Cringe-worthy (again) >_<

[rheya19]

I posted this in the religion section (as I applied to religion programs,) and then realized the thread fits better over here. So here we go again.

Here's a little game to help pass the time while we wait for our acceptance or poorly-made decision letters (not "rejection...") Did you have any cringe-worthy moments while applying to your schools? Call a professor the wrong name? Mention information that hurt your chances? Forget to change the name of the university on your statement?

I have one: I emailed two professors at a certain school about my research interests in December. One got back to me and was friendly; the other did not get back to me. But from their faculty pages, they both looked like good fits. I wrote my statement for the program, outlining how both professors would be of great help to my research. I had read their stuff and made references to it. I actually felt really good about this application. I turned it in, and the next day I found out that... the silent professor had died. Over a year and a half ago.  >_<  

I emailed the other professor right away, apologizing and explaining, but he was really cool about it luckily. He said that they had been meaning to take down this other guy's faculty page, and that it wouldn't impact my chances of getting in. I still feel like an a**hole, though.

[obicycleo]

Damn, that one's hard to top. I think that my most cringeworthy mistake has been that I somehow didn't catch a misspelling of my previous advisor's name in one of my statements of purpose; this advisor is very big in our field and I am sure that misspellings will not go unnoticed. Unfortunately that advisor and I have nearly the same first name (differs by one letter) and my word processing program corrected it to my name's spelling.  

Not a world-ending mistake, necessarily, but it definitely makes me look like a massive idiot. Luckily (but also unfortunately) I caught it a few hours after submitting my full application. I made sure that no similar autocorrects happened again. Ugh. 

[rheya19]

Autocorrect kept changing the Greek and Latin terms I was using to hilarious effect. "Oxyrhychus Papyri" kept turning into "oxycontin Papyri." 

[guitarHeroAn]

I emailed to two POIs from different universities (in same city though) who I thought would be a good fit. One was female and other male. Both the professors were positive in their mails however the female professor's department was different from what I was applying to (her was BME, I was applying to CSE), so the talk soon came to an end after we discussed that I would have to apply to BME department to work under her. However I still kept in touch the male professor and he was interested in my profile. 

One day I was going through both of their faculty pages, and I noticed a weird pattern. They both did their masters and PhD from same universities, in same years. They both were of similar origins (guessing from the last name) and the best of all, both had automatic responders in their mails that they were out for maternal/paternal leaves. 

Turned out they were husband-wife. 

Thank god I stopped negotiations with one of them before starting with other, else would have botched my chances in both universities haha

Edited February 4, 2017 by trane293

[fuzzylogician]

Not in applying to grad school but applying to jobs: In my field when we give talks we give language data; for example, the simplified text here (don't take the content too seriously!): 

Example (1) illustrates that in English, the subject agrees with the verb. 

(1) Mary likes to read books. 

For one job talk, I happened to choose a name for many of my examples that turned out to be the same first name as that of someone who had recently and unexpectedly passed away. I didn't learn about it until after I had left. It was completely arbitrary, a common name. No one said anything, but I was mortified when I found out!  

[CoyoteBlue]

I somehow managed to miss an entire section of my applications(goals) and get an interview with berkely *shrugs* mysterious powers that be.

[rheya19]

17 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

Not in applying to grad school but applying to jobs: In my field when we give talks we give language data; for example, the simplified text here (don't take the content too seriously!): 

Example (1) illustrates that in English, the subject agrees with the verb. 

(1) Mary likes to read books. 

For one job talk, I happened to choose a name for many of my examples that turned out to be the same first name as that of someone who had recently and unexpectedly passed away. I didn't learn about it until after I had left. It was completely arbitrary, a common name. No one said anything, but I was mortified when I found out!  

I tried to think of a funny example of this, but the ones I came up with were all way too macabre.

[rheya19]

2 hours ago, CoyoteBlue said:

I somehow managed to miss an entire section of my applications(goals) and get an interview with berkely *shrugs* mysterious powers that be.

I wonder how much they really look at anything but the statement and letters of recommendation. I think it must mostly come down to those things. The letters of recommendation speak to the kind of student you are, and the statement shows your research interests and writing abilities. All the rest (GREs, transcripts, GPA, etc) seem kind of redundant.

[CoyoteBlue]

26 minutes ago, rheya19 said:

I wonder how much they really look at anything but the statement and letters of recommendation. I think it must mostly come down to those things. The letters of recommendation speak to the kind of student you are, and the statement shows your research interests and writing abilities. All the rest (GREs, transcripts, GPA, etc) seem kind of redundant.

I just know I had a dream school, and they rejected me. I'm hoping I'll be a better fit at one of these other places that saw value in me.

[W.Churchill]

This is a small thing, but still cringe worthy. Background, I am currently in a two year MA program and applying to PhD programs in a different department both internally and externally. So this fall I was meeting with a professor to talk about my project and ongoing applications/where I should be looking; the professor also happens to be one of my LoR writers and a POI in the internal school's PhD Program. Anyway, as I was leaving the meeting I just butchered the pronunciation of CUNY. As in, I told the professor I would look into applying to the school known as "C-U-N-Y" while I was walking out the door. I don't know what happened, why I felt the need to literally spell the name out, but that was a thing that happened. And I realize this is like small potatoes, but dude is a super prominent figures in linguistics, and it was unfortunate.

[rheya19]

2 minutes ago, CoyoteBlue said:

I just know I had a dream school, and they rejected me. I'm hoping I'll be a better fit at one of these other places that saw value in me.

I got into my dream school for my MA, and it turned out not to be as great of a dream as I had hoped. My husband was accepted into a school he applied to last minute just for the hell of it, and it turned out to be a great fit. If I've learned anything going through a masters and watching my husband do a PhD, it's that you don't know what kind of experience you're going to have until you get there!

[rheya19]

4 minutes ago, W.Churchill said:

This is a small thing, but still cringe worthy. Background, I am currently in a two year MA program and applying to PhD programs in a different department both internally and externally. So this fall I was meeting with a professor to talk about my project and ongoing applications/where I should be looking; the professor also happens to be one of my LoR writers and a POI in the internal school's PhD Program. Anyway, as I was leaving the meeting I just butchered the pronunciation of CUNY. As in, I told the professor I would look into applying to the school known as "C-U-N-Y" while I was walking out the door. I don't know what happened, why I felt the need to literally spell the name out, but that was a thing that happened. And I realize this is like small potatoes, but dude is a super prominent figures in linguistics, and it was unfortunate.

I have one other cringe-worthy story. In my application to IUB, at one point in the statement I called it the "University of Indiana." I was concurrently working on the University of Iowa's and University of Texas-Austin's applications, so I got mixed up. Hopefully they won't transfer my application directly to the trash.

[EvelynD]

My worst experience was with the last uni I wanted to apply for. They are the only uni in the States with an actual research group in my subject (a bit of a niche), but their geographical focus is completely off. I have no connection with their geographical regions whatsoever. I tried my best to bend my SoP and change my focus, but just wasn’t not what I wanted. I emailed the leading professor wanting to say this: ‘I love your project and I want to do everything to fit in’ but I said ‘I love your program but I have nothing in common with the geography and I don’t really know what to do’. Needless to say they weren’t really interested.

[rheya19]

1 hour ago, EvelynD said:

My worst experience was with the last uni I wanted to apply for. They are the only uni in the States with an actual research group in my subject (a bit of a niche), but their geographical focus is completely off. I have no connection with their geographical regions whatsoever. I tried my best to bend my SoP and change my focus, but just wasn’t not what I wanted. I emailed the leading professor wanting to say this: ‘I love your project and I want to do everything to fit in’ but I said ‘I love your program but I have nothing in common with the geography and I don’t really know what to do’. Needless to say they weren’t really interested.

 

Ugh, I have a a self-deprecating sense of humor that in emails doesn't always come across and just makes me look bad. As a result I have to ok certain emails with my friends or husband before sending, because I would do the exact same thing.

[ElKel87]

I have one from an interview I recently attended at my top choice school. There were 2 writing assignments for us to do while we waited for our individual interviews. The one I chose to complete second had very specific instructions for how to use the two pieces of scrap paper they gave us. I had already used one of the scrap papers on the first assignment so I screwed that up right off the bat. On top of that, I accidentally held onto the instruction sheet for the first assignment and the department chair had to come out before we all went on our campus tour and ask who hadn't handed the instructions back in (in front of everyone). The interview itself went great but I think part of the writing assignment task was to show you're not an idiot and know how to follow convoluted directions so.... not getting my hopes up for that school. 

[rheya19]

42 minutes ago, ElKel87 said:

I have one from an interview I recently attended at my top choice school. There were 2 writing assignments for us to do while we waited for our individual interviews. The one I chose to complete second had very specific instructions for how to use the two pieces of scrap paper they gave us. I had already used one of the scrap papers on the first assignment so I screwed that up right off the bat. On top of that, I accidentally held onto the instruction sheet for the first assignment and the department chair had to come out before we all went on our campus tour and ask who hadn't handed the instructions back in (in front of everyone). The interview itself went great but I think part of the writing assignment task was to show you're not an idiot and know how to follow convoluted directions so.... not getting my hopes up for that school. 

I would have denied having the instructions. Straight up lied, like a 6 year old with a half-eaten cookie behind her back. 

[rheya19]

Dead eyed like this:

[ElKel87]

@rheya19 Hahaha I definitely thought about it. But they would have figured it out eventually since I was apparently THE ONLY ONE (the only 30-year-old in a group of twelve 21-year-old applicants) who made this mistake. 

 

Department Chair: ಠ_ಠ         

Other Applicants: 

Me: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[CoyoteBlue]

sometimes i feel like i should be as quiet as possible so i'm less likely to say something dumb

[d.grace]

I was at the national conference for my field in November. I was at a dinner, and my advisor introduced me a professor who I'm actually using for my thesis work and has connections with a program I'm interested in. As we're talking, he mentions that he's taking a new direction looking at religion in contexts of political communication. He's a professor at Utah, so I asked if he had done anything with the Mormon community, patting myself on the back for and interesting segue. Except, he didn't take the bait. He just said no and stared at me. I hadn't planned on that, so we stared at each other for a good 30 seconds. Then I apologized for being so awkward. I wanted to melt into the floor for the rest of the night. 

I've since made up for it, and got invited to write a paper with him. 

[redikulus]

3 hours ago, d.grace said:

I was at the national conference for my field in November. I was at a dinner, and my advisor introduced me a professor who I'm actually using for my thesis work and has connections with a program I'm interested in. As we're talking, he mentions that he's taking a new direction looking at religion in contexts of political communication. He's a professor at Utah, so I asked if he had done anything with the Mormon community, patting myself on the back for and interesting segue. Except, he didn't take the bait. He just said no and stared at me. I hadn't planned on that, so we stared at each other for a good 30 seconds. Then I apologized for being so awkward. I wanted to melt into the floor for the rest of the night. 

I've since made up for it, and got invited to write a paper with him. 

Yeah, that could be bad. People who stare you down like that usually want you to submit, so maybe your apology made him feel willing to work with you later. Yikes. I hate starers actually.

[novazembla]

So I misspelled the name of a professor I wanted to work with on the application for one of my top schools. It wasn't in the SOP -- the application asked you to list three professors you were interested in working with and gave you three text fields, and I just switched around two letters in the middle of his last name. I screwed up my GRE score, too -- I had gotten a 151/43rd percentile on the quantitative section, and I entered that I got a 143, which is like the fifteenth percentile. I think I'd spent so much time reading and rereading my SOP and writing sample, making sure that everything was perfect, that I forgot about not effing up the application itself. 

This school is the only acceptance I've gotten so far.

[SocCog]

I got an email asking for a phone interview the week of Christmas. I have no idea why. So I said I was available after a certain time Christmas Eve Eve. Time zone differences make everything difficult, but it wasn't super late or anything (I think it made it 4 or 5 where she was). Anyway, she said she would call me then. So I got all my documents straight, reread my statement, came up with questions, had bullet points on major papers, all that jazz. I dressed up, had tea, psyched myself up with power posing and everything. 10 minutes before the interview time I get an email. Because I didn't email the professor a final confirmation, she assumed I was unavailable and didn't extend her babysitter's hours. She said she would set up another interview after the holidays. Well, it's February 15 and I haven't heard anything from the university. Safe to say I messed up. Majorly. 

[2017 Applicant]

22 minutes ago, SocCog said:

I got an email asking for a phone interview the week of Christmas. I have no idea why. So I said I was available after a certain time Christmas Eve Eve. Time zone differences make everything difficult, but it wasn't super late or anything (I think it made it 4 or 5 where she was). Anyway, she said she would call me then. So I got all my documents straight, reread my statement, came up with questions, had bullet points on major papers, all that jazz. I dressed up, had tea, psyched myself up with power posing and everything. 10 minutes before the interview time I get an email. Because I didn't email the professor a final confirmation, she assumed I was unavailable and didn't extend her babysitter's hours. She said she would set up another interview after the holidays. Well, it's February 15 and I haven't heard anything from the university. Safe to say I messed up. Majorly. 

 

That doesn't sound like your fault at all, especially if she said she would call you at that time. Really unfortunate.

I had arranged a phone conversation (not an interview, but a chat with a professor) far in advance. We didn't exchange emails at all during the days leading up to the conversation, but she emailed me the morning of to confirm I was still available, and I replied saying yes. Seems like your interviewer could have done something similar, especially if she needed to make special arrangements.

[_sawyer_]

I messed up the spelling of one of my recommender's names on one of my applications.... and I'm sure she saw it as well as the school. It wasn't even a difficult name!  

**face palm**

Edited February 15, 2017 by _sawyer_
typo