Being rejected for something you wrote on SOP?

[Guest criminologist]

Do you think this is a good reason for being rejected from a PhD program: mentioning in your SOP that you wanted to work with a certain professor, who although is listed on the faculty page of the university, does not actually work at the university anymore? Assuming your other qualifications were very good, the program was a good fit and you had no weaknesses in your application. is it possible this could be the main reason for being rejected?

 

[TakeruK]

If you build your entire SOP argument about this professor then yes, I think this might get you rejected right away. But if you just mention it in one sentence along with other still valid statements about your fit with the department, then I don't think writing that would automatically make you get rejected. It would definitely make your application weaker, because it shows that you were not that careful in your application. But this might depend on the field. In my field, many people write to potential supervisors ahead of time to let them know that they will be including their name on the application. I also asked all of my old and current advisors and mentors about all of the profs on my list of people. I think that unless the move is very very recent then it's the applicant's responsibility to know about it before they mention them on the SOP. 

 

However, even if it's not your fault, if you wrote your application specifically to fit with this person, it will probably hurt you. This is why many people will advise you to write your SOP to have a good fit with several people (unless you really only wanted to work with this person then it's probably good that you got rejected!)

[nugget]

I completely agreed with everything Takeruk wrote above. Psychology programs work the same way. Your first step is to get in touch with a prof you are interested in working with and indicate your interest and qualifications. While I'm not in your field, I'd be surprised if criminology did not work the same way.

 

As your post was brief, I was curious to know if you have read any books on applying to grad school or attended any workshops at your school or consulted with an academic adviser for information and assistance on applying to grad school? If not, I'd highly recommend doing the above to learn about how the application process works and how to create a stronger application. Excellent grades alone aren't enough to get you in and sometimes candidates with lower GPAs will get chosen over candidates with stronger grades due to other components of their application. Having a thorough understanding of the application and selection process will help you put together a package that will make your application stand out.

 

Best of luck! 

[Guest criminologist]

I must have spent a paragraph talking about it, I thought mentioning a professor's name would help so I did it in a few of my applications, I wish they would have put a notice on their page but I probably should have mentioned more than one name.

 

I didn't read any books, workshops or talked to an advisor, just looked at some stuff online. My field is not particularly competitive though (only around 27 ranked PhD programs). I applied to only 3 PhD programs (accepted to 2 of them). I didn't contact any professors before applying, didn't see a reason to because I could just look at their profiles to see if there research interests were a good fit. I know excellent grades aren't enough especially for top programs but I believe they are still the most important component. I just wanted to see how much of this could have been a factor in my rejection.

Edited April 29, 2014 by criminologist

[fuzzylogician]

Don't take it the wrong way but I think you're wasting your time worrying about this rejection. I'm sure spending a whole paragraph in your SOP talking about how you want to work with someone who is no longer there did not help you but there may have been other factors that went into the decision and you just can't know. The reason I think you shouldn't worry about it is that rejections happen fairly often in academia and you need to be able to just keep going and not get hung up on the things that were unsuccessful. If there was anything to learn from this (e.g. if you needed to reapply to grad school next year) I'd probably think differently but since you already have two acceptances, I think it's better to just move on and not over-think this.