ma7eb4i

I am applying for neurosciences and have not gotten a single interview invitation. Based on the jamming Results Page full of neuroscience folk getting positive, I have the sinking feeling that I didn't get in anywhere. Hang in there. I'm trying to tell myself it's not the end of the world and that there's always next year. Not that that's helping terribly much. *sigh* The really horrible thing is that the pessimism is leaking into other arenas of my life.

I currently actually have the rare job where I have the opposite.

Stranger: "So what do you do for a living?"
Me: "I'm a research tech in an exotic animal reproductive physiology lab."
Stranger: .....
Me: "Yes. It's everything you're thinking about and then some."

I am applying for neurosciences and have not gotten a single interview invitation. Based on the jamming Results Page full of neuroscience folk getting positive, I have the sinking feeling that I didn't get in anywhere. Hang in there. I'm trying to tell myself it's not the end of the world and that there's always next year. Not that that's helping terribly much. *sigh* The really horrible thing is that the pessimism is leaking into other arenas of my life.

I have gotten 3 official rejections, 1 unofficial rejection, and I have gotten no interview invitations (kiss of death for neuroscience programs). It looks like I got rejected across the board.

How I am dealing with it: ice cream, work, some TV (I almost never watch TV), A LOT of hiking. Just keep on going. Do the things you like and have fun with. It hurts, but life goes on.

Good luck to you!

I have gotten 3 official rejections, 1 unofficial rejection, and I have gotten no interview invitations (kiss of death for neuroscience programs). It looks like I got rejected across the board.

How I am dealing with it: ice cream, work, some TV (I almost never watch TV), A LOT of hiking. Just keep on going. Do the things you like and have fun with. It hurts, but life goes on.

Good luck to you!

I have gotten 3 official rejections, 1 unofficial rejection, and I have gotten no interview invitations (kiss of death for neuroscience programs). It looks like I got rejected across the board.

How I am dealing with it: ice cream, work, some TV (I almost never watch TV), A LOT of hiking. Just keep on going. Do the things you like and have fun with. It hurts, but life goes on.

Good luck to you!

Apologies about the moaning and groaning, but.....whiskey-tango-foxtrot?!
Does anyone else that applied through Stanford Biosci think that the $125 application fee was really fracking steep? On top of that, they requested two official sets of transcripts thus adding another $20 to the cost (I won't even go into a rant about class bias in having such a high fee). To add insult to injury, it took them an ENTIRE WEEK after the application deadline to update on my login page that they had, indeed, received my official transcripts and GRE scores. All the while, I was freaking out, e-mailing, and calling them. They didn't answer a single e-mail or phone call, and their voicemail for the contact number was full.

Is it unreasonable for me to think that paying a $125 application fee should buy me the courtesy of some notification that there was a processing delay on their part? The website said that everything should have been entered within two business days of submission. I'm starting to get the feeling that Stanford is a school where I just won't ever hear anything from them again.....not even a gosh darn rejection e-mail. Just dreaded Limbo. Grrr....

For those that didn't get interviews, I've found that calling or e-mailing in and asking about weaknesses in your application to be extremely helpful. Not to hound about admissions, but to inquire about how a future application might be improved. Things I have learned:

- Be careful about listing potential advisors in your SoP. At one school, it looks like listing faculty with only secondary appointments in neuroscience (despite those faculty being listed on the Neuroscience website) hurt my application.

- Unexpressive letter writers can be misconstrued as being lukewarm. A lot of applicants have recommenders that will write effusive praise that is very clearly gushing. One of my letter writers sent me a copy (unsolicited, I waived). It was positive and used words like "impressed" and "highly recommend," but I was told in post-game analysis that the customary dryness of the recommender's writing style was unideal. Apparently, ebullience rather than clinicalness works in your favor. If you think one of your letter writers is dry, finding a fourth recommender is not a bad idea.

- Contacting potential advisors gets you out of the stack, but when the app hits adcom, everyone on the committee gets a say. If your potential advisor has a lot of heft in the department, it might get you further, but for the most part, it only does you good regarding the initial step.

- This year was a very difficult year for applying. While departments might normally take excellent students that don't exactly "fit"the department's major interests on potential alone, this year, things like fit were weighted more heavily than usual because of economic circumstances. This would also lead me to believe that a lot of programs plan to admit fewer students.

I have pretty good stats and am 0/6 this year. It's disappointing, but being stubborn and masochistic, I'm going to reapply next year. This was for Neuroscience programs so YMMV, but hope it helps.

Good luck to all!

Apologies about the moaning and groaning, but.....whiskey-tango-foxtrot?!
Does anyone else that applied through Stanford Biosci think that the $125 application fee was really fracking steep? On top of that, they requested two official sets of transcripts thus adding another $20 to the cost (I won't even go into a rant about class bias in having such a high fee). To add insult to injury, it took them an ENTIRE WEEK after the application deadline to update on my login page that they had, indeed, received my official transcripts and GRE scores. All the while, I was freaking out, e-mailing, and calling them. They didn't answer a single e-mail or phone call, and their voicemail for the contact number was full.

Is it unreasonable for me to think that paying a $125 application fee should buy me the courtesy of some notification that there was a processing delay on their part? The website said that everything should have been entered within two business days of submission. I'm starting to get the feeling that Stanford is a school where I just won't ever hear anything from them again.....not even a gosh darn rejection e-mail. Just dreaded Limbo. Grrr....