Tiglath-Pileser III

Liverpool also has rolling admission. I can say that it's no less frustrating waiting 4 weeks than it is 4 months. At least with 4 months, you don't get really anxious until it gets down to the wire. But I'm getting very high strung knowing that a decision could be days away.

I've applied to Liverpool for the PhD... I've got a full scholarship if I can get in, but there's no guarantee. Waiting and praying...

February or March.

It wasn't that long ago, actually only a couple of years ago, when all documentation had to be sealed and certified for all institutions. This meant that you had to have all your schools, referees, and ETS send their documents in sealed (and signed) envelopes. It's still true that this is a requirement for schools that you successfully are admitted to.

Just to put this into perspective, international applicants always have to jump through extra hoops no matter where they are from. I am applying to a UK university, and they are making me take the TOEFL even though I grew up in (Western) Canada and have graduate degrees from a number of English-speaking universities. By the way, UBC is a pretty good school--at least I liked it when I was there. Good luck...

I agree that your overall uGPA is pretty good, and a lot will depend upon what kind of program you wish to enter. Talking in very general terms only (and with the proverbial grain of salt that goes with it), you should have little problem getting into a masters degree program and some challenges trying to enter directly into a doctoral program. A lot will depend on other factors such as the quality of your recommendations, how you did on the GRE, and the competitive nature of your particular field.

You are in a bit of a tough spot. Even though in your system a C means honors, that letter will prejudice your application since grade inflation has been such a problem in the US over the last 5 years. Grade inflation has made A's the norm in high schools and undergraduate programs which has debased the value of more stringent programs. For example, those who took their bachelors degree 15 years ago were less likely to be in a school that used grade inflation and are today facing the nasty surprise of trying to compete with hard-earned B's against near-do-well A's. Regrettably, most admissions committees do not see (or look for) mitigating circumstances when it comes to GPAs. They see pat GPA formulas and letters etched in transcript stone. It is a sad truth that many people who are professors today would not make it into the programs that they supervise on the basis of their undergraduate grades. And while they are aware of the discrepancy between what they earned and what is being handed out today, they are generally unsympathetic to those who fought for high grades under a tough system because they have been slowly inculcated into a culture of transcript equivalency. In short it's just easier to cling to the myth that all GPAs are equal. I hope you aren't dismayed by this, but that is the current state of the academy. Good luck...

It depends. Your low scores certainly won't help. No one wants a graduate student who stumbles over big words or cannot read a graph. The problem for you is exacerbated by the fact that the programs that you applied to hold the GRE's in higher regard than other schools would. On the up side, the GRE does not have as much influence as it once did. I had very good GRE scores; however, the programs that I was accepted into did not consider them.

If you applied for the MA program, then you have a chance. But all those accepted to the PhD program have been notified.

University of Toronto has done the same thing.

I received a visit last night from the UCLA angel of death. So, the results are starting to come in...

Nobody gets rejected for being overqualified unless it is a low-tiered school, where they are thinking that if they extend an offer, the applicant will probably get a better offer somewhere else. However, very few schools think this way. Even crumby schools pick the best candidates for their program but compensate by extending more offers; most departments generally know how many student will accept based upon past trends.

What I hope: "This guy's sharp. He has two published articles. He has lots of valuable skills that we need (the guy's both an artist and a computer programmer). His GRE scores are excellent. His graduate grades are excellent from well-known professors who have given him top-notch recommendations. And he will have 3 masters' degrees by the time he arrives on our campus. His research topic fits with our interests. I think he will be an excellent fit for our program." What I dread: "On the surface this guy looks good, but look at his undergrad GPA, 2.5. What the heck is he thinking? Sure, his undergrad degree may be 15 years old and before rampant grade inflation, but we have a ton of freshly minted undergrads that have 4.0s and that just looks better on an application. Next, he's old. Too old in my opinion. Also, he doesn't have enough Egyptian to get into the program. He would need at least 10 years of Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian as well as Coptic, Hieratic, Demotic and 3 years of Akkadian, Aramaic, Sumerian, Ugaritic, Luvian, and Moabite to even compete with the other applicants. When I look at his application, he only has French, German, 2 years of Middle Egyptian, 1 year of Late Egyptian and Akkadian, Greek, and Hebrew. He clearly does not have the language skills to cut it. Besides, we have 500 applications this year for 5 spots so we can afford to be picky."

My strange dream was not a nice dream; really it was more of a nightmare. In my nightmare, I got an envelope with an acceptance into my dream program. I was absolutely elated. Then, seconds later, I got a phone call from my doctor informing that I had bone cancer in my leg and would have to cancel all of my plans to pursue a doctoral program. Poor health, overwork, poor nutrition, high anxiety, and deep-seated belief that I'm not going to get in yet again have taken their toll upon me.

This is a very interesting thread, especially useful was the link. I did find out that most of the successful applicants in my field received 2 offers on average. Last year my probability was 1.40 and this year it is 2.14. So, that is a significant difference, which at least gives me some reason for hope.

Most schools are going to report in March (at least they did last year). I did get some insider info that at one school they received over 60 applications for only 4 spots. Many of these applicants are from overseas, primarily the Middle East.

Oh, I don't hate you.... I'm just insanely jealous.

While I hate you for having an acceptance in hand... just kidding ... your question is a good one. There seems to be two rounds of rejections. The early rejections often come before the acceptances and are done to cull out the candidates that really don't have a chance of getting into the program. This is often done by administrators to narrow the candidate pool to a reasonable size for the admissions committee. These early rejections often go out a month or two before the bulk of decisions are made. Interview invites often go out during these first round of rejections. It's hard to say anything definitive about the interview process because departmental policies vary so widely here. It's usually really a bad sign to be included in this first round of rejections. Often the second round of rejections goes out after all the acceptance offers are made, although a few applications may be wait-listed quietly pending offers being accepted/rejected. As in all things, it will depend upon departmental policies and procedures. Some schools will not have a early round of rejections. Some schools do not have wait-lists. Some will not even send you a rejection figuring that April 15th has passed you by so you should just know you did not get in.

A consolation prize is not an acceptance into the PhD program, but some lesser offer. In my case, it was an offer into a 1-yr MA program. So, at the end of last year, I did not have admittance into a PhD program, but I did have somewhere to go. In retrospect, I probably should have taken a year off instead. But, hindsight is 20-20.

I'm not expecting to hear anything until March, and even then I don't expect it to be good news. So, I can't say I'm really looking forward to it. I can say that having done this now twice over that my expectations are a lot lower than they were the first time around. But, at the same time, I haven't received any rejections yet. But, I'm sure they're coming as I wasn't invited to any of the schools that do interviews, and open seats at the others are a very limited commodity this year.

They won't give you that option... if you wanted to stock shelves again. Qualification inflation is fact of corporate life, you might as well just get used to it. Since I left the corporate world, I have received two graduate degrees and will have earned a third by June. The actual job duties have not changed significantly but the qualifications certainly have. I now get job postings that have really crazy requirements. The problem is if you do not fill those requirements, someone else will. Industry has learned that all it has to do is wait, and sooner or later someone will either rise to fill the position or lie their way into the position. Lying is another factor that has significantly aggravated the problem. When I was doing technical interviews, most of my job was validating that the job candidate really did what they claimed on their resume. A lot of people lie about having degrees on their resume. Sometimes they get caught, but often they don't. The net effect is that their lies devalue your earned degrees. The reason is because unqualified people are in degreed positions artificially increasing the supply of the "educated" same way counterfeit money devalue real currency. I had a boss who purchased all his degrees from degree mills, and this was at one of the leading high-tech companies whose name everyone would recognize. He used to brag that he never attended a single college class--it used to boil my blood to hear him say it. But while I slaved my way through my bachelor's degree, he slithered his way up the corporate ladder with fake credentials. Most career jobs now require a minimum bachelors degree; however, less than 10% of those jobs requires any skills that are taught by such a degree. Many management jobs require a master's degree. Why? Because it narrows the pool to supposedly intelligent candidates. So, if you want that job stocking shelves, you'd better dust off that Ph.D.

No, it's not really awkward. The thing is you don't really know why you were rejected, and it can be difficult to assess what is happening behind the scenes. I applied to three of the same schools that I applied to last year and to three completely new schools. This December my finances were in really rough shape and I could not apply to all the schools that I wanted to, so I had to be selective as to which schools to apply to. One of the schools I applied to last year, I decided not to apply to again because even if I got accepted I couldn't afford to go there. Another one I declined to reapply to because even though the program was fantastic, the probability of getting in would be so low that it just wasn't worth the risk. Furthermore, I decided to reapply again because one year has made my application significantly stronger with more advanced language training, another publication credit, and an additional graduate degree. I think it also makes a difference at what stage you were rejected as well. If you received an "administrative" rejection that bodes a lot worse than if you were simply passed over in favor of better candidates. For example, some schools will narrow the pool of applications by half and send them an "instant" reject letter before the survivors are passed onto the admissions committee. In this case, a support staff made the decision for the department based upon administrative guidelines, and your application wasn't even seen by a professor. Most often these administrative rejections get sent out in January long before the real decisions are made in February or March, so it is pretty easy to detect when you get one of these. Essentially these administrative rejections mean that you are in the bottom half of the pool and don't even have a chance. Nevertheless, while applying a 2nd or 3rd time is not by any means an ideal situation, your persistence may not go unnoticed. If you were close to being accepted the first time, next time you may be a strong enough candidate relative to who else is applying to be accepted. If you were ranked 5th place and there were only 4 open seats the first time, next time there may be 6 seats open. This year may look pretty bleak, but who knows what next year will hold? I know last year for one of my applications I missed getting into the doctoral program by just one vote. That is close enough for me to try again.

Because it sure beats pursuing a career plagued with more money but even longer hours and a total lack of respect... been there, got the T-shirt and the scars. If I get in, here's how I plan to celebrate: 1. Re-read the acceptance letter to make sure it really does say that I was accepted. 2. Have my wife read the letter to make sure I didn't misread it. 3. Shout like a lunatic. 4. Kiss my wife. 5. Thank my God. 6. Run out to the liquor store and buy a bottle of rosa rosato, put it on ice until I come back from dinner. 7. Eat prime rib at a steak house. 8. Pop the bottle and savor it with dark chocolate. 9. Get a good night's sleep. Alas, we can all dream of what could be and mourn for what might have been.

Overqualified, I wish! Actually, what really happens is that an employer sees your qualifications, thinks those qualifications are typical, adds some additional qualifications on top of what you already have (because this is a really cool place that everyone wants to work at), writes the job posting, and then the pointy-hair manager tells you that you don't meet the minimum requirements for the job of stocking shelves at the supermarket. I get job postings like this from head-hunters all the time. Some of the postings I receive, no mere mortal human could possibly fill, i.e., must have 30 years of web 2.0 coding experience. And when you are hired, the manager treats you like he has condescended to letting you (a less-than-qualified grunt) work at such a wonderful place, so you should reward his trust by giving 200% on a 110-hour work week for a nickel above minimum wage. Just last week I received a job posting that required a graduate degree, certification in every conceivable technology, expert level knowledge in 10 different specializations, and a security clearance for a job that only ten years ago required no more than a BA and a little hands on experience. Congratulations, you're contributing to your own qualification inflation!

I somehow doubt that I'll try again. The price for trying has been very high both emotionally and financially for both me and my family. If I do try again, it will probably be in a field with less competition and in a year when the economy is better.