Venting Thread- Vent about anything.

[fossati]

Feeling kind of annoyed after I asked my professor for an LOR. They said yes and they are trying to be helpful, but they are also projecting their own agenda onto me. (I was talking to a friend about this and they said that people projecting onto me is a trigger point). I'm really determined to prove my professor WRONG with my personal statement to show them what my actual interests are. I am not just a ploy to fulfill someone else's agenda. 

[deolsunny533]

i got more. just remembered the postdoc was patronizing towards me again. she thinks it's "cute" whenever she catches me reading a paper. GURL DON'T REMIND ME I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOIN. 

[ProAtOverthinking]

On 05/02/2014 at 9:14 AM, starofdawn said:

I just want to know where I'll be in 6 months. I. Just. Want. To. Know.

Yeah, same feels, if you were referring to admission decision and stuff. 

I have been waiting for the Admission decisions' , and sometimes it just goes to a dead end point! 

 

[cannonfodder]

I have a feeling that checking gradcafe wouldn't exactly alleviate those feelings! And yet here we are.

I wrote to one of the programs and I received a reply stating that we would get to know the results by April. Are you kidding me?!! That's 1/3 of a year of waiting. The whole process is designed to drive us insane, although I do understand why it takes that long.

[ProAtOverthinking]

20 hours ago, cannonfodder said:

I have a feeling that checking gradcafe wouldn't exactly alleviate those feelings! And yet here we are.

I wrote to one of the programs and I received a reply stating that we would get to know the results by April. Are you kidding me?!! That's 1/3 of a year of waiting. The whole process is designed to drive us insane, although I do understand why it takes that long.

Yeah, we do realise the entire process, but at the end of the day, we are just anxious souls!

Anyway, hope you got where you wanted to be, and all's going well. (Since yours was kinda old post! ). 

On 05/02/2014 at 9:14 AM, starofdawn said:

I just want to know where I'll be in 6 months. I. Just. Want. To. Know.

Yeah, same feels, if you were referring to admission decision and stuff. 

I have been waiting for the Admission decisions' , and sometimes it just goes to a dead end point! 

 

[cannonfodder]

Nah, I haven't really received an offer of admission yet but I guess I should wait. At worst, I'll fracture my fingers refreshing my email.

[ProAtOverthinking]

13 hours ago, cannonfodder said:

Nah, I haven't really received an offer of admission yet but I guess I should wait. At worst, I'll fracture my fingers refreshing my email.

Wish you luck!  

I'm not asking you about where you have applied, cause majority of people in grad cafe apply to universities which are outta ambitious zone for me! Lol. 

 

[cannonfodder]

I didn't really apply to many places in the US, just LA, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. What about you?

Edited February 4, 2021 by cannonfodder

[AnxiousBeaver]

On 2/4/2021 at 2:35 PM, cannonfodder said:

I didn't really apply to many places in the US, just LA, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. What about you?

I only applied to 5 places as well. Apps are expensive

Edited February 6, 2021 by AnxiousBeaver

[chai time]

I just need to vent about this:

I emailed the admissions department of a school to ask how applying by the Early Decision deadline would influence when I would receive my decision. I got a boilerplate "you get it when you get it" email that they were clearly sending en masse to anyone who had "decision" in their subject line. What's the point of Early Decision deadlines if it doesn't expedite the decision? I guess what bothers me the most is that they didn't even bother to pay attention to the email.

Anyway.

[artanddeadthings]

The only thing worse than getting a rejection is getting a rejection and seeing people currently in that program complaining on Twitter about their workload. :( 

[fossati]

I'm still somewhat upset at the pandemic for kind of ruin the admissions process and funding for future students this year. I'm kind of sad I couldn't apply to some schools and that others might be taking in less students...The pandemic also kind of destroyed my mental health ? and maybe that's the thing that upsets me the most.

On the upside, I feel way more mentally balanced now that school is over. Things don't feel so overwhelming and I am giving myself spare time and room to breathe and think. I'm so thankful! 

Edited February 13, 2021 by fossati

[ProAtOverthinking]

On 2/5/2021 at 1:05 AM, cannonfodder said:

I didn't really apply to many places in the US, just LA, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. What about you?

BU, ISU, USF, University of Buffalo, UTD, UAB, UMass.  I have got admit from University of Buffalo, and rejects from BU, ISU, USF, UMass. 

[ProAtOverthinking]

On 2/13/2021 at 11:26 PM, fossati said:

I'm still somewhat upset at the pandemic for kind of ruin the admissions process and funding for future students this year. I'm kind of sad I couldn't apply to some schools and that others might be taking in less students...The pandemic also kind of destroyed my mental health ? and maybe that's the thing that upsets me the most.

On the upside, I feel way more mentally balanced now that school is over. Things don't feel so overwhelming and I am giving myself spare time and room to breathe and think. I'm so thankful! 

I understand. I wish for you strength and hope to get through, everything's going to turn out in best possible way. ❤️❤️ 

[fossati]

14 hours ago, ProAtOverthinking said:

I understand. I wish for you strength and hope to get through, everything's going to turn out in best possible way. ❤️❤️ 

Thank you for your kind and sweet message! I love your username btw haha. 

[ProAtOverthinking]

11 hours ago, fossati said:

Thank you for your kind and sweet message! I love your username btw haha. 

ikr. lol. 

Take care! 

[wiedzma]

My dissertation project is at a stand still because I'm waiting for some collaborators to get their stuff together.  I'm starting to put a little more pressure on, and now my PI is getting involved, because this is starting to go on a little too long.  It's frustrating!

[FutureLMHC]

How am I supposed to figure out my housing for fall if I have no idea if I'm funded or not? I can't even apply for jobs in my new city because I'm not sure I'll be able to work part-time and juggle an assistantship (if I get one). I have to sell my house and find an apartment, but I have no earthly idea what my income will be like and therefore my budget. I hope they get back to me before everything is leased out for fall.

[BloodstainedRoses]

On 2/17/2021 at 12:42 AM, ProAtOverthinking said:

BU, ISU, USF, University of Buffalo, UTD, UAB, UMass.  I have got admit from University of Buffalo, and rejects from BU, ISU, USF, UMass. 

Mind if I ask you how long it took to hear back from BU, USF, and UMass? I applied to USF, BU, UMass Amherst and UMass Boston. Have tried contacting the program as Amherst and USF were supposed to come back already, but I'm not getting anywhere and it makes me really nervous. 

[ProAtOverthinking]

On 3/1/2021 at 11:50 PM, BloodstainedRoses said:

Mind if I ask you how long it took to hear back from BU, USF, and UMass? I applied to USF, BU, UMass Amherst and UMass Boston. Have tried contacting the program as Amherst and USF were supposed to come back already, but I'm not getting anywhere and it makes me really nervous. 

I would be happy to reply, cause I know how distressful it is. 

It actually depends on the specific program you have applied to. I had applied to Molecular and Cell Biology PhD program. 

So, for program specific timelines, I heard from UMass, USF, BU  in the early February when the deadline for submitting the application  was Dec 1st; Jan 1st and tenth of Dec respectively. 

Try emailing them, more specifically to the program-specific admission office. 

I hope you get into a good university ASAP. GOOD LUCK! 

[asadgradstudent]

Oh my god, I am SO glad this exists. Just came from TSR, and I want to vent here some more.

In short, I received two offers from top 20 schools (with one being a top 5 school). I turned down one already, and will most likely have to turn the other one down if I don't get funding (funding is very scarce for my major, as I am an international student and in the humanities). I am so infuriated -- is this what heartbreak feels like? ?

Without funding, an acceptance is essentially a rejection. I'm starting to question if grad school is really for me, since the whole application process was awful to say the least. To think that I will probably have to go through it again in a few months is driving me insane. 

 

[thejellybean]

I've been in grad school for a while now and I still feel like I'm not getting anywhere with my degree/professional development and am maybe even getting dumber as time goes on? Largely because I have been stuck on one project for so long that was meant to only take a short while at the very beginning of my PhD but has taken MUCH longer to complete, and it's really crushing my spirit. And because it has crushed my spirit so, I just have such a hard time finding motivation to complete my experiments. Of course this plus the pandemic just completely burned me out for a while and I only recently have felt like I've started to recover. But I'm still not fully there, and definitely not recovered enough to feel excited again about this project I once was so so SO excited about doing. So I'm just trudging through these experiments, getting a fraction of the data I needed to achieve the impact I wanted to with the paper, all to get this presentation/publication out of the way so I can start fresh with a new study that will hopefully revive my love of science and research.

[Ksu]

This is another year of applications for PhD programs and I literally had to change all of my letters of recommendation as I suspect the old ones were written to discredit me. I had revamped my applications entirely. Then program of first choice demands letter from director of the last program who  probably wrote bad letter. To test, I only used that letter in one program. I did not get in.

]I am boiling in my own juice waiting to hear from all programs and my family is in the war zone right now, at least some of them. I barely get any texts from them.  

There are some of my so-called friends who are telling me to give up on getting a PhD, telling me to get a "real job" and stop pursuing education career. One of former professors told me not to feel bad, that "eventually I will get my PhD" meaning I won't  it was clear from his face what he meant. 

If I count how many people told me I won't get a PhD I would be at least millionaire. Well, exaturating  a bit but at least would get a $100 for entire number.

My mornings start with roll call of family in the war zone and ones who are safe. As in each morning. 

Then I check on grad school applications. Last school is taking forever and makes me so antsy I finally emailed grad admissions and they refused to give a deadline when decisions will be posted. Not reaching out to the program. No.

I had to severely cut down number of friends by how people act and if they truly support me. Not sure what to tell you about the rest. Considering everything I go through I act as a sane person with iron clad polite demeanor. I don't even bother reacting when someone is screaming at me on the phone if I need to talk to them and wait until they are done. 

Yesterday, while reading Ukrainian news, it affected me. That cannot be fully avoided. I could probably go on, but there is a point where I need to stop. I don't expect anyone to respond, but at least I vented and got some of it out.

 

On 2/12/2021 at 2:17 PM, artanddeadthings said:

The only thing worse than getting a rejection is getting a rejection and seeing people currently in that program complaining on Twitter about their workload.

Trust me, there is worse situation. Imagine you seeing an acceptance letter from the program where you got rejected from plastered over your Facebook stream early in the morning, with all unicorns and rainbows added to it from one of your previous program's classmates. All while you got rejection letter from the same program.

 

On 12/2/2021 at 1:37 PM, thejellybean said:

I've been in grad school for a while now and I still feel like I'm not getting anywhere with my degree/professional development and am maybe even getting dumber as time goes on? Largely because I have been stuck on one project for so long that was meant to only take a short while at the very beginning of my PhD but has taken MUCH longer to complete, and it's really crushing my spirit. And because it has crushed my spirit so, I just have such a hard time finding motivation to complete my experiments. Of course this plus the pandemic just completely burned me out for a while and I only recently have felt like I've started to recover. But I'm still not fully there, and definitely not recovered enough to feel excited again about this project I once was so so SO excited about doing. So I'm just trudging through these experiments, getting a fraction of the data I needed to achieve the impact I wanted to with the paper, all to get this presentation/publication out of the way so I can start fresh with a new study that will hopefully revive my love of science and research.

Not sure if it will help you, but it helped me. I did DBT therapy group and not only my grades went up, I got more motivation and resilience to do everything. Academics tend to get under your skin so I found it helpful. DBT is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy if I remember right. 

[Sweetplea]

I read my rejection letter today. I received it two days prior, but I wanted to make sure I was mentally ready to hear the news so I waited until today to open it. It was the third time I applied. 

I feel like the wind has been knocked out of my sails. 

On someone else's post I read: it seems like I keep trying to get into a club that doesn't seem to want me. This I discover in my core.

Then I torture myself thinking things like, why did they give me an interview and ask me to re-apply after the first application? Then after the second rejection, the admissions director is encouraging, says my letters were glowing, but it's possible they just didn't have space that year (64 students get admitted and they get 300-450 applicants per year). He even tried to put me in touch with the Dean and I got a confirmation from her 'secretary' that she would call me, but it didn't happen. I assume because she was busy. Still, my hopes are getting higher.

Though I didn't apply by the Dec 1 deadline (for UCB Masters degree in Journalism) because I didn't feel confident in my ability to put together a strong application considering it had been a very difficult year for me, I apply in March after I am notified that they were extending the deadline and that I need to complete my application by 9 pm the following day. Can you believe it?!! But I did it nonetheless. There is a technical glitch with the video formatting so I didn't get it in at the exact time, but close enough, and the admissions director accepted it.

So I guess that brings me to present day. I am prone to depression, if you know what I mean, and I am very concerned that this news could trigger a long-term episode. On the other hand, I try to tell myself this too shall pass, but does that mean my dreams and the future I envisioned for myself is over? I can't win. All roads lead to sorrow.

I don't mean for my post to affect anyone else's state of mind/being about their journey. We are all different and there are countless paths to pursue in order to reach the end goal. But thank you if you are reading this. I would love any support, wisdom, constructive criticism and the like. 

 

[Ksu]

3 hours ago, Sweetplea said:

I read my rejection letter today. I received it two days prior, but I wanted to make sure I was mentally ready to hear the news so I waited until today to open it. It was the third time I applied. 

I feel like the wind has been knocked out of my sails. 

On someone else's post I read: it seems like I keep trying to get into a club that doesn't seem to want me. This I discover in my core.

Then I torture myself thinking things like, why did they give me an interview and ask me to re-apply after the first application? Then after the second rejection, the admissions director is encouraging, says my letters were glowing, but it's possible they just didn't have space that year (64 students get admitted and they get 300-450 applicants per year). He even tried to put me in touch with the Dean and I got a confirmation from her 'secretary' that she would call me, but it didn't happen. I assume because she was busy. Still, my hopes are getting higher.

Though I didn't apply by the Dec 1 deadline (for UCB Masters degree in Journalism) because I didn't feel confident in my ability to put together a strong application considering it had been a very difficult year for me, I apply in March after I am notified that they were extending the deadline and that I need to complete my application by 9 pm the following day. Can you believe it?!! But I did it nonetheless. There is a technical glitch with the video formatting so I didn't get it in at the exact time, but close enough, and the admissions director accepted it.

So I guess that brings me to present day. I am prone to depression, if you know what I mean, and I am very concerned that this news could trigger a long-term episode. On the other hand, I try to tell myself this too shall pass, but does that mean my dreams and the future I envisioned for myself is over? I can't win. All roads lead to sorrow.

I don't mean for my post to affect anyone else's state of mind/being about their journey. We are all different and there are countless paths to pursue in order to reach the end goal. But thank you if you are reading this. I would love any support, wisdom, constructive criticism and the like. 

 

Do not reapply to the same program, find a new one- this is the way it works- once you are rejected, that's pretty much it for that school. Instead, take two courses in the school/program where you would like to go next, do it in September/January, then internally submit the application. Or do it over the summer and submit application which technically would be a single page of transferring into the program. Plus start working for the school where you want to apply- this increases your chances. Once in the program be extra nice to everyone as how you get through masters will decide your PhD application as well. I had gotten a friend accepted into the program once she was rejected initially, but it's easier if you never applied before to the program.

So here are the steps:

- take two courses as non-matriculated student

- talk to the faculty/director of the program

- submit application

- finish program 

- submit transfer application to PhD