hollenbe

Thanks to all three of you for your helpful comments. Wow.

Hi! It's my first time posting here. I'm four years out of college, applying for a PhD in developmental psychology. I'm posting here because I'm curious to see if anyone is in a similar situation. I applied to several programs last year and had four phone interviews and three actual interviews. In the end, I was not admitted to any of the programs, and this hurt enormously. One professor attributed my rejection to a cut in funding and another professor said I was her second choice (ouch!) Still, a rejection's a rejection, and I'm even more nervous about the process this time around. To increase my chances of getting in, I'm taking the GRE again and am working with my undergrad thesis adviser to publish a paper based on my thesis. We expect the paper to be ready for submission by December so I can include a draft with my grad school materials. So, are any of you bouncing back from having been rejected in the past? If so, how do you cope with the anxiety and fear inherent in the process of re-applying? I've also written a couple of really polite and open e-mails to professors to find out what I could do to strengthen my application, but I haven't heard back from any of them yet. Has anybody else successfully found out why they were rejected? Do you think this might be helpful for the second time around?