chemistrylife213

Thank you everyone for your replies and words of encouragement-- I felt pretty down after that messges, so your positive responses did truly help. Cup o'Joe-- thank you for your message as well. This program was in my field. With my phrasing there, I was just trying to indicate that some of the strongest schools in this discipline (at least, as far as the standard field specific rankings go) had accepted me, while this institution was indicating that I wasn't qualified to enter a PhD program without remedial work. Of course, any ranking system, should be taken with a grain of salt, but many people may see a difference between schools like Berkeley, UCSD, MIT, etc., and a smaller regional university. While certainly not all of the gradcafe results postings are accurate, my gpa and associated scores were at least a full std. dev above that which I looked at that were posted for this school. I have double majors in chem and EE and both have all of the requisite course work for PhD programs, though I only applied in one field. This is why I felt many of his choice of words were so hurtful, and I truly just did not understand. I do not think my gender plays a role at all in the response sent to me by the director (if I did-- that would be a completely different story). What I was trying to convey is that I think it's right to tell *anyone* that s/he is unqualified or can't follow simple instructions (as he inferred about the deadline), when that is not the case. In a field like EE where women earn far fewer PhDs (asee puts it at about 17%), I think that's especially a bad idea if you're trying to recruit women to the field-- which may or may not be the case for a department.

Hey everyone-- I had already made my graduate school decision when my husband and I received notice that his job might be changing locations permanently. The graduate school that I had previously accepted, (which I very much want to attend) was very sympathetic to my situation and let me know that they would support me regardless of my decision to remain in that area. They even offered to write me letters of introduction to other graduate programs for a late admission or a Spring start-- of which I have been so appreciative. My issue is this: I applied late admission to a school in the area where we might have moved, as it indicated on their website that although they had a preferred deadline, they considered all applications. I selected Spring admission, but mentioned that if Fall admission were available, I would be appreciative of being considered. Not more than 2-3 days passed by when I received an email from the graduate admissions director that really hurt my feelings. He told me that it was such a bad thing that I applied without asking him if I could first (even though the website said that I could!), and even if their classes were full I was definitely not qualified for admission. If I took additional courses and worked in the field more, then maybe they could consider me for provisional admission in the Fall. I did not want to go to this school initially; I only applied when it looked as though our family situation might change. However, the way that this director judged my abilities really hurt. I know that it might seem overly sensitive, but it felt as though he was just saying I wouldn't succeed in any graduate admissions. Regarding my application-- I previously applied to ten top 20 phD programs in my field and was accepted at 9 of those ten programs. I have a good GPA, conference publications, 4 years of intensive research experience, and additional teaching experience. I take great pride in my work, and even though I had achieved so much success in my application cycle (and been accepted by my number one choice), I was deeply hurt by this message from the other program's graduate director. I just sent a very brief reponse-- Thank you, please deactivate my file...essentially. I would never want to burn any bridges. But what really bothers me is--- what if that was the first school that I had tried to apply to? There aren't enough women in technical PhDs as it is-- why would someone think it's okay to respond in such a hurtful manner? Sure I know i need to have thick skin to succeed in academia-- but I think this applies where it's warranted, not to make others feel inadequate simply for the purpose of being rude?