Reapplying in Robotics

[roboblahblah]

I'll be reapplying to grad school this year after being rejected everywhere last year. Any advice? Do I realistically have a shot at the same schools? Some schools say that they attach your previous application to your file; will this put me at a disadvantage? Should I ask these schools for feedback on my previous application?

Any words of wisdom will be appreciated.

[HassE]

Not sure where you applied to before, and no disrespect, but if you got rejected from every single school and your application did not change much, then do you really expect a different response from every single school?

Clearly, evident by the response from the schools, you most likely applied to schools that did not stand up to your level. If you apply again, I would try lowering your ranking of the schools you applied too. If you applied to top-50 schools, i'd think about applying to schools in the 50-100 rankings.

[roboblahblah]

I was hoping an added year of experience, a reworked SOP, and the crapshoot nature of these things would give me a shot. Comparing myself to peers with similar backgrounds and stats, I don't think I "applied to schools that did not stand up to [my] level."

[HassE]

Well no disrespect, but if every school rejected you, what makes you think that your application did stand up to the schools level?

Maybe another year of experience will help, but your not really improving much to your application. Now a better/higher GRE scores, maybe a few grad classes taken, etc would help, or different other recommendations or research experience, but the call is yours.

You have to ask yourself the question, if you apply to the same schools again and get the same response from every school, you just wasted 2 years. Would you then reapply the third year?

If you don't mind asking, what schools did you apply to?

[roboblahblah]

Well honestly, I don't know, that's partly what I'm asking. I've heard stories of people getting into a school that had previously rejected them, but yes, part of me worries that I'll probably get rejected again. I think I'm a competitive candidate, but well, so is everyone else.

I applied to schools you'd probably guess for robotics, and then my undergrad program (not well known for robotics, but they have a lab I worked in my senior year. It wouldn't have been a good fit anyways.).

[HassE]

i'm not sure if your coming to the United States for graduate school and came from an international school, but my best advice is to allocate so many slots for top schools, but also save a few slots for some backup school. I know we all don't want to go to a top 50-100 ranked school, but unfortunately that's what it comes down to many times. Apply to a couple schools where you know you'll almost be in. Also, not sure if your talking about a master's program or a PhD program, but if you were to think about it, the year that you spent off, if you applied to a lower tier master of science school, you could have acquired your master's degree from a US school, and this year around start applying to PhD program. Surely, having a MS degree from a US school is a major difference maker which could have allowed you to get into those top-10 schools. I'm assuming Carnegie Mellon is at the top of your list since their one of the best in Robotics.

You most likely have a very competitive application, but don't cut yourself short by not attending graduate school at all just because you applied to the very best of the very best and did not get in. Make your schools well-rounded to cover yourself in case your worse case scenario occurs again.