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floatingmolecule

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Everything posted by floatingmolecule

  1. Thank you so much for your input! I am considering what kind of proposal I should write - since I have half a year to work on it, maybe I can come up with a few different ideas to avoid being too specific. I am interested in so many things, so it is very difficult for me to pin myself down, not to mention my growing fear of rejection. I know there are people who go through the application process for years before being accepted and I cannot imagine how stressful this can become for the psyche. Congratulations on your acceptance! I hope next year is the year for me too!
  2. Agreed! I am trying to help a friend of mine who wants to start the application process and am going to channel some positive energy into giving her the best advice that I can. Sure, I am not a glowing example of success, but I can tell her what to avoid, for sure! Good luck!
  3. People don't even ask me that question anymore. That and "so, what are your plans for the fall after you graduate?". Most people try to avoid the topic and I do my best to change the subject as well; once in a while someone starts talking about grad school, but they stop pretty quickly when they realize who they're talking to. I used to get asked a lot, back in the day when all applications were still open for speculation , but after no offer turned up, it quickly became a taboo topic. Some people actually think I was rejected everywhere and don't even know that I still have one school left to go. I hope your last school accepts you. Keeping my fingers crossed. For all of us.
  4. I found this list of colleges without fees - whether each of them offers graduate programs is uncertain, but when I have some time, I will sift through them and give you an update. http://www.collegexpress.com/lists/list/colleges-with-no-application-fee/1681/
  5. I actually tried that road this year, attempting to contact faculty so that I could discuss my similarities and potential fit. I tried to illustrate the parallels in my previous work to theirs in my SOP. I did not get much feedback! While I do agree with you that my tactics won't provide any guarantees, I do intend to do everything possible (even if it only increases my chances marginally) to receive an offer next year. Aside from increasing my numerical odds through such shananigans, this includes retaking the GRE, volunteering in a research lab (while I work in a gas station), taking online courses and reworking my entire application to create an ideal fit for each institution I apply to. I don't want next year falling flat too. I understand that perfect fit is the dream, but when the alternative to not so perfect fit is the aforementioned gas station (ie. job that doesn't fit at all), I am willing to consider all options. I want to be a scientist and I am willing to be flexible when it comes to research. I love research and can adapt quickly to new settings, so I am not afraid of starting a project that isn't perfectly tailored to what I've done before. You mentioned proposed project - do you need a thesis proposal for each institution you apply to in order to be successful?
  6. My final school has now put my application under review. The last chance! This can only take months.
  7. I know, right? The worst part is, I have a window and I can see that the world outside isn't waiting for me while I am paused. I find myself struggling with feelings of abandonment when I hear how everyone else is moving on. They are all transitioning to a new life phase and I am just watching from this window. I try to act like I don't care (and come here to vent instead), try to show happiness for everyone, but inside, I feel so bad. It might not define who I am, but getting an offer will certainly define my professional life. Without one, I am half way to the finish line and regardless of how much faith I might have in my own abilities, potential employers, the outside world, won't hire me on good faith. They want that degree. They want proof. At the moment, I am a semi-scientist. I am one of those countless cell cultures I put away in the freezer all the time, hoping that maybe someone will take ME (not my neighbor!) out, and let me grow.
  8. Ugghh. It doesn't help that the most important people I know have already been accepted and are happily planning their lives. I can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices everytime they launch into one of their hopeful musings on what kind of apartments they've found, what their profs will be like, what jobs they will get when they are finished, what kind of people they will meet..... And then they suddenly stop, look at me and say "oh........*BIG AWKWARD PAUSE*...... sorry, I know it must be hard for you." Current status: I am living on a waitlist. My life is a waitlist. On hold, paused,parked in the reception area, where I have to keep myself busy, possibly for another couple of weeks, most likely for another year (or more). Eventually I will feel like one of those ghosts in the waiting area in Beetlejuice, trapped in a Neitherworld where I will lose track of time and space. I will know exactly how many squares the tile floor has, and every detail of each painting and by the time I finally get out, I hope the world hasn't moved on without me!
  9. Yes, the one school who waitlisted me did so quite a looooong while ago, so I can imagine I probably got rejected since I asked. I guess they figure that this close to the end, there is no point in sending out single rejections. I could ask again, but I figure the answer will come around the 15th on its own.
  10. Thanks guys. You are probably right that the generic tone of the email means very little. But while I am usually all about hope - when it comes to waitlists I am very skeptical. The fact that I have been on this list for months doesn't add any hope to the equation. Surely there must have been some movement by now, at the very least amongst the offers sent out. Since it is so late, I speculate that they are either close to filling their yield and don't need the waitlist or they have already been accepting people off the list, but I am just not highly ranked or suitable enough to be considered. I realize there is still a sliver of minute hope, but most examples of waitlist acceptance I've observed happened relatively quickly, within a few days or weeks. Am I wrong and is there a final wave towards the end? Does it commonly occur that waitlisters get offers this close to the deadline?
  11. Yes, unfortunately I am international and none of the documentation I have proving my poverty is in English or bears any relevance to the American system. I would spend the equivalent of the application fee just trying to get my papers translated and accredited.
  12. As an economically disadvantaged person, I would like to compile a list of schools that: 1. Do not require an application fee 2. Demand a small fee (ie. 30 dollars as opposed to 100) Due to my limited finances, I was not able to apply to a large number of schools and made the error of accepting circa 100 dollar fees as "standard" when choosing where to apply. As an international who was clearly not a top choice candidate, I have come to the realization that I cannot select schools purely based on my desire to attend them due to fit. Other factors must be considered, such as location, ranking, acceptance rate and the sheer quantity of applications I send out. The limiting factor for the latter is obviously price. I will be looking into it myself and add schools as I find them. Please feel free to help out and make suggestions! Thank you very much!
  13. I haven't gotten any acceptances either, but until I get the last rejection, I won't give up. And even though it pains me to think of doing it all again next year (not to mention finding a way to keep myself afloat during the coming year), I can't imagine giving up on my dreams in the long run either. If this is Mount Everest, I've reached the last encampment before the summit. If I turn back now, I'll be a..... partial mountaineer? Or in this case, a partial scientist. You've still got three schools to go! I only have one. Don't give up faith just yet.
  14. I was not given any indication about my status on the wait-list, only that it is a "short list" and that any offers extended to those on it were dependent on offers declined by their first choice candidates. It did not seem very encouraging, nor was there any mention that I was "high" on this list or had any elevated chances compared to the others. This notification was also given to me only after I inquired about the status of my application. To be very honest, it doesn't sound very hopeful to me. I assume that if I were a priority waitlister, they would have at least hinted at a ranking or encouraged me to stick around.
  15. Congratulations on the one school. You are very lucky. I have not secured even one! What I would not give for the last school I have not heard from yet to offer me acceptance! The thought of struggling through a whole year in limbo just to go through this again is more than mildly depressing.
  16. I found out after asking the question admissions department. Right after that I got an email from my POI notifying me that competition for internationals is tight and that I am on the waitlist. I imagine I won't get the rejection until the bitter end.
  17. First of all: Congratulations to Hani2015!!!! Great to see one of us having some luck. You deserve this and I am very happy for you!! You must be so excited! I am still hoping on that last school that hasn't reached any decisions yet. And if that doesn't pan out then I will try again next year. I will retake the GRE, work part time in a coffee shop or something while I volunteer in a lab somewhere. Thanks for the kind words. I won't give up!
  18. Yes, my last school (the only one that did not reject or waitlist me) has a very long review process, and I know that they are still considering applications, so it is entirely possible that they might want me! I will not give up until I hear from them. Not hearing anything still means there is a chance. Even in March!
  19. No, this is not true. Some universities have not made any decisions yet or are still considering a second or third wave of applications. So there is still hope, even if chances do go down as time progresses. Sometimes, however, you might have been placed on a "secret" waitlist and are not notified of its existence. I had to inquire about my application in order to find out about my waitlist status.
  20. Yes. You are totally right. I do not intend to give up, not this year or the next, or any year after that. Eventually sheer determination and the will to keep improving will get us out of this state of purgatory, this wait list of a life. I am thankful to have found others who know what the struggle is like. And I hope that we can set examples for those still to come that it is possible if you keep trying and don't lose hope. We can do this!
  21. I finally broke down and emailed some of the programs I applied to, only to find out that I've been rejected or waitlisted. Currently, I have faced rejections from every single program I applied to outside of two - and one of them is just a waitlist, which is what I now refer to as a "two step" rejection. I am not a bad applicant. I have a 4.0 GPA in both my undergrad and masters degrees and have research, volunteer and work experience. My GRE scores are meh, but not awful. But....I am international and applied to public schools. The competition is stiff, to say the least. I have one last hope left and then I have to consign myself to enduring this process all over again next year, without any guarantees that it will go better a second time around. I do not deny that I have felt hopeless on more than one occasion, and that I have struggled with having come so far for what seems like nothing. I come from an impoverished background and figured I would give it my best shot to escape the low income, dead end job trap... It pains me to see myself standing this close to the brink of failure. Yes. I will try again. But the brutality of this process, this constant feeling of rejection and failure that tears at the very substance of one's self worth - after living with it for months, I dread having to face it again. I hope you get your acceptance. And somewhere in me I still hope for mine.
  22. Wow, thank you for all of your advice! I have been looking around for internships and it is difficult. I keep finding opportunities for undergrads and US citizens, but my searches on paid positions for international graduates with a master's degree turn up pretty scanty. There are so many summer positions for American undergrads seeking to gain research experience and plenty of unpaid work, but I have not specifically identified a program for internationals that offers a stipend yet. I have written to the NIH and Fulbright international and am going to do a more extensive search in the days to come. It is an excellent plan. I only hope that it is also executable. As before, any further tips on how to acquire such an internship would be greatly appreciated.
  23. I would be interested to get some tips here as well. If anyone can help us with some info on this, it would be great!
  24. I just got waitlisted and don't have even a single acceptance, so I know how it feels to be left out during this application cycle. I did not even know that people saw waitlists as a serious option for possible admission. I was under the impression that most offer refusals are filled by the ~ 40% extra offers universities send out to meet their "yield". From what I have gathered, waitlists are convenience cushions just in case all goes wrong. That said, I see being waitlisted as a rejection; I would rather figure out a way to improve my chances for next year than hope for that needle in a haystack. I have never concerned myself with how long others take to deliberate their offers, since I never saw these offers as potentially belonging to me. Am I totally wrong in seeing it that way?
  25. Thank you so much! I would really appreciate any information I can get on the subject and I have no idea where to start. I would specifically need to get an RA job that realizes that I am a foreign national and just a transient worker (ie. waiting out for a PhD.), trying to obtain experience. Since I already have extensive lab experience and am familiar with most common procedures, however, I would not be a burden. It would probably be ideal if I could RA in a lab that also takes on PhD students, so that they could essentially do a "test run" on me. If your friends can give me tips on where to look and what to do, I would be very grateful. If anyone else has info, I would love to hear it!
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