neonshoes

For everyone posting lists of schools and asking if anyone has heard, please go to http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/ and use the search function to find the school. If it's not posted yet this year, none of us have probably heard. 

I was definitely in the rejected-across-the-board club for 2 years in a row!  And (not to toot my own horn, but facts are facts) I was a great applicant.  Great GPA, GRE scores, research experience, multiple presentations and publication, etc.  I was even told by most of the programs that I was a perfect applicant and would be a great fit.
 
But unfortunately it's much more than a numbers game- as much as people may want to ignore it, there's a huge amount of luck involved.  You have to be applying to the right program at the right time with the right credentials that has the right funding under the right adviser... and if even one of those things fails, you're screwed. 
 
Fortunately, 3rd time was the charm for me.  So don't lose hope, and while it's always important to identify your weaknesses and work to improve them, you also have to remember that sometimes, it's just not you.
 
Good luck, and keep your chin up.

So by your logic I should feel blessed with a third rated surgeon who failed anatomy but got into medical school because it is a "game". Also obviously I want a loser "psychologist" who "game" into grad school and somehow become licensed and I am suppose to trust that person with my mental health. Right.....

if you get rejected by that many places maybe you are not a very good student and would make a terrible psychologist. Please consider another career.

Being left on the side of the road by your girlfriend for what you insist was only "playful flirting".


ETA: now ex-girlfriend.

Waking up and realizing you're Justin Beiber?

University Of Southern California Developmental Psychology, PhD (F14) Rejected via Phone on 5 Mar 2014   5 Mar 2014
report spam Probably a good thing, seeing as I don't really like children...

"Computer, analyze grad school. A strange game, the only winning move is not to play."

this was up last week but was taken down pretty quickly, luckily I screenshot and configured it 
 

Repping the Canadian front!
 
A U of T Creative Writing rejection (via postal service) from 2009: "To ensure their rejection would land enough punch, they addressed me as Ms. instead of Mr."
 
A rejection for U of T Philosophy from 2007: "I don't want to become a Canuck anyway".
Ouch dude.
This other person (who, granted, got accepted) has the right idea (U of T Econ 2009): "Canuckonomist!"
Yah!
 
There's a playful little back-and-forth on the UBC page for Architecture from 2010.
One person with a rejection wrote something to the effect of: "Well, I guess I'll go with plan B and sell ice cream"
and then another rejected person wrote: "I will be joining my friend in their ice-cream selling endeavour". (Side note: that's not a bad plan B! Canada is cold, but we still like our ice cream!).
 
BUT THEN there's a late acceptance (April 2010) for Architecture at U of T where someone wrote only: "Does anyone want my ice cream truck?! I won't be needing it anymore!"
 
That's awesome! Nice to know that the story for at least one of those applicants had a happy ending!

Colorado State: "Apparently you don't even have to apply in order to be rejected from certain schools. What a cluster F it must be over there that they're emailing people who have simply requested information that they're 'rejected'."

"Fine! I'll go make my own geophysics department! With blackjack! And hookers!"

University Of California, Berkeley Physics, PhD (F14) - Rejected -
Told by email to check the website. Whatever, the place is full of Communists anyway




Lol

Haha, good point. Too bad they don't incorporate some flashing lights and cool sounds throughout the admissions application. Maybe even a bonus spin on a waived app fee?!?

"Alas, Harvard isn't ready for this jelly."

Why did you not get in? Maybe because sentiments like this: 
 
 
came through in your application, and they assumed you were too arrogant and just not good enough for a place. 

Dear arty13,
 
There are many reasons to conclude why you were not accepted, some include:
 
You are too much of a god damn idiot to realize GPA will affect your credibility in a graduate program. Even though many would agree that GPA is not the best indicator of success, you honestly weren't smart enough to just go with it anyway for the sake of your future. Smart people realize this, and thus have secured their spot in your intended program at Berkeley. You managed to convince the PI at Berkeley that you're a little shithead without realizing it. You applied to only one graduate program. You assume anyone at Berkeley gives a shit about what you have done in comparison to what you will do with them. Noone wants to get headaches from working with a god damn pirck all day, whether or not he/she is right sometimes. I have (as I assume many here have) concluded that you likely have a severe case of autism; please get this checked out for the sake of everyone here.

All of this guy's posts are just full of gold:
 
"I demand full transparency!" "So the "I reject you because I can" response is not acceptable." "I am the customer and you are obliged to respond to my enquiries. " "I told the lecturer that I expected him to value my original work" "you can't do that to me" "I guess when they were reading my SOP, they thought it was too good to be true!" "So I am genuinely interested to see if there are more people like me out there who understand the true meaning of higher education."   Thanks for the entertainment, OP. Please keep posting.

I'm with efs001 on this. I'm not sure what you intend to get out of the grad school pursuit; there seems to be a mis-alignment of expectations.
 
Many parts of the grad school enterprise are characterized by collaboration. To be successful in apps, you need to establish both what you can contribute and what resources you will draw upon to grow and thrive.
 
The attitude that you are a customer and the institution is providing a service does not establish this.
The attitude that you are arriving as a complete package that they should be grateful to have and the biggest thing they can do for you is provide access to equipment does not establish this either.
 
Your anecdote about bringing your own reading materials to class actually makes me cringe a little bit.
 
If what you've conveyed above is indicative of what you wrote in your app, then I think you needn't bother anyone at the institution to itemize why your application was unsuccessful. Perhaps you should view your experience with this application process as an exercise in ascertaining that your expectations/ideologies are not compatible with the program. You might be best served sticking with the private sector pursuits.

So I have recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (honors). My CGPA was not exceptional (3.38 out of 4.0), however I won the best student and the best project awards from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (UK) and I was also selected as the best student in the engineering department. I am the type of guy who refuses to copy the assignments or cheat/ memorize for the exam. If I don't enjoy it, I refuse to listen to the lecture. Grades are useless anyway. I have spent most of my time in the lab doing research on my own for over 4 years now. 
 
I have published 3 ISI Q1 papers as the corresponding author (in the field of nanomaterials), and I have 6 more under review (all as corresponding author). I am also a referee for several high-ranking international journals in Materials Science. 
I have won a number of international design awards and my works have been featured on USA Today, NBC News, ABC News, The Economist, Daily Mail, CS Monitor, etc. I have co-founded a company with a former CFO of Nokia and a former senior executive at Qatar Airways in which I also serve as the CTO.
 
Since my senior year, I have been also appointed as a research fellow (same ranking and salary as an associate professor in our University). As part of my work, I co-supervised (and still do) PhD students (yeah, undergrad supervising PhD students!).
 
Anyway, I am the first person to have synthesized this new material that was predicted to exist some 20 years ago. Think of graphene, but superior in every aspect, especially when it comes to industrial scale applications. We are still working on some of the details before we publish the results. One of my collaborators, a professor in Taiwan used to do his post-doc at UC Berkeley and he convinced me that I should apply for a PhD, so I can use the high-tech equipment at LBNL and make things go faster. So he introduced me to the professor. The professor said that he is going to take 2-3 students this year and depending on the outcome of my application, we need to talk more about my works. 
 
I had 3 very positive recommendation letters; one from that professor who was a former post-doc, another from my collaborator who is a research director at CNRS and lastly, my former supervisor and colleague who is an associate editor for one of the leading journals in the field of ceramic and composite materials.
 
I received a rejection letter yesterday from Berkeley. How on earth do you justify that? They say in their decision letter that there are so many other well-qualified candidates and I cannot be recommended for admission. I talked to the professor and he said that he was not part of the committee this year and he is very sorry. 
 
Is UC Berkeley located on another planet inhabited by highly intelligent species and comparatively, I'm actually very dumb?
No, seriously. Who makes these decisions anyway? I demand full transparency!
 

I'm not 100% sure what you intend to get out of going to graduate school.  You sound like you have an impressive background in research but you come across as a bit egotistical.  Graduate school applications are full of extremely intelligent people from around the world, applying for very few spots.  I've been there, I was a strong student in high school and got into a very good university for college.  I went from being a big fish in a small pond to a little fish in a big pond.  Everyone I went to school with was very smart.  Applying for grad school, you might have become a big fish in your big pond but you're trying to get into a lake. The people are just as smart as you and they're fighting for those few spots.  If getting a PhD is something that you really want to do, I would recommend asking Berkeley how you can improve your application for next year.  I'd also apply to a lot more programs because you will inevitable not be a proper fit for some programs.  That might even be the case with Berkeley.  But if you're in it just to use the equipment, you're better off just getting a job in a lab.

I demand full transparency because 1) Berkeley is a public university which is funded by taxpayers' money. So the "I reject you because I can" response is not acceptable. They need to provide equal opportunity based on merits. I am not seeing that here. There are very clear rules and regulations. They asked for a minimum CGPA of 3.0 and a general GRE (no minimum score required). I look at university application as a kind of peer review. If you reject me, you need to give convincing reasons. If you claim that there are more qualified candidates, you shouldn't have any problem disclosing the data (of course, not the private info, but what exactly do you mean by more qualified). 2) I paid an application fee. You are offering a paid service. I am the customer and you are obliged to respond to my enquiries. 
 
About the "I am better than this class" argument: I attended an Asian university, so believe me when I say that a large portion of or class had 4.0 CGPA. How did they manage to do that? I give you an example, we were taking a programming course. 50% of the marks were based on assignments. Virtually none of the students developed the algorithms and wrote the programs on their own. They simply got a copy from senior student and submitted it. They were kind enough to send me a copy as well. However I refused to do the same. I tried to develop my own program. It was only partially functional, but hey it was working. I got C+, everybody else got A. When I told the lecturer that I expected him to value my original work, he didn't care. Another example, we were taking an optimization course, I developed my own algorithm and achieved 96% correlation, everybody else copied the algorithm from the notes (developed by the professor). They got 99% correlation. I ended up getting A- and everybody else got A.One more:  In the Robotics class, my friend and I were the only people who actually solved the equations, rather than memorizing the answer. We never managed to finish answering 8 questions in 1 hour (even the professor knew there were too many questions, so he actually gave the answer a week before so everyone could memorize). Everybody else got A, we got B. I don't regret any of this. Now if you think i am arrogant, well good for you. I believe in doing science in a meaningful and productive way. I was nearly getting an F for not following the lecturer's instructions in a class. He taught us only basic HTML and CSS, I used advanced Javascript and AJAX in my website. He told me I was trying to make him look bad in front of the class! Is that how we are educating our students nowadays? We want them to be mindless slaves? Call me a bad "student", but you can't do that to me. 
 
About SOP and LOR: It's not applicable here. As I said, I only applied because the professor was interested in my work and his collaborator/ ex-post-doc invited me to. Besides, in all my papers, I am the corresponding author. LOR normally applies to those who have been working in a group as a student, so they need some sort of endorsement from the PI in the group. In my case, I was the PI myself and I have students. 
 
I only applied to 1 program because I already have 2 jobs (paid scientist by day, unpaid entrepreneur after working hours). PhD is only a title which is already carried by millions of people. I was only hoping to have easy access to the equipment. I even offered to bring my own funding for a joint research project. 
 
I guess when they were reading my SOP, they thought it was too good to be true!

..you mistake a professor for a graduate student at dinner and ask him who he works with. And he responds "with myself." So embarrassing.

..when you have to send the following mail to four universities after you submit the online application.
 
   
Two let me submit a new SoP, one attached it to my application, and one never got back. I hope this doesn't hurt my chances...