Signatures

[Grind12]

I do not understand for the world of me why people put:

Applied: ABS, SSU, XJA, AKJH

Waitlisted:

Accepted:

Rejected:

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I feel like that signature is extremely negative. So you've applied to your schools, why would you put as your signature that it's a possibility that you will be waitlisted or rejected? In my eyes it's almost like calling it into your future or accepting it. Yes I understand that there is a chance that people will not get into their school of choice, but putting "rejected:" is just assuming there is a place you will DEFINITELY not get into. I can see if you post your "rejection" section once you actually GET a rejection, but why put it there before? Anyone else think it's negative?

[Revo]

I don't find it particularly negative, but then again, I use it. For me, it's a useful way to tell that the person has not only applied to XYZ schools, but also that they do not have decisions yet from those schools. Plus, I include the date of the decision, which might be helpful to future applicants.

[snes]

Not negative, realistic!

Also, what Revo said.

[kazoo]

I agree with both of the posts above! This is different in some fields but when a lot of your schools have acceptance rates of 3-5 %, expecting some rejections is only realistic.

Besides writing out those possibilities doesn't mean one doesn't hope for the best! although personally I am 100% sure I won't get in everywhere, I hope you do! Good luck

[Ameonna]

Maybe I should change it to:

Accepted:

On a list of people who might eventually end up being accepted:

Accepted for the 2013 school year with the provision that I apply next year with better credentials and no one better than me applies:

But that last one is pretty long for a signature. Hmm...

[wildviolet]

OP, I agree with you. It does seem slightly negative to me, but it doesn't bother me if other people choose to do it. I chose not to do it, but I didn't really think about it until now. I guess... maybe something doesn't exist until it actually happens. So, I didn't add my acceptance until it happened. And, I suppose I will do the same once I get the actual rejection or wait list.

[RockStar]

I agree with the OP and thought this exact same thing, but didn't quite know how to phrase it.

[crazygirl2012]

I can understand and appreciate your thoughts on this, but I don't view it as a negative thing. It just helped me to keep track of everything in my mind and to let other forum users know where I was at in the process. My place in the process at any given time affected my thoughts, feelings, and words. I knew there would be at least some rejections, and as you can tell by my signature, there most certainly were! I never had trouble accepting that. Everyone's situation is different. Some can reasonably expect zero rejections. I was not one of those people. However, I never posted the names of the schools to which I applied. I want to preserve some degree of anonymity on here. (But I did figure out that I had met someone from Grad Cafe at an interview, and it was nice to talk to her!)

[YesserLab]

Well, regardless of how negative you think it is or not, I find it rather scary !. As I was waiting for the results of my only application to one university for the first time !

it seemed like it's not gonna happen, because of the signatures like the one above.. Applications: 10, Rejections 9

But there you go, I was admitted, so if you're talking statistics: that's a 100% for me !

The Idea is, The signature is not nigative, but it influences people around you, so try to make a nice one

[margarethale]

I don't find it particularly negative, but then again, I use it. For me, it's a useful way to tell that the person has not only applied to XYZ schools, but also that they do not have decisions yet from those schools. Plus, I include the date of the decision, which might be helpful to future applicants.

I agree with Revo (but I also use it so... yeah). I feel like showing which schools you've applied to and gotten accepted/rejected from can be helpful to other applicants. When I first learned about gradcafe, I appreciated knowing which members had been accepted to the schools that I was interested in so I could PM them and get to know more about what it takes to get in to certain programs. Now that I've been accepted to a grad school and know where I'm going, it's nice to be able to know who's going where based on the signatures so that I can get to know my cohort better. I also get PMs occasionally from other forum members just starting to apply asking me about my program and how I ended up choosing that particular school. I just feel like it's a good way to signal to other gradcafe-ers where your interests lie and help out fellow members who are interested in learning more about specific programs.