What you think the adcoms are saying about your application

[Norman G]

Why is everyone so negative here?

[coonskee]

Why is everyone so negative here?

Because once the application is in, everything is out of our hands (except the interview)... having no control --> negativity

[Kitkat]

Mine goes like this:

POI: I spoke to her, she's got a lot of potential.

ADCOM: Yes, but look at her overall GPA...

POI: She was an engineering major and flunked a math class. Look at her history GPA, and her postbac GPA is high.

ADCOM: Yes, but look at her overall GPA...

POI: She has solid letters, teaching experience and research experience. Plus she knows the languages for the field. Great GRE scores, too.

ADCOM: Yes, but look at her overall GPA. Rejected!

This is really similar to what I feel that they would be saying about me as well.

[Norman G]

Because once the application is in, everything is out of our hands (except the interview)... having no control --> negativity

Yes, but why assume that the adcoms are thinking such negative things about one's application?

[Kitkat]

Yes, but why assume that the adcoms are thinking such negative things about one's application?

I think it is just people being afraid that every one else's applications might look better/ that they made a mistake/ a feeling of a loss of control. There is the fact that they cannot go back, change things and make it look better, and they just have to sit on their hands now. I am starting to get that feeling a lot now.

[coonskee]

I think it is just people being afraid that every one else's applications might look better/ that they made a mistake/ a feeling of a loss of control. There is the fact that they cannot go back, change things and make it look better, and they just have to sit on their hands now. I am starting to get that feeling a lot now.

Eeeeexactly!

[thestage]

smart guy, no reason to believe he's a scholar

[cokohlik]

"Good undergrad program, Good Experience, Decent to Excellent scores, Meh GPA, Excellent Recommendations, Speaks English, some Spanish and ... Biblical Hebrew? Moving on then, field research in ... Mormons and Saint Cults in Guatemala? And her writing sample is on Nazis? Um... She's just a little too weird for us. Next."

I love me a good writing sample about Nazis! What niche did you focus on?

If anything, adcoms should think you're diverse and awesome... Biblical Hebrew. Nazis. Saint Cults. FTW!

[cokohlik]

"Say, Colin, why haven't we just sent gellert a rejection yet?"

"Huh? What? Are you talking to me? Oh, I'm thinking of using old transcripts and writing samples to wallpaper my new corner office. Bit of humor to brighten up my day when I need it, eh Reginald?"

Haha!! You should send this as a suggestion to PhD Comics.

[cokohlik]

Once upon a midnight query, while I posted weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of grad citations,

While my face was white and pale, suddenly I got some mail

As if I found the Holy Grail, the bale of applications

`'Tis some undergrad,' POI muttered, `with her purpose and her tale -

Only interview, CV is stale '

Ah, distinctly I remember - it was in the bleak December:

I started my applications, parallel with medications

My GRE scores came to town, my face was nothing but a frown

From my books I studied more, more for PhD damnation!

For the rare and radiant POI - I'm ready for our confrontation!

I'll wait here, in frustration...

In the process of media meshing, I'm refreshing, I'm refreshing!

My inbox and POI's page, just below my address bar,

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o'er him streaming tells me I won't be a star.

And he is saying it out loud - why did she try to get this far?

No admittance! That's bizarre...

Amazing! I took a screenshot of this so I can read it fondly throughout the day.

[R Deckard]

"Say, Colin, why haven't we just sent gellert a rejection yet?"

"Huh? What? Are you talking to me? Oh, I'm thinking of using old transcripts and writing samples to wallpaper my new corner office. Bit of humor to brighten up my day when I need it, eh Reginald?"

I thought this was absolutely hilarious for some reason.

[gellert]

^ Hahahaha good. For some reason I just envision adcomms as all having these old stuffy English names like Alfred and Stirling and Benedict.

[thestage]

well benedict is not very english ok

[koolherc]

But my worst nightmare would probably be this:

POI: "Psh! Look at this SOP. She knows nothing of my work! Totally misinterpreting everything. She might as well have copied and pasted my research interests from the website."

THIS is actually a real concern.

[Cosmos]

So... when people say "decent GPA", what do they mean? What's a decent GPA? What's a good GPA?

I had my first admissions nightmare last night. Had a dream that my POI told me that some of the sentences on my application were incomplete. I flipped through my application and discovered that I did leave many sentences unfinished and, for some reason, formatted certain words an letters to be size 56 in the application. I was still an optimist in my dream, though... my POI told me: "We sometimes forgive people who leave sentences unfinished... it's a stressful process."

Haha I burst out laughing when I read this!! That would be awful, especially since we all probably read and re-read our applications a bazillion times before submitting.

Funny story, this actually happened to me last semester... for my final paper of my final neuropsych seminar, my second last paragraph ended with 'The point here is that'

then the next paragraph started. Horrible.

[thestage]

I once turned in a paper that included the noble phrase [iNSERT POSSIBLE QUOTE], or something to that effect

[coffeeplease]

I once turned in a paper that included the noble phrase [iNSERT POSSIBLE QUOTE], or something to that effect

I turned in a paper whose title was [TITLE GOES HERE].

My prof wrote next to it, "Yes, it does."

[CarlieE]

Posted Today, 12:42 AM

omnibuster, on 10 January 2012 - 09:50 PM, said:

But my worst nightmare would probably be this:

POI: "Psh! Look at this SOP. She knows nothing of my work! Totally misinterpreting everything. She might as well have copied and pasted my research interests from the website."

THIS is actually a real concern.

--> I got an interview and I am so afraid that this scenario will actually play out in real life as I'm sitting in the Hot Seat. (Only, it won't be about my SOP but some other obscure theoretical question that will just be beyond me... )

[GreenePony]

I love me a good writing sample about Nazis! What niche did you focus on?

If anything, adcoms should think you're diverse and awesome... Biblical Hebrew. Nazis. Saint Cults. FTW!

You don't think it comes across as too Indiana Jones does it? It kind of reads like Raiders now, oh goodess...

The sample was on the relationships of Church and State in Germany in the 1930s, focusing on the mid to late 30s. What Nazi Party Leaders were in what denomination, how the denominations reacted to the rise to power, how Hitler had a bit of a bizarre pantheistic theology (squished that into one paragraph for brevity's sake), that sort of thing.

[surefire]

I turned in a paper whose title was [TITLE GOES HERE].

My prof wrote next to it, "Yes, it does."

AH! That is sublime! SO funny!

I did nearly the same thing with a next-to-last draft of my MA thesis, where I had a footnote that read "YOU HAVE A CITATION FOR THIS RIGHT?!"

And my supervisor highlighted it and wrote: "You had better".

Three cheers for professor humour!

[koolherc]

I'm bent over laughing at some of these "insert info here" stories. great stuff ladies and gents

Edited January 27, 2012 by koolherc

[deleteduser0333]

"Undergrad?"

"The school has a liberal arts department!?"

"Major: English"

"No advantages in math then?"

"Minor: Animation"

"lolwut?"

"MA Political Science"

"You ever heard about the school?"

"LOL, NO."

"TOEFL"

"waived. Look where she is doing her MA, lol"

"GRE"

"meh. QUANTITATIVE

"SOP"

"nonsense"

"Writing sample..."

"protest mobilization, internet, rational choice theory, informational cascade...BASIC MONOVARIATE REGRESSION?!"

"LMAO"

"Languages"

"Mandarin Chinese" "pfff, another one" "Japanese" "oh." "German" "Oh? Tell Dr. XXX that we found someone doing the dirty work in translation...WHAT THE H- SHE IS NOT INTERESTED IN IR!?"

*tossed*

Edited January 27, 2012 by dec4rhapsody

[cokohlik]

You don't think it comes across as too Indiana Jones does it? It kind of reads like Raiders now, oh goodess...

The sample was on the relationships of Church and State in Germany in the 1930s, focusing on the mid to late 30s. What Nazi Party Leaders were in what denomination, how the denominations reacted to the rise to power, how Hitler had a bit of a bizarre pantheistic theology (squished that into one paragraph for brevity's sake), that sort of thing.

oooooohhhh....... You should get that published so I can read it and drool. What an awesome topic!

[cokohlik]

AH! That is sublime! SO funny!

I did nearly the same thing with a next-to-last draft of my MA thesis, where I had a footnote that read "YOU HAVE A CITATION FOR THIS RIGHT?!"

And my supervisor highlighted it and wrote: "You had better".

Three cheers for professor humour!

Hahahaha!!

These stories are brilliant.

I had the honor of writing an honors paper (haw, pun) for my department chair. I was having all kinds of formatting issues and was so flustered by the time they were fixed that I forgot to re-type in the title of my paper, didn't notice, and turned it in. I got back an entire typed page of comments, and paraphrased, the first point was:

"First, you should always title your papers. Titles are important elements of any paper that give the reader an idea of what the paper will be about."

I was mortified.

[marruma]

Dreamed that I had access to my file. Only one comment received on my writing sample, which read "hahahahhaha, NO!"

Then, I discovered the list of accepted students, all of whom were graduates from the college I so urgently-had-to-leave and transferred from in-a-flash after my second year of study. Also, I always thought they were the pretentious jocks of academia.

hahahahaha, what?