[Stanford GSE 2021]

9 minutes ago, EvolvedGradBlog said:

For what it's worth, admission decisions were released on February 15th, 2019 at 3:30pm for the 2019 entering class. A friday. 

Hey Jeremy, just checked out your blog. It's really good! Wish I'd seen it earlier in the admissions process, but oh well. 

 

I am presently operating under the assumption I won't be getting in this year (no contact from POI/GSE, and if I'm being honest with myself, I could use a bit more seasoning). What would you suggest for somebody planning on re-applying in terms of building a profile for the following year? For example, I've got a bit of research experience but I don't have any pubs, is that a semi-expectation for programs as competitive as the Stanford GSE? Any help would be highly appreciated!

[Stanford GSE 2021]

9 hours ago, Jeanne A. said:

Hi guys..

Well, I must say that at this moment I have lost all my hopes for positive decision.

Today morning I woke up and literally very clearly it came to my  mind how little chances I had with my application to Stanford PhD, literally no chances, and how funny it may look for someone that I even dared to think about being admitted. I realized this morning, that I have to forget about this application and about my Stanford dream, and try to move on...

I wanna share with you that i did my best with the application: writing my essay, taking my TOEFL several times, meeting and talking to my recommenders. I have done a lot of work indeed. There were moments when I thought of myself with regards to my application to Stanford: "how stupid you are!!! you worth nothing in this world!!! if you are not admitted to Stanford now, will can never be able achieve your goals!!! you are not ideal!!! forget about all your dreams!!! you are totally useless!!!" - yes, this is how I think of myself in terms of "possible" rejection from Stanford.

Why I am writing "possible" in quotes? Actually it should be without quotes since rejection is not possible, it is real. I must accept that I have no chances. It is hard to realize fully, and to accept, since all my professional hopes and aspirations were connected to my Stanford PhD. Without this degree achieving my goals is absolutely not possible. So, saying goodbye to Stanford PhD means saying goodbye to all my professional dreams and goals that I wanted to achieve in my country.

Well, I am writing this and literally crying.

Also, guys, have you heard about setting goals with visualization and other tricks that are supposed to help to make your dream come true? I am not sure whether all that "magic" works but I tried all those tricks: visualization, working with the goal energy, etc..... but ultimately I must admit that real facts are different from what I imagined. I must admit my rejection no matter how hard it is.

I want to wish you all good luck.

The only thing I want to say about myself, for myself: "no, Jeanne, you are not stupid, on the contrary- you worked really hard, you did your best for the realization of the dreams that I had, you were not lazy, you believed in your dream until the very end. And you should not blame yourself, but respect and thank yourself for all the hard work you did."

So, bye guys, it was really nice to share these days of waiting with you, and to get to know you. It would be so great to meet you all in reality, and to attend our classes together at Stanford, but this will be left in my dreams forever.

                 ???????

 

I don't think this is a healthy way to look at doing a PhD. Sure, you can be disappointed that you didn't get in, as all of us here would be checking the results. But getting into this program is the rarest of rare opportunities, judging by the comments about how many apps they have received and how many get in, I think we are talking about less than 1%. It's not not reasonable to attach your life goals to such a difficult accomplishment. In fact, I struggle to imagine any specific career goal that simply could never be achieved because you didn't study at Stanford. Even if your dream is to work in Stanford!

In order to even apply for this program, you must feel like you have accomplished quite a lot in your career and studies so far, meaning you are probably an excellent candidate for programs elsewhere. Call me naive, but I really do think that if you get into a solid enough program the sky is still the limit for you. If you have a seminal research idea, and execute it well, then you will have all the same options as a GSE grad. Who knows, maybe you'll get to go there as a postdoc or even a member of staff someday. So please do not give up on your dreams because of this, Stanford would be nice sure, but there are plenty of other ways to get what you want.