If your grad school plans don't work out, are you going to bother trying again next year?

[Hopeful_Biologist]

I sure as shit am not. One round is enough. I don't want to volunteer in anyone's lab just on the off chance it will give my application any more strength. If I don't get in this round, I'm done. I'm getting a job as a lab technician for a year, attending a coding bootcamp, and then start a career as a full stack developer. This whole application process makes me hate academia and I can't stand it anymore.

[jocorac]

16 hours ago, Hopeful_Biologist said:

I sure as shit am not. One round is enough. I don't want to volunteer in anyone's lab just on the off chance it will give my application any more strength. If I don't get in this round, I'm done. I'm getting a job as a lab technician for a year, attending a coding bootcamp, and then start a career as a full stack developer. This whole application process makes me hate academia and I can't stand it anymore.

I probably won't either. I think I'll go into the field and if I get the courage to apply in a few years, I will, but honestly, I'm just gonna let it go if nothing works out lol Too much stress to go through again. 

Edited January 18, 2018 by jocorac

[topsailpsych]

I absolutely will.  I'll accept one of the job offers I've received to work as a counselor, take the NCE and work toward my LPC, and find a more structured lab to work with that will hopefully look better on my CV.  I may take the GRE again, but I may not.  And I'll continue to go to conferences and network with folks in the field.  I can't do what I want to do without a PhD, so I'm going to keep applying as many times as it takes.

[Rndbmi]

Nope. I’m already 30. Anyway, I currently have a high paying job in the area I want to do research in. I wanted to get a PhD to do research and expand my scope. I’ll settle for a Master’s instead if I don’t get into any of programs I applied.

[posts]

Yeah, I want to teach, so I need me a PhD unfortunately.

If I fail across the board, which I really feel like is going to be the case, I'm going to go teach overseas for a year, write a whole new writing sample because mine sucks, and reapply. And my SOP got much stronger over the app process, so that means the early applications must have been terrible. Room to improve there too.

The part I DREAD about reapplying is asking for LORs again. I already don't have the world's strongest relationship with my professors (okay, but not a close working relationship on research/a project or anything like that) and I do not want to go through that again.

[Psychologyandpizza]

Probably not. I want to open my own private practice with a PhD but if I’m not accepted this time I will probably go for my MA and get licensed as an LPC. Which really sucks because I will receive my MS in a few months in a non clinical field so those combined would be the length of a PhD basically. But I’m not down for trying again and putting my partner through all of the stress as well. Or I’ll get a research job in one of the larger cities near me and start paying down my student loans so that I can get on with my life.