0% Confidence of Acceptance

[litjust]

^ Good one! So what is it this hour?

[ecritdansleau]

There is NO WAY I will print out my applications. When they are done - they are DONE! I'm even mildly tempted to delete the SOPs and stuff off my computer when I'm done.

Sometimes programs lose things though---especially if you send, say, an SOP in the mail--so deleting things is probably a temptation we should avoid. I have been keeping things on my desktop, and then once the application for a particular school is submitted I put it all into one folder, for that school, and then move the folder AWAY off the desktop so I don't look at it anymore, but also so that if something gets lost, I don't have to rewrite my fit paragraph and whatnot. It actually does feel pretty good to archive it away!

[LLajax]

Sometimes programs lose things though---especially if you send, say, an SOP in the mail--so deleting things is probably a temptation we should avoid. I have been keeping things on my desktop, and then once the application for a particular school is submitted I put it all into one folder, for that school, and then move the folder AWAY off the desktop so I don't look at it anymore, but also so that if something gets lost, I don't have to rewrite my fit paragraph and whatnot. It actually does feel pretty good to archive it away!

YES! I've got things hiding inside folders inside more folders "Grad School Hunt > DO NOT UPLOAD > Done > School Name". Keeps me from nervously going back and looking at things. Also keeps me from accidentally opening/uploading things from schools I've already finished with for schools I'm still actively working on.

[lolopixie]

Call it "Duke Sucks: An Ecclesiontological Vaccination of Structural Subversive Bodily Entities in Emergent Proto-Queer Cycles in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight"

Throw a Carolina Tarheels logo on there - you'll be sure to get in!

[TripWillis]

For some reason, I've come to be really at peace lately with the idea that I might not get in. I think I'm over worrying about this. Now I'll just go about my business and play the waiting game, and when things happen, they'll happen. And if I don't get in, I'll just find a job I like and try again next year. I'm done being so overly emotional about all this.

Edited December 15, 2011 by TripWillis

[orangeMan]

If I don't get in, I will have to find a job too. Just thinking about having to spend all day in a high-rise office building makes me feel sick. I keep telling myself that it's not the end of the world, but

Edited December 15, 2011 by orangeMan

[Loimographia]

I spend most of my time trying not to panic about the prospect of not getting in anywhere... and then panicking and obsessing that I'm not panicking and obsessing enough, and that this will result in a sub-par application and ensure I don't get in anywhere.

[Grunty DaGnome]

If I don't get in, I will have to find a job too. Just thinking about having to spend all day in a high-rise office building makes me feel sick. I keep telling myself that it's not the end of the world, but

At least you're in London, Orange Man. Could be worse.

[rawera]

At least you're in London, Orange Man. Could be worse.

Yeah he could be underemployed in one of the most expensive cities. Oh.

[snes]

I'm so unconfident that I can't even post in my own forum anymore. This thread has really made me laugh over the last 15 minutes of reading though. I sympathize with everyone.

6/12 applications done so far. I was also shut out last year, but because I was waitlisted at one place it made me have this absolutely absurd hope that I was qualified. (I'm a Harvard McYaleton but I obviously don't think it helps if you can't prove you don't have turds for brains) But while I think my SOP is much better, the more I read my writing samples, the more I believe my brother in high school could have written them. Holy crap holy crap there's no time to embark on another research project. Ugh why did I even say "embark"!!!!!

I think yesterday was a confident day. I actually told someone "Yeah, I'm going to actually be accepted everywhere this year so I'm going to have a really tough March with travel and all." UGH WHAT. I don't even have a master's.

[lolopixie]

I teeter from moment to moment on whether I will be accepted this year or not. Being rejected across the board last year makes my confidence shake on the daily. While I know that I am competitive, it can come down to such minor things that are out of my control. I have a plan B...I'm up for a promotion at work, but I don't want plan B to be my life. I've been very diligent at work since I was rejected last year. I understand that a life in academia might not happen, so I wanted to start some sort of career as a back-up plan. I just can't come to terms that my back-up plan might become plan A. I've worked too hard and long to not be able to pursue my dream.

[Grunty DaGnome]

I keep thinking about how happy I would be to get in any of my choices, and then I think about how hard I've worked, just on my applications, and think about how hard I'll have to work for the next 6 years if I DO get in. I have a pretty good job now, that I wouldn't be able to get again, but honestly, it is time for me to move on from this place. I start googling how much a public school teacher earns in different states. Would it be so bad if I wound up a German teacher for Jr. High kids? Starting salary is over twice as much as a grad school stipend

Ok, well this is the last weekend I'm going to retool these samples and SOPs, so I'm off to it. But really, whichever way things work out, I think it will be fine.

[wintergirl]

I think the forthcoming DSM-V needs to include a new entry: Graduate-School-Application-Induced Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder. I'm switching between confidence and despair practically every 15 minutes.

Can't wait to be done with applications themselves soon so I can start to work on getting to that zen place that some of you seem to have found. Que sera, sera.

[cquin]

I think the forthcoming DSM-V needs to include a new entry: Graduate-School-Application-Induced Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder. I'm switching between confidence and despair practically every 15 minutes.

Truer words have ne'er been spoken...

[Grunty DaGnome]

Ok, I just got what your name means.

[rainy_day]

I feel okay most days that I'll get in *somewhere.*. Got knows I'm applying to enough schools. The mortal terror for me is (and plz rd the most in your most dramatic voice): which one?! did I pick the right places?! do I risk getting accepted someplace miserable?! Omg, I failed at research and my life will be miserable forever.

[cquin]

Ok, I just got what your name means.

? Hm? Did I miss something, or is my brain just fried from retaking the GRE today...?

[Grunty DaGnome]

sequin?

[cquin]

sequin?

Ah, yes, partly. It's also my first initial and last name, so...there ya go

[litjust]

Now, more importantly, what does Grunty Da Gnome mean?

[hazelbite]

Ohhh, having one of those (increasingly frequent) nights of absolute pessimism! Just trying to keep my strengths in mind and fingers crossed that I'll be in the 5% somewhere. I haven't applied anywhere that's not a long shot, but I haven't applied anywhere I wouldn't be ecstatic to attend.

Who else? Second-timers, how did you adjust your list this round?

[rawera]

I am not confident at all. I don't have any "safety" schools (if those exist). I actually did my undergrad at one of the state schools I see people applying to and the advice I received from my professors was: "I love my grad students here but I don't know if they'll get jobs."

So I apply to dream schools exclusively knowing that they're dreams. I guess I am confident enough to at least apply. But when I inevitably get shut out I think I'm just "dropping out" (so to speak) and moving to Asia, existing on whatever I can. Honestly, I think there will be a severe re-orientation of my own values, and I think that'll be ok. Maybe my gf will get into a bio program (next cycle) and I can just tag along.

[lolopixie]

"I love my grad students here but I don't know if they'll get jobs."

Yes, it is realistic that not everyone will get jobs, but I am still confident in getting the PhD where you can. You don't have a shot if you don't have one. Even then it is what you do while you're at the program.

[Venti White Choc. Mocha]

Lo I need to call you and whine about my ASU app. I’m having one of those “I’m not getting in anywhere days.” I want to apply to every program that even thinks of taking on a Romantics student.

[0000000000AAA]

It's all about balance. I had a teacher say that no PhD guaranteed a job, but that some made it nearly impossible. It's a matter of figuring out if the 5-9 years it takes to get is worth the odds you'll face afterwards. In some schools, the answer is yes. In others, the answer is no.