GradHooting

My funders, upon "winning" this internship, told me that I would be working here for a year. They seriously thought I would be working for a year, but some kind of miscommunication with my direct supervisor means that my supervisor only wants me around for the summer, and now the internship program needs to find out what to do with me. They suggested I reapply, but wouldn't that just be resubmitting into an application pool, turning my definite 1 year promise into a mere possibility? I can't haul my stuff back to a place where I have no home. I left there. I don't plan on going back. All my business there has ended. The contract does not have any legalese that I saw that allows them for some kind of out. All contracts that I agreed to before I actually took the effort to move there didn't seem to have any sort of clause in it that would allow them to terminate it. It basically consisted of web forms and a web signature that I signed. The contract stated exactly what I would be doing, the start and end dates of the internship, and the monthly stipend amount. Here's the initial statement I was given: On behalf of [program], [funders] is pleased to offer you an internship at [location]. Your internship becomes effective on 6-1-2012 and ends 5-31-2013. This internship is contingent on continuing funding and, where necessary, obtaining [organization] clearances and approvals. Your stipend amount will be [$] per month, based on [%] FTE. Stipend payments will be made on or about the 25th of each month. If you are staying longer than 60 days, we would encourage you to have your pay check direct deposited. You will be able to complete the direct deposit paperwork during your in-processing on your first day on-site. Travel expenses to [place] will not be paid by the program unless specified by your [organization] sponsor. If you have questions about the details of the offer, please contact undersigned at [#]. The contract I directly signed stated: If the offer start and end dates do not coincide with your availability, please contact the mentor listed above to negotiate new dates. Please DO NOT accept the offer until the dates are firm. Once an offer is accepted, dates cannot be changed. If new dates are negotiated, please inform the mentor he/she should send an email to [name] (email) with the new dates and a new offer will be made. There was no vast amount of paperwork that I signed for this. I file taxes as a self employed person, since it's not "technically" employment, but an education enrichment program.

The written contract that I had signed stated that I would have the internship for a length of 1 year. Given that I had already graduated from college, and was tutoring and researching at the university, and didn't really have firm roots, I cancelled all the appropriate stuff to move out to this place. The idea is that I would spend my 1 year here, make all the necessary connections, and either become employed here, somewhere else, or go to grad school around here once the year is up. The problem is, now my supervisors are saying that they only intended me to be here for the summer, and the manager for the internship program stated that my contract was for a year. Now, they can't communicate with each other because my supervisors are always in meetings and too busy to talk to them directly. My supervisors insist that I must talk to the manager of the internships, which I did. However, they need to talk with each other to iron out miscommunications, and they can't. So, my question is: What can I do? I have a written contract promising an internship with a length of 1 year, and I have uprooted myself in such a way that I have nowhere to go back to once the summer is over, because I had planned to be here for a year. They insist that promissory estoppel only applies in cases of employment, and this is not employment, but "education enrichment."

GRE reference

Rejected everywhere, but that's ok! I'll be working for NASA doing research for a year. Maybe something good will come out of this for next year

This is interesting. Maybe this is why I've been so consistently rejected. I just specified the specific research done by specific professors that I was most interested in getting involved with.

Hey, everyone. I will start the application process once again, coming this fall. I figured it'd be a good opportunity to show some of you the SOP I wrote for this year's attempt, and the attempt before that. Everyone said it was fine, but, finally, one person said it was awful. Maybe I need more critique on what it's lacking. Just message here and I can send it over through PM.

He really was a bit of an outlier mentioning the 3.9+ requirement. Everyone else seemed to think I'd be just fine. Oh well, after year at NASA I'll try once more

Heh, good point, ANDS!, I suppose putting so much weight on a GPA is like determining how good a digital camera is by solely looking at the # of megapixels.

I'll be living close to some of my goal schools, so I might be able to just become a familiar face and be convincing, if having someone who is willing to fund you can help.

What about things done after graduation? I was pretty much a first gen student (everyone else in my family who knew about the in's and out's about large graduate schools died or disappeared long before they could give any pointers), so I didn't know the nuances until I tried applying afterwards. He didn't say a 3.9+ is required for any grad school, just that anything less is a serious detriment for the top schools.

I talked to one of my old professors, in the past couple of days, who writes tons of letters of recommendations, and he told me something that amounted to this. Basically, his idea is that, since there is such high demand for grad programs recently, and the desire for so many to stay in their slots in grad programs, both due to the economy, that the top schools easily have their pick to fully fill their slots with academically perfect individuals. He stated that the commonly stated "3.5+" is more of a liability thing, and that it's far different from the true GPA cutoff they have, whereby they barely consider any applications below something like a 3.9. I'm really not sure anymore. Because, if that's the case, then I can very well be SOL in that category with a 3.6 and should just not even try applying to stated "tier 1" schools in the next round, since no amount of research, publications, experience in the industry, or connections with top professionals could change that relatively tainted record. He also provided an anecdote where the distinguished graduate from one year ended up not getting in anywhere, because his GPA wasn't at that pristine level. So, that was very uncomfortable to hear, but, maybe the truth hurts. What do you think? Is this just a terrible time to apply? I personally know people with excellent credentials get rejected from the schools in my state, none of which are really high ranking at all. So, the whole application process is just a darned mystery to me. The best thing about the next few months is I won't have to worry about it too much. It's just given me a headache trying to figure it out.

I can get one letter from a research adviser at the school I'm currently at, as well as a regular professor from undergrad I've been keeping in contact with. Then, hopefully, I can apply myself quite well in this opportunity and get some juicy letters from some NASA researchers! I'm just ecstatic. For being rejected from everywhere, the opportunity work in research for a year, in the relevant field, seems like the perfect thing I can do with myself until the next application round. Thanks for all the support you guys have given me, so far. I was initially very wary to post things here, and practically avoided this site to avoid the stress of anticipated rejections (on the results page and such). This thread has been one of the biggest supports I've had through that brief, 3 week long period of battling with the sense of defeat, that seemed to give the impression that the 2 years of applying myself was for nothing, when it wasn't! The NASA thing's the first evidence I have that I actually moved forward. Woot!

I'll be at NASA Ames. I'll try to do lots of networking around the area with schools and businesses there, as it's pretty much exactly where I want to be. I don't think my undergrad professors would be able to offer super strong recommendations beyond seeing my tenacity against the constant rejections over the years. I mean, I graduated with honors and such, but I have *way* more perspective about what I want to do now than I did as an undergrad, and a lot of the professors with whom I interacted more closely ended up pretty much disappearing from the school and leaving the country, so it's been very hard trying to contact them. I do have some professors that have seen what I can do at the school where I'm doing research currently, but, still, I'm concerned that it's nothing truly mindblowingly impressive. It's basically research that's outside my field that I've been pushing real hard doing lab work in. Things have moved forward quite fast, with my help, at least. But, I was more joining projects that were already started by the adviser and what he wanted me to do. I didn't really start anything of my own (they're very picky about students doing things without their permission) beyond just offering solutions for simultaneous use of lab equipment by different groups that the professors thought was impossible. I basically went through undergrad with zero perspective on the expectations of grad schools.

So, some news came in just around a day or two after I made that last post. Something came through that completely surprised me. I'll be spending at least a year working at NASA, gaining experience in the space industry. I cannot put into words how amazing this feels. This is exactly (or, even better than) what I've been pushing for. This program is specifically aimed towards providing relevant experience to those who have recently graduated. I've one quick question: Should letters of recommendation purely come from professors you've studied with in school, or could NASA researchers also be relevant? I've been out of school as a full time student for so long, that I feel that recommendations from previous professors at my undergrad institution might well be outdated by now, and might not represent where I'm at right now. I give them updates, but their first hand experience with me ended in 2009. This is the first time in two years that *anything* has worked out for me. I'm just in shock.

Wow, that's a really good talk. You know what resonated with me the most? The concept of free work. I tell my career advisers that I really want to do something I love, and that, because I enjoy it so much, I would be willing to do it for free for a short amount of time, to get the connections, to prove myself, and to have documented experience. It's capital that goes beyond just money. But, they almost universally freak out when I say that. They tell me "Do NOT sell yourself short. That's a terrible idea." But, I truly do not understand why I am suddenly entitled to all this pay, and all this immediate risk for the employer, if I have not sufficiently proven myself to be worth what they wish to pay me. Has everyone been completely misleading me here? EDIT: I have one concern, though. I really want to continue to grad school, not just because of the importance of proper qualifications for an aerospace engineer, putting other people's lives in their hands, but because of the connections and additional experience gained in graduate school. My concern, however, is that the process for getting into graduate school, as much as this talk resonates with me, does not at all permit what this person is talking about. The *only* way in, from what I've seen, is through the established procedures, and they will not listen to you at all if you try another route. Reality does seem to support this perception of mine, because, even with personal talks, marketing how I can be useful to them, even as an unclassified student, the rigid, established departmental procedures I've found at pretty much any of these institutions completely prevent me from using these alternate, creative routes. I really do feel stuck between a desire to do what I want to do, and what I want to do being completely stonewalled by an antiquated system that's being stubbornly held in place by gatekeepers everywhere.

I'm contacting the different schools and awaiting some kind of response for how I could improve the application. I also contacted a friend who looked at the SOP and said it was horrible, and he couldn't even finish reading it. That kind of puts me off, not because he said that, but because all these career advisers were saying it was great. So, I'm not really sure who to believe.

I've tried messaging, but I've never gotten a response. The entire last week has been a recovery week for me, with, unfortunately, a completely empty email box. I'm kind of afraid to post any stats here, because, the last time I did it (in chat here) I was accused of trolling, since they didn't believe that I'd be rejected with those stats. I guess some people aren't fully aware of just how bad the job market is, right now.

It's really hard to gauge what I need to do to fix it, I suppose. I mean, if I had a string of successes and failures, I would have some sort of metric on which to hone my application technique. But, even with simple engineering jobs, I'm just not getting in anywhere. I've gone everywhere from super formal and reserved cover letters to really striking and "in your face" cover letters that are designed to just get a phone call. It also doesn't help that I absolutely hate living here, but it feels irresponsible of me to just move somewhere else without an actual plan (read: job, means to sustain myself). I'm only here because it's where I have a part time job and some research, working towards some papers. I hate every minute of it, though. It might be because it now just reminds me of the years I've tried to get out of here. It's strange. I mean, just 6 weeks ago I was really enjoying it here, but, like you said, rowlf, it might just be because that happiness was false, and based on the hope that things will get better and I won't be here forever. But, now, every last plan fell through. Since I started this thread, I applied to more positions, but, I've already been turned down a few more times.

Thanks for the encouraging words, everyone. I just don't know.

I've been applying to tons of things with tons of backup plans. Many jobs in the public and private industry, grad schools, internships, scholarships and fellowships, and I've been rejected from 100% of them. Two rounds of grad schools all rejected, nothing but skill building in the past year. Before all this, I had pretty good confidence, after seeking advice from several career advisers, mentors, supervisors at a previous internship. People were certain I had a great chance. They looked over my documents, pointed out weaknesses for me to fix, which I did, and they nodded their heads saying that it all looks great. The grad school aim might have been high, but, the internships and job applications were not aiming high. To rub it in, a coworker ended up getting the very same internship I was shooting for, so I get to work with him while he's excited about his opportunity. His qualifications were less, too. It's just hard for me to even function anymore. I've been going at this for 2 years, hundreds of job applications, grad school applications, polishing the resume, building a portfolio, making personal visits to departments and jobs I'm interested in, even if it includes flying out of state and arranging an interview, doing research with the department here, doing teaching at the local university (love the teaching, hate the univ and city, everyone loves how I teach, though, and I've been getting stellar evaluations). I was a very different person 6 weeks ago. I was filled with confidence that something, even the risky "everything else failed" backup plans would pan out, but, in the last week, the last doors have closed. The last 6 weeks have been constant pitfalls, just adding to the years of constant rejection. After graduating with honors in AE, I've yet to see any sort of moving forward whatsoever. I'm already 25 and I don't even have my master's degree yet. I was planning on at least having some job experience in something other than an internship, but nothing has worked out. I've searched for jobs all over the country, government and non government, large and small companies, and out of the country: UK, Netherlands, Australia. Sorry, just venting. Don't mind me.

I'm glad that someone else also takes location into consideration when picking a grad school based on fit. The bay area is really expensive, but totally worth it. I've visited several times and enjoy it quite a lot. I hope to do studies there, sometime. While Stanford and Berkeley might rank lower than MIT overall, it has no say on how good a certain adviser and how good that program is. I know someone who got rejected from MIT, so went to Oregon State, but really wanted the prestige of an MIT degree, so got in through a low-demand physics specialty, and transferred. He said that, while he has an MIT Ph.D. on his application, he was miserable there. I'm not sure whether he regrets his choice or not. It really depends on the adviser and the research!

Well, my undergrad GPA (from 2 years ago, now) was at a 3.57 overall or 3.62 major GPA. I feel that it is a weak point, but it is giving me opportunity to see what I can do to improve my credentials to the point of being able to get into some tier 1 school like Georgia Tech (their NASA involvement is some of the best I've seen, and I assisted with programming one of the radar textbooks coming out of there). I've interned for an aerospace company, having someone immersed in the industry vouching for me as one of the best engineers he's met throughout his career (the guy's brilliant, so I'm flattered, but he's not exactly a huge name in the aerospace industry. His LOR was definitely the strongest, though). My SOP is definitely decent. I'd say my biggest weaknesses are not having strong enough LORs from relevant experts in the industry (which is why I'm specifically applying for more academic-related internships this time around, NASA, etc.), and a lack of publications (working on getting some out at the end of this semester). I've seen people with lower GPAs get into the top programs for a Master's degree, but they had a bunch of other stuff, too. My GRE is alright (91+% in everything, 800 math). So long as the GPA doesn't completely cripple my chances (since it's not something like a 3.8 or 3.99+), I'll keep trudging forward with what I'm doing. It can be quite discouraging, however, hitting these hurdles! Thanks for the help and advice. Sometimes, when you hit failure, you question whether you've been wasting your time the whole time, and whether continuing what you're doing is the wrong track. I guess, maybe, things aren't so bad.

I figured necroposting > making a new topic about the same thing. I'm facing the prospect of a third gap year. The first one was a shock of the job market, trying to land something, combined with preparing GRE scores (nailed those!) and enrolling in a local univ and taking classes. Second gap year consisted of getting an internship in the industry, getting a job tutoring at the university, and getting involved in a research program at the university. The third gap year is going to be a wild card, if I don't get in anywhere again. I've been pushed into the physics Ph.D. program here, merely as a formality (it's unfunded), in order to open up more opportunities in the research and teaching world. It's unrelated to my field, however, but, aerospace is hard to come by as a specific program in the university here. I'm studying something out of field. Will THREE gap years look really bad? I'm still taking classes (maintaining a 4.0 here with purely math, physics, and engineering grad and upper level classes), taking univ. jobs, finding more jobs (internships) in the aerospace industry, and doing research towards making publications.

I'd say the worst combination to get is for your first news to be a rejection from your #1 school. Last year, I got rejected from a bit of a reach school that was not necessarily my first choice. It wasn't NEARLY as bad. I was ready for rejections by the time the news for my #1 school came around.

I was completely unaware of what the expectations were for grad school, and I was a student lacking direction when I graduated from undergrad. I graduated with honors, but, nothing super impressive like top 1% or something. Definitely top 10%. However, the transcript is a mess. It shows withdrawing all classes in freshman year from a different school and transferring (death in the family threw a wrench into everything) and the semester GPAs later on started wavering wildly, due to an unfixable roommate situation that caused a complete disaster in sleeping patterns. I'm in a bit of a limbo state right now, having graduated with a BS two years ago, taking classes (grad and undergrad) at a different state school, and doing research, and applying for internships, maintaining a 4.0 since graduation. But, I'm finding that building these credentials seems to be not enough. I am not sure what else to do, how else to improve. Do I just keep doing what I'm doing? Two application attempts over two years have resulted in less than stellar results, with complete rejections last year, and at least one rejection this year. I'm just applying for master's degree programs for now. I just feel that nobody's giving me a chance to show how I've changed as a student. How can one improve their record to overshadow their undergraduate performance?