Haters on the results board

[Amalia222]

I swear, I never knew checking for results could be so entertaining. Now every day there's people cursing each other out, calling each other racists, telling their life stories....WTF? It's a results board. But I have to admit it's pretty funny. Suddenly results has become All My Children for Grad Students.

[Bukharan]

I am very upset by some comments on the Results board.

Surely, in this very important time of the year for us all, anxieties, fears and passions are flying high.... but why, oh why, a tiny tiny minority is being so rude there?

[DCHopeful]

I almost wonder if its one person entertaining themselves by posting as different people.

Just proof that the grad school process causes emotional/mental turmoil possibly resulting in multiple personalities!

[wtncffts]

Hey, it's the internet. You have to expect a certain degree of childish behavior, especially when, as on the results page, you don't even have to register. It's likely some of those posting aren't even prospective grad students or forum members at all, just people posting crap for the sake of it.

[Kathiza]

I read almos all results from this year and the racist-hater-commenter is just one person cursing hat himself. It's always the same style, and noone is responding. Well, probably another applicant gone crazy

I hate it that people post results which can in no case be true (i.e. accepances before the deadline was even over; more acceptances to one program than they allow in one year etc.) It makes me question all the other (hopefully true) results that were posted.

I'm also wondering whether those GRE-results (see thread) can be true. Some are like "oh my god, I got 800/800 and only 5 on analytical writing; should I kill myself?"... It's really ridiculous and it makes me (and probably many others as well) feel bad...

[Amalia222]

I read almos all results from this year and the racist-hater-commenter is just one person cursing hat himself. It's always the same style, and noone is responding. Well, probably another applicant gone crazy

I hate it that people post results which can in no case be true (i.e. accepances before the deadline was even over; more acceptances to one program than they allow in one year etc.) It makes me question all the other (hopefully true) results that were posted.

I'm also wondering whether those GRE-results (see thread) can be true. Some are like "oh my god, I got 800/800 and only 5 on analytical writing; should I kill myself?"... It's really ridiculous and it makes me (and probably many others as well) feel bad...

Hmmm. Well, you should just be able to post your results with your name, that way the moderators would know who the troublemaker is and oust them. Also, it would be nice to know who is accepted, so perhaps you could contact them and ask them their stats or for advice, or whatnot. The anonymity of it can be annoying, because sometimes one person will post multiple times about the same school, but you are not sure that it isn't several different people.

[sputnik]

I am going to amend an old saying for academia, and specifically Philosophy: "You know why philosophers' fights are so brutal? Because there are so many of them and so few jobs to get."

Sheesh. Fangs out, huh!

[GK Chesterton]

I am going to amend an old saying for academia, and specifically Philosophy: "You know why philosophers' fights are so brutal? Because there are so many of them and so few jobs to get."

Sheesh. Fangs out, huh!

I think the saying is "Why are academic disputes so bitter? Because the stakes are so low.

for alternatives:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_Law

[Eigen]

I'm also wondering whether those GRE-results (see thread) can be true. Some are like "oh my god, I got 800/800 and only 5 on analytical writing; should I kill myself?"... It's really ridiculous and it makes me (and probably many others as well) feel bad...

This is quite annoying. But also amusing. It almost seems to be people that want to brag about really high scores, but feel like they need a complaint to make it post-worthy.

Either that or they're really such perfectionists that ever getting a paper published is going to be quite difficult for them.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Eigen

[crayolacat]

The issue with the philosophy results is that it is a pretty small world, so we know which ones are fake. And maybe about half of them are fake. Something to keep in mind if you think the results posted in your field mean anything. As for the "I'm perfect, how could I not get in" people, I have a theory about them, but I'll keep it to myself. :-X

[Strangefox]

So do people on the results board manage to communicate with each other somehow? There is no opportunity to post comments there, right? Do they just choose "Other" and write: "To the poster below - blablabla?"...

[Eigen]

So do people on the results board manage to communicate with each other somehow? There is no opportunity to post comments there, right? Do they just choose "Other" and write: "To the poster below - blablabla?"...

Yes. Lots.

[kaz]

I search for my field and check those results only, then usually its clear who's talking to who. Although I have to admit I accidentally submitted results with errors twice (pretty obvious errors) and then I gave up and decided there's something wrong with my eyes.

[phusion]

Not sure it's worth it, but a "Flagging" system e.g. craigslist would help a lot...and preserve the anonymity.

[XOwlfan]

I almost wonder if its one person entertaining themselves by posting as different people.

Just proof that the grad school process causes emotional/mental turmoil possibly resulting in multiple personalities!

I was thinking the same thing--it seems to be someone consumed with bitterness or dealing with way too much time on their hands. If so, it seems posting in response to those fake results just adds coal to the fire. If the person is ignored, he or she might give up. Maybe?? Hopefully =)

[greengrass2]

I read a person's comments on the results board calling someone else's stats "pathetic" and how they couldn't believe that the "pathetic stats" person got an interview before them.

I wanted to reply and tell them that their attitude must suck so much (even on paper) that the adcom at "Harvard" or wherever couldn't bear to see them in person. What an a$$h0le!

I honestly thought this website was meant for us to help each other-not bring each other down!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Kathiza]

There was also somebody who repplied to Harvard (or another Ivy, I don't remember) and posted like "800/780/6.0 - I don't understand what they want from me since I got rejected for the second time"

I guess those people just don't understand the question of "fit". One can be a genius - if there is nobody at the department who at least remotely shares his/her research interests and could advise him/her, then there's no chance for this person to be admitted. Also some departments require practical experience. No 1600-GRE-score can cancel out a lack of practical experience.

[sputnik]

I think the saying is "Why are academic disputes so bitter? Because the stakes are so low.

for alternatives:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre's_Law

Yes. It is. That's why I said I was going to amend an old saying. Should we fight about it? Like they do on the results board? LOL J/k I like the link. Sayre = genius.

[Ignatius_J_Reilly]

Hmmm. Well, you should just be able to post your results with your name, that way the moderators would know who the troublemaker is and oust them. Also, it would be nice to know who is accepted, so perhaps you could contact them and ask them their stats or for advice, or whatnot. The anonymity of it can be annoying, because sometimes one person will post multiple times about the same school, but you are not sure that it isn't several different people.

I agree - the fact that anyone can post information without first creating a user name & account seems a bit problematic in these cases. Although changing the website to make sure only registered users can post results won't solve all these problems (users can still post phony info), it would hopefully limit this type of activity and make the results page more legitimate.

I think this page could benefit from imitating sites like Law School Numbers where only members can post statistics and on each members page they can list schools they applied to with their results. This sort of format would also eliminate these 'multiple results posts' since each user could only upload one result (i.e. - accepted, rejected, waitlisted, other) for each program to which they applied. Just a suggestion (since I actually found this website in the first place because my girlfriend is applying to law school and I was always jealous of her ability to check Law School Numbers.)

[qbtacoma]

There was also somebody who repplied to Harvard (or another Ivy, I don't remember) and posted like "800/780/6.0 - I don't understand what they want from me since I got rejected for the second time"

I guess those people just don't understand the question of "fit". One can be a genius - if there is nobody at the department who at least remotely shares his/her research interests and could advise him/her, then there's no chance for this person to be admitted. Also some departments require practical experience. No 1600-GRE-score can cancel out a lack of practical experience.

"But but but I did good on the test, how come I'm not handed everything! What else is there but tests!"

I feel mean now, but really.

Edited February 12, 2011 by qbtacoma

[natsteel]

I agree it would be good if the moderators could cut those results out along with the ones that ask questions of other result posters.

Though, my favorite was the comment by the person that got rejected by Princeton: "Email had formatting errors." LOL classic!!

[mscongeniality1]

There was also somebody who repplied to Harvard (or another Ivy, I don't remember) and posted like "800/780/6.0 - I don't understand what they want from me since I got rejected for the second time"

I guess those people just don't understand the question of "fit". One can be a genius - if there is nobody at the department who at least remotely shares his/her research interests and could advise him/her, then there's no chance for this person to be admitted. Also some departments require practical experience. No 1600-GRE-score can cancel out a lack of practical experience.

I totally agree with this! People at my school in my major ooh and ahh over my GRE score (which isn't anywhere near perfect but I will say that it is over the supposed "golden 1000-point line" that exists in our field's admissions) and I just want to tell them "But...but...it doesn't matter if I'm not a good fit for their school!" No grad program (especially in my field--speech-language pathology) wants a robot that is good at taking tests and nothing else...you need people skills too.

[troy.princess]

"oh my god, I got 800/800 and only 5 on analytical writing; should I kill myself?"

LOL Excellent!

got my first rejection from my dream school the other day

Thank you for making me laugh.

[YA_RLY]

I swear, I never knew checking for results could be so entertaining. Now every day there's people cursing each other out, calling each other racists, telling their life stories....WTF? It's a results board. But I have to admit it's pretty funny. Suddenly results has become All My Children for Grad Students.

That does sound funny! I never come across any results posts like that! Can someone give me some search terms that will result in All My Children hilarity?

[ZeChocMoose]

That does sound funny! I never come across any results posts like that! Can someone give me some search terms that will result in All My Children hilarity?

If you search for philosophy, english, or computer science (I think), you should find some interesting comments.