evaluation of phd application

[Candina]

Hi everyone,

I have just discovered this nice forum. As I am very much concerned and worried I would like to hear from people who are having the same experience in applications to phds. Actually, I applied to UOttawa for the phd for the fall 2012. I waited about 9 weeks until I got a reply of rejection telling me that I didn't submit the right English exam since English is not my first language. I submitted the ielts general training instead of academic. So now I am reapplying and I submitted the academic ielts exam results, but I am very anxious to know about the process of evaluation of my application. Do you think that when I first applied, my file or application was successful except for the English that I have to submit or the committee didn't see my documents (transcripts, SoP, letters of recommendations, resume,..) and if it is the case, then why did they take that long time to tell me that I am rejected. How do you consider my chances to be accepted, I have a good GPA and I have a very long professional experience in my field.

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts

[Candina]

please share your thoughts, does anyone have an idea? any experienced or senior member in this forum.

[Candina]

I thank you all for your precious ideas and replies. These will definitely help in reducing my stress.

Thanks again!

[go3187]

Maybe people don't reply because they can't honestly answer your questions? We could send warm fuzzies, but no one can really tell you what are your chances of getting into a program, when we don't even know for what program you're applying, let alone your GPA, scores, personal statement, letters of reference, etc. Even if we knew all that, all we could do is maybe make a better guess. If you read through the forums, you'll see students who were rejected by their safety schools, but got accepted into their top choice. Personally, I avoid making guesses (public guesses, at least) on someone's chances of getting into a certain program. Applying for grad school is stressful enough without my clueless guesses.

If you were rejected the first time, I'm assuming you had to reapply, not just send the correct IELTS score... right? If that's true, then I don't think it really matters for this round if they saw your transcript, personal statement, etc. in the previous round. I don't know why it took 9 weeks to hear from them the first time, but (assuming again) they might be sending all/a bunch of rejections at a time rather than announce someone immediately after they notice that something is missing from their application.

[sansao]

I really don't know how the system in Canada works, especially for international students. Based on programs in the US, if you submitted the wrong test scores, it may have been that the graduate college automatically rejected your application based on this, and that your documents did not make it to evaluation. However, I could very easily be wrong. I have to second go3187, that it's really impossible to say anything beyond that, even if you had posted your stats. You could email your question to the graduate college, and try to find out more. Other than that, it's a waiting game, and I can empathize with how miserable it is to still be waiting at this point.

Good luck!

[Gneiss1]

As others have said, no one can say for sure exactly what happend. It is possible that they rejected you simply because your application wasn't complete and it took 9 weeks because they didn't look at it for 9 weeks. I know when I applied I had all my applications in by mid December (all had deadlines between Dec 15-Jan1). By March a few of the universities I had applied to told me they hadn't started the review process yet.

I will say that if all your rejection said was that you didn't send the right documents so you are rejected that probably either didn't read the rest of your application or if they did it wasnt something that made them jump out of their seat. With the amount of applications that a lot of these universities get I would say the former is more likely. Had they read your application and thought you were an outstanding candidate and it was only a matter of you sending hte correct test scores they would probably have said something about that in their letter, contacted you, etc.

As for your chances of getting in now, I don't know the time scale for Canadian universities. If they are still taking applications and making decisions then I'd say your chances are as good as you initially thought they were when you applied. If they have already accepted a lot of the students that they wanted for fall then your chances are probably a lot lower and you may have to applied for spring/next fall. Best of luck to you though, I know the wait sucks.