2016 Rejection/Plan B Thread

[ScaredyCat]

1 hour ago, majorshake said:

Another DePaul interview has been posted. I'm guessing they sent them all out today, and so, based on how I haven't gotten one, I'm assuming a rejection. 

 

So far 3 rejections out of 6 applications. 

Starting to write a proposal for a non-american phd.

I have not heard from DePaul either. Or Penn State, Vanderbilt, Stony Brook, and Fordham so I am assuming rejection from those as well. The only schools I have heard from (Northwestern, Emory and Chicago), I have been rejected from. 

The application process really sucks. 

[majorshake]

8 minutes ago, Hermione27 said:

I have not heard from DePaul either. Or Penn State, Vanderbilt, Stony Brook, and Fordham so I am assuming rejection from those as well. The only schools I have heard from (Northwestern, Emory and Chicago), I have been rejected from. 

The application process really sucks. 

We're all here together.

What's your backup plan?

[psm1580b]

Rejected from UCSD. Email arrived at midnight.

Whelp. That leaves only the schools I have no chance in hell of getting in. 

[metaphysician]

3 hours ago, psm1580b said:

Rejected from UCSD. Email arrived at midnight.

Whelp. That leaves only the schools I have no chance in hell of getting in. 

 My first official rejection: UCSD—the only school from which I have heard. 

[bechkafish]

3 hours ago, psm1580b said:

Rejected from UCSD. Email arrived at midnight.

Whelp. That leaves only the schools I have no chance in hell of getting in.

Hang in there, psm It ain't over til it's over... And one of your "long shot" acceptances might come in any day now.

[jjb919]

Someone posted a rejection from Boulder saying they sent an email query and were told that official rejections will be sent shortly. I still haven't received anything. I know I'm rejected, I just want my email confirming it already. Same goes for Fordham. So very frustrating.

[Erratic_Akratic]

Just received an e-mail from USC to check website, which contained a letter bearing bad news. 

As early rejections are uncharacteristic from USC this was a case of excitement brutally dashed!

 

[metaphysician]

27 minutes ago, Erratic_Akratic said:

Just received an e-mail from USC to check website, which contained a letter bearing bad news. 

As early rejections are uncharacteristic from USC this was a case of excitement brutally dashed!

 

Which USC – Southern California or South Carolina? And sorry about the rejection! 

Edited February 13, 2016 by metaphysician

[Erratic_Akratic]

Southern California 

[metaphysician]

3 minutes ago, Erratic_Akratic said:

Southern California 

 I haven't heard anything from them—here's hoping. Good luck! 

[psm1580b]

3 hours ago, bechkafish said:

Hang in there, psm It ain't over til it's over... And one of your "long shot" acceptances might come in any day now.

Thanks! I appreciate that. And I've definitely heard of people getting rejected from all of their mid-level schools and getting accepted into their long shot. Having at least one WL helps. A bit.

[dgswaim]

8 hours ago, psm1580b said:

Rejected from UCSD. Email arrived at midnight.

Whelp. That leaves only the schools I have no chance in hell of getting in. 

I would think you have pretty realistic chances at Western Ontario, no? 

[metaphysician]

Does USC usually send all the rejections at once? 

[psm1580b]

1 hour ago, dgswaim said:

I would think you have pretty realistic chances at Western Ontario, no? 

Maybe but I've heard about some issues with Canadian schools not being able to take int'l students these last couple of years. Not WO specifically, but it still worries me. 

[currentphilgrad]

A rejection from UCSD and now a presumed rejection from Pitt...Rough day!

[MVSCZAR]

2 hours ago, psm1580b said:

Maybe but I've heard about some issues with Canadian schools not being able to take int'l students these last couple of years. Not WO specifically, but it still worries me. 

Toronto is only technically Canada, but not actually Canada, right? I mean, they're in our sports leagues. 

[Erratic_Akratic]

21 minutes ago, MVSCZAR said:

Toronto is only technically Canada, but not actually Canada, right? I mean, they're in our sports leagues. 

As a (francophone) Canadian estranged from Toronto, that made me laugh! 

But I think concerns about being disadvantaged as an American applying to Canadian schools are, to a certain extent, warranted. For instance, Toronto essentially only admit Canadian students into their MA program (at least, that's how it was these past years). Even for prospective PhD students, I would be surprised if the eligibility of Canadian students to governmental fellowships did not give them a competitive advantage. These fellowships are quite generous (35k a year for 3 years), and, as a rule of thumb, if you're good enough for the Toronto PhD program, you're good enough to get the fellowship. So it would make sense for ad. coms to admit a minimum number of Canadian students into their PhD program, in the hope of saving some money overall. 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Erratic_Akratic

[majorshake]

3 hours ago, psm1580b said:

Maybe but I've heard about some issues with Canadian schools not being able to take int'l students these last couple of years. Not WO specifically, but it still worries me. 

I have also heard this, both from Canadians who've recently moved here, but also looking at the results page, McGill rejected all international applicants last year based on lack of funding.. So that's a presumed rejection for me right there

[psm1580b]

4 minutes ago, majorshake said:

I have also heard this, both from Canadians who've recently moved here, but also looking at the results page, McGill rejected all international applicants last year based on lack of funding.. So that's a presumed rejection for me right there

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. I didn't want to type it lest I somehow bring it about again. 

Now I'm going to go back to writing quizzes for my critical thinking class and pretend I didn't just think ^that. 

[philosophe]

4 hours ago, metaphysician said:

Does USC usually send all the rejections at once? 

I'm not sure but I didn't get anything... hoping this is a good sign? But lets not get our hopes up because they could just be rejecting in waves.

[ScaredyCat]

16 hours ago, majorshake said:

We're all here together.

What's your backup plan?

My backup plan is law school. However, I am not sure about law school because it is something I only kind of like. I find certain aspects of law interesting but I know a lot of it, or so I heard, centers on contracts and I am not interested in that so much. But I will start studying for the October LSAT soon. Right now I am working on a paper for an international conference on Hegel. It is time consuming, because the research includes psychology, namely Jung, and I have never done psychology before. 

Soon I plan on taking NYS exams in order to possibly get a job with the state. My friend said that these jobs normally take years to get so I need to start now. I just want to make sure that if things do not work out for me in the next few years that I have options. As of now I have few options.

I do not think that I will try again namely because I was in a PhD program in philosophy and I was kicked out so if I do not get in somewhere this time then I am done with professional philosophy unfortunately. 

What is yours?

 

[MVSCZAR]

17 minutes ago, Hermione27 said:

It is time consuming, because the research includes psychology, namely Jung, and I have never done psychology before. 

Good thing Jung isn't a psychologist, then. Right? Right? 

[majorshake]

1 hour ago, Hermione27 said:

My backup plan is law school. However, I am not sure about law school because it is something I only kind of like. I find certain aspects of law interesting but I know a lot of it, or so I heard, centers on contracts and I am not interested in that so much. But I will start studying for the October LSAT soon. Right now I am working on a paper for an international conference on Hegel. It is time consuming, because the research includes psychology, namely Jung, and I have never done psychology before. 

Soon I plan on taking NYS exams in order to possibly get a job with the state. My friend said that these jobs normally take years to get so I need to start now. I just want to make sure that if things do not work out for me in the next few years that I have options. As of now I have few options.

I do not think that I will try again namely because I was in a PhD program in philosophy and I was kicked out so if I do not get in somewhere this time then I am done with professional philosophy unfortunately. 

What is yours?

 

Sounds like a solid plan. May I ask why you were kicked out? (Feel free not to say, I realise I'm being nosy!)

I'm going to apply for a few Australian PhD programs. There are lots of good people to work with here, but I wanted to try overseas first because the application deadlines didn't match up in a good way.

[behindclosedoors]

1 hour ago, Hermione27 said:

My backup plan is law school. However, I am not sure about law school because it is something I only kind of like. I find certain aspects of law interesting but I know a lot of it, or so I heard, centers on contracts and I am not interested in that so much. But I will start studying for the October LSAT soon. Right now I am working on a paper for an international conference on Hegel. It is time consuming, because the research includes psychology, namely Jung, and I have never done psychology before. 

Lawyer jumping in here.  Whilst I understand why you might be attracted to certain types of law and not others, I'd say that it is way too early at this stage to make any judgement calls on what you would end up enjoying practising as a lawyer.  True, contract law features heavily in the commercial context (particularly if you want to work in biglaw), and I confess I wasn't particularly enamoured studying it in my first year of law school, but it's actually one of those areas that allows for a lot of creativity, which I am starting to believe more and more is a hallmark of a great lawyer.  

There is a craftsmanship to drafting and a skilled lawyer in this regard is like an artisan.  Even litigating contract law cases is particularly interesting because there is often a wealth of interpretation in those disputes, and the arguments that you put forward can be interesting (and quite important in the wider context of precedents, common law etc.)  I've been on both sides of the equation. 

Not that I'm pushing contract law or anything, but just citing it as an example of not judging a book by its cover.

(Btw, i should add for clarification that there is no "contract law practice group" in a law firm - it is integrated with the firm's practice groups based on other subject matter, e.g. M&A, telecommunications, banking and finance etc.  I had a potential applicant, a law school student, enthuse to me about working in the "contract law practice group" in one of those recruitment events - it demonstrated a real lack of awareness of the commercial reality, not to mention a lack of bother to do a simple Google search on the firm that you are supposedly so "excited" about (or even any other law firm) to reveal that there is no such thing as a "contract law practice group".  Needless to say, he did not even make it to the first cut). 

[ScaredyCat]

13 minutes ago, behindclosedoors said:

Lawyer jumping in here.  Whilst I understand why you might be attracted to certain types of law and not others, I'd say that it is way too early at this stage to make any judgement calls on what you would end up enjoying practising as a lawyer.  True, contract law features heavily in the commercial context (particularly if you want to work in biglaw), and I confess I wasn't particularly enamoured studying it in my first year of law school, but it's actually one of those areas that allows for a lot of creativity, which I am starting to believe more and more is a hallmark of a great lawyer.  

There is a craftsmanship to drafting and a skilled lawyer in this regard is like an artisan.  Even litigating contract law cases is particularly interesting because there is often a wealth of interpretation in those disputes, and the arguments that you put forward can be interesting (and quite important in the wider context of precedents, common law etc.)  I've been on both sides of the equation. 

Not that I'm pushing contract law or anything, but just citing it as an example of not judging a book by its cover.

(Btw, i should add for clarification that there is no "contract law practice group" in a law firm - it is integrated with the firm's practice groups based on other subject matter, e.g. M&A, telecommunications, banking and finance etc.  I had a potential applicant, a law school student, enthuse to me about working in the "contract law practice group" in one of those recruitment events - it demonstrated a real lack of awareness of the commercial reality, not to mention a lack of bother to do a simple Google search on the firm that you are supposedly so "excited" about (or even any other law firm) to reveal that there is no such thing as a "contract law practice group".  Needless to say, he did not even make it to the first cut). 

I understand. I was not trying to be judgmental as much as cautious because I know law school is a big commitment. I worry about taking on a lot of debt and then ending up not being a lawyer. Not to mention the time commitment in studying whilst in law school and for the bar. I am still in debt for my bachelor's. Because of the aforementioned I feel I should be careful on embarking on such a huge commitment when I am not even sure about law school. Mostly I was extrapolating from my experience in political philosophy.

But you did make contract litigation sound  more appealing.