Worst Rejection That You Ever Received?

[ootg]

Among other grad schools, I did a "safety" application to the school I had received my undergrad. My mentor and former professor was even a rec (he taught undergrad and grad.) Oh, and not only was he a professor who taught me AND a faculty member at the same school I was applying to AND a solid recommendation, he was on the selection committee for grad school. After getting the rejection letter, I approached him and he said, "You're work is great but we tend to seek out students who didn't just graduate from this school." Days later, several peers in my undergrad program approached me excitedly to say that they had been accepted to the grad school...

Ouch! That must have hurt!

[anya11]

"Upon review of your application, the XX faculty has recommended not to offer you admission to YY university at this time. Although you might be disappointed by this decision, we wish you success in your academic pursuits." 

This is my worst rejection so far and it was my safety school. Fortunately i have acceptance from two top schools.

[psycholinguist]

I once had several different professors from a department I'd applied to express interest in me, and was invited to the visiting-weekend. I met with three of them, and really hit it off with one of them; we talked excitedly about his research, I understood everything he told me and even had a few suggestions of my own. I got along well with the current grad-students of his as well. He ended up printing off a number of brand-new papers from his lab for me to read, and I ended the day absolutely thrilled. I was a bit worried about the fact that I had a BA in a different field, but this guy was working on interdisciplinary research halfway between my background and his department, so that wasn't an issue. Furthermore, the other person with a BA in my field invited to the same event was accepted, which reassured me. Then I was rejected because they said they felt I wasn't ready for their program.

[The Pseudo grad student]

Mine was from UofF at a time when I was feeling most down about my GPA and GRE scores.

The part that hurt the most was "We will not reconsider your application unless your academic or professional records are changed due to further education."

To add insult to injury I got another rejection letter from an even lower tiered school the very next day.

I knew this rejection was coming due to the way that the secratary of the department was treating me. At least I know to never apply there again, not even for my PhD. Improve my record with "further education" huh? That's kind of hard to do when schools are rejecting you left and right.

Edited March 25, 2010 by The Pseudo grad student

[lily_]

HOLY. MOTHER. OF. (INSERT DEITY OF CHOICE)!!!!!!

My jaw is on the ground. I mean...I cannot believe...Oh my.

You are better than me. I have a touch'o'crazy and there is really no telling what I would have done in response to that. How is that even possible? Like, there has to be a threshold of achievement you can cross to compensate for something that old; or an expiration date?

Holy crap.

ETA: And I'm voting for Columbia. Everyone I have ever met from there is an ass.

Before I applied, I went and visited each person I wanted to work with at programs I was thinking about applying to. It took me less than five minutes to decide that I would rather eat glass than spend the next 5-7 years at Columbia during my interview with a nameless individual!

[lily_]

The first time I ever applied to graduate school, I thought that I had a shot at getting into a Turkish University (I'm an American) master's program where I heard (from the director at an open house when I was doing some study abroad in Ankara) that they REALLY wanted American students and would accept pretty much anyone. I applied.

My rejection came in the form of an e-mail, from a graduate student. It was poorly written, and granted the person writing it was not a native English speaker, but they did not even bother to use any capital letters. I did not follow up, nor will I ever apply there again (especially because an MA from a Turkish university to be competitive for US PhD schools? right, bad idea from the get go).

My rejects from PhD programs this year were just the standard fare. I did get feedback from both adcomms that I should pursue a MA, and then reapply. So at least they knew who I was and liked the positive parts of my application.

[ootg]

Before I applied, I went and visited each person I wanted to work with at programs I was thinking about applying to. It took me less than five minutes to decide that I would rather eat glass than spend the next 5-7 years at Columbia during my interview with a nameless individual!

Eeps! You make the place sound absolutely terrifying!

[martizzle]

Among other grad schools, I did a "safety" application to the school I had received my undergrad. My mentor and former professor was even a rec (he taught undergrad and grad.) Oh, and not only was he a professor who taught me AND a faculty member at the same school I was applying to AND a solid recommendation, he was on the selection committee for grad school. After getting the rejection letter, I approached him and he said, "You're work is great but we tend to seek out students who didn't just graduate from this school." Days later, several peers in my undergrad program approached me excitedly to say that they had been accepted to the grad school...

that just blows...why don't they just tell the truth? idk about you guys, but I would rather just have them lay it on me. It's better to be honest (this way i know where i'm slackin, and can fix it) as opposed to telling me some random bs and letting me stay the same/not be as 'qualified' as the guys who got in (and not know what the problem is)

"Upon review of your application, the XX faculty has recommended not to offer you admission to YY university at this time. Although you might be disappointed by this decision, we wish you success in your academic pursuits." 

This is my worst rejection so far and it was my safety school. Fortunately i have acceptance from two top schools.

I hate rejection letters; most of them have something along the line: "we wish you success in your academic pursuits" i mean i'm trying to pursue my academic studies here. Your rejecting me in NOT a way of wishing me success in my academic pursuits.

Keep it real & keep it simple:

Dear app,

We regret to inform you that you have not been accepted into the - random - program. This year, we received 100 apps; and we had only 8 available spots. So you can understand that the competition was pretty steep. Our admissions committee has determined that the reason for your rejection is a combination of the quality of the application and the presentation; with an emphasis on the quality section. Perhaps if you did - such and such - program for a year, OR re-took some classes to improve your GPA/re-did the GRE and re-applied again; you would be presenting a more competitive application. Another problem we found was with your application presentation:

1) you submitted the application on time - we believe that students seriously in our program would show the initiative of completing the app about 2 weeks early.

2) your essays had a number of grammatical errors

3) your LORs were not exceptional

Whatever road life takes you, we wish you the best. We would be happy to review your application next year or thereafter.

==

Now although this would take time, its not that difficult; even with over 90 rejections to send out. My reasoning:

1) Ad comm writes on the app (which is printed for the review process), the problems with it.

2) Secretary copies notes and puts it into the system. They do not have to be so focussed/attn to detail; but they could inform the students the major problems (not competitive enough/bad or slacky presentation) now and go into detail later... If one secretary does 10 a day, it will be over in 2 weeks. Doing one should take her/him only about 2/3 minutes or less.

It is do-able, and its initiative on the schools' part. I would want to go to a school that did that. I would feel that they care about me/want me to succeed.

Mine was from UofF at a time when I was feeling most down about my GPA and GRE scores.

The part that hurt the most was "We will not reconsider your application unless your academic or professional records are changed due to further education."

To add insult to injury I got another rejection letter from an even lower tiered school the very next day.

I knew this rejection was coming due to the way that the secratary of the department was treating me. At least I know to never apply there again, not even for my PhD. Improve my record with "further education" huh? That's kind of hard to do when schools are rejecting you left and right.

...same thing here; if you are not going to consider my app until i get further education (which is my primary reason for applying), then what am i supposed to do in the mean time? where am i to go? Not everyone who applies gets in (its simple math), but cant they come up with something original/humane?

[martizzle]

Eeps! You make the place sound absolutely terrifying!

if columbia accepts you, do you think you will go? I mean if she would rather eat glass??? for five years??? As in she wont eat the glass just once, but for five years straight....idk man...the place sounds really.... (ps just for the record, if columbia rescinds its rejection, & offers me an acceptance; i will go. i am cool with mad professors

[ootg]

if columbia accepts you, do you think you will go? I mean if she would rather eat glass??? for five years??? As in she wont eat the glass just once, but for five years straight....idk man...the place sounds really.... (ps just for the record, if columbia rescinds its rejection, & offers me an acceptance; i will go. i am cool with mad professors

I'm actually cool with mad professors, I guess. I actually had a prof in London who ate glass as a party trick! He actually used to taste a bit of every chemical that his research students ordered (no wonder he died of liver cancer)! It's just the way it was put...