whateverneveram3n

i'm in ur apps pile, bein overlookd. =( haha.

Oh...original poster? erf.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's OP? Also, your rejections record sounds particularly awful. My empathies.

I had a dream two nights ago where I was asked for a phone interview at one of my still-waiting-to-hear-from-schools (my first choice in real-life). The interview went ok and the dude on the phone was nice, but then I spent the rest of the dream worrying if I had done ok, if I should've expressed my interested in the program better, etc. The dream ended before I found out anything. I don't like that this is starting to percolate into my dreams, either. I thought I was going to be so much cooler about this than I'm finding... :|

That's tough still being in classes and getting rejections. At least I'm a year out of school, working a day job, so I don't have the nagging question of "WHY am I studying for this test/doing this homework if I'm not getting into grad school anyway?!" I know words are only worth so much, but hang in there, dude.

I probably would've typed, "one sec, phone" then gone and screamed at a wall. =)

yeah, I do feel a little better, too... thanks people. =)

The email said it "strongly suggests looking up faculty...", so I'd go ahead and start looking up some faculty! Who knows how to read this email as a rejection/admission clue, but I would at least take it at face value and get in touch with some profs.

Three rejects in one week. All last week. I've started having grad school dreams at night. :|

Yes, please from me, too. Vegas sounds like a proper place for such moderate debauchery.

Isn't the self-esteem bruising nature of the applications process enough of a hazing ritual already?

Bahaha...awesome. I like how the article takes these hilarious internet videos and actually manages pretty serious synopses of them. So much time to waste...so little time...

Oh my freaking goodness. This is awesome. How could this be on the internet for almost TWO YEARS and I'm just finding out about it now?? Thank you for the much needed belly laughs!

Yeah, I've witnessed this too--not just professors, but other professionals who went to school in my field, too, who thought I stood a much better chance with my credentials than my spate of rejection letters seems to be implying...

Yeah, too bad we don't all live in the same place, we could all go out for drinks. =)

Flip or no flip, this is a nice idea. I hope it brings you good karma. =) There are all sort of stories about people that took detours in their academic path. (Even Einstein couldn't get into grad school for a long time.) Don't let rejection from faceless admin committees weigh in your decision if academia is the right place for you or not. Listen to yourself and to profs who have gotten to know you very well.

fwiw, no word yet from the general math phd here.

I hope you showed that cookie who was boss. Stupid vague cookie. I've actually been managing to stay somewhat calm up until the last week or so...now that I'm sitting on three rejections and three probably-who-the-hell-knows rejections, I'm starting to freak out a little bit. I think it's more the not knowing that's really getting to me...I just want to know how my apps are going to turn out already. Even if it's all rejections...ok I guess, I'm working on a plan b. I just want to get on with my life already. I've found myself starting to stress eat--so I'm not keeping ANYthing bad to eat in the house...and instead I end up eating a LOT of oranges and pistachios. Last night I even had my first apps-related dream...I got a call from one of my remaining schools (my first choice out of all of them, in waking life), for an interview. The guy on the phone asked me some random questions, about life and what I like to do with my free time. It was a pleasant call. And then a little after that the dream ended, or at least my memory of it. And when I woke up, it was the first thing on my mind. :| On the other hand, I'm making myself get back into running regularly (the warming weather is certainly helping with that effort)...so that's at least helping to offset the stress-eating, and usually helps to offset some stress, too. @GirlattheHelm, I used to be an on-off again smoker myself, and this process is very nearly convincing me to buy a pack, too. Hopefully I will get some good news this week and my willpower will hold out until then... (It also helps that the kind I used to smoke are ridiculously hard to find out here in the midwest...)

Bahaha...if I got a rejection letter from a school saying, "Sorry, we're just not that into you", I think I would bust out in laughter instead of the usual tears.

(ok...now I'm totally procrastinating...) I'd like to suggest some courses for our applied math department: 524: Accounting Practices: Border Collie Puppies and Shortbread Cookies (required for all incoming students) 601: Introduction to Programming on Computers That Cost More Than Your House (must take APPM 602 simultaneously) 602: How Not to Break Computers That Cost More Than Your House 603: Applied Social Network Analysis: basically, facebooking 605: Atmosphere and Climate Modeling: why climate change is way more complicated than Al Gore says it is 725: How to Spot a Ponzi Scheme

Another point worth mentioning, about the sciences in general, is that often the caliber of one's education and research opportunities and really vary between "brand-name" and "safety" schools. For subjects in humanities whose usual tools are the written word, even if your safety school does not have a super library, there's always Inter-Library Loan. (Or Amazon.) But there's no analogue of that for lab equipment or high-performance computers. And love it or hate it, "brand-name" schools tend to be better funded, which is great for the reasons anthcat mentions, too. (I don't want to start a whole sci vs. humanities debate--that's not my bag--so please feel free to kindly point out anything I may be overlooking here...)

But what about pointed sticks?

I'm sure a professor you know well would be happy to take a look at your application and give you some pointers for next time, especially if said prof has been involved in application committees before.

If it's really a toss-up, I'd like to reiterate my earlier suggestion of just choosing the cooler town to live in. At least it's one step up from flipping a coin. Plus, as far as the funding offers go, you have to read them in the context of the cost of living in each town/city. The same amount of money will support you very differently in different places.