The negative thread...

[carolina45]

Hmmm... a 550 V and a 570 V (took them twice), which looks kinda bad next to an 800 Q. Especially since I'm applying to Sociology programs....

I just "remembered" that I do have a publication, but I didn't put it on my application. It was published through my job, not in an academic setting, so I didn't think to put it. I'm cursing myself now. A publication on my app would have been nice...

[rogue]

I have 6 transcripts, mostly from community colleges. I feel like Sarah Palin.

It is rare that I can say "LOL" and actually mean it, but that's exactly what I did when I read this. Nice.

Oh, to be clear--laughing at the Palin reference, NOT your academic record!

Edited January 12, 2010 by rogue

[Steven]

I think I have the "old folks" record - 6 undergrad institutions on my transcripts, finally got my BA 21 years after enrolling for the first time. I was accepted into the one and only PhD program I applied to, but we'll see whether the GRFP and NDSEG reviewers are as forgiving of the elderly.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Steven

[captiv8ed]

Thanks rogue! Glad to entertain!

Steven, I am close to that. I just had my 20th high school reunion last year, so I will be graduating college 21 years after I graduating high school. I took my first college courses when I was 20 and came away from those 2 classes with a 1.0!!

[hip2btriangle]

- struggled in undergrad due to some pretty bad discrim. issues, so not-so-shiny GPA from a relatively unknown college

- took more than two GRE exams with scores that regressed each time (but I got over 90% on AW, right? the most important section! ... )

- just noticed some errors on my writing sample. on the first page. fml.

[Katzenmusik]

As I have likely just spent $1,000+ dollars to get my dream smashed, I am loving this thread!

* I am applying for MA and PHD programs in a field I did not study at all as an undergraduate.

* Most programs require writing samples that demonstrate the ability to carry out original historical research, which of course I have never done. I realized this belatedly & considered trying to write my own research paper over the summer/fall. However I got so busy with the applications themselves that I ended up sending a writing sample from my undergrad field instead.

* My GPA is mediocre.

* Most of the grad school offices are not even passing my application along to the department yet. I took two undergrad courses in the field this fall, the transcript came out around the end of December, and now it is literally taking forever for it to be processed by National Student Clearinghouse and then the grad school offices themselves (yes, I should have rush-ordered ALL of them instead of just a few--but I didn't expect the transcripts to literally take the maximum number of business days to be mailed). I feel really frustrated as I took these courses to strengthen my application--wouldn't it be ironic if these transcripts are what hold me back??

* I misspelled the word "pursue" as "peruse" in one of my SOPs. As in, "I would be thrilled to peruse graduate study at Ivy League University." Noticed that RIGHT after I clicked the submit button. Sigh!!

[ma7eb4i]

Noticed typo in first sentence of SoP. *facepalm*

SoP is embarrassingly and glaringly devoid of big picture discussion. Somehow it got edited out and none of my five editors caught it and pointed it out. Ugh.

Possibly, one of my recommenders wrote a lukewarm letter.

[whereiscarmen]

this should be a sticky as well.

[Mumbet]

* I misspelled the word "pursue" as "peruse" in one of my SOPs. As in, "I would be thrilled to peruse graduate study at Ivy League University." Noticed that RIGHT after I clicked the submit button. Sigh!!

Isn't that sentence still missing an article?

[Joe29]

I would just like to say that this website, and this thread specifically, is making the whole process of waiting for decisions much easier. Cheers to everyone here.

My negatives are that I have several C's in undergrad. (One in Calc 3, which is terrible for neuroscience PhD programs). Ironically, I have a great GRE Q score, which lets them know that I was actually just a huge slacker through undergrad. Weeee.

[carrar]

You guys are all so cute! This is my favorite thread because it's a reminder that everyone is so fallible, even in their strongest moments.

Anyway, my biggest negative is that I screwed around in my master's program (yep, I didn't rebel until I was 23, rather than 18 or 21). I passed, but just barely. I'm hoping the schools don't bother to convert UK grades. Doesn't bode well for the "growth" argument. I'm also hoping that the intervening 7 years with no relevant happenings are also ignored. Hm, how about they just accept me on trust and my $75 alone?

If I am fortunate enough to be accepted, my biggest weakness is that I will be playing catch up. Because I had an interdisciplinary major, I took none of the background courses usually required in my field. I'll be spending the summer with an American government textbook at the very least.

[Dith Vader]

LOL Joe29, that's exactly what I thought too!

My GPA is okay-ish all through my undergraduate years, but then my GRE is pretty good because I suddenly found the motivation to actually study again pffft. Suffice to say I didn't really like studying at my undergrad uni.

Iiiii think my writing samples are alright, but I don't have the confidence to say that they're REALLY GOOD. Or maybe they're simply... you know, not really good. Yeah, right now I think that more than anything they'll reject me because of my lack of experience (I'm applying to journalism schools) since I've only recently discovered that this is what I want to do. Most people seem to have decided to be journalists since they're in high school!

[tem11]

I just realized a few weeks ago that my one SOP has a sentence in it which could be interpreted as really, really offensive. Oops.

I switched majors (from nursing to psych) senior year, so I have no strong connections to any professors in my department. I did a year abroad which allowed me to get enough credits to graduate with a psych degree despite never having taken a psychology class at my home institution. I know absolutely nothing about psychology. Great.

I'm graduating from a university nobody has ever heard of.

My biggest weakness has to be my recommenders, though. I used about 8 different references in total since I'm applying to so many schools, but some of them have to be awful. For one program I'm applying to, my recommender is just saying I did well in her class since "that's the only capacity in which she knows me." Another of my recommenders is a former nursing professors who wrote utterly incoherent sentences (she showed me her letter). It includes such things as "She is good student. She works hard and is a self-starter." It's like a kindergartner wrote it.

Edited January 15, 2010 by TerriM

[red_crayons]

Somehow, it's harder to see the negative things in writing than the good things...

- No peer-reviewed publications

- No fancy internships, since I had to support myself as an undergrad

- Didn't contact professors in all the departments

- 3.5 GPA, but lower in major because it wasn't a good fit

- What I like to think of as a broad education could easily be read as a lack of focus

- Recommenders aren't in the field(s) I'm applying to at all

- No extracurriculars, because of working and various health issues

- Didn't know how best to address the working/health stuff in my statements, so I mostly avoided it

[gollux]

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.

[ErinH]

My biggest weakness has to be my recommenders, though. I used about 8 different references in total since I'm applying to so many schools, but some of them have to be awful. For one program I'm applying to, my recommender is just saying I did well in her class since "that's the only capacity in which she knows me." Another of my recommenders is a former nursing professors who wrote utterly incoherent sentences (she showed me her letter). It includes such things as "She is good student. She works hard and is a self-starter." It's like a kindergartner wrote it.

I'm in the same boat as you. One of my recommenders wrote me a 3-sentence letter, ending it with "I am unable to evaluate her in an intellectual capacity." I work for him in a lab, and while I do a lot of analysis for the graduate students there, I haven't approached him with my own research ideas, which he took to mean I'm not interested in his field. So he wrote the letter like I'm an employee.

One of my other letters is super strong, though, and actually in the field I'm applying for (developmental psych...he's in auditory perception), so i'm REAALLY hoping that overshadows the crap letter.

[Tall Chai Latte]

- rough first two years of undergrad (many C's and almost failed Calc and Organic chem), resulting in slightly-better-than 3.0 GPA.

- mediocre GRE score.

- didn't get publication out in time.

- i forgot to check on the header of my resume: i put the name of School A on the resume for School B... i realized it after i clicked submit button!

[Katzenmusik]

Exactly, cpaige; thank you! I have to admit I felt a pang over the comment you quoted, even though that particular mistake was NOT one I made.

This is essentially the "Most Embarrassing Application Moments" thread, intended for catharsis and amusement during a stressful process. Let's keep it supportive!

[Sparky]

New negative:

I found out on 1/14 that I had forgotten to give rec forms to two of my LOR writers. For an app due on the 15th. Just. Completely. Forgotten. No one else to blame.

This would be easier if all three LORs for any of my other schools had been on time. @#*$(@#.

[George]

Here goes. I'm applying to math without having taken a couple of key courses: complex analysis and topology. Mediocre grades without much to offset that. AND I just found out that I sent 4 transcripts to the corresponding pure math departments instead of the applied ones I submitted apps to and one LoR is reported as missing in a fifth institution. All the deadlines are long since passed, and I found this out today, on a Saturday. With MLK day coming up I won't be able to do anything at all about the situation until Tuesday.

[psychspin]

Weaknesses:

-I have fairly minimal child experience

-I've never done a research project involving children, per se.

-My first thesis will be the last to be completed, and I'll probably have to scramble to get it done.

[RH7]

I took the GRE once, and I got a 490 on my verbal. It's simple really, I had to do a MAJOR #2 somewhere after question 8. I can't really say that to admissions though can I?

[Sparky]

I took the GRE once, and I got a 490 on my verbal. It's simple really, I had to do a MAJOR #2 somewhere after question 8. I can't really say that to admissions though can I?

Probably not, but at least you can make jokes about your GRE scores being really shitty...

[tskinner]

Probably not, but at least you can make jokes about your GRE scores being really shitty...

BWAHAHAHA! :lol:

[Deleted]

BWAHAHAHA! :lol:

Nice one.

I love this post. The positive thread is supposed to make people better but it really does not because it gives you the impression that your competition is an army of 3.99 GPA -1550 GRE - 5 publications - twice-as-many-conferences - two books - purple-heart-decorated robots. At least this post humanizes the people and comforts you among peers who like are biting their nails until they bleed of anxiety.

As for me I am international with a GPA that does not convert in a very positive way into US GPA, transcripts missing well after the deadline, TOEFL missing because I took it 2 years and 2 months before the deadlines and guess what? ETS deletes the scores after two years day to day. So I have to say I re-registered for the test but only in late January for there was not any earlier date available. I spotted a blatant spelling mistake in the intro of my SoP, turns out I want to have a "carrier" instead of a career...

If I could just skip the next 4/5 weeks and get it over with.