Only One Acceptance - Now What?

[throwawayaccount123]

I applied to many schools during this year's admissions process and only got one acceptance. While this school is not that bad, it was my last choice and my safety school. I was optimistic that I could get into much better programs but I didn't. With that being said, this is my first year applying and I am very young compared to other people who go for their PhDs. I just got out of a Master's last summer and felt very rushed in the application process, which was occurring simultaneously with an extensive job hunt. Throughout this application process, I learned a lot and discovered a lot of mistakes that I made. I'm wondering whether I should go to the place that accepted me or try again and fix the mistakes that I've made. This offer from the place I got into is very competitive, but it just doesn't feel right and I am not very happy with the prospect of going there for multiple personal reasons (for example, it's very far away from home and not in an ideal location). However, I know that if I do end up going there, I will likely feel different and enjoy it there because the program itself is great (although there are no guarantees because everything besides the program itself is not ideal). I need some suggestions on which decision to make: should I stay or should I go? To go or not to go? (Sorry - I just had to put that in there). Basically, I just want to know whether I should go anyways even though I have a lot of doubts or go through the application process again now that I know more even though the applying and waiting game is painful as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: There's also the option of deferring my acceptance to Fall 2018 but I'm not sure if I would be allowed to do that and whether that would mean that I would lose any funding that they've offered to me.

Edited February 28, 2017 by throwawayaccount123

[Blackwater]

Can you further describe the mistakes that you made on your application? It's difficult to gauge whether correcting these would really increase your chances next year.

[thelionking]

Are there any other reasons why this program doesn't feel right, other than the location? Or is it just the location?

Have you visited the city and campus? If you haven't, then you definitely should before making a final decision. 

If you want to get into academia afterwards, keep in mind that you will probably need to move for your career and also for a post doc. So you'd only be delaying the inevitable. But ultimately it is your choice. 

Edited February 28, 2017 by thelionking

[DogsArePeopleToo]

Unless you have a particularly strong reason to do your PhD soon and start this year, I would hold off for a bit. Simply because you might enjoy this school to me doesn't sound like it is all that compelling - it's not your first-choice school, it's far from home, the city isn't that great, etc., and you know you could avoid your application cycle mistakes from this year and possibly end up in the school of your dreams.

You can get a job, gain some "real world" experience, make some money, possibly travel, etc. before embarking on four or five years of grueling PhD work. Some young PhD candidates tell me that the PhD years come with the opportunity cost of missing out on work experience, which is a feeling some of them get when they see their non-doctoral peers go from job to job as they toil away on their thesis.

So, in sum, I wouldn't rush it.

[throwawayaccount123]

7 hours ago, Blackwater said:

Can you further describe the mistakes that you made on your application? It's difficult to gauge whether correcting these would really increase your chances next year.

For starters, I had no idea how difficult the GRE would be for me and I only tried it once with only about a month of practice for it so I did quite bad on it. Also, because of the condensed time span, my GRE subject test score was abysmal and I only had the chance to take it once so I couldn't redo it.

Also, my proposal was too specific (it focused only on the work of one author), and I really didn't know much about other authors in the same field. I really didn't have a chance to explore them much during my education because there were never really any courses at the universities I went to that were on the topic.

Finally, I couldn't properly gauge how well I would do during the application process because I aimed really low for my Master's and I overcompensated for that this time by applying to mostly first tier universities, which now seems crazy when I think about how many mistakes I've made with my application.

[throwawayaccount123]

6 hours ago, thelionking said:

Are there any other reasons why this program doesn't feel right, other than the location? Or is it just the location?

Have you visited the city and campus? If you haven't, then you definitely should before making a final decision. 

If you want to get into academia afterwards, keep in mind that you will probably need to move for your career and also for a post doc. So you'd only be delaying the inevitable. But ultimately it is your choice. 

It's not just the location. It's the lowest ranked out of all of the places I applied to and I'm worried about my job prospects after I graduate. I also feel like there isn't really any one particular prof there that I'm really that excited about working with. There are many people who kind of do similar research to me but no one who is really a strong fit to be my supervisor.

I haven't visited the city or the campus but I don't really have enough time to do so because I have to make a decision in less than two weeks and I've been waiting to hear from all of the places I applied to before doing that.

I do want to get a career in academia and I am willing to move for that. It's just that this was the place that I was least excited about moving to and it would be difficult to get around places without a car there, which I cannot afford. A PhD is a huge investment and I feel like I can afford to be a picky with it but postdocs and jobs are much more difficult to come by so I'd definitely be much less picky about the location at that point.

[throwawayaccount123]

6 hours ago, DogsArePeopleToo said:

Unless you have a particularly strong reason to do your PhD soon and start this year, I would hold off for a bit. Simply because you might enjoy this school to me doesn't sound like it is all that compelling - it's not your first-choice school, it's far from home, the city isn't that great, etc., and you know you could avoid your application cycle mistakes from this year and possibly end up in the school of your dreams.

You can get a job, gain some "real world" experience, make some money, possibly travel, etc. before embarking on four or five years of grueling PhD work. Some young PhD candidates tell me that the PhD years come with the opportunity cost of missing out on work experience, which is a feeling some of them get when they see their non-doctoral peers go from job to job as they toil away on their thesis.

So, in sum, I wouldn't rush it.

Thank you very much for this advice. I definitely agree with it and I appreciate the insight. The fear of missing out on gaining more work experience is actually another factor that is troubling me about rushing into the PhD. At this point, I'm leaning more towards holding off on the PhD for next year.

[DogsArePeopleToo]

9 hours ago, throwawayaccount123 said:

Thank you very much for this advice. I definitely agree with it and I appreciate the insight. The fear of missing out on gaining more work experience is actually another factor that is troubling me about rushing into the PhD. At this point, I'm leaning more towards holding off on the PhD for next year.

Glad it was helpful. Best of luck in whatever you choose to do!

[thelionking]

Sounds like a great decision. When there are so many things you're not excited about, it just isn't worth it. Especially for such a long program. Hope the next year will bring you more clarity and insight.

[Mugi Mila]

I'm facing a similar dilemma. I applied to 3 schools for their respective masters program. Only three because of budget reasons, couldn't apply to more. Was accepted into my third choice. My second choice rejected me today. And the other, my dream school hasn't given a response, but let's face it, if my second choice rejected me, then my dream school will probably do the same. What's the point in waiting? However, my third choice that accepted me, required me to call in regards to funding inquiries. Apparently, I did not qualify for funding, therefore it leaves me in a tight spot. I don't know whether to ask if I can receive financial assistance since I was already told I didn't qualify for funding. So I don't know what to do. ? Any thoughts? 

[throwawayaccount123]

3 hours ago, Mugi Mila said:

I'm facing a similar dilemma. I applied to 3 schools for their respective masters program. Only three because of budget reasons, couldn't apply to more. Was accepted into my third choice. My second choice rejected me today. And the other, my dream school hasn't given a response, but let's face it, if my second choice rejected me, then my dream school will probably do the same. What's the point in waiting? However, my third choice that accepted me, required me to call in regards to funding inquiries. Apparently, I did not qualify for funding, therefore it leaves me in a tight spot. I don't know whether to ask if I can receive financial assistance since I was already told I didn't qualify for funding. So I don't know what to do. ? Any thoughts? 

I wouldn't go into an MA that has no funding. My MA luckily had full funding and I don't know what I would've done without it. I think the sensible thing is to wait for your top choice because you might get a pleasant surprise. However, if you don't end up getting in, I would do more research on which MAs would give you funding and reapply next year. Good luck! 

Edited March 2, 2017 by throwawayaccount123

[ThousandsHardships]

On 02/03/2017 at 1:11 AM, Mugi Mila said:

I'm facing a similar dilemma. I applied to 3 schools for their respective masters program. Only three because of budget reasons, couldn't apply to more. Was accepted into my third choice. My second choice rejected me today. And the other, my dream school hasn't given a response, but let's face it, if my second choice rejected me, then my dream school will probably do the same. What's the point in waiting? However, my third choice that accepted me, required me to call in regards to funding inquiries. Apparently, I did not qualify for funding, therefore it leaves me in a tight spot. I don't know whether to ask if I can receive financial assistance since I was already told I didn't qualify for funding. So I don't know what to do. ? Any thoughts? 

I was rejected by several schools with a 50% or higher acceptance rate while I'm top of the waitlist for a school that seems in past years to have had one of the lowest acceptance rates of all the schools I applied to (and I might have even gotten in if I hadn't butchered my interview so badly). Don't lose hope in your top choice! It's your top choice for a reason. If the reason is that the program is a great fit for you, then chances are that they will also find you a great fit for them. Remember sometimes fit is everything. In my case, having cited the professor I intended to work with in my writing sample probably didn't hurt either.

Edited March 9, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[kenstar]

Look, if you think that you can do better than this program, then you should try again because later you might end up regretting that you didn't. Next year, the competition may be less or it may not(in fact there is a good chance it may increase due to latest regulation to give preference to Phd candidates for H1B; this is just from the perspective of an intl student) but one thing is for sure - you're only going to do your PhD once. Rest is up to you. No one else can make this decision for you. If you feel that your research goals align with this program, then go. If you think that there's a better program out there that might suit you more, then there's no harm in waiting a year and trying again next fall or maybe in spring. Hope this helps, Wish you all the best!

Edited March 9, 2017 by kenstar