mb712

I think you guys are onto something. People with graduate degrees shouldn't just frame and hang degrees, they should also display rejection letters from graduate programs, journal rejections, grant rejections, etc.

Like a "look at all the crap I've had to deal with but I'm still here!" kind of message.

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

I think you guys are onto something. People with graduate degrees shouldn't just frame and hang degrees, they should also display rejection letters from graduate programs, journal rejections, grant rejections, etc.

Like a "look at all the crap I've had to deal with but I'm still here!" kind of message.

I've had a lot of people tell me that if you have something to counter a low quant score like methods/analysis training or even a stats class, it doesn't matter as much. There are some top tier schools that don't consider applicants who have poor GRE scores, but it sounds like you are avoiding those anyway.

My quant score was below 50% & I've been accepted to a very quant methods heavy polisci cognition program. I've also taken three methods classes and a stats class though, I believe that was my saving grace. I've also had a couple informal "interviews" with social psych faculty after they received my application, so my low quant score didn't automatically disqualify me at those places.

There's my anecdotal contribution. Hope it was helpful in some way.

Ah yeah, that's rough. Isn't it interesting how we feel so pressured to make an instant decision (whether it's necessary or not) even though we had to wait months for schools to make theirs? Ha.

Other than a straight up acceptance and straight up rejection, I've heard absolutely nothing from any other schools. It's driving me nuts. I would really like to plan my life now please.

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

Yeah, not enough methods training.

Yeah, not enough methods training.

Yeah, not enough methods training.

Yeah, not enough methods training.

I told someone last week I would prefer rejections from the rest of the schools I haven't heard from over having to wait around another two months not hearing anything. Obviously I would prefer acceptances but I think I still feel that way.

Totally, no one ever tries to get a visa to live and learn at "silly American schools"....
 
It is just so silly and not worth anyones time ever....
 
It has never happened, not even once.

The fact that you, and probably most of the people here, have assumed I'm a white male, or a male at all, probably from my choice of avatar, just goes to prove my point: you're stupid AND biased. Your judgments are made from incredibly stupid assumptions that have no basis in fact whatsoever. I don't mind pretending I'm a man in order to point out how biased you are against men. It's absolutely disgusting. You people need to open your eyes about your own personal problems. The reason I'm against bias is because I've been victimized by it in the workplace. But unlike most people, I don't think that reverse bias is any better. It's just as ugly. Peoople in a psychology forum should be a little more aware of their ignorant biases. I guess that's my own stupid assumption at work.

Can you please stop posting about "reverse discrimination" in the psychology forums? Last time you did this you received nothing but a negative response.

If you don't get into grad school, please don't tell us it's because you're a white male.

I am also a person who gets this inaccurate age-guessing. I'm usually 10-15 years older than people guess. And I do think it hurts my chances, because anyone who has researched genius knows the spark is most likely to die out before 35. I don't blame them for assuming the same of me from the age stated on my materials. This only reaffirms the necessity for some of us to network in person. And I do think there is some judgment done based on age. I can get people who already know me to throw jobs at me, but I can't convince on paper very well. Compound this with the fact that current graduate students here on this website have admitted to being the application filtering committees via "googling parties" before the professors get what remains (the dumbest way to gauge a person's worth, in my opinion, but whatever) - all of this suggests a very relevant difficulty for some of us. And before that cohort goes back into self-defense mode, filled with ego, stop pretending you aren't judging from a place of your own personal bias, we all do it. If your entire lab is fresh and young, you will pick people you are comfortable with and most likely think less of someone who is a little behind in their educational persuits. You can't help it. You are humans.
 
As far as the competitiveness discussion earlier about what is and is not a factor in your application; I'm surprised that race hasn't been brought into this. There is a former Harvard department chair here who tells stories about how the top tier schools fight over members of rare minority groups. It's quite revolting, but certainly brings in a factor that can't be ignored. A white male I was recently talking to expressed a lot of apathy about applying to graduate schools due to some of the stories that have been coming out about reverse discrimination. I feel for him and it bothers me a lot. Take it for what you will, but to ignore race (or gender, perhaps) as a factor in admissions is stupid.
 
I also leave room for a lot of fairly stupid factors being used to make judgments; for example, depending on your emphasis and POI there are going to be quirky little idiocies that are unpredictable and probably unfair. But because we don't want to scrutinize our own failings (or the stupidities of others) too much, we call it luck.

Could be. There are also dozens of posters on this forum talking about calling and email admissions administration trying to figure out what their status is because they haven't heard anything, so things are getting in the way of smooth communication with those invited for interviews and being sent acceptances regardless!

In my email response I said something along the lines of "I look forward to visiting during the open house weekend."

I think I'm fairly desensitized to the farmer/nascar/conservative/religious crowd(s) thanks to Nebraska, ha.

Thanks for all of the input! The air quality thing hadn't even crossed my mind yet, I'll have plenty to pay attention to when I visit.

I sent an email to another school thanking them for the notification and that I look forward to the visitation weekend type thing they mentioned along with my acceptance. (My current research advisor thought it was in good form to at least say something.)

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

I'm with ya there. When I applied I felt great about my SOP, now I feel like it's not complete & just a mess. Between a breakup and the application process I'm running fully on coffee, not sleep. I even had a dream the other night my ex was on an admission board & denied me from my dream school. I can't wait for official decisions to finally happen.

Also good points. I didn't consider some of what you're both saying about rejecting people immediately when I made my original efficiency comment. I think my anxiousness and lack of administrative experience shaped my thoughts too much

Also good points. I didn't consider some of what you're both saying about rejecting people immediately when I made my original efficiency comment. I think my anxiousness and lack of administrative experience shaped my thoughts too much

I would suggest more research. Quality, not quantity.
 
I had a weird undergraduate path as well, including a multiyear gap between dropping out after a bunch of bad grades my freshman year and resuming my bachelor's well into my 20s. My saving grace is probably that I have four years of great research experience, and I've had several faculty members tell me this. 
 
If it helps your mindset, an impressive faculty member told me that in their mind, "nontraditional" students are much more focused (and sometimes more desirable) especially if they had to put some serious effort into coming back to school. I know the lower GPA and the messy transcript look scary to you (they do to me too) but you never know who you're going to impress by showing resilience and a little educational determination. Some people like the polished shiny 22 year old 4th generation college students with 3.9 GPAs, some people like students who had to get through some uncontrollable life obstacles in order to get to where they are. You can't go back and change anything, so just make sure everything you do from now on shows potential programs how much you deserve to be there.