantime i had made plans to teach overseas for a year. which is what i'm currently doing. i am living in japan and participating in the JET program through the japanese ministry of education. i am currently teaching english at 2 high schools. (jetprogramme.org) in the spring of '07, before i went to japan, i took the GRE. i got 800Q , 480V :cry: , 4.5 A . i moved to japan to teach at the end of july. so this past fall, while in japan, i applied to just a couple schools back home. i told myself i'd only apply to the schools that had the exact interests in research that i do and those that are within my 'ballpark'. and if i didnt get in, i'd stick around in japan for another year - probably move to tokyo - and perhaps take over the GRE and apply to more schools next year. a part of me is now regretting only applying to just 2 schools, but since i still haven't gotten a response back i shouldnt start kicking myself yet. as for my letters of recommendation; 2 are from my independent study professors. both got their ph.d.s from ivy league schools, another is from my MST advisor who was also my teacher and my student-teacher advisor. she doesnt have a ph.d. but i've known her for 3 years and she knows me better than anyone else. in my statement of purpose i emphasized how i took many classes in my MST program and how i really enjoyed taking independent study courses and how those influenced me to want to continue on in my studies towards a ph.d. so that i may do research and teach for the rest of my life. i also mentioned my interests in mathematics with applications towards astronomy and how my interests alligned with the interests of the school's departments. so now for the input i ask of you: what do you think my chances are of getting into the applied mathematics departments at University of Arizona, and the University of Colorado? i am specifically interested in applied math with a concentration on interdisciplinary applications of mathematics towards astronomy/cosmology/physics. i'll be 28 years old next month. i already have one masters degree in a related subject. i have pretty good grades. i have some work experience, and some 'wordly' travelling-abroad experience. do i sound like a good ph.d. candidate to you?