The_Grinch

Here's a thought I wanted to air out as admission decisions are coming out. I'm really sorry if this sounds pretty bitchy or portrays me as someone who is "tone policing" but I promise that is not my intent. Anyway, listing your stats and simultaneous shock at being rejected is pointless and borders on belittling others. Maybe you had some great stuff on your record. Rejects happen for tons of reasons: funding, determined fit, maybe someone's LOR was written by a buddy of the POI and yours wasn't, maybe your GREs were low, or your SOP actually wasn't as perfect as you thought it was, or - if you're whining about being rejected here - maybe the adcom got a sense that you don't handle rejection well, which is not necessarily the best trait to have as a PhD student when experiments or studies or anything else goes wrong. Heck, while I really hope it isn't the case, universities are staffed by people so maybe someone was biased. Ultimately, you can't know what wrong in many of these cases. However, saying, "look at how good my stats are; I totally deserved to be the one accepted," to me, can be misconstrued as putting down those who did somehow earn an acceptance. A suggestion for results survey behavior going forward: post your info, e.g. acceptance or rejection. If relevant, post other things in the comments. For example, do you know the number of applicants, etc.? Do feel free to post your stats, as well. But consider refraining from statements along the lines of "how much more perfect do I have to be?" None of us are; try not to take away anything from people who may be celebrating positive news. Of course, discussion is welcome. Here's hoping we can maintain a thoroughly positive and supportive atmosphere on TheGradCafe!