The Butterfly Effect + Various Scenarios Affecting Admission

[ridgey]

Or, How to Send Yourself Over the Edge:

One school I applied to, which was my top choice in November gets ~100 applciations in my subfield and admits ~6. Another school that I didn't apply to gets a similar number of applications, and admits 1-2. Ivy-that-is-outside-the-top-15-in-my-field gets 200 applications for all the subfields combined and admits ~15. Highly ranked school that makes me go "meh" gets ~40 and admits 5 (the best odds so far!).

Monday: there are probably as many places as there are applicants; I'm bound to get in somewhere, lower ranked Ivy at least!

Tuesday: but on the results page last year, someone wrote that Subfield there didn't let anyone in - clearly they won't take the dregs like me!

Wednesday: but that professor whose work you love seems to have missed out on having advisees for a few years, and his interests are a bit different than the rest of the department. He'll be stoked to have someone wanting to work with him and will demand that they accept me!

Thursday: hello, what about the writing sample? I'm embarassed to have my name on it!

Friday: I didn't have to send a writing sample to Dream U, where AMAZING prof is. And that's the top ranked programme. Yeah!

Saturday: umm, hello, top ranked is not helpful to getting admitted. And Dr Amazing is about 345 years old and will be retiring any day and he is the only person mentioned on that SoP.

Sunday : start drinking!

[t_ruth]

lol. Isn't it funny how we do these things?

I wish that I had stats on applications/acceptances from my programs, not because they would make me feel better, but just because they would allow me to entertain my obsession

unfortunately, they aren't readily available.

[gadhelyn]

That's one of the interesting things about going for bioinformatics, it's still fairly new, so there are no reliable statistics about admissions. There might be 100 people applying for a program, there might be 5. So I can construct all manner of odd scenarios.

[Tonights]

I tried to overcompensate for my worrying by applying to schools really across the board - an Ivy, a top ten, four middle-of-the-roads and two safeties. And STILL I waver between "I'm gold!" and "Here come all the rejections!"

[ohheygradschool]

One year a program I applied to got like 10 applicants and accepted all of them. This was a while ago though. In the past few years, all programs have gotten 20 - 30. I used to take comfort in that small pool, but then I realized how weirdly self-selecting these programs are and freaked myself out even more.

[miratrix]

Maybe you should've started drinking Monday

I think unrealistic optimism is very important for us during the waiting period. If we don't get in, we'll be disappointed no matter what, so might as well feel more at peace while we're waiting to hear.

[gadhelyn]

I think unrealistic optimism is very important for us during the waiting period. If we don't get in, we'll be disappointed no matter what, so might as well feel more at peace while we're waiting to hear.

Guinness is my source of unrealistic optimism!

[lauras]

It's like playing pool, you need to shoot through the shot.

I'm already working on my statement for when I reapply next year. It just helps me deal with the uncertainty.

[ridgey]

It's like playing pool, you need to shoot through the shot.

I'm already working on my statement for when I reapply next year. It just helps me deal with the uncertainty.

Me too! I'm plotting who can write my letters next year so that I don't have to face this year's ones again!