Physics GRE Discussion Forums

giga17 wrote:

hamadahoda007 wrote:

cryingsun wrote:+2

+3

+4

+5

+6 on Princeton. Not surprising at all, since the only professor there doing research close to the interest stated in my SOP is leaving this year for another place. I wish I know that earlier though, as the $90 application fee would be handy to pay for the parking ticket I got yesterday

Riley: the chance of you winning the hypothetical bet between us is getting smaller...

axiomofchoice wrote:+6 on Princeton. Not surprising at all, since the only professor there doing research close to the interest stated in my SOP is leaving this year for another place. I wish I know that earlier though, as the $90 application fee would be handy to pay for the parking ticket I got yesterday

Riley: the chance of you winning the hypothetical bet between us is getting smaller...

Pfft, I shall triumph and you can send me some monopoly money.

-Riley

It is hard to get two top 10 rejections in two hours..

Chicago Rejection...

Glad I didn't apply to Princeton, what the hell are they looking for in their applications? Apparently being perfect isn't enough.

It's a small department and there are a lot of "perfect" applicants.

SSM wrote:Glad I didn't apply to Princeton, what the hell are they looking for in their applications? Apparently being perfect isn't enough.

How kind of you, but I'm far from perfect! ;D

-Riley

SSM wrote:Glad I didn't apply to Princeton, what the hell are they looking for in their applications? Apparently being perfect isn't enough.

.

grae313 wrote:It's a small department and there are a lot of "perfect" applicants.

Unlike Harvard, MIT or Caltech--some schools that applicants are getting into? I don't know how big their departments are actually, but I'm guessing they pick from a pool that's pretty close to uniformly perfect.

EDIT: Yeah I know not everyone on the forum got rejected from Princeton, I was originally trying to do some cheering up

hamadahoda007 wrote:It is hard to get two top 10 rejections in two hours..

Chicago Rejection...

You've heard back from them? They told me that hadn't finished looking at all the applications....

SSM wrote:

grae313 wrote:It's a small department and there are a lot of "perfect" applicants.

Unlike Harvard, MIT or Caltech--some schools that applicants are getting into? I don't know how big their departments are actually, but I'm guessing they pick from a pool that's pretty close to uniformly perfect.

EDIT: Yeah I know not everyone on the forum got rejected from Princeton, I was originally trying to do some cheering up

For me, I specifically said in my P.S. that I wanted to work with Paul J. Steinhardt. Although I did say that I would be happy with other professors, maybe I shouldn't have been so specific I can't think of any other reason that my app got thrown into rejection pile.

cryingsun wrote:

SSM wrote:

grae313 wrote:It's a small department and there are a lot of "perfect" applicants.

Unlike Harvard, MIT or Caltech--some schools that applicants are getting into? I don't know how big their departments are actually, but I'm guessing they pick from a pool that's pretty close to uniformly perfect.

EDIT: Yeah I know not everyone on the forum got rejected from Princeton, I was originally trying to do some cheering up

For me, I specifically said in my P.S. that I wanted to work with Paul J. Steinhardt. Although I did say that I would be happy with other professors, maybe I shouldn't have been so specific I can't think of any other reason that my app got thrown into rejection pile.

Always dangerous if you don't talk to the prof ahead of time. Sorry man!

-deleted-

Rejected from UCB Astro. Not really going to complain much about that though, I set the bar a little too high. But I also feel with what I've heard back from other schools I have a chance everywhere else on my list

Rejected at Princeton. Still no acceptances...

-----------------------------------
P.S. Still no acceptances. If someone knows of a department who needs a hot shot electronics engineer / grad student, PGRE = 990, please send them my way. I'm easy to find on the web. Works cheap. House trained. Doesn't shed much. Theory or experiment. I'm fighting depression by writing a paper on how to derive the weak hypercharge and weak isospin quantum numbers from Hopf algebra:
http://brannenworks.com/E8/HopfWeakQNs.pdf

SSM wrote:Glad I didn't apply to Princeton, what the hell are they looking for in their applications? Apparently being perfect isn't enough.

grae313 wrote:It's a small department and there are a lot of "perfect" applicants.

I know where I'm not applying too, lol.

WhoaNonstop wrote:

giga17 wrote:

hamadahoda007 wrote:


+4

+5

I too got a reject from Princeton

+2 rejections from Princeton.

Rejected from UW Seattle astro on Friday, while I was at another school's open house weekend. Takes some of the sting out, I suppose.

Rejected by UW-Madison Astronomy program. 3 up, 4 down, 5 to go.

Just got a Stanford rejection. Not surprising considering how many acceptances went out yesterday.

et wrote:Just got a Stanford rejection. Not surprising considering how many acceptances went out yesterday.

Me TOO! I've heard Palo Alto is smelly, and has cuties. I didn't really want her anyway.

Rejected by Stanford

Rejected by Stanford as well. Now I'm just waiting for MIT to work up the nerve to respond...

Stanford. (I'm doomed.)

bfollinprm wrote:

et wrote:Just got a Stanford rejection. Not surprising considering how many acceptances went out yesterday.

Me TOO! I've heard Palo Alto is smelly, and has cuties. I didn't really want her anyway.

heh I believe you mean cooties .

Rejected by Yale Applied.

bck2school wrote:
heh I believe you mean cooties .

So i did. so i did....

Wonderful..

Got my email from Applied Physics at Yale. Very surprised that I was rejected. Obviously my unknown undergraduate school completely screwed me over, considering my belief was that I had as strong or stronger an application than people who were accepted in the past. I'm actually kind of pissed about this, cause I was sure I'd get into this program. With Cornell and Princeton it was a reach, so it wasn't unexpected, but I'd sure like to know the underlying reason that I didn't get accepted here. Wish I could transfer my application to the regular physics program but I'm sure it is too late for that.

-Riley

WhoaNonstop wrote:Wonderful..

Got my email from Applied Physics at Yale. Very surprised that I was rejected. Obviously my unknown undergraduate school completely screwed me over, considering my belief was that I had as strong or stronger an application than people who were accepted in the past. I'm actually kind of pissed about this, cause I was sure I'd get into this program. With Cornell and Princeton it was a reach, so it wasn't unexpected, but I'd sure like to know the underlying reason that I didn't get accepted here. Wish I could transfer my application to the regular physics program but I'm sure it is too late for that.

-Riley

Probably, but worth trying anyway. Also, go ahead and email and ask why you didn't get accepted. It might take a while, but they'll respond. I'm actually pretty sure they have to tell you if you ask because of FERPA (as long as you weren't rejected because of a bad LoR (and you waived your right to view)).

For what it's worth, a professor at my university has connections to yale, and seems to think their application committee is a bunch of pretentious pricks.

rej by yale.

WhoaNonstop wrote:Wonderful..

Got my email from Applied Physics at Yale. Very surprised that I was rejected. Obviously my unknown undergraduate school completely screwed me over, considering my belief was that I had as strong or stronger an application than people who were accepted in the past. I'm actually kind of pissed about this, cause I was sure I'd get into this program. With Cornell and Princeton it was a reach, so it wasn't unexpected, but I'd sure like to know the underlying reason that I didn't get accepted here. Wish I could transfer my application to the regular physics program but I'm sure it is too late for that.

-Riley

Sometimes the selection is a bit irrational. I have friends who got into a better schools but rejected by weaker ones. Perhaps you should have applied to more schools at similar level to Yale applied physics.

Also rejected by Yale Applied. Note to future applicants: don't *** up your interview

bfollinprm wrote:Probably, but worth trying anyway.

Already received a response:

"Physics finished its graduate admissions about a month ago. Even to wait list someone for physics is now impossible. "

-Riley

graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar.

This is not in response to anything from any school, but rather in response to the overwhelming, stultifying ennui arising from no words from any schools.

The only way to receive satisfaction will be to write a Kafkaesque novel about a starving young gentleman-scholar who applies to schools and sits awaiting a response for seventy-five years, until he is rejected on his deathbed. With the proceeds from said novel I'm going to start my own school which will flood the market with underqualified theorists like myself, which will basically shut down academic physics as we know it. At least it will mark an end to theory.

This will create a bilayer stratified system among physicists, the Eloi(experimentalists) who will receive all grant money and do all meaningful work, and the Morlocks(ramathorn-theorists) who will dwell underground at community colleges, occasionally rising up to feast on the ripe flesh of the effete, pampered experimentalists.

ramathorn wrote:graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar.

This is not in response to anything from any school, but rather in response to the overwhelming, stultifying ennui arising from no words from any schools.

The only way to receive satisfaction will be to write a Kafkaesque novel about a starving young gentleman-scholar who applies to schools and sits awaiting a response for seventy-five years, until he is rejected on his deathbed. With the proceeds from said novel I'm going to start my own school which will flood the market with underqualified theorists like myself, which will basically shut down academic physics as we know it. At least it will mark an end to theory.

This will create a bilayer stratified system among physicists, the Eloi(experimentalists) who will receive all grant money and do all meaningful work, and the Morlocks(ramathorn-theorists) who will dwell underground at community colleges, occasionally rising up to feast on the ripe flesh of the effete, pampered experimentalists.

Your description created a mental image in my head of you checking your application status for the millionth time with no updates and reacting in the following way.

When I was living in Ukraine there was an abandoned shipyard nearby, and to vent frustration it was common practice to bring a six-pack of beer there, consume it, then throw the bottles at the unfinished schooner still hanging near the water. There must've been over five hundred broken bottles floating at the mouth of the thing. I am going to try this somewhere here tonight, results to be posted when bail is posted.

[deleted]

MIT rejection by email just now! Unsurprising after how many acceptances they already sent out.

et wrote:MIT rejection by email just now! Unsurprising after how many acceptances they already sent out.

Just got this email too.

+1 MIT

From grad cafe, circa 2009:

!!! Received a rejection in the mail last week so I emailed to ask why I was rejected and they reconsidered! Seriously! Apparently my rejection was a mistake, so sweet!

So, it's certainly worth sending enquiry letters when you're rejected. It makes them look at your application one last time.

+1 MIT

Another MIT rejection here.

yet another MIT

MIT as well. I really thought I had a chance since I already work there. Oh well...

ticklecricket wrote:MIT as well. I really thought I had a chance since I already work there. Oh well...

Can I say I got rejected by MIT too so I can fit in?! =O

MIT

WhoaNonstop wrote: Can I say I got rejected by MIT too so I can fit in?! =O

I thought about sending them an email asking if I'd been accepted, just so I could get the email telling me I wasn't. I see 3 options: (1) either they give me the standard rejection letter, (2) they panic, say they've lost my application, and ask me to send another ASAP, or (3) they email me the following:

Dear bfollinprm,

Stop wasting my time.

-Almighty God

UCSB