Requesting Feedback After Rejection

[applicant1627]

What is the best phrasing to ask for feedback after you interviewed with a school and they rejected you?

[PsyDuck90]

Something along the lines of "thank you for the opportunity to interview with your program. I was hoping you could provide some feedback on how I can improve my application for the following cycle."

[Desperate Clinical]

11 hours ago, PsyDGrad90 said:

Something along the lines of "thank you for the opportunity to interview with your program. I was hoping you could provide some feedback on how I can improve my application for the following cycle."

I echo these thoughts but I will warn you that in all of the times I have requested feedback, I have never gotten a response... so that is indeed likely, especially in Clinical psych.

[lewin]

42 minutes ago, Desperate Clinical said:

I echo these thoughts but I will warn you that in all of the times I have requested feedback, I have never gotten a response... so that is indeed likely, especially in Clinical psych.

I can think of a few reasons why profs might be reluctant to provide feedback. 

(a) lots of requests, very little time. May be harsh to say, but it's not the POI's job to mentor or coach applicants.

(b) sometimes the request is really an attempt at appealing the decision under the guise of asking for feedback. Replying is inviting an argument.

(c) sometimes people actually aren't receptive to candid feedback and respond rudely.

(d) the weakness might be something the candidate can't easily improve over a year like "your GPA is bad" or "you said something offensive in an email, and even if you don't do that next year we won't change our mind."

(e) profs are people too. The reason might be something they feel awkward telling you or that is hard to phrase. For example, being interpersonally awkward at the interviews, or you were good but not great. May also overlap with (d), e.g., "Get smarter" or "have a better personality" isn't terribly actionable and nobody wants to be a dream crusher.

(f) maybe your references weren't glowing and it would breach confidentiality to tell you that.

Some of these reasons overlap with more general reasons why employers don't like to provide feedback to rejected job candidates.

 

 

[PsyDuck90]

2 hours ago, Desperate Clinical said:

I echo these thoughts but I will warn you that in all of the times I have requested feedback, I have never gotten a response... so that is indeed likely, especially in Clinical psych.

Yeah, I should probably add that I only asked for feedback from one POI because I already established a rapport with them and we had been emailing back and forth throughout the application process. I would not recommend "cold-calling" POIs for feedback.