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Two rejections, should I give up hope


nootnoot1

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Hang in there! Applications can always be quirky and even if you you're good enough to get into a school, it doesn't mean that you will get in since there are so many different factors involved. Applying to 15 schools gave you a lot of different options, so somewhere you're likely to get a break in your favor. All the best!

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2 rejections in a row might indicate sth seriously flawed about my application...

Not necessarily. Were those 2 schools 'safety schools'? Or were they highly competitive top-ranked schools? If the latter, then its still quite likely that you will get at least one admit. At this point all you can do is wait and hope. It's still way too early to despair.

Edited by newms
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Now is not yet the time to panic.

Unless those two were your safety schools or something.

Even if they were safety schools, there is certainly a lot of hope for you! You have 13 applications left!

You never ever know what goes on in the department, what they are looking for in this particular cohort of students, what the inner 'political' currents are, etc.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about at this stage. :)

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It's a competitive time for grad admissions. Even apps that would get accepted in recent years are being turned away. The odds are that even some top-tier apps are not going to get accepted at every school. 2 out of 15 is too few to leap to conclusions yet.

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Think of it this way: Give yourself an approximate probability of getting accepted at each university. Provided your GPA, GRE scores, letters of rec, etc. are solid, this should be a viable way.

Say you're pessimistic. Give yourself a 10% chance at each university. Now do the math for getting accepted to at least one: .9^15. That gives you only a 20% chance of being rejected by every university that you applied to.

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I received my first rejection today by University of Maryland-CP for American Studies. I applied to 8 schools, rejected by 1, 7 more to go. I really hope my next letters are acceptance letters.

Also, my potential advisor from Maryland informed me that I made the admission's shortlist; however, I got cut when it came down to funding. In addition, he told me how competitive and strong my application was and that even though I won't be a student there he would to continue to work with me no matter where I end up, for that, I am utterly grateful. In fact, most schools don't tell you why you are rejected so I was fortunate.

This is to say, don't give up hope, stay strong and steadfast! I, will take that same advice and remain humbled (to be in a privilege position to even apply for programs), steadfast, and faithful. Its just a matter of time, there is a spot for me.

Stay strong and positive!

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Think of it this way: Give yourself an approximate probability of getting accepted at each university. Provided your GPA, GRE scores, letters of rec, etc. are solid, this should be a viable way.

Say you're pessimistic. Give yourself a 10% chance at each university. Now do the math for getting accepted to at least one: .9^15. That gives you only a 20% chance of being rejected by every university that you applied to.

Oh no! I only applied to 6 schools, so by this calculation I have a 53% chance of being rejected by every school. I knew it. The odds are against me. sad.gif

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Oh no! I only applied to 6 schools, so by this calculation I have a 53% chance of being rejected by every school. I knew it. The odds are against me. sad.gif

Well, that's assuming the places you applied to only accepts 10% of their applicants. I would suspect that some of them might accept more than 10%. You can check by looking at the acceptance rates that Peterson's has here http://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools.aspx Just search for your program and school. Of course, the info Peterson's has seems to be a rough guide, since they don't seem to separate Masters and PhD applicants, but it seems a reasonable guide IMO.

Edited by newms
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Well, that's assuming the places you applied to only accepts 10% of their applicants. I would suspect that some of them might accept more than 10%. You can check by looking at the acceptance rates that Peterson's has here http://www.petersons...te-schools.aspx Just search for your program and school. Of course, the info Peterson's has seems to be a rough guide, since they don't seem to separate Masters and PhD applicants, but it seems a reasonable guide IMO.

You can also adjust it based on your strengths--if your GRE scores, GPA, etc. are noticeably higher than the school's average, bump it up a little.

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Well, that's assuming the places you applied to only accepts 10% of their applicants. I would suspect that some of them might accept more than 10%. You can check by looking at the acceptance rates that Peterson's has here http://www.petersons...te-schools.aspx Just search for your program and school. Of course, the info Peterson's has seems to be a rough guide, since they don't seem to separate Masters and PhD applicants, but it seems a reasonable guide IMO.

thanks for that website! I thought the acceptance rates were going to be much lower. Now, with my new calculations, I'm down to about 35%. Not bad.

EDIT: by the way, how old is the data? the application fees are way off lol.

EDIT EDIT: I am by no means taking this seriously. But I still enjoyed it.

Edited by Zouzax
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