Rejected for no good reason- how to appeal?

[Rose93]

I applied to a doctorate program that I exceeded qualifications for. Much to my surprise, I was rejected. When asked why I was rejected, I was told I didn't have enough work experience (when I already met the work experience required on their application webpage). I learned about some candidates who were accepted with even less work experience than me. Therefore, I know that I was denied admission for another reason. I would like to appeal my decision, however; the school has no appeals process. Has anybody gone through a rejection with a reason which just doesn't add up? What can be done about this? Does anyone know of a good education lawyer who can assist me in writing a letter to the school asking for an appeal? As I said, there is no formal appeals process at the school. Thanks 

[Dedi]

I understand that you are upset, but I'd wait at least a week before deciding to do anything harsh. Give time to collect yourself and reassess the situation. Rejections happen to the best of us.

Easier said than done, I know. But really, you don't want to set up a bad reputation for yourself.

 

Just my two cents.

[1Q84]

Does anyone know of a good education lawyer who can assist me in writing a letter to the school asking for an appeal? 

 

Does this actually happen? I've never heard of anyone suing for admission before.

[Texan_Air]

You can try contacting your POI there to get a better idea on your application's circumstances. Who gave you the explanation on why you were rejected? Just wondering if it came from the dean or a graduate admissions assistant. I would also ask your POI on what would strengthen your application just in case you want to try applying again. It's never wise to burn any bridges with the school as it always has the chance to come back against you.

[Eigen]

Minimum qualifications aren't what get you accepted to a graduate program, they're what get you considered for a graduate program. 

 

It's not a straight up process wherein if you meet the stated requirements, you are automatically accepted. Your application, as a whole, is weighted against the other applicants, as a whole. 

 

You say you know other people who were accepted with less work experience, but maybe their work experience was more closely related to what they want to study, or perhaps they had another part of their application that was more interesting or valid to the admissions committee. 

[Tolman's Rat]

Minimum qualifications aren't what get you accepted to a graduate program, they're what get you considered for a graduate program. 

 

It's not a straight up process wherein if you meet the stated requirements, you are automatically accepted. Your application, as a whole, is weighted against the other applicants, as a whole. 

 

You say you know other people who were accepted with less work experience, but maybe their work experience was more closely related to what they want to study, or perhaps they had another part of their application that was more interesting or valid to the admissions committee. 

or they had better recommendations...or a more directed and relevant statement...information that a grad admissions officer is very unlikely to divulge.

 

sorry that you didn't get in, but this post is quite accurate. There is so much that goes into a doctoral application, and it's often so competitive that many well-qualified applicants do not get in. Probably even people who are more qualified than you are.

[grad_wannabe]

Getting into a grad program is like dating -- it's not about who's BEST, it's about who's the best MATCH. 

 

Same thing for rejections. If they don't want you, there's no point to appealing. It could have been any tiny little thing. It doesn't matter. They felt other applicants were a better match. 

 

Best to just move on. Do not expend any more energy on this. 

[TakeruK]

I agree with Eigen, grad_wannabe and others here--it's pretty tough to rank people by the "best" and especially tough to distinguish between top candidates! Usually, programs cannot accept everyone who they would like to attend! For example. they might get 20 highly qualified candidates but can only accept 10, and each of the 20 people might have uniquely good qualities that make it tough to directly rank. In this case, most schools would admit according to best match, either to specific supervisors or to program goals as a whole. For example, if some all-powerful being were actually able to rank the candidates 1st through 20th and the top 8 are all from subfield X, they might just choose to admit 5 of the top 8 and then admit others from lower on the list. So, someone ranked 12th might get in but not the person ranked 6th just because it's better to have a very good Y-subfield research than too many very-very-good X subfield.

 

In addition, it might be helpful to know that most schools do not have an appeals process for graduate admission, so I don't think that is a good path to go. That is, it is very common for most people to not know exactly why they are rejected because it's not often possible to explicitly record a reason for every decision. 

 

But, I do think if you feel strongly that the school wrongfully rejected you for an unethical reason, then you should definitely consider following through with your suggestion of finding a lawyer. You should note that taking this action will definitely burn bridges at this school and you will definitely not be able to "sue for admission" -- or at least, if a court legally compels a school to admit you (is that even possible?), I feel that would permanently damage your relationship with everyone in the department and make life very difficult for you. In addition, keep in mind that if you take this action and your field is small, even if you end up attending somewhere else, people might know about this and depending on how things went, it could hurt you in the long run. 

 

That said, if you are willing to take the risks above, and you still feel strongly that the school has acted improperly, I think it's important to take the fight to them. I am not going to pretend that admissions committees are infallible and are always in the right. Academics that act improperly damage the reputation of academics everywhere so I would encourage you to find a lawyer and see what action can be taken if you feel strongly that improper conduct occurred and are willing to face the consequences. 

 

Finally, one last note -- keep in mind that lack of information might often make it possible to appear like improper conduct occurred. So, for your own protection, be careful not to jump to any conclusions! In my opinion, I would advocate for all admissions committees (and all grant/promotion/tenure/hiring committees really) to be way more transparent in their decision making procedure and have some kind of oversight. There would be more bureaucracy but in my own humble opinion, worth it if it meant more trust in academics and ultimately, more justification for supporting our work.

[Rose93]

Thanks for your responses guys. Just for clarification, I don't plan on suing the university for rejection. The purpose of an education lawyer would be to help direct and assist me in writing a letter signed by myself to the appropriate people (ie. dean of school) in charge as there is no appeals process. The person I spoke with was an admissions person who admitted he didn't look at my application himself, but only looked at notes from the faculty which said "not enough experience."  In this program, faculty determines acceptance. I felt the information I was given for the rejection by the admissions person did not explain my rejection. I understand and agree that there are many factors which determine acceptance and it was a good point that requirements for application can merely be seen as considerations for the program. However, I still feel after looking at resumes of those who were accepted that there was a compelling reason of which I am unaware for my rejection. I would really like to find out what happened so this doesn't happen in future programs and to possibly be considered again. This is an unusual doctorate program in that it admits a very large number of people several times a year; this isn't the typical small cohort, which makes the reason for my rejection even more curious. What do you guys think of writing a letter to the dean of the school? Effective? 

[Rose93]

Also, my rejection came a little while ago so I have had time to think about this but it would still be helpful to see if anyone had ideas on next steps I can take since I do want to pursue this. 

[Rose93]

Also, the input the admissions person said for a future applications is "gain more experience." I already have plenty of experience (which exceeds their requirement and the number of years and types of experience of other admitted applicants). Therefore, I don't think re-applying in a year would make a difference. 

[rising_star]

Maybe you could contact the Director of Graduate Studies for the department/program and say that you'd like more information on what you can do to get accepted in the future. Phrasing your inquiry that way is much more likely to result in a positive response (as in, a response that yields you the information you desire). If you go into it talking about lawyers, it is unlikely that anyone will give you the direct answers you seem to desire.

[TakeruK]

Thanks for your responses guys. Just for clarification, I don't plan on suing the university for rejection. The purpose of an education lawyer would be to help direct and assist me in writing a letter signed by myself to the appropriate people (ie. dean of school) in charge as there is no appeals process. The person I spoke with was an admissions person who admitted he didn't look at my application himself, but only looked at notes from the faculty which said "not enough experience."  In this program, faculty determines acceptance. I felt the information I was given for the rejection by the admissions person did not explain my rejection. I understand and agree that there are many factors which determine acceptance and it was a good point that requirements for application can merely be seen as considerations for the program. However, I still feel after looking at resumes of those who were accepted that there was a compelling reason of which I am unaware for my rejection. I would really like to find out what happened so this doesn't happen in future programs and to possibly be considered again. This is an unusual doctorate program in that it admits a very large number of people several times a year; this isn't the typical small cohort, which makes the reason for my rejection even more curious. What do you guys think of writing a letter to the dean of the school? Effective? 

 

To answer your last question -- no, I don't think writing to the Dean of the school will be effective. The Dean is even more removed from the process than the admissions person that you talked to. 

 

If your goal is honestly just to get feedback in order to best improve your application for future years, then I think your best bet is to just try to contact the Director of Graduate Studies or similar position in the department you are applying to. That person would have the best idea of what the admissions committee was looking for and how they made their decision. However, the way you approach this question will have a huge difference in your outcome. For example, as rising_star suggested, if you got a lawyer and made a formal request, you will be seen as a (potentially litigious) threat, and this would greatly reduce anyone's desire to give you any answers at all. You will likely face similar resistance if you seem like you want to challenge or appeal their decision.

 

Therefore, my advice is that if you truly are seeking the reason for your rejection solely for knowledge on how to improve for other schools or for a future year, then you need to first accept the decision that has already been made. Maybe you have already done this. However, to me, the tone of your first post sounds like you do not agree with their decision and you are still seeking a way to argue/dispute their decision. If you convey this same tone in your communication with the department, then I don't think you will get the answers you want.

 

Also, keep in mind there is probably a very good chance that they don't have any more information for you than "not enough experience". Most schools reject over 90% of their applicants so they definitely do not have time to prepare detailed reports on each decision. Perhaps the committee felt that your experience was not the kind they were looking for. Or that you did not have enough experience compared to the candidate you were directly up against (as above, I said that sometimes candidates with less experience can be favoured over other candidates for reasons completely beyond your control, e.g. lab space, funding, or a professor argued more passionately for another candidate etc.)

 

Finally, keep in mind that many graduate programs do try their best to give feedback when politely solicited in a non-threatening way (i.e. so that they don't feel like they need to go on the defensive). For traditional programs, decisions are made in Spring, so I would say the best time to inquire would be the following May because it is after all the decisions are done (so there is no threat of appealing and after all the crazy busy-ness of making admission decisions) but it's still fresh in their mind. If you are lucky, you might get feedback but remember that they have no obligation to do so, and that they might not have kept any notes at all on their decisions. The only thing that might leave their big long meeting is a list of names to accept. 

[Igotnothin]

Could be they thought you were over-qualified and would go somewhere else anyway. That can happen.

[NWFreeheel11]

I applied to a doctorate program that I exceeded qualifications for. Much to my surprise, I was rejected. When asked why I was rejected, I was told I didn't have enough work experience (when I already met the work experience required on their application webpage). I learned about some candidates who were accepted with even less work experience than me. Therefore, I know that I was denied admission for another reason. I would like to appeal my decision, however; the school has no appeals process. Has anybody gone through a rejection with a reason which just doesn't add up? What can be done about this? Does anyone know of a good education lawyer who can assist me in writing a letter to the school asking for an appeal? As I said, there is no formal appeals process at the school. Thanks 

 

PhD programs are a huge part of reputation. Even if you did get in, do you really want to be the person in the department that bullied their way back in? People get rejected, its a fact of life. Move on and find something/somewhere else fun. An appeal will only leave a stain on your reputation because you were a sore loser. It could even spread to other academic institutions because the world of academia is small and you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot before you even start. 

[fuzzylogician]

To add to what others have already said and which I agree with, it's not just about having good qualifications on paper. It's also -- in large part -- about how you sell them. I can't tell you how many times I've seen strong applicants write SOPs that don't nearly do them justice.

 

I honestly doubt that you could get useful feedback from anyone at the school that rejected you, but here are two (related) thoughts. First, as already mentioned, very good and qualified people get rejected all the time. And other people get things you applied for who you think are less qualified than you. You had better get used to it, it will happen if you stay in academia and if you get a job in industry, it's a part of life. There are always more deserving applicants than positions/awards/whatnot and the people making the decisions bring their own ideas about what makes someone "better" than someone else. The process is never 100% objective. There may also be other external considerations you are never going to know about, like equalizing admissions across subfields, or a professor who is accepting fewer students for whatever reason, etc. Second, some people are better at selling themselves, even if on paper they have less to sell. One thing that you should do is take a closer look at all your application documents, and in particular your essays. Are you doing a good job presenting yourself and your qualifications? Have someone new and objective look over everything. If everything looks good, I would ponder the LORs - is it possible that one of them is weak, or even damaging? That could cause an otherwise strong application to get tossed. However, before you get into conspiracy theories, I want to stress again that one rejection does NOT imply that there is any problem at all! One just means bad luck. Only if this is happening over and over for no apparent reason would I begin to suspect foul play.

[Between Fields]

I agree with what others have said about the application process itself. It could be something as simple as your perceptions about being overqualified for the program bleeding into your statement of purpose. Something to consider, though, is what a successful appeal would mean: 1.) It would be an unacceptable administrative trespass into the faculty's ability to run their own program (unless it was clearly demonstrable that the application was rejected in contravention of a university policy); and (more importantly for you) 2.) You would be in a program where faculty decided they didn't want you to be--the people you would be working with for five+ years. Who would want to supervise you, knowing the admissions committee told you no and was overridden. It would be bad for departmental politics and you wouldn't get much out of it.

 

I don't think I've ever heard of an admissions appeal process to start with, though.