Can someone help me out? I got rejected from my dream school.

[BookWorm90]

Hi, people. I'm a bit new to this site, and I'd love to get some feedback about my PhD applications.

 

I just finished my masters at Northwestern. I love this school more than anything. I applied to the PhD in American Lit, but I got rejected today. I've never felt so defeated in my entire life. I had my dream school and the respect that came with it, but now I lost it.

 

I did get into a PhD program, but it's really not an accredited university. I don't want to go there, but it seems like I Don't have a choice.

 

I want to go to a top-tiered school. This list makes me so sad because the school I got into is #63:

 

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/english-rankings

 

I feel like every time someone told me I was smart and going to go places, they were wrong. I feel so depressed all the time.

 

What's worse is that I even got rejected from Teach for America, and that was my Plan B. Now I need a plan C.

 

The whammies have been hitting me really hard lately, but I just feel so heartbroken about Northwestern. I'm tempted to just accept the offer and try to transfer to another PhD program. Can I do that?

 

I just feel so hurt. What am I going to do?

 

 

 

[bsharpe269]

Transferring really isn't an option so I think you should either take the offer and stop being upset and just be excited to study what you love or wait and apply again next year.

63 isn't a horrible ranking and some unknown school. Most of the schools around that ranking are good state schools. If you are that upset about it though then I would get a job and apply again next year.

[Just Jeff]

Don't feel bad. I felt upset when I got rejected from my school too, but it turned out okay. I just got into another great school today.

 

Your only biggest competition in life is yourself.

[GeoDUDE!]

What is the goal after the PhD? It is likely that the education at school you were accepted to is good, but perhaps not adequate for your dreams ( rankings do somewhat matter for academia, and my perception of the english phd job market is that it is very saturated). I think it would be very easy for you to have a fulfilling teaching job with that PhD in hand, perhaps at a community college or even a Private HS. All my HS teachers had masters and PhDs , it was really great for us students there. 

 

I'm not really sure you can improve your application after completing a masters. Thats kinda the last stop, unfortunately. If the offer is funded, you might want to take if you want to complete a PhD.  

[Crucial BBQ]

Hi, people. I'm a bit new to this site, and I'd love to get some feedback about my PhD applications.

 

I just finished my masters at Northwestern. I love this school more than anything. I applied to the PhD in American Lit, but I got rejected today. I've never felt so defeated in my entire life. I had my dream school and the respect that came with it, but now I lost it.

 

I did get into a PhD program, but it's really not an accredited university. I don't want to go there, but it seems like I Don't have a choice.

 

I want to go to a top-tiered school. This list makes me so sad because the school I got into is #63:

 

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/english-rankings

 

I feel like every time someone told me I was smart and going to go places, they were wrong. I feel so depressed all the time.

 

What's worse is that I even got rejected from Teach for America, and that was my Plan B. Now I need a plan C.

 

The whammies have been hitting me really hard lately, but I just feel so heartbroken about Northwestern. I'm tempted to just accept the offer and try to transfer to another PhD program. Can I do that?

 

I just feel so hurt. What am I going to do?

First off, why such discontent towards a school/program you willingly applied to?  You picked it, why not go?  As for it's ranking: there are just over 2,100 four-year not-for-profit colleges and universities in the U.S.  Being ranked #63 is not that bad considering.  

 

Some feel it is a bit of nepotism to stay at the same school, and others do not.  Your program at Northwestern could very well be of a collective mindset that students need to branch out and experience different schools/programs/teaching styles, in particular if they want to go into academia.  

 

You also mentioned that you "really love Northwestern", is it possible that you expressed too much love for the school/program and not place enough emphasis on why you want to study there (outside of really liking the place), why you want a Ph.D., and what you want to do for career?  There is also the possibility that since you were already a grad student in the program they are already familiar with you as a person/student and of your potential ability to follow-through in a Ph.D. program.  In essence, they have had two years or so to get to know you and more-than-likely have  enough first-hand knowledge of you as a person/student to critique and pass judgement. 

[Scat Detector]

First off, why such discontent towards a school/program you willingly applied to?  You picked it, why not go?  As for it's ranking: there are just over 2,100 four-year not-for-profit colleges and universities in the U.S.  Being ranked #63 is not that bad considering.  

 

Some feel it is a bit of nepotism to stay at the same school, and others do not.  Your program at Northwestern could very well be of a collective mindset that students need to branch out and experience different schools/programs/teaching styles, in particular if they want to go into academia.  

 

You also mentioned that you "really love Northwestern", is it possible that you expressed too much love for the school/program and not place enough emphasis on why you want to study there (outside of really liking the place), why you want a Ph.D., and what you want to do for career?  There is also the possibility that since you were already a grad student in the program they are already familiar with you as a person/student and of your potential ability to follow-through in a Ph.D. program.  In essence, they have had two years or so to get to know you and more-than-likely have  enough first-hand knowledge of you as a person/student to critique and pass judgement. 

 

 

Hi, people. I'm a bit new to this site, and I'd love to get some feedback about my PhD applications.

 

I just finished my masters at Northwestern. I love this school more than anything. I applied to the PhD in American Lit, but I got rejected today. I've never felt so defeated in my entire life. I had my dream school and the respect that came with it, but now I lost it.

 

I did get into a PhD program, but it's really not an accredited university. I don't want to go there, but it seems like I Don't have a choice.

 

I want to go to a top-tiered school. This list makes me so sad because the school I got into is #63:

 

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/english-rankings

 

I feel like every time someone told me I was smart and going to go places, they were wrong. I feel so depressed all the time.

 

What's worse is that I even got rejected from Teach for America, and that was my Plan B. Now I need a plan C.

 

The whammies have been hitting me really hard lately, but I just feel so heartbroken about Northwestern. I'm tempted to just accept the offer and try to transfer to another PhD program. Can I do that?

 

I just feel so hurt. What am I going to do?

 

If you start a degree at a school youve already completed or near completed a degree at, this is often referred to as "Academic Incest"

It sounds like they wanted you to spread your wings and fly to another program where you can expand your breadth of perspectives rather than continuing in a perspective on topics where you've already learned that perspective from which your professors provided you.

And yes, if you conveyed that much love for the school it sounds like the healthy choice is to go somewhere else and see how great other schools are which rejecting you would help you to do.

In turn, they were helping you to move forward and diversify your background in your subject.It may not feel good now, but down the road you will look back and will be grateful to have diversified your breadth of perspectives about your subject.

 

As far as whose on top and which schools are not, there is more to schools that some numbers that some editor published about. Don't put so much weight on those numbers. #63 is still damn good out of 2100 schools. Try not to focus on the little things.

 

If you were accepted to a school you applied to then you should consider them. If they were really such a crappy school at #63 then try to get yourself back into remembering why you chose that school to apply to in the first place. What drew you to that program at the school that did accept you?

[danieleWrites]

I am having an incredible amount of trouble feeling the slightest bit of anything other than some schadenfreude here.

 

Do you even know what accredited means? You claim you got into a PhD program that's at a school, "but it's really not an accredited university". (Accreditation is like being pregnant. It's either accredited or it's not. There's no "really" involved.) Then you tell us that you got into the George Washington University, which is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools regional accrediting agency (a group that also accredited Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Rutgers, Montclair, Loyola, Carnegie Mellon, and Temple).

Second, "respect" does notcome from the school by itself. What have you ever done to earn respect, other than graduate from Northwestern? Here's what the US News rankings really mean when it comes to getting a job or getting into school: no one cares. I have no idea if you think that you're somehow entitled to a top tier program followed by a top tier job because you went to Northwestern, of if you're just that naive that you think the only thing that matters is prestige. This is what I do know: the only thing you discussed was the name of the school you went to and how special you felt doing so, and how anything not top tier, particularly Northwestern, isn't worthwhile (or, apparently, accredited). You make no mention of what's so special about the schools you're interested in (aside from US News' so-called "rankings").

Third, there is absolutely nothing wrong, or to be ashamed of, for wanting into schools that have attached prestige. Prestige does have value. There is nothing wrong with being disappointed in not getting your dream school. However, there is nothing wrong with going to what US News thinks is a mid-tier school, or a bottom-tier school, or an unranked school. Harvard is not better than Podunk U in BFE, America because it's in the top tier. Harvard is better than Podunk U because enough people like you carry that perception, which means that Podunk U gets applications from people who figure that, because it's at the bottom of the scholastic barrel, they have at least one guaranteed acceptance in the bag, in case the "better" schools turn them down. The relevance of this: 1/3 of the ranking number is based on the collective ability of enrolled students to pass the GRE, which means that the tiers skew entirely based on the students' perception of value. Anyone with a modicum of statistical knowledge and understanding of logical fallacies can see the problem: Harvard is better because it's Harvard; Podunk is worse because it's Podunk. Why do think schools are getting on board with opting out of US News rankings? Seriously. Cornell is listed as third in literary theory and criticism even though they have Jonathan Culler and Duke is #1, even though it's way overloaded with critical theorists (the 1990s critical theory, not theories of criticism). Sure, Cynthia Current, but Culler! US News rankings are a seething black hole of useless. While I'm not a Gladwell fan, he does a great job explaining the black hole of useless here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_gladwell

The fact that you care so much about what US News thinks that you find acceptance into George Washington to be "disappointing" is really depressing. GW has Marshall Alcorn, Jennifer James, Chris Sten, and Kavita Daiya! And that's just American Literature. Seriously, Alexa Huang!

Have you thought about the Peace Corps?

[hashslinger]

What program ranked #63 isn't accredited?

 

I don't want to go there, but it seems like I Don't have a choice

 

I don't understand this reasoning. You always have a choice in these situations. If you don't want to go there, then don't. Instead:

 

1. Go find your balls. 2. Get them back. 3. Decide that going to the 63rd ranked program isn't really that bad, or 4. That waiting it out and reapplying next year isn't really that bad. Then get a little job so that you can start to pay down what I assume is a lot of Northwestern debt.

[victorydance]

As for it's ranking: there are just over 2,100 four-year not-for-profit colleges and universities in the U.S.  Being ranked #63 is not that bad considering. 

 

#63 is still damn good out of 2100 schools. Try not to focus on the little things.

 

Really not understanding this logic. We're talking Ph.D.s here; 3/4 or more of these schools probably don't even offer Ph.D. programs in X field. 

 

I don't know much about English, but coming out of a 50-100 program is not good for ABDs at all for most fields.

 

-----

 

The fact you seem obsessed with one school makes me believe you didn't do enough research on other programs. It's fine, and perfectly normal, to have a dream school. But what you will find is that there are plenty of great programs out there for every field. For me personally, I have one program that looks to be my favourite, but then another 6 or 7 that I can't even really quantify over the other; they are all great.

 

How many programs did you actually apply to?

[hashslinger]

Really not understanding this logic. We're talking Ph.D.s here; 3/4 or more of these schools probably don't even offer Ph.D. programs in X field. 

 

I don't know much about English, but coming out of a 50-100 program is not good for ABDs at all for most fields.

 

 

 

You're right in that the sense that there aren't 2100 English PhD programs out there. There are more like 120-130 ranked programs, going by the USNWR rankings (which are notoriously inaccurate). So attending school 63 puts you right in the middle of all that.

 

Whether or not coming out of a 50+ ranked schools dooms you on the job market is more debatable. I know a lot of people who go to a program ranked in the same range as the OP's program, and they have gotten jobs. It's been tough but possible. It depends on what you want to do and where you want to teach.

[BookWorm90]

What program ranked #63 isn't accredited?

 

 

 

 

I don't understand this reasoning. You always have a choice in these situations. If you don't want to go there, then don't. Instead:

 

1. Go find your balls. 2. Get them back. 3. Decide that going to the 63rd ranked program isn't really that bad, or 4. That waiting it out and reapplying next year isn't really that bad. Then get a little job so that you can start to pay down what I assume is a lot of Northwestern debt.

 

I need balls. LMAO! You're right. Thank you. I'm going to suck it up and enjoy studying what I want.

[juilletmercredi]

If you start a degree at a school youve already completed or near completed a degree at, this is often referred to as "Academic Incest"
It sounds like they wanted you to spread your wings and fly to another program where you can expand your breadth of perspectives rather than continuing in a perspective on topics where you've already learned that perspective from which your professors provided you.

This is sometimes, but not always true.  First of all, it usually refers to people who earned a BA somewhere and want to stay for a PhD.  It's very, very common for people to do their PhD at the same place they did their MA.  Second of all, it doesn't really apply if your program is one of the top programs in the field.  Northwestern is a top 10-20 program in English literature.  No one is going to ding someone who decided to stay at a top 10-20 program.

I also have to disagree witht he "#63 out of 2100 is good!"  There are 2100 colleges and universities in the United States; that does not mean that there are 2100 English literature PhD programs in the United States.  The real number is probably somewhere around 150 to 200.  The National Research Council has rankings up to #116 and three unranked schools, but as some schools share rankings, the number is higher than 116.  U.S. News goes up to 134 and then has some unranked programs as well.  So I think 150-200 is a decent estimate.

So really, #63 out of ~200 programs is mid-ranked, I would say.  Pretty good.  Honestly, I think the U.S. News rankings are unreliable for graduate school; the NRC ranks one of those schools tied for #63 (Purdue) at #27 and another (UConn) at #7!  Missouri is placed as a top 30 program, and a few of the others are top 50 programs.  I know that the NRC rankings are old (the data is from 2005, so nearly 10 years old) but I find it hard to believe that Purdue and UConn fell from top 10/top 30 to mid-ranked programs in 10 years.  So...I'd rethink using U.S. News.  (They've got Arizona State at #60, when NRC has them tied for #5 with Columbia, UIC and Yale.  NRC was made by professors, while U.S. News was made by folks trying to sell magazines.)

But the other thing is that absolute rankings don't matter.  Those shift from year to year.  What matters are general groups of schools/programs.  A school that is truly around #63 is in the mid-ranked group, I would say.  Not top tier, but not a terrible program.

But I have to say that I disagree with the logic that it's a good idea to go to a mid-ranked PhD program in an oversaturated field.  English is a notoriously oversupplied field.  People from the very top programs seem to still place well, but even THEY sometimes spend several years in different VAP positions or prestigious postdocs before they find tenure-track positions.  People from good solid top 30-40 programs seem to have difficulty finding jobs.  People from mid-ranked programs?  I'm not claiming that ranking is everything; it's not.  Productivity matters, experience matters.  But in an overcrowded field - one in which 200-400 people apply for one slot! - search committees are going to choose anything they can to eliminate some people from the pool.  And one of those things is going to be reputation of program.  Remember that if you graduate in 2024 you aren't only competing with the top program graduates in 2024; you will also be competing with the top (and mid-ranked) program graduates from probably around 2018 or 2019 until 2024.  Five or six years of alumni from top programs.  Some of them are still unemployed.  Some of them already have tenure-track jobs in isolated places and they are trying to get to more desirable places.  Many of them will have more teaching experience than you.

I'm also of the mindset that there's nothing wrong with having one's heart set on one particular program, or a very small set of programs, if one is mentally okay with the idea that they simply may have to execute a Plan B or C for the following year (or forever) if they don't get in.  What I mean is - let's say you want to be a professor in a very competitive and stringent field where only students from the top 30 programs get hired into tenure-track positions.  It's thus your goal to get into a top 30 program.  You get into a top 45 program.  It's not going to help you get to your goal.  Nobody from that program has gone on to be a professor in the last 20 years.  Why would you go?  Just to be in a PhD program? It's probably because I'm not a fan of the idea of doing a PhD program just for the sake of doing it; it can be an enjoyable experience, but it's a means to an end ultimately.

I'm not saying that English is that stringent, but you should be asking some questions about placement of alumni from the program.  Where do they work?  Are they professors?  Are they outside of academia?  If no one has answers for you that's a red flag.  I see absolutely nothing wrong with working for a year and trying to improve your applications for Fall 2015.  Lots of people in very competitive fields get shut out in their first round, or only get into their last choice school.  Maybe you applied because there was truly something there - but maybe you just applied because you thought it was a good idea at the time and later realized it wasn't.  Just because you applied doesn't mean you should go.

 

Also, we didn't even ask, but is it funded?  If it is not funded you should definitely not go.