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jpain3

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Everything posted by jpain3

  1. I wanted to say THANK YOU to this great group of supportive people. I've been working on getting into a PhD program for the last two years, and I finally got in!!!!! Last year was incredibly deflating as rejection after rejection poured in. After wallowing for a little bit (but not too long, I have a family with one small kiddo at the time and another kiddo that was born right in the middle of the rejections, so I was quickly distracted by life), I made a plan to try again. As I told one of my recommenders "As with any setback, I am taking this as an opportunity to regroup, reassess, and improve." Below is a description of what I did, in case it's helpful to anyone else out there who finds themselves in the same position this year (if so, you can still do it!). I reached out to every school that had said no (all 13 of them), and bugged anyone who would pick up a phone or answer and email to figure out what happened. It was really two buckets: Bad fit of program with my research, or I was simply not in the top 2-5 applicants. So, I did three big things to close the gap and increase my odds: First I started from scratch on defining what my research interests actually are by constructing a realistic research topic I could dive into on day one, and then sticking with that in every conversation. This helped me rapidly filter programs that didn't match, and quickly gave me new leads in conversations ("We don't do that sort of behavioral operations work here, but Professor XYZ at school ABC is an expert. Let me send her an email") Next I did something very practical: I retook the GRE. And this time I really studied for it! I actually bought an online course (Magoosh if anyone is interested) and listened to every lecture and did every practice problem (all 1200+ of them). After three months of work on nights and over my lunch breaks, I went from 76th percentile in quantitative reasoning to 92nd percentile. I also improved my other scores (got a perfect verbal the second time), but that quant score came up during my interviews repeatedly. Will knowing how to quickly find the number of non-repeating diagonals in an arbitrary n-gon help me in my PhD studies? No. But I finally had a score that matched my ability to learn and it made an incredible difference this year in opening doors. Finally, I did something radical. I quit my job. Technically, I formed an independent consulting firm to work on non-traditional projects, which I really did do! It just also gave me the flexibility to physically drive to campuses around the East Coast and meet faculty and students in person. I was literally checking doors to see if they were locked and wandering into offices to introduce myself. Forming that company has been a terrible financial decision (man I miss corporate healthcare), but it gave me the flexibility to become a known face when my application came up for review. Face-Time = Name-Recognition = Success The result: Multiple acceptances, including to my absolute top choice, and incredible connections at many fine research institutions that I will be able to use in the years ahead! Plus no wallowing! The entire time, I was looking here at The Grad Cafe and reading about other's work and experiences applying, both failures and successes. The stories here, and genuine heartfelt support and advice was one of the things that kept me going. Thank you all for your support, and good luck to those still reaching for the dream!
  2. I am in the very fortunate position of having received an acceptance to a PhD program this year (last year was not so successful, if you look at my signature!). However, the program that first accepted me did so very early in the general process, from what I can tell, and is now asking me very pointed questions like "What is the likelihood that you will accept our offer?" and "When can we get an acceptance from you?" (I'm not kidding, more or less that exact wording in emails and on phone calls). I know that I'm under no strict obligation to reply until April 15th, but also want to tell programs 'yes' or 'no' as soon as possible so as not to lock up funding for others. They are an excellent program with fantastic researchers, but I simply don't have enough information yet from all my other applications. They're my top choice right now, but I don't know what will happen in two weeks! I'm trying to figure out how to say "insufficient data at this time" in a polite way. There are other programs that I am also very interested in that frankly haven't even interviewed anyone yet (if my contacts in the programs and the results posted here are to be believed). Based on job availability for my wife and funding offered, several of my other applications could reasonably 'beat' the program pressuring me for a response. I want to be respectful to this program, and I am extremely grateful and honored by the admittance, but I cannot also make any guarantee of my acceptance at this time barring input from other programs. Any suggestions on how to communicate that tactfully?
  3. Thank you all! I agree I'm being too impatient and need to slow down. The Professor specifically asked for my availability this week, so I was hoping to hear back a bit quicker, but understand I need to calm down. This has helped tremendously (at minimum provided a forum for me to express my concerns and hear a strong "chill out" back!)
  4. Hi all! I received a request for an interview with a PhD program that I am extremely interested in on Monday morning. I responded within an hour with a list of available times later in the week, per the email's request. However, I haven't heard back from the Professor who sent the email since (it's Wednesday afternoon now). I waited all of Tuesday, and finally sent a follow up this morning asking if any of the times I suggested would work. Still no response so far. So, how should I proceed? Do I send another email? Call the Professor? I know the contact information for the director of the PhD program and could contact him directly, but that seems like I'm side-stepping the Professor that requested the interview. At this point, I'm concerned that I've either been forgotten about, or the Professor has had some sort of personal issue that is preventing his response (but hasn't told any colleague that he reached out to me). I don't want to seem like I'm bothersome, but at the same time I'm very anxious to move forward with this program! I've also already heard back from two other programs that this program would potentially 'beat' if I gained admission. It's a good problem to have for sure, but I don't want to add any unnecessary delay in my response to the programs who have already reached out to me with acceptances. Thanks to this great group for your help and thoughts!
  5. I found The Grad Cafe a few years ago when I was first seriously researching how to apply to PhD programs. MIT Sloan had a link to a document written by a former student which I have found very useful since. In it, the author specifically calls out The Grad Cafe as a good resource for admissions results. There are a few other good resources in there as well! "A Guide to Business PhD Applications" by Abhishek Nagaraj http://mitsloan.mit.edu/uploadedfiles/phd-guide.pdf
  6. I applied to a number of programs last year using ApplyWeb. Here's a screenshot of what one of my program's listing looked like after a decision was posted with the "View Your Decision Letter" button now visible.
  7. Finally got my first 'yes' after two years of applying and interviewing! I've been waiting to respond to this thread for quite some time. I was on a walk with my young kids around a trail. I was at the far end of the trail when a notification dinged on my phone for a new email. The 'from' line was from a school that said they would get back to me within the next few weeks and the the preview said "I am writing to inform you that..." and then was cut off! I nearly tipped my kiddo's stroller over getting my phone unlocked and opening gmail. It was good news, and now I'm so very relieved. Unfortunately, my phone died shortly after calling my wife, so I had to walk the rest of the trail back to our car, and plug in my phone for a bit, before I could tell anyone else in the family!
  8. For sure. Some of the 'hard' Magoosh questions are really 'insane' questions, in my opinion, that combine multiple topics together. Even the video explanations admit as much, sometimes stating that while each subtopic covered in the question could appear in the exam, they wouldn't necessarily appear all together. Also, depending on how good you did in the first math section, you'll likely only come across 2-3 really really hard questions on the exam (that seem to touch on the 'insane' difficulty). So, doing 40 hard questions back-to-back while practicing will certainly give you great practice but not reflect the actual GRE!
  9. I used Magoosh to study and just took the GRE two Saturdays ago. My estimated Quantitative Section score range from Magoosh was 158-163 and I ended up getting a 167 (and am very pleased by that). I also watched every video and did all 1,193 practice questions! The big benefit for me was pacing/timing and endurance practice. I think knowing when to guess an answer and move on made the biggest difference and was the biggest help from Magoosh.
  10. Well Emory just said 'no' so it looks like I won't be pursing a career in academia after all My next year just got turned upside down. Solid 10 on the stress level right now. Congratulations to everyone who got into a program, maybe I'll join next year!
  11. The term 'hopeless' seems apt right now. I just got rejected from my 12th school, which was also my top choice and best hope of admission. There's technically one more school out there, Emory, but they haven't responded to me in any way since October (and when they did it was via form-email with dates from 2015). I honestly thought a career in academia was for me, and was incredibly excited at the prospect of starting my PhD this Fall. Instead, I'm wondering what I did wrong, or what is wrong with me for even applying to begin with. I had thought of all the hours spent away from my family, and at times putting in lackluster performance at work in order to make an interview happen, as an investment for my future. Now it just seems like a massive waste. I don't know if I'll ever be more than the 3rd best candidate to apply to a program, which is a problem when all the programs seem to only take one or two people each year. So, yes. I'm feeling hopeless right about now.
  12. Well now I'm at a 10... or a 0... rapidly oscillating between the two. I received my final rejection from my top choice and best hope for admission. Applied to 13 schools, and was rejected by all but one. The final one, Emory, hasn't responded to a single call or email since October, and their generic email response has dates from 2015 in it. So I'm counting that as a rejection. I was so sure that a career in academia was right for me, as did my references and work colleagues. Maybe not. Now all I have is regret for all the hours I poured into prepping for tests and applications and interviews, instead of spending time concentrating on my family and job. So sometimes the 10 hits me hard, and then I just sigh and return to an indifferent 0.
  13. My 8 is rapidly becoming a 9.... Applied to 13 programs and have been rejected from 11 (the most recently early last week). Most of the rejections came with something like "keep us in mind when you're doing research at whatever program you do get into" or "we only had two slots and you were number 3 or 4 on our list". The remaining two schools have been silent for the last month so my hope is quickly becoming delusion.
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