The negative thread...

[Mercer]

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.

My math score was in the 46th percentile while my verbal was in the 98th percentile. If you're applying in the humanities like I am, don't sweat it! What do they care about your quantitative score?

Anyway, back on topic, here's my wonderful NEGATIVES:

-When I first went to school 14 years ago I bombed out and withdrew with a just below 2.0 GPA due to the typical "I was an unfocused and irresponsible 18 year old" story you have probably heard before.

-I have a ton of withdraws on my transcript from biting off more than I could chew while commuting to school and working nearly full time or full time.

-I received an "F" in a 100 level sexism course that was required at my university. My "professor" didn't take kindly to how effectively I debated against affirmative action in a debate where I was assigned that position. I then received an "F" on my mid term because I "didn't use a quote from the textbook." I retook the class and got a B+ with another professor. Irony: I am actually pro-affirmative action.

-I made no contact with prospective professors at my schools because I foolishly believed it might be some sort of faux pas. My naïveté has since been cured but it's a little late to make contact now. I just hope they're all accepting students!

This thread is much better than the "positives" thread. Kudos to the OP!

Edited February 24, 2010 by Mercer

[scpy2010]

2 full semesters of withdrawls and a D in one of my major courses.

GPA: 3.30/4.0 (major GPA = 3.25)

GRE: 1090 (500 Verbal, 590 Math) and 4.0 AW

internships: zero (does volunteer mentoring count?)

publications: zero (1 unpublished research manuscript)

I am hoping that my (medical) excuse for the withdrawls will be acceptable but I hated writing that in my statement - I wanted to address the issue but didn't like sounding like I was 'making excuses."

=/

[fadeindreams]

When applying to Columbia of all places, I found that when I converted my SOP to PDF it had lost a letter in the third or fourth word of my first sentence. I'm a crappy writer to begin with but losing the letter 'y' out of 'my' is pretty embarrassing. That and I didn't notice until two weeks after I had submitted it.

My GPA is a 2.97. I missed automatic funding to one of my universities by a mere 0.03 GPA. Automatic funding of $10k a year...That's gonna sting for awhile.

My verbal GRE was in the 720 range on practice tests. I was super sick the week of my GRE so I went in EXHAUSTED for the test. The first section they gave me was a verbal section. Too bad it was the FAKE/normalization/experimental section. I hate you ETS. When I came to the last question and realized it was an experimental question type I almost cried. Surely I had at least a single tear. The realization that I had just performed so valiantly, exhaustion and all, on a non-scored section was super demoralizing. I figure I would have a 700+ on the FAKE section. I ended up with a 560 because when the second one came around as the last section I just didn't want to be there anymore. Did I mention that I hate ETS? Thanks for changing the test to something more practical after I took your dumb test. *ETS should be required to disclose the score on that section, I want to know so that I can hate them at an appropriate level...

[iigorayn]

I just want to say that in my Minnesota application, I forgot to upload my writing sample. Then, I e-mailed, had to contact technical support, had to e-mail back, etc. This went on for about a week before they said "please just e-mail your writing sample." Then, a few weeks later when about to submit more applications, I realized my writing sample didn't have a bibliography/works cited page. Woops! Plagiarism galore! THEN, I noticed that my SOP was somehow uploaded in two different fonts! And finally, last night, when looking to see if they had changed my application status (of COURSE this is going to be a rejection), I noticed that my computer had actually filled in some blanks for me: for first name, it put my first name AND married last name (not legal yet) on the same line, and had thrown in "UNITED STATES" for "zip code." WOW.......... can someone top this hot mess???

Needless to say, I was much careful in subsequent applications (this was my very first).

[Lousy Test taker]

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.

Damn ETS to eternal hell!!!! this is the same exact scenario with me, I had the same shit happening!!! TWO verbal sections, one was fairly easier and the other was outright killer!!!! no idea which one is the experimental section but I would bet my life, the killer section was scored and I am struggling with my applications hoping the adcoms would focus on my research exp.

[idm]

I'm delurking after many weeks of lurking, just to contribute to this thread.

2.68 GPA. 2 Fs and 2 Ds, I believe.

Realized (after reading this thread, actually) that I misspelled a word in my SOP, a word in the language which I am hoping to study, and which I do, in fact, speak. Don't now how it escaped me.

I can't tell if writing this was cathartic or not. Sigh.

i just want to say i love this thread.

i also had a horrific undergrad gpa .. mostly C's a couple of Ds and Fs. but miraculously got into masters program and am praying for another miracle, that i get into a phd program. i've never been religious till i decided to go back to school.

i had a few people read my SOP so hopefully no mistakes ... but i recently realized i sent in an outdated cv

[Medievalmaniac]

Well, I did the positives thread, but it's walways good to look at it from another perspective, right? Here's why I am a crappy applicant:

My undergraduate GPA was a 2.66 and my major was French.

I withdrew two classes and a thesis from finishing my first master's degree, then waited six years to do a second attempt at it, which resulted in my losing all of those original credits and having to take even longer to finish, so clearly from an economic standpoint I'm not very bright, and have the student loan debt to prove it.

I have taught middle and high school English for the past decade.

GRE scores? PATHETIC. 620V, 450Q, and a 6 on the AW. And I didn't take the subject test.

I've published and presented at conferences, but "everybody says" you shouldn't do that until later in your program when you have something important to say.

Loser.

[adam_cs]

4/0 so far. Waiting on few. Morning shows the day.

[Medievalmaniac]

And also - I can't even spell "always", as evidenced in my post above. lmao.

Edited February 25, 2010 by Medievalmaniac

[Karli-Marie]

For example, I "earned" a GRE quant score in the sixth percentile. Not sixtieth, SIXTH. That's an accomplishment ladies and gentlemen!

@ least I managed to make it to the ninth percentile

I have no real world experience/internships in my field of interest, I've spent the last 2 years since my BA teaching preschool, and I wrote my admissions essay one day before deadline.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Karli-Marie

[lovethequestions]

Several weeks after sending out my applications (in which I harp on my writing and editing abilities) I noticed that I had several fairly embarrassing misspellings in my CV. I am also applying to Ph.D programs in a field I didn't know existed until just over a year ago, and in which I have no coursework. At all.

[Karli-Marie]

I am at my third undergraduate institution. I went to a community college, then to a confessional Christian school, and now at a state school.

If it makes you feel any better it took me 7 years to get my BA.

[Satori]

If it makes anyone feel any better, the news I'm hearing says that the GRE is up for major revisions next year... no analogies, antonyms... moving away from the computer adaptive test (CAT)... finally!

Oh, and am I the only person here who feels like they have a scarlet letter on their chest for being a part-time Ph.D. applicant? I can't be the only one with a family that needs me to be something other than a full-time grad student, but still has all the motivation in the world to get through a program.... right? I think I have a strong application aside from that... but that one immutable thing may spell defeat. And if I get just one more rejection this year, then that's it (only one department has yet to respond... so there's still hope)

[Karli-Marie]

If it makes anyone feel any better, the news I'm hearing says that the GRE is up for major revisions next year... no analogies, antonyms... moving away from the computer adaptive test (CAT)... finally!

So we all jumped through flaming hoops of hell fire to pave the way and make things less challenging for the next generation... yeah that makes me feel a whole lot better.

[cluelessgrad]

Ok here is mine.........On my dream school's SOP I accidentally put another school's name in the final sentence........no wonder I havent heard from them yet

[obscurefemale]

Ok here is mine.........On my dream school's SOP I accidentally put another school's name in the final sentence........no wonder I havent heard from them yet

I can top that! I accidentally sent the SOP for my dream school to my 2nd choice school...you know the one that I would have been more likely to get into if I hadn't sent them an SOP talking about another school as my first choice.

[martizzle]

I keep on worrying that because I didn't put in any professors names into my Personal Statements, I may not be accepted because I do not fit 'well the the department (professors)' or something...idk.

Plus I kinda messed up the first 1.5years of my undergrad (damn all those white frat/house parties and free liquor lol). I managed to turn over a new leaf after that, but I'm afraid it will come back to bite me...add to that I graduated from one of the smallest universities in the history of man

[geodrake]

LOL! My first GRE score was something like that. I think in the teens? My verbal was in the 96th for context. My advisors just looked at me and laughed.

And Y'all are failing at failure. Let me learn you something:

-- there is, no lie, a 12 year gap in my transcript. The last year of the first trip? All NWs and NFs. I'm talking two, if not three -- I can't look anymore -- semesters of straight nothing. When I returned to school the advisor told me it is a miracle of my early 4.0s that my GPA was above a 2.0...if just barely.

-- I graduated from a school where you can pass if you showed up for the final and didn't stab the professor, not exactly rigorous.

-- Thanks to the NWs and NFs? My attempted hours make me look like an idiot.

You couldn't have failed THAT badly, you got in to Emory and USF! =D

[martizzle]

@ coyabean: wow...(that's all I've to say: wow)

[ootg]

My greatest negative would be my age, which would make me at least 10 years (if not 20) older than most applicants. My GMAT is not that great either, and perhaps I should have retaken it. My undergraduate degree is in Chemistry, although I do have an MBA.

[adam_cs]

6 rejections so far No admits I don't see it coming.

[ootg]

6 rejections so far No admits I don't see it coming.

Hang on in there! I'm not much better than you, with 5 rejections and no admits.

I am beginning to think that it is not meant to be.

[adam_cs]

Hang on in there! I'm not much better than you, with 5 rejections and no admits.

I am beginning to think that it is not meant to be.

pucker up, it's time to kiss the ground

[martizzle]

6 rejections so far No admits I don't see it coming.

Hang on in there! I'm not much better than you, with 5 rejections and no admits.

What is this? The 'who has got it worst' game? Well I'm in! I got my fifth rejection today. The only upside was that one of the programs wants to consider me for a M.Eng program. But then again, nothing is definite. Plus I have no idea where I will get the money/loan?

Can't some school just take pity on us and just accept us? They could simply look at it as community service

[adam_cs]

one more added. 7 rejects 0 admits sweet