Starting over

[Owlie]

Looks like a round of universal rejections for me this year, at least for PhDs (still holding out on the MS). Now I have to think about doing this again. I've got a few questions, and I'm looking for some advice.

1) I'm planning on asking for feedback. Who should I ask, and how should I phrase it?

2) Reapplying:

a) Recommendation letters: I graduated in 2010. If I don't get into that MS program...it's going to get harder and harder for me to get recommendation letters. Any advice?

b ) Should I bother reapplying to my top choice, which I felt was the best fit? The school seems to favor its own undergrads (cheaper for them, I guess), since I'm pretty sure this was a factor in my rejection.

3) Is it even worth re-applying for a PhD? (I'm a little...uh, depressed at the moment, to be sure.) The funding situation is only going to get worse, combined with the competition from more pools of applicants (next year's grads, last year's grads, people who didn't get in...).

Thanks.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Owlie

[joops]

If it's any consolation, I am looking at universal rejections (unless I get off of a wait list,) and I got into an MA program. Different field, but I hope you don't think that PhD rejections = MA(or S) rejections.

[BlueRose]

Well, you can read my signature...

1) The only useful feedback I got was a prof I knew personally; I asked him why I didn't get in, he asked his colleague on the admissions committee, and then reported back. You can ask people you met on interviews, or if you had to, you could corner one of your reference writers and ask for an honest assessment. You've got to be professional about it, though; they aren't obligated to tell you anything.

2a) Are you working in something even vaguely related to your field? I graduated in 2008, and had only one academic letter in this application round - the other three were from current/former bosses.

2b) Ask 'em. And unless they tell you to go away and not come back, why not?

3) Is there anything you can change about your application? If so, then you might be surprised.

And there's something I said to myself a lot, during the long ego-shredding slog: this is training. To do innovative work in any field, you need a healthy reservoir of delusional self-confidence. The universe has thoughtfully provided me a chance to practice; to hell with the evidence, I'm awesome, and I can prove it. Work those delusions! I'm awesome, and I can prove it!

...yeah, I can't believe I'm admitting that in public, but it worked

[b_randie]

Another thing to consider is opening a placement file at your school's career center. You can ask your references to send the original to the placement file (which you can choose to be confidential or nonconfidential) and then whenever you apply to jobs or graduate school in the future, you can contact the career center to send out the letters you choose. A benefit of opening one of these placement files is that they typically stay open for up to five years and you don't have to ask your references each time you want to apply to somewhere.

[Owlie]

B, I'll look into that, thanks!

Anyone around in sciences who did a master's then PhD? I'd be interested in hearing your experiences.

I'm trying to tell myself that those rejection letters aren't the end of the world, and the MS is an opportunity (if I get in) to boost that GPA and get some more relevant research experience. (My undergrad research experiences were primarily synthetic chemistry, which was fine when that's what I thought I wanted to do...) I need to stop viewing it as a stumbling block on my way to a PhD. Yes, I'll be 30 by the time I get out. Nothing I can do about that now. I'm also not terribly keen on going into debt, but it's a program at a state school, and it's two years--and more importantly, I escaped undergrad debt-free. And they may have some money for me. Who knows?

[Arcadian]

Yeah, just keep being optimistic. I can tell you are, so keep it up.

Perhaps next year, apply to more than three programs. I applied to 8 and was rejected by 7/8. If I hadn't applied to that last school, I'd be depressed right now.

[Owlie]

Yeah, just keep being optimistic. I can tell you are, so keep it up.

Perhaps next year, apply to more than three programs. I applied to 8 and was rejected by 7/8. If I hadn't applied to that last school, I'd be depressed right now.

Definitely. Part of it was that I couldn't afford more than three, and part of it was that I didn't realize quite how crazy competitive the process is--most of my friends in undergrad were pre-med (uh..) or engineers, where grad school isn't perhaps so much of an issue. My GPA as an undergrad was just above 3.0, so it wasn't a certainty that I'd make the cut anywhere; another reason to save my money. (Doesn't help that I applied to one school that favors its own students and another one that hates taking its own students...) If nothing else, this was a learning experience. Now I know, right?