I was swiftly and punitively rejected for admission for the PhD at my host institution back on Jan. 27th. They met the previous Wed, and I got the email on Monday morning 1/27 at 9 am. Although I received a very nice long letter from the Chair indicating I could contact him to discuss, I have put this off.
I think I am still licking my wounds over it a bit since I was told that to be successful in academia, you must get papers accepted to conferences, publish papers and identify/obtain funding for your research. So, I put my head down into it as an M.A. and am about to publish in a top peer-reviewed journal, got a paper accepted to ICA's Health Communication Division for presentation in May in Seattle and identified $50,000 in funding that I could apply for towards my intended dissertation topic.
Today, I found out that I was also declined admission to the only other program I applied. Because I am "geographically challenged" I could only apply to two institutions.
To make matters even more interesting, I just received an email this morning from one of my professors asking me if I know of anyone or would be interested in adjunct teaching a class at my host institution. The fact that I graduated in December and have not been accepted into their PhD program also leaves me out in the cold regarding the travel funding to get to ICA, so must foot the bill myself. And, yes, it was accepted as a sole student authored paper. I'm going anyway, because it would be a good experience to present my research and I would get to see Seattle. So, doesn't it seem strange that they seem to be saying, "You were good enough for our M.A. program, but you're not good enough to be accepted into our PhD program, but we think we might like to hire you to be one of the faculty?!
I have run this by two current professors in this field at other institutions and they are quite astounded and confused by it as well.
However, right now, I would really like to hear from others in the field regarding this very unique situation. Because, clearly I am pondering whether to even continue down the academic path and re-attempt for Fall of 2015, or just chalk it up, move on and get a real job far away from this seemingly political mess.
Thanks for any input you can give me.