toxic_sci

I STILL hadn't heard from any of the schools i applied to today. I'm a grad student now so I've been through applications before and in the previous time, all my rejections were sent in late Feb/March. So I decided today to email the programs and ask what was up. These were the responses that I don't know how to interpret: School 1 said "Your application has not been rejected however, it has not been submitted to Graduate Division for admission approval. We don't usually send rejections until after the April 15 deadline. I have copied [removed]Admissions Committee Chair as he may be able to provide you with some feedback regarding your application." So at first I'm thinking so i got rejected, they just haven't sent out the rejections yet. But they specifically said i wasn't rejected? should i hold on to hope, or am i rejected? School 2 said "I've check and as of now no decision has been made - I'll forward your e-mail to Admissions." I interpret that as the program doesn't want me, so they're sending it to the graduate school to reject me. How could they not have a decision BY NOW? Any input?

So when is an appropriate time to just email the school and ask for an update? I'm assuming since I've heard nothing by now, it's probably not a good sign and I'd rather just hear I'm not accepted than wait any longer! In the results section, my top school has about 7 people already reporting acceptance at the beginning of February (I didn't even think it was that big of a program so I'm like WTF)! Two of the other schools have nothing reported. And the last has one person reporting an acceptance in the middle of January, and one person claiming an email interview. Ugghhh this is getting really stressful waiting.

I got my first acceptance letter, but it is acceptance without departmental funding. They told me I could speak with professors to see if any of them have grants, but I've already done that and the one I wanted to work with doesn't. Gosh, it just makes me feel so defeated, though. The app was due Feb 1 (a Tuesday), I got a call from the coordinator on Feb 7 (the following Monday) and she told me the committee met Friday and "they were very excited to accept me, meeting me in August..." blah blah. Why they would go to the trouble of calling me, emailing me a copy of the letter, etc. if they were accpeting me without funding? And so soon after the deadline, too. Like I wasn't even a last resort or something, I made the first cut. When I hear of "acceptance without funding," I always think "they probably accept everyone and only give funding to the ones they really want." I just feel like total crap, though. This was my first of five decisions. I was thinking I was only going to get accepted into my undergrad school's program, then I got accepted in this other one, got all excited, only to be crushed again when I read the letter. Acceptance without funding is like getting a D in a class which you need at least a C in for your degree-you're technically not failing, but it won't count anyway so you'll still have to retake the class. So facking annoying! /end rant

Wow thank you! These are really good ideas. However, just a question on omitting the first part. I go from the first paragraph describing why I chose chemistry into this one that I posted here. So I think it doesn't quite flow well enough to just jump in with "My low GPA..." Would it really be that terrible to leave it all in, maybe just changing it a bit?

My GPA is not really good, and to be perfectly honest, I really don't have a legitimately good excuse as to why - I was just lazy. It was a huge mistake on my part, but all I can do is move forward and hope something else in my application appeals to them other than my transcript. I originally didn't even mention it in my SOP since there really is no good reason, but one of my professors told me to address it (another told me not to mention it at all). This is what I came up with (and it is all true...I didn't just make this up. It's just not really a good excuse): "When I did finally decide to change my major to chemistry in the fall of 2008, I was working 30 hours a week to keep myself in school. I had mostly only upper division classes left to complete my degree and it had been three years since my last math class. Under these circumstances, to say my road to graduation at that point was a little daunting would be an enormous understatement. I had to balance these courses commonly perceived as difficult with working five hour shifts every night of the week, and as a result, I know my GPA is no where near as good as it could have been. However, I believe working to support myself in school all the while persevering to finish my degree has made me an immensely strong person ready to take graduate school by the horns. I look at graduate school as a job, so I know there will be no outside distractions preventing me from not putting forth my best effort; I know I’ll be able to devote 100% of my focus to my research and my degree." So how does that sound? Is it smart to include that, or will I be shooting myself in the foot? Should I change something? TIA for opinions.

I'm a senior chemistry major and I need some help. With chemistry, you can go really in tons of directions with respect to grad programs, research, etc. I'm supposed to be graduating this May, and I still don't know what I want to "be when I grow up." I do know I want, and practically need, to go to grad school, but I had major troubles in picking programs. So, I applied to 5 schools: two of them are the same programs of study (forensic science), one of them is an evironmental toxicology program, and two are chemistry programs, but of those two, one is researching art and the other is researching environmental chemistry. So, my question is, did I make a major mistake applying to so many different types of programs? I mean obviously, statistically it would be better to apply many schools of the same program, but I didn't want to apply to 20 different schools. I just really don't know where I want to go. And I feel really stupid mentioning the types of programs to my reference letter writers cuz they're going to think I'm a flake or something. To be honest, I really think I only have a chance of getting into one of the schools I applied to, and even thats is a big maybe. So I guess I just want to know if what I did was completely stupid, or if someone else has done something similar. Ugh I don't know...this is so stressful to me so I guess this was partially a rant to get it off my chest. Thanks for reading, and I'd really appreciate any insight. PS. sorry if this is the wrong forum...it was my first post, so I wasn't exactly sure where it would fit best.