What to do now...

[anonuser109]

This is sort of ridiculous since I should really be out celebrating and not second-guessing everything etc., but here it goes. Suddenly I am left wondering whether I should have aimed a little higher with regard to where I was applying. I graduated from a top 25 research university for undergrad, magna cum laude etc. Had around a 1300 on the GREs, no amazing LORs, no publications etc. The PhD programs I applied to were mostly around the 30 mark in the rankings. I am excited about these programs but am wondering if, given the difficulty of job placement etc. (we all know the pitfalls of academia, despite the fact that it would be nice if rankings didn't matter), I might have tried for some of the higher-ranked programs. At what point does this no longer really mean anything? In other words, I'm not talking about Princeton and Stanford here. Does the difference between, say, OSU and Rutgers really matter? Thank you all for your responses.

[Tritonetelephone]

I think that as long as you're enrolling in a moderately-ranked (30's is fine) school with a mentor that you can connect with (which is key), it's not worth what-iffing about the top schools. Despite your qualifications, there is absolutely no guarantee that they would have admitted you anyway, and the added rejections might have affected your healthy self-esteem. I think that the difference between OSU and Rutgers only has a really heavy impact IF you are planning on trying to coast through grad school without publishing or creating some evidence of original work. But I'm not speaking from experience, only what my advisers have told me.

Just go out and celebrate, damnit!

[msocgradstudent]

If anything you can try to transfer after you receive your masters. I have a question for anyone who may have input or advice. I have so far been rejected from just about every school that I have applied to. I have had research experience, 1240 GRE (770 math 470 verbal), 3.4 undegrad GPA, 3.91 graduate gpa, 4 good letters of rec, and a masters in sociology. Now, I realize that I applied to some very competitive schools (northwestern, johns hopkins, washington, cornell, ect.) but, what the hell, I am getting rejected everywhere. I am finishing my masters now at a top 40 research school in soc. What did I do wrong and is there any appealing that can be done to get me into these schools that have already rejected my application? Any advice? Thanks all,

[acoustic_mayhem]

If anything you can try to transfer after you receive your masters. I have a question for anyone who may have input or advice. I have so far been rejected from just about every school that I have applied to. I have had research experience, 1240 GRE (770 math 470 verbal), 3.4 undegrad GPA, 3.91 graduate gpa, 4 good letters of rec, and a masters in sociology. Now, I realize that I applied to some very competitive schools (northwestern, johns hopkins, washington, cornell, ect.) but, what the hell, I am getting rejected everywhere. I am finishing my masters now at a top 40 research school in soc. What did I do wrong and is there any appealing that can be done to get me into these schools that have already rejected my application? Any advice? Thanks all,

Do you have any publications? If not, is there any chance you can try and get your Masters thesis published? Oftentimes when you submit an article for publication, and it is accepted with revisions, those revisions will help you to polish your writing sample and will make you a more competitive candidate.

Also, I would suggest getting a bunch of word lists and really studying hard for the verbal section of the GRE- your math score is great, but your verbal is a bit low and may have hurt you during the application process.

Other than that, you should e-mail all of the programs you applied to this year and ask if they had any suggestions for you to strengthen your application for next year. I'm sure at least one of them will respond. I don't think there's much you can do about appealing to the programs that rejected you, but contacting them and asking for advice on how you can be a more competitive candidate will show your continued interest and may help you out next year.

Good luck!

[msocgradstudent]

Yeah, I have a co-authored publication which is actually a Policy initiative that was presented to the Florida legislature. Also, I currently have two articles under review, one which made up the writing sample for my application. I guess I may have to try and get at least one of these published before I reapply. From my understanding, I should be ahead of most of the applicants in this regard. I guess these factors did not trump my low GRE verbal and AW score. What can I say, I froze up on this part of the test. I was hoping that the admissions committee would understand. Guess not :wink:

[nativenewyorker]

Msocgradstudent,

I'm sorry to hear about your predicament. While improving your GRE scores can't hurt, I'm not sure that's what's leading to your rejections, though maybe that was an issue at the highest ranked schools. Maybe something was off in your SOP. That's the only thing that hasn't been mentioned, and everything else in your application seems to be in order. In my case, I had pretty dismal scores (540q, 650v, 5.0 aw), and I was accepted to two programs out of three, NYU and CUNY. I was rejected from Princeton, but with my scores they may not have even looked at my app. I definitely second the advice to contact the programs and ask for some guidance in strengthening your application. And perhaps also contact professors you are interested in working with at the programs you apply to in the next round. I did that at NYU and it probably helped. Best of luck!

[alienatedlaborer]

I agree with nativenewyorker. I think a good statement of purpose can really help clarify why you would be a good fit for each program (and fit is generally very important to these committees), especially if your other quals aren't in the stratosphere. Also, the competition really does matter. For instance, how many others from your undergrad and grad schools applied this year, and how many other letters did your rec. letter writers write? It's rare for any top program to accept more than one person from any given school each year, and rec. letters are always ranked (if only implicitly).

My advice is to:

(1) Contact the schools and see if they'll give you feedback on your app.

(2) Retake the GRE to improve that verbal score.

(3) Contact professors at each school (if your current professors can put you in touch, that helps) to get a feel for each program. Visit campus or call them if that's not a possibility, but have good questions ready, and ask about their personal research. And of course, follow up with a thank you email.

(4) Work with your professors more so that they know you and your work even better, which translates to an even better letter. Maybe ask them for help revising your thesis for publication.

You might also consider a few "safety" schools (although I don't know how "safe" you can call any program with full funding, etc.), if you're really dying to get your PhD. This is completely a personal choice, but consider adding a few more schools to that list. There are a lot of great programs out there.

And lastly, don't be discouraged. I applied to several top-tier schools last year and was rejected by all of them. I followed the above advice (given to my by a very successful professor who was also rejected his first time around), and had better luck this year.

Best of luck!

[anonuser109]

nativenyer - can you tell me anything more about your app? I also applied to NYU and havn't heard back - I'm assuming it's a rejection. You'll see my stats above - any thoughts as to how I might have stacked up...or not stacked up?

[nativenewyorker]

Anonuser109,

I would be happy to discuss my app with you, although these things seem to be a bit of a crapshoot at times. I actually exchanged some emails with someone who got into Princeton, and it was very helpful to me, since I had been rejected. Unfortunately, NYU is probably a rejection for you. I attended the open house on March 7th, and there were both accepted and at least one waitlisted applicant there.

I'll give some info here, but if you want to discuss more, we can always trade emails. I actually applied to Rutgers as well but withdrew my app before finding out whether I'd been accepted. Like you, I had no publications. My GREs were only 1190. I graduated from Fordham University, which is ranked somewhere in the 60s (I think), summa cum laude. I have an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University, so the ivy league name probably helped balance out the low GRE. I had three strong LORs, but no big names or anything. In my SOP, I emphasized fit with the dept (one of my main interests is urban soc, which is one of their strongest areas).I also contacted a faculty member in September who had some similar interests and had an in-person meeting with him, since I live in Manhattan. He was very helpful and even said he'd "flag" my application, though he wasn't on the adcom.

Hmmm. I don't know what else I can say. I don't know much about OSU, but I know that Rutgers is very good for certain areas, health for instance. If my primary interest was in health, and the commute between New Brunswick and NYC wasn't an issue right now, I would not hesitate to go.

Hope this helped a little. Good luck!

[anonuser109]

Nativenyer - would love to contact you to ask a few more questions. Do you have the "contact" function turned off? It doesn't seem to be letting me message you.

[nativenewyorker]

Anonuser109,

Sorry about that. It was turned off, but I've fixed it now. Feel free to ask away!

[anonuser109]

Any dress code for these recruitment events? Am I going to feel uncomfortable in jeans?