MoJingly

I just thought I would share that I had my first rejection nightmare last night. Literally. The adcomm looked at me and said, "you're not really smart enough to be a professor." I tried to follow-up with the fact that I was mostly interested in research and my ability to teach would stem from my enthusiasm from that .. But they just looked at me, shook their heads. "No."

Be a pain. This is important stuff! I think letter writers appreciate you laying out all of the work. Tell them the schools you are applying to and the different programs in each. Chances are, they won't have to write a whole new letter, but just tweak the main one for each discipline.

I JUST got an email from my program that didn't hide the other interviewees addresses. Not cool.

Yes. I regret not contacting one of my schools to see what their interview dates were. I assumed they would have more than one... but alas. So of the two places I applied, both want me the same weekend. &$^#%@ Not a big deal in the long run, since I work at the University that I am unable to "visit," but it causes some headaches and stress that I would rather NOT deal with!

It sounds to me that by "short list" they meant "interviewees." Numbers and acceptance rate vary A LOT by school!

Here's the only thing you need to ask yourself - Are you happy? I mean truly, deeply, happy in the cockles of your soul. If you are, then keep doing what is making you happy and you can thankfully decline your professor's suggestion. If you find after some introspection you find yourself unhappy, then change something.

I'm sure watching that made my IQ drop ~20 pts.

Ok, so I am mostly active in the biological sciences/general portion of this forum, and I never took the time to look and see what was going on in here. You guys are seriously cool.

"hiccup" < --- I like that.

I've already submitted my applications and am waiting to interview, but I've been thinking. How will you/do you/did you determine what "red flags" to explain on your application? What do you think is the level of severity that warrants explanation? On one application I mentioned in passing that I didn't have really high GRE scores but this doesn't measure my ability to perform in grad school... yada yada. I did not explain why I had a withdrawal from a physics class (logistical reasons) or why I went from my highest GPA one semester last year to my lowest the next (I got mono). I figured that if they really want to know, they will ask me in an interview, but I don't plan on bringing it up. I preferred not to drag my application down with red-flag issues. But of course, none of them were horrid. Was there a point to this post? Ah, not really. Just wondering what you all think.

Hey there, It's going to be really tricky for anybody on here to predict what the adcoms are thinking. "Rate my chances" threads are always kind of a crapshoot. But, you probably already knew that Anyhow, your GPAs probably aren't high enough to make admissions committees jump for joy. Just from what you've said, with 7 years of good research experience, this is probably the red flag. But you said you gave an explanation for the undergrad GPA, so this is good. And the year is still young. Chin up! There's still time.

This was my thought too. How strange this is. If you don't hear back from your last email, I think contacting a professor would be the next appropriate step.

shoulda married rich...

My current PI told me that, harsh as it might sound, your recommenders should have doctoral degrees.

You know, I've thought a lot about this post ever since I read it. I've received interview invites, but still have been pretty secretive except with those close to me in the process. I feel like I want to save the celebration until I'm actually accepted at my top choice. It will make it seem sweeter.

Oh, let's just all meet for a few days in the Caribbean, drink a couple of margaritas, and laugh about it.

Isn't it a great and validating feeling when hard work pays off?? Congrats!

Right. And since WE are all the best of the best, that means we're all in really good shape. Obviously.

Just to clarify, are you talking about a hard copy of your application? Online applications don't give much of a chance for a cover letter, at least from my experience.

I guess I always knew it happened, but does anybody agree that it's still strange when it ACTUALLY happens?

whoa

This is so good to hear. I'm glad that there are some institutions that work a little faster. I'm currently working on a second research project at the same institution (but under a different PI), and it seems to be moving slow too... maybe I've just had bad luck. Regardless, I'm still learning a lot, but wouldn't mind a little pep in the process. And yes, I would have been (...will be...) the first author.

Yup. I'm not sure if I believe it. This might be a drive-by-posting.

Aw lasgirl, it's all in good fun. Just blowing off steam. I'm sure some of us have at least a little bit of hope. (we do, don't we?)