The negative thread...

[Blazer12]

Here's mine:

I didn't major in my proposed field (US History), my undergrad GPA is less than stellar (although my grad GPA was much better), my quant GRE was in 44th percentile, and one of my recommenders just submitted his letter only a few days ago! (deadlines were Dec 15 and and Jan 15).

Edited January 29, 2010 by Blazer12

[Sparky]

"Gee, Im so pathetic that i make up lotz and lotz of fake resultz for programz whoos deadlinez havent passed and post them on the resultz search.. Sumtimz I even make up a gre score and gpa. But my real gpa, and gre totaly suck!!!11! Also, my LORz will all reflect my imatchurity."

:P

(Authentic insecurity of the moment: I have at least one late LOR at 3/5 schools--my top three choices, in fact. School #1 was almost a month late. /sigh Also, I'm really, really regretting not applying to more schools).

@ Blazer12, I didn't major in the field of three of the programs I'm applying to, either--in fact, I have barely any coursework in the subject (also history, though not US). For those schools, everything hinges on how convincing my LORs are that I know what I'm talking about. Fortunately, they all said the writing sample didn't have to be a history paper, just something vaguely related (e.g. era/place), so I'm guessing we have some leeway here.

Edited January 29, 2010 by Sparky

[curufinwe]

-graduated from universities in Turkey (schools adcomm wouldnt care about)

-crappy grad gpa (3.61)

-no publications or conferences

-no work experience

-no foreign languages

-no LORs from super duper awesome professors

-"I wanna study this, but I'm pretty much available for a lot of stuff" sorta vague statement in SOP

and i applied to rly good schools

conclusion: i'm an idiot

Edited January 29, 2010 by curufinwe

[jacib]

-graduated from universities in Turkey (schools adcomm wouldnt care about)

-crappy grad gpa (3.61)

-no publications or conferences

-no work experience

-no foreign languages

-no LORs from super duper awesome professors

-"I wanna study this, but I'm pretty much available for a lot of stuff" sorta vague statement in SOP

and i applied to rly good schools

conclusion: i'm an idiot

Yes you are an idiot, but not for the reasons you think. This is what I love about Turkish people: they absolutely forget that knowing English and Turkish counts as knowing a foreign language. I have meager Turkish and I'm frequently told by Turks, "I'm so impressed that you're learning Turkish" and such, and then I have to remind them "Kid, you're saying that to me in fluent English..." "Oh English doesn't even count as a foreign language, everyone knows English..." So, at the very least, I assume you know English and Turkish. I've also seen quite a few Bogazici grads doing work in America, fewer from other schools, but still, there is a large number of Turks studying in America.

I emailed a few departments about applying from Turkey, and if I could email stuff rather than post it, and one of them specifically said "Oh yes we've had experience with the Turkish postal system... absolutely email it to me." Most schools, I would say, have experience with Turkish applicants.

Edited January 29, 2010 by jacib

[curufinwe]

Kid, you're saying that to me in fluent English..." "Oh English doesn't even count as a foreign language, everyone knows English..." So, at the very least, I assume you know English and Turkish. I've also seen quite a few Bogazici grads doing work in America, fewer from other schools, but still, there is a large number of Turks studying in America.

yeah but turkish doesnt really count as a foreign language, since its my native language. plus, english DEFINITELY doesnt count as a foreing language when doing a phd in the US.i wish i could at least speak spanish or arabic or something like that.

and even though there are few turks out there, i'm pretty sure they were in a better position than me. u know, with the current financial crisis and all. plus, my 'guarantee' schools are, turns out, really competitive. (brown, cuny etc.)

[LifeIsGood]

yeah but turkish doesnt really count as a foreign language, since its my native language. plus, english DEFINITELY doesnt count as a foreing language when doing a phd in the US.i wish i could at least speak spanish or arabic or something like that.

and even though there are few turks out there, i'm pretty sure they were in a better position than me. u know, with the current financial crisis and all. plus, my 'guarantee' schools are, turns out, really competitive. (brown, cuny etc.)

I could have sworn that I saw one of my schools specified that non-native English speakers would be counted as having a foreign language. I don't recall if the English or the native language would be listed as the foreign language, but it was in there somewhere.

[blagon]

My GPA is pretty low, only 3.10 cumulative in undergrad and 3.33 for my major. I also got a D in Intro to Electrical Engineering (my major was electrical engineering).

In the first masters program I went to I got a 2.7 GPA (was there only a semester, I had other issues, and got no degree) and they decided, even though I paid them quite a bit, to not send out transcripts to all the schools I applied to.

This is my killer issue since everything else is pretty good.

[coffeeandtoast]

yeah but turkish doesnt really count as a foreign language, since its my native language. plus, english DEFINITELY doesnt count as a foreing language when doing a phd in the US.i wish i could at least speak spanish or arabic or something like that.

and even though there are few turks out there, i'm pretty sure they were in a better position than me. u know, with the current financial crisis and all. plus, my 'guarantee' schools are, turns out, really competitive. (brown, cuny etc.)

Yeah, my native language is Spanish. I had a hard time justifying English as my "foreign language", since, like you say, it is the "native" language of the PhD program. I added Spanish, English, and Italian to my foreign languages while keeping Spanish as my native language in the first part of the application. Kind of tricky.

[figurefive]

Reading all these posts makes me really nervous about my language abilities (or lack thereof). I'm applying to history and American studies programs, including a stated interest in Asian American history. I was born overseas in Hong Kong and speak Cantonese fluently, but my reading and writing leave much to be desired. I took Spanish in high school, passed the AP with a 5 as a junior, and can still probably make decent attempt at reading a Spanish language newspaper. The bottom line is that I haven't had a college-level language course in ANY language since. I was fully aware of the language requirements for the programs I was applying for, but figured I could try to fudge it a little bit. I should probably at least have made an effort to explain that I would take the summer to do intensive language study. I hope this isn't a fatal flaw.

On a more macro level, I'm just worried that I didn't put enough time into my applications. I basically cranked out 12 apps over the course of a week of vacation from my job where I was otherwise working 60+ hours a week. This affected everything from preparing for the GREs (I tried to study on the weekends, and ultimately got a 660V/730Q/5AW which I'm happy with given my level of preparation) to preparing SOPs where the only customization to each program was using find-and-replace to swap out program names. Somehow I have a feeling the adcoms won't care about this sorry excuse for how shoddy my applications look.

At the end of the day, I'm 5 years out of undergrad and working in an industry where it's really easy to get trapped in "golden handcuffs." History has always been my love, and grad school has always been a dream of mine. I just don't want to wake up 20 years from now one day and think, "Boy, if only..."

[chocker]

all sucked dry, down to the very last breath

bartender what is wrong with me ? why I am so out of breath?

[JerryLandis]

I'm applying to medieval history PhD programs and don't know Latin. This probably won't end well. However, at least everything else about my application is pretty stellar, so if I dedicate the next year or two before reapplying to learning Latin, I should be able to get in somewhere. I am taking an intensive Latin course this summer, but I'm afraid that they won't consider that to be enough experience with the language.

[Smaudge]

My negs are my lack of publications/hard-core research experience. Also, I'm applying to schools that are very theory-oriented, and a lot of my background comes from an Anthropology standpoint, which may not be a good fit.

Oh, and I didn't have any help or guidance as to what PhD programs want to see on my application, so who knows what they're thinking.

My real downfall is that if I get rejected across the board I have no idea where to go. I have no Plan B, and a pretty useless degree outside of academia. (Unless I convince some employer that "Linguistics" is code for communication, and yes I can surely communicate with people on a phone and direct their call to a salesperson).

[red_crayons]

My real downfall is that if I get rejected across the board I have no idea where to go. I have no Plan B, and a pretty useless degree outside of academia. (Unless I convince some employer that "Linguistics" is code for communication, and yes I can surely communicate with people on a phone and direct their call to a salesperson).

Marketing!!! I know it's soul-sucking, but I have a friend who is in marketing, and they have a whole team of linguists at his company. I'm sure you get paid well, allowing you to pass the time and re-apply next year. You could DEFINITELY spin the anthropology angle to support that kind of (temporary) career path, too.

[Smaudge]

Marketing!!! I know it's soul-sucking, but I have a friend who is in marketing, and they have a whole team of linguists at his company. I'm sure you get paid well, allowing you to pass the time and re-apply next year. You could DEFINITELY spin the anthropology angle to support that kind of (temporary) career path, too.

What do the Linguists do? This could have potential.

[Golgotha]

Sub-par GRE Verbal/AW score (hopefully won't matter since I'm an engineer?)

Lack of publications/journal papers (although 1 is in progress)

Haven't really had any correspondence with any professors of interest

[Lise]

I love this topic! Makes me feel like I'm not the only one who's doubting herself

So for my stupidities:

-GRE 540V 530Q 4.5AW => not impressive AT ALL

-I made some typos in my SoP (noticed it after 3/6 were already submitted)

-my native language is Dutch and I was stupid enough to apply to those complit programs that don't have any Dutch courses, I'd prob have been considered as an excellent TA for Dutch =/

-I come from one of the oldest universities in the world but unfortunately, they let everyone in so the first year is extremely hard = very low grades, approx 55% leaves after 1st year. We have a complicated grading system that is not compatible with GPA.

$ 1500 well spent I'd say

I'd better go on some nice Carribean holiday but hey, I'm a dreamer and I'd love love to add 'Dr' to my name and to teach!

[kohaku]

I was too intimidated by the "positives thread", but this one I can really relate to.

The one thing that's been making me feel like i'll be rejected is my math score on my GRE---it sucked! And even though I scored in the 97 percentile on the verbal portion, I don't know it will even begin to make up for my low math score (I think it was in the 40 percentile). I also have no paid work experience, but some volunteer work that is somewhat related.

I keep trying to convince myself that my excellent LORs and high GPA will convince at least ONE adcomm to overlook that score, but i am seriously doubting myself.

[riokliq]

Mediocre GRE scores.  For those worrying about lack of publications, I have almost 20 in respected academic journals and this is my third time around applying.

[Tiglath-Pileser III]

Okay, my turn to moan....

I suck because:

• My undergrad GPA really bites (2.5/4.0). Fortunately, my school was still on the British System so it came out as a "second class." But, if they try to figure out my GPA, that wouldn't be good for me.
• I'm old (39).
• My GRE verbal is a little low for where I'm applying (620).
• I had some bad typos at the end of my writing sample, which was a chapter from my thesis. I didn't discover these until after I submitted my applications.
• My advisor suggested applying to top schools. Of course, there are not a lot of second tier schools in the field I want to pursue. As such, the competition for PhD seats is fierce.

It's starting to look like $500 down the drain.

I hate life...

-H.

[someDay]

@Hermes: You got a job after your undergrad degree and then did a master's? At least British unis will not pay particularly much attention to your (lower?) second from 20 years ago... or so I was told by mature students. Did Cambridge not even invite you for an interview?

sD.

[Tiglath-Pileser III]

@Hermes: You got a job after your undergrad degree and then did a master's? At least British unis will not pay particularly much attention to your (lower?) second from 20 years ago... or so I was told by mature students. Did Cambridge not even invite you for an interview?

sD.

Yup, after undergrad worked 10 years in the tech field. I went back to school and earned two master's degrees.

Nope, Cambridge did not invite me to an interview and I got cut early (Feb 8). My guess is that the fact that I could not pay for it on my own might have had something to do with my early cut.

-H.

[highanxiety]

I started UG as an engineering major back in the 1980s. I flunked out. TWICE. I flunked out once, they let me back in, and I flunked out again. That transcript shows a 4 attempts to pass Calculus 2, 2 attempts at Organic Chem, and a 1.7GPA. I transferred into a journalism program at a different school and cleaned up my act. But that 1.7 stands.

I also have UG and G transcripts that have my intended major field down as: Engineering, Geology, Journalism, Environmental policy, English, and History. My intended PhD field? History. Can you say lack of focus and dedication to the field?

I think I should have done this one thread first, and then the positives one. I may need to go back to the positives field for a few minutes.

Ever considered academic renewal?

[highanxiety]

Just sayin, I totally failed the "not peeing" section of both the GREs I took, as well as the "stare at a screen for 3 straight hours without blinking" section and the "stress out for 3 continuous break-less hours without getting overwhelmed" section. Those really shouldn't have been on the test. Regardless of whatever the GRE tests, I could have really used some meaningful breaks during that infernal thing, god forbid.

I didn't even take my one-minute breaks. One minute's not enough to even wind down. One minute forces you to sit and attentively watch the timer because you literally have SECONDS left, instead of relaxing and collecting your thoughts for a bit. My stomach's clenching up just thinking about it.

They need optional ten-minute breaks after every section, and possibly a "time-out" feature for the middle of sections so you can regain your composure after a disappointing problem. The written GREs need to have mandatory breaks.

Anyway, this is turning into a tangent, but I can totally relate on the not doing well on the GRE because of how it can't accomodate simple bodily needs.

What pissed me off the most was the "extra VERBAL section" ETS threw in!! I had NO idea what was going on, and so I struggled through the damn thing a second time. Who knows which verbal section was scored???

While our academic careers hang in the balance, ETS wants to do research at our expense.

Messed up.

[Marshall]

Wonderful. I have a fabulously low gpa (2.84), fairly mediocre GRE scores (1110) and no internships or field experience outside of class field trips. Here's to paleontology!

[wannabePhD]

My writing sample was my MA thesis, but unfortunately, it was simply a write-up of my creation of a website ... which sucked. And I'm applying to a program that has "digital media" in the title. Whoops.