Fatkiller

Those who have been rejected by IUB, gather here! ? First rejection received!
 

Heyyyyy, same here, gotta love sitting in the rejection pool

Those who have been rejected by IUB, gather here! ? First rejection received!
 

Silence is better than flooding rejections, isn't it? ?
I just received an interview invitation from Iowa and am preparing for it. Finger crossed for all! 

Silence is better than flooding rejections, isn't it? ?
I just received an interview invitation from Iowa and am preparing for it. Finger crossed for all! 

Silence is better than flooding rejections, isn't it? ?
I just received an interview invitation from Iowa and am preparing for it. Finger crossed for all! 

@Klutch2381 @Meroki LOL if you saw an earlier post of mine about a uni that did not bother updating application status... However, a piece of possibly good news is that I sent the office an email in early December (after I submitted my application) to ask for some clarification for the materials in case I need to update some. They replied and said I wouldn't need to. So I think they might check all materials in December and will start reviewing in January?
Also, for those who applied to University of British Columbia and McGill, both unis started to review applications in this week. I received emails from UBC and my application portal of McGill shows "under review".
Tbh, I have literally little expectation for this cycle because the pandemic isn't getting any better and I believe international students will be put in a disadvantaged stance in application review due to funding issues. Anyways, good luck everyone!

@CinnamonCream I submitted my application to NYU on Nov 28th, and the admission office contacted me in early December about my materials (one of my transcripts is unofficial). They also said they would review my application as soon as I uploaded the official transcript. So I think the email implies that they start reviewing applications when the application is complete and all materials are ready to be reviewed. 

Hi all! Just an update: I received emails from Indiana Bloomington, McMaster, and NYU saying that they already started reviewing materials. Also, I sent an inquiry message to McGill, and the admission office said they would start reviewing the materials soon (if not already started). If you've applied to these programs, good luck! 
Also, some programs where I applied allow/encourage (for example, Columbia and University of Iowa) applicants to update their transcripts when the grades in the fall semester are available. I think my fall grades can help so I updated mine. You can check your application portal(s) to see whether you should/need to/want to do that. 
Btw, the link below is an article that I find helpful to do some mental preparation in advance. I hope it helps to you as well! 
https://s-michael-gaddis.medium.com/a-reflection-on-rejection-c57b8806b463
Again, fingers crossed for all! 

Hi! Not applying this year but just wanted to crash the thread to say my inbox is open if anyone has questions about UC Irvine, the app process (I applied pre-COVID, though), scholarship negotiations, etc. Not an expert but always happy to try to help. Good luck to all of you!

I am not an expert in admission but was in a similar situation as yours. My intuitive reaction is that you should explain your low grades in your SoP. Admission committee will not do it for you. You also need to apply some strategies in your explanation (tones, word choice, logical cohesion, etc..) and avoid any "red flag" marks. Then, you need evidence that proves your scores/GPA does not represent your (academic) potential. By evidence, I mean LoRs, projects, extracurricular events, etc..
I will use myself as an example. My undergrad GPA is very low. I explained the reason and showed what else I did (with evidence of achievements). My LoR writer is the dean of my faculty. Despite my low GPA, he acknowledges my potential based on our interaction and my extracurricular accomplishments. After graduation, my achievements within my job also prove my competency. I ended up in a master program in a top30 university. 
So, I think the very basic rule here is that use plentiful evidence of your potential to compensate for low GPA. The more, the better. You need to do (and I did) much more than those applicants with high GPAs to prove your potential. 
Also, there are plentiful successful applicants with sub-3.0 GPAs in the thread below. You can see how they succeeded. 
 

Most of those results are for engineer/science subjects, so I think they have a different style of admissions? Believe it or not, some of the programs I've applied haven't started reviewing my applications ?... not saying which uni, but I submitted all my applications on Nov 28th, and the application status of the uni is still "application complete" rather than "under review", even though there is a status called "under review" lol. It might be that most sociologists at unis need to read LOTS of essays as final exams, so they won't start in December. I'm expecting them to review my application in early January, and let's see how it goes.

Update: I got into the PhD program! After working hard my first year, my grades were good enough to convince the graduate committee to let me transition in the PhD program! Now this happened after the Spring 2019 semester, so I'm a little late in providing an update, haha. I have another 3 years to go, but I've been working hard and have been truly enjoying every minute of it!
For anyone who is serious about pursuing an advanced degree in ANY field, don't let anyone talk you out of it. I've had undergrad professors, former coworkers, and friends try to tell me that my dream was unrealistic and unachievable. But I didn't listen, and I worked hard. And just like a lot of people on this thread say after they've accomplished their goal, it was worth it. I'm so grateful that I was given an opportunity to turn it all around. It is NEVER too late to chase your dreams!
If make it all the way through, I'll most definitely update this post again to show everybody that this is achievable no matter what circumstances you may find yourself in  
Good luck to anyone out there who's currently trying to go to grad school and prove to themselves that they're capable of succeeding at this level. You most certainly can do it!!!

Finally get to post to the sub-3.0 acceptance thread!
My undergrad GPA stood at 2.4 from UC Berkeley.
I was just accepted to nearly every school I applied to (I'm still on the waitlist for MIT, but they only took 5 of 25 interviewed students). These were biology/microbiology programs at Berkeley, UCSF, Caltech, UC San Diego, and Wisconsin at Madison. I was outright rejected from Stanford, but was interviewed everywhere else.
I had nearly 6 years of academic research experience after undergrad to try and make up for my GPA, where I worked in a number of labs all over the world, from NASA Ames in California to a remote field camp in Antarctica. It was letters of rec and my current PI that really helped me get through the door. GPA doesn't matter, so long as you have good people going to bat for you. If your GPA is as low as mine was, you definitely need to prove yourself in some way. 

Thank you! Now having a larger cohort of PhD students sounds more logical to me, also because not many MA/MS students would dedicate themselves into assistantship either.
Finger crossed for this cycle! 

Good question. In general, Professors prefer working with grad students. In the US grad students are viewed as more mature, dedicated to research, and committed to the discipline. Also, in most funded programs, funded students are not, technically, allowed to work anywhere except within the department. This is typically a condition of the assistantship and dedicates the student solely to studying and the assistantship. Generally, undergrad hires aren't help to the same standard and are, then, more free to say no or take on other projects.  
Additionally, developing graduate students in TA roles leads to them being able to become an Instructor of Record (IOR). This allows departments to offer more classes to the undergrads at a lower cost than hiring a full professor line. In the US, depending on the accreditation agency, student IORs typically must be at least a second year grad student (> 18 credit hours earned)  to be an instructor.
Could departments focus on undergrad labor? Certainly. But its unlikely given the propensity to have grad students teach their own courses later in the program.

That is actually good to know! Thank you and @THS.
My follow-up question is that if they decided to hire MS/MA students or advanced undergrads to do the TA/RA job this year, It appears to me that they could continue hiring those students for the jobs in the following years because doing so should be much more cost-efficient than funding a larger cohort of PhD students, assuming that the MS/MA students and undergrads did their job well, correct? I do not have much experience in the US academia though, so I'm wondering how much the labor shortage would contribute to the decision of accepting/funding more PhD students. Perhaps they could offer more semi-funded MA/MS opportunities with TA/RA rather than accept more fully funded PhD students? 

Almost every program in the country had some people reevaluate why they were there AND had students MA out or finish their PhD. AND many also didn't take cohorts last year. This has resulted in a labor shortage in a lot of departments that rely on graduate students to TA, RA, and teach. I know in my department because phd candidates are being forced to TA this spring when they have been teaching or RAing due entirely to this labor shortage. 

Hey everyone!
I applied to PhD programs last cycle and was part of the brutal back to back rejections most of us seemed to get. In the course of one day, I was rejected by 6 programs almost back to back in February! And rejected from the rest of programs later that week (with the exception of 1 wait list - which turned into a rejection in April!). I turned to applying to MS programs and was accepted into each program I applied to. I accepted a spot in a funded masters program.
I don't like my geographic location (like absolutely loathe it) and I know I want a PhD, so I've reapplied to a much narrower group of departments this cycle. We'll see how it goes. 
Similar to what @THS mentioned, other departments on my campus are searching far and wide for people to TA courses (mine is medium sized and the MS students cover most TA needs). Though, I'm not sure about departments taking more students. This is a logical conclusion, though! 
Since most grad students are already working, some departments are turning to grad students in related disciplines and even hiring advanced undergrads to TA. Most of this issue stems from HUGE freshman intro courses which typically require TA support. (And graduate students are exploited laborers due to justifiable low wages - but that's a topic for another thread!)

Update: I got into a program!!! However, I was encouraged by the head of the admission committee to apply for the Masters route. If I excel academically my first year, I will be able to transfer into the PhD program! I'm very excited for the opportunity. 
This just goes to show that anything is possible. If I am able to get into the PhD program, I'll post back on here and hopefully be able to inspire others to never give up when pursuing your dream!!!