Admissions anxiety: dreams/nightmares?

[Octoberstormxx]

I don't have nightmares. But I haven't slept in about three days. With February and th letters soon coming I'm completely frazzled.

[sjoh197]

I keep dreaming that I am being rejected.

 

Unlike a lot of people though.... I remember at least a portion of my dreams almost every night, and typically extremely vivid. Sometimes, that is really kind of cool and other times, I can't actually discern if I was actually rejected from graduate school. LOL

[juiceboxrampage]

I've had the same school-related nightmares since I was a kid. In them, it's always near the end of the semester and I suddenly remember that I haven't been going to one of my classes. I have to beg the teacher/professor to not fail me and to let me take extra credit. Sometimes when I go in to talk to the professor, I walk into an exam and am forced to take it, even though I don't know any of the material because I haven't been going to class.

 

Wow, you know, I just realized that my nightmare is what a lot of college kids actually do every semester. Except I always forget about the class in my dreams, and I'm sure a lot of people just choose not to go. Crazy.

Edited January 23, 2015 by juiceboxrampage

[-hermes-]

I've had the same school-related nightmares since I was a kid. In them, it's always near the end of the semester and I suddenly remember that I haven't been going to one of my classes.

 

I have this too! And in the dream, I'm stunned and dismayed that I either willfully chose to neglect an entire class or totally forgot it existed -- but it's always too late to do anything about it!

Edited January 24, 2015 by -hermes-

[ineedanak]

I have this too! And in the dream, I'm stunned and dismayed that I either willfully chose to neglect an entire class or totally forgot it existed -- but it's always too late to do anything about it!

That's weird, I have had the same dreams too. The feeling of realizing there's a class you've been neglecting is terrible. Then following that, I either have an exam I need to take or just found out I missed an exam. Then again, I've had somewhat similar experiences in my freshmen year of undergrad, so I guess that's where these dreams come from.

[SirLuke]

after 2 rejections I start to feel horrible and have scary  dreams yesterday in a dream a puppy got killed in front of my eyes.

I think Im going nuts 

[BiochemMom]

I'm currently an MS Chemistry student and graduate this May (and I defended last week and was already approved for graduation).

I dreamed the director of my department called me in for a meeting and my entire thesis committee was there along with the director and co director of the department. The director told me he'd heard I was rejected from all of the PhD programs to which I applied and that they had decided my thesis defense was strong enough to get a PhD instead of an MS but only under the condition I convince the medical school to buy the department a 900 MHz NMR with a cryocore.

I broke down crying because there is no way the med school would buy our department that NMR.

[internsbuiltthepyramids]

Last weekend, I dreamt I woke up to a note in my inbox from my MA advisor/reference telling me he'd bumped into the Dean of Grad Admissions at Chicago and asked about me, and that things were looking good. There were five minutes there after I woke up but before I realized it was a dream that I was on fucking cloud 9.

[bgt28]

Get ready lol I dreamt that my best friend (whom I adore and who has a grotesque sense of humor) hid all of letters (all rejections, of course [xoxo from the sandman]) and revealed a gorgeous formal dress she made out of my rejection slips on April 15th, which, incidentally, is the date for a queer formal at our alma mater. Lol I hate my brain sometimes

[Danochka]

I am having dreams every night now, usually just that I've gotten a rejection or acceptance email. There's always that long moment when I wake up when I have to try and remember what is real or not.

 

The other night, though, I had this long convoluted dream that I had taken a job working in the produce department at the local grocery store while I was waiting to hear about grad school, and a high-flying lawyer type came in and demanded an incredible amount of extra-ripe fruit. She wanted way more than we had in stock, and no matter how much more fruit I found, it just wasn't enough. She was so irate that she wrote a letter to my manager, and she ended it by saying, "...and furthermore, I have recently heard that [danochka] was rejected from EVERY grad school she applied to. We can only count ourselves lucky!"

[FantasticalDevPsych]

I think instead of dreaming it, I'm living mine right now. I received my first interview invite and then met with my current PI where I learned of three presumed rejections at once (one is now official). My only other school is also not looking good. I'm now possibly facing being shutout depending on the results of one interview (though I really loved my POI there and could imagine myself there and working well with her).

I wish it was a nightmare but it's real.

The dreams/nightmares will probably start to increase as the interview gets closer.

Edited January 29, 2015 by FantasticalDevPsych

[wuglife427]

I live very, very close to one of the schools I applied to. I had a dream that they wanted to invite me to their Open House but couldn't for some reason, so instead I had to meet with faculty during their free time. However, one faculty member had already made weekend plans to go to the museum...so we all went to the museum. I just had a long dream about a trip to the museum with this school's ling department. It was so weird.

 

Then it eventually morphed into a dream about the Predator being in my house, which did not end well.

[Crucial BBQ]

I do not recall ever having such dreams myself, and this is my second time through the process. 

 

No dreams, but just a never-ending, nerve-wrecking cycle of thoughts 24/7 which goes something like this: 

 

1. I wonder when I'll hear back. 

2. There's nothing I can do. My applications are done, so I may as well just try to enjoy the downtime. 

3. But what if I don't get in anywhere?

4. But I worked so. hard. on everything! There must be at least ONE program that will see that and take me. 

5. Oh but what if there is some mistake on my application that causes all the programs to reject me? 

 

Repeat 4 & 5 several times before going back to 1 to start the cycle all over again. I wish I could just hiberate until the decisions came out. 

1.  Definitely!

2.  Yup, life goes on.

3.  In terms of age amongst Grad Cafe users, I am somewhere in the middle.  I already have an established career, hobbies, likes, and in general, a life.  Not getting in will not change any of that for me.  

4.  I sure hope so!  

[ssynny]

I've had one dream about admissions so far. I only applied to two schools and would be elated to attend either. In my dream, I was surprisingly accepted to both schools and then had the impossible task of deciding which one to attend. I weighed the pros and cons for both schools and after a while, came to a decision. I woke up right then and was super bummed when I realized it wasn't real..... I feel like positive dreams are worse than negative in a way. Being accepted in my dream made me so depressed when I woke up and realized it wasn't real. At least with a bad dream, you wake up relieved it wasn't real.

[thissiteispoison]

I had a dream last night that I got my decision from UW on a piece of paper in that weird material schools print transcripts on. There were three bubbles on it, one for accepted, one for rejected, and one for this weird word I'd never heard of before. The word I'd never heard of before was checked and I was really confused. 

 

 

[HistoryGypsy]

I just keep getting dreams lately in which I either suffer grievous bodily harm or make a horrible life choice that I would never in a million years make and then have to find a way to back out of it.  I'm blaming the looming proximity of February for the nightmares.

[FoggyAnhinga]

Wow, probably just had the worst dream so far of all the admission nightmares I've had... last night in the dream, somehow I managed to access my POI's email (I have no idea how that happened haha), and I noticed that another competitive applicant for his lab has been exchanging emails with him like best friends (far from being professional). To make matters worse, the POI was also responding back in an equally friendly way ("yeah man! that's sweet").

 

I remember my reaction was devastated and somewhat enraged since I knew I was not going to be selected at this point, even though I tried so hard to be as polite, enthusiastic, and professional as possible (without saying "What's hanging professor X!"). 

Edited February 4, 2015 by FoggyAnhinga

[MidwesternAloha]

I had a dream I was facing an interview panel at the #1 school that resembled Stephen Hawking's committee in the "Theory of Everything" movie.  Woke up in a cold sweat.  What's most odd is that I never, ever, ever remember my dreams.

[lizardclan]

I have a reoccurring nightmare that I stop attending classes and fall behind.  I even miss midterms, and when I realize what I've done, it's a mad, panicked struggle to catch up and pass all of my classes.

 

I think I'm warning myself never to miss a lecture.  :-)

[DTY]

I had a dream last night I got into my top choice school with a great funding package, but to a slightly different program than the one I applied - and then, while still dreaming, I realized I was dreaming and got really mad at my dreams for creating unrealistic expectations... then I woke up.

[MathCat]

I have a reoccurring nightmare that I stop attending classes and fall behind.  I even miss midterms, and when I realize what I've done, it's a mad, panicked struggle to catch up and pass all of my classes.

 

I think I'm warning myself never to miss a lecture.  :-)

I have the same recurring nightmare...

[Sarochan]

I keep having dreams that there's been a mistake and I actually haven't graduated and am back in Physics 212. For some reason it is always Physics 212.

[Journey2015]

Dreams require sleep. *sigh*

[PurpleZephyr]

I had a dream that I opened my email and UC Irvine offered me an acceptance! I struggled to grasp more details and I thought it prudent to wake up so that I could reread the email. Of course when I awake, I find myself still stuck in Cameroon grinding though my Peace Corps service, wishing I had 4G internet and a bowl of cereal.

That dream was a punch in the face. UC Irvine is dead silent.

[thissiteispoison]

I had a dream last night that I got into Harvard. That wasn't a fun dream to wake up from.