rockwizard

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I wonder why they haven't sent out my rejection yet haha. Nice of them to leave my life on hold longer than necessary!

Can I ask what POI at OSU? I was thinking of applying there and am just curious. Also, (to the general forum) any updates on when Harvard EPS decisions go out? I see some people posting on the results page but haven't heard anything yet.

Yeah, honestly if a professor is the latter it's probably a sign I don't want to work for them anyway. I've heard from many professors that they don't even glance at GRE scores so. Yeah, I'm like this too. Which is, in part, why I ran out of time on the GRE. The whole "being treated like I was in a high security prison" thing during the test didn't help with my anxiety either.

The fact that its designed to be a "trap" speaks volumes about the value of the test itself. I got by on mostly scholarships and grants with a bit of loans on the side so no I did not spend that kind of money, but it's pretty bold of you to assume you know how "poor" I am. Yikes! Judging by the fact that you apparently have $50-150k to fork over for college, I'm guessing you don't actually know people who are actually poor lol. And here are multiple studies that say otherwise. [1] [2] [3] [4] ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I'm not going to argue with you. If you want to worship the GRE as a holy grail tell-all of someones worth as a student instead of an indicator of socioeconomic status, go for it!

Basically the people who can pay hundreds and hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to retake the GRE over and over to get a perfect score are, imo, paying to win. Because in the end, a high GRE score doesn't mean much when it comes to predicting grad student success.

Yeah I know I should retake the GRE. But I'd rather get into a mediocre school than pay-to-win and get in at a "top tier" school. I signed up to take the GRE like a week before test date. Given that I've taken and done well in Calc I-III, differential equations, linear algebra, partial differential equations, and even tensor calculus I figured it wouldn't be a problem for me. I got to the test and it was all questions like "Paul is Sarah's cousin. Sarah is George's sister. George is Sally's great grandfather. How is Sally related to Paul?" which, imo, is not math. The questions weren't hard, they were time consuming, so I ended up running out of time and not being able to finish them all which is I'm sure why I got this quant score. Also, Its nice that $200 isn't alot of money to you but for us who are "dirt poor", as you put it.. it is. Haha.

Maybe they are not taking PhD students, maybe they don't have funding, maybe they don't thinking research interests align, maybe one of them is trying to go on sabbatical/retire/etc. There's a lot of possible reasons why they would reject that you shouldn't take personal.

What do you mean by staff? Are you currently a masters student and are a research/teaching assistant?

Not sure. I mean, they could just argue that your personality wasn't the right fit for the department if you bring up laws. I would move on, personally.

I mean, it would depend on what sort of... "complaint" it was. Committees can technically reject you for pretty much any reason...

Right on. Sorry to hear you had to go through this too! Did you end up working in industry for a bit then? And yes, still waiting to hear from Harvard. At this point I'm fairly certain I am probably just being filtered out by GPA and GRE so I am expecting a rejection from them as well despite me having been in contact with the POI over email and phone previously.

Yeah I noticed that lumping with astro/physics people. I felt like, as a geophysics major I was going to be somewhat competitive background-wise but I guess not. I may consider re-applying next year perhaps I will get into mudlogging or something to try to get my foot in the door in industry instead. Not sure what else to do without spending years waiting/putting my life on hold and spending hundreds of more dollars to apply and retake GRE to look more competitive on paper. ? This sucks.

Eh, I thought so too. But after looking at a lot of POI's current student's CVs I was convinced otherwise.

Well, there it is! Heard back from 2/3 schools so far. All rejections. I really thought I had the research background necessary to go from undergrad to PhD. Maybe planetary science isn't for me. Kinda bummed I got this degree cos there aren't many jobs available in industry with it either. *DJ Khaled voice* Congrats, you played yourself.

Roger Fu. Although I stated I'd be happy to work with Jeremy Bloxham as well since he does similar work.

Yeah if anyone has heard from/hears from Harvard, CU Boulder, or U of Arizona please PM me the details! I'd love to hear about if you had to go through an interview, etc. and what the name of POI is.

I'm beginning to get a little discouraged. Are GPA and GRE scores really more important than actual experience and research? Ugh.

Undergrad Institution: Research Uni in Michigan (Well-known regionally for their rigorous STEM programs but not nationally famous probably) Major(s): Geophysics Minor(s): Geo. Engineering GPA in Major: 3.35 Overall GPA: 3.39 Position in Class: We don't rank so I have no idea Type of Student: Domestic, first generation white female, low-income. GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 151 V: 159 W: 4.0 Research Experience: Four years in a research lab, co-author on one peer-reviewed publication, REU from NSF, REU from NASA, REU from SURF, two conference presentations, one symposium presentation. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Goldwater scholarship nominee, top student award from math department, departmental scholar award ("given to a senior that best represents scholarship at [school name]"), a handful of dean's list semesters Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Research assistant for those four years in the lab when I wasn't working on REU's, teaching assistant over the summer for Women in Engineering youth programs for middle/highschool students interested in STEM, assistant mentor for NSF career outreach program my lab participates in Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Studied abroad in New Zealand, have pretty extensive experience with field work for my research area. Special Bonus Points: My letters of rec came from my undergraduate research advisor, the department chair, and a professor from a university in Ecuador that I collaborated with. I expect that they were very strong. My research advisor knows the POI at Harvard and we have exactly the same research interests so I talked with him over email/phone a few times about research methods and groups. Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I'm a first generation student from a low-income family (i.e. my mom made like $9k the year I first applied for FAFSA... that low income). Applying to Where: University of Arizona - Planetary Science (PhD) University of Colorado Boulder - Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (PhD) Harvard - Earth and Planetary Sciences (PhD) Wanted to apply to more but couldn't get fee waivers in time (R.I.P.) Saw that 1 or 2 people may have already been accepted to CU Boulder a few days ago so I'm not getting my hopes up on that one. I haven't gotten any interviews or anything yet, though so I am starting to worry a bit. Figured I'd post here. I would really love to go to any of these schools, but if I don't get into CU Boulder I won't be heartbroken as its SOOOO expensive to live in Boulder I probably wouldn't be able to afford it anyway... haha. Good luck everyone!