Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

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elzoido238
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by elzoido238 » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:11 pm

Rejected by CU Boulder Physics yesterday by email:

"Thank you for your interest in the Physics Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This year, we had over 540 applicants for a limited number of slots. Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer you admission to our program. I wish you the best in your pursuit of a physics career."

Not even "I wish you the best in your physics career." Instead he says "I wish you the best in you pursuit of a physics career." Why don't you just say "good luck getting in anywhere." Asshole. :x

astrofan
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by astrofan » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:09 pm

Dexter sent me my rejection e-mail to Berkeley today.

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Ulquiorra
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Ulquiorra » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:14 am

Guys! I've just got a rejection from Stanford applied Physics yesterday.
It came in air mail.... dated on 02-24... I wonder why they didn't tell me by e-mail
instead of sending an oversea air mail which takes more than half a month.
Is there any good reasons?

babazula
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2009 6:59 pm

Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by babazula » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:30 am

Ulquiorra wrote:Guys! I've just got a rejection from Stanford applied Physics yesterday.
It came in air mail.... dated on 02-24... I wonder why they didn't tell me by e-mail
instead of sending an oversea air mail which takes more than half a month.
Is there any good reasons?
Well, look at it this way! If you want to make a baby cry, first you give it a lollipop. Then you take it away! If you never give it a lollipop to begin with, it would have nothing to cry about! That's like Stanford, who does not send us an email, and who keeps our hopes alive, just so that Stanford can tear it all away and make us cry. So Stanford can drink the sweet milk of our tears! You see, it's our tears, that give Stanford its great power.

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Ulquiorra
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Ulquiorra » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:41 am

babazula wrote:
Ulquiorra wrote:Guys! I've just got a rejection from Stanford applied Physics yesterday.
It came in air mail.... dated on 02-24... I wonder why they didn't tell me by e-mail
instead of sending an oversea air mail which takes more than half a month.
Is there any good reasons?
Well, look at it this way! If you want to make a baby cry, first you give it a lollipop. Then you take it away! If you never give it a lollipop to begin with, it would have nothing to cry about! That's like Stanford, who does not send us an email, and who keeps our hopes alive, just so that Stanford can tear it all away and make us cry. So Stanford can drink the sweet milk of our tears! You see, it's our tears, that give Stanford its great power.
HeHeHe! Sort of like it!

swepi
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by swepi » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:46 am

babazula wrote: That's like Stanford, who does not send us an email, and who keeps our hopes alive, just so that Stanford can tear it all away and make us cry. So Stanford can drink the sweet milk of our tears! You see, it's our tears, that give Stanford its great power.
Oh sweet, sweet irony!

astrofan
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by astrofan » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:26 pm

Got my UMASS rejection. Sort of surprised, figured I would get in there, but whatever, got other good options.

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Julius_Sumner_Miller
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Julius_Sumner_Miller » Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:33 pm

I got my rejection from UMass as well, I'm surprised considering the fact that I got a promising email from somebody on the admissions board a week or two ago. I'm not too bummed though, since I received an acceptance to my current school's environmental sciences PhD program the same day. Studying the spectra of marsh gasses sounds fun... :)







"Physics is my business?"

clytze_pp
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by clytze_pp » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:42 am

rej from UMN...damn!

shetanak13
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by shetanak13 » Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:39 pm

Well, it looks like I can completely cross the UC system off my list... UCSD said no today. =/

Still have four more schools, but at this point, I'm not very confident.

Till next year! :idea:

Excalibur1986
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Excalibur1986 » Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:35 pm

Rejected by UCSD

Maxwells_Demon
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Maxwells_Demon » Mon Mar 16, 2009 5:38 pm

rejected to UCSD & Columbia's Applied Physics...

-Maxwell's Demon

murs
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by murs » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:36 pm

Berkeley rejection by email this morning

mexicanscientist
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by mexicanscientist » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:01 pm

Rejected to UCSD by email :(

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PhysicsPdx
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by PhysicsPdx » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:23 pm

McGill, rejected! At least they say 'Refused' on the web portal. So polite.

Imperate
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Imperate » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:57 pm

Rejected to UCSD also....great :(

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Helio
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Helio » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:03 pm

PhysicsPdx wrote:McGill, rejected! At least they say 'Refused' on the web portal. So polite.
that actually sounds more like a bouncer not letting you in

astrofan
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by astrofan » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:16 pm

Hawaii said to go away today. Oh well.

And today I got my rejection from JHU. I was really hoping for a better outcome. :(

clytze_pp
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by clytze_pp » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:21 am

Imperate wrote:Rejected to UCSD also....great :(
UCSD Rejection 2
:(

valloein
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by valloein » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:20 pm

UIUC said they would send >>something>> this week. Probably a rejection (do they even send accepts this late ?)...anyone heard yet ? (besides all ye arses who got accepted last month :|)

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PhysicsPdx
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by PhysicsPdx » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:34 pm

Rejected from Michigan Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics. Poop.

pd
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by pd » Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:17 pm

valloein wrote:UIUC said they would send >>something>> this week. Probably a rejection (do they even send accepts this late ?)...anyone heard yet ? (besides all ye arses who got accepted last month :|)
Not yet. I e-mailed two weeks and was told that they already sent out the first wave (as we already knew) and that they don't know if there would be a second. As the open house was this past weekend (I think?) I'm not terribly optimistic.

nonick
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by nonick » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:38 pm

pd wrote:
valloein wrote:UIUC said they would send >>something>> this week. Probably a rejection (do they even send accepts this late ?)...anyone heard yet ? (besides all ye arses who got accepted last month :|)
Not yet. I e-mailed two weeks and was told that they already sent out the first wave (as we already knew) and that they don't know if there would be a second. As the open house was this past weekend (I think?) I'm not terribly optimistic.
I visited UIUC last weekend, and it seems this year has been really tough for them in terms of funding. While they usually have an incoming class of around 50 students, this year only 50 were given acceptances, and from what I heard the department is hoping for a class of around 20. At the same time there were many people with multiple offers at the open house, which probably means that much less than 50% will actually accept the offer of admission, which may force them to accept people from the waitlist, so there's still hope.

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a13ean
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by a13ean » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:22 pm

nonick wrote:
I visited UIUC last weekend, and it seems this year has been really tough for them in terms of funding. While they usually have an incoming class of around 50 students, this year only 50 were given acceptances, and from what I heard the department is hoping for a class of around 20. At the same time there were many people with multiple offers at the open house, which probably means that much less than 50% will actually accept the offer of admission, which may force them to accept people from the waitlist, so there's still hope.
Thanks for this information nonick, it's a big help.

-A

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PhysicsPdx
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by PhysicsPdx » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:16 pm

Rejected from Northwestern.

This years is absolutely horrible. I can't believe I've put so much effort into school for so long and have only gotten into one graduate program. A curse on whatever or whomever the reason is that caused the massive rise in applicants, and the conservative manner in which programs are accepting applicants.

thefourth
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by thefourth » Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:41 pm

well, at least you got somewhere: I had Fulbright scholarship (science & technology award alternate, with possibility of being placed into 1 year program if they didn't find money to finance alternates as well) and got accepted NOWHERE. I don't think there was an obvious killer in my application (930 PGRE, 1 first author publication, top 5% in school, summer research internship in CERN, 1 year research in plasma physics, 6 months in biophysics...) but still was not good enough....

cato88
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by cato88 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:44 pm

thefourth wrote:well, at least you got somewhere: I had Fulbright scholarship (science & technology award alternate, with possibility of being placed into 1 year program if they didn't find money to finance alternates as well) and got accepted NOWHERE. I don't think there was an obvious killer in my application (930 PGRE, 1 first author publication, top 5% in school, summer research internship in CERN, 1 year research in plasma physics, 6 months in biophysics...) but still was not good enough....
Out of curiosity how many/which schools did you apply to?

sterculus
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by sterculus » Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:48 pm

thefourth, how sure are you of your rec letter writers? From what I've heard even with an otherwise stellar credentials (like it looks like you have) one negative letter will completely torpedo your application.

cato88
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by cato88 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:56 pm

My money is on either not a real profile or only a few reaches applied too.

valloein
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by valloein » Thu Mar 19, 2009 3:59 pm

cato88 wrote:My money is on either not a real profile or only a few reaches applied too.
read other posts, seems the latter :|

cato88
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by cato88 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:04 pm

holy *** thats an extreme case- Princeton,Caltech, MIT- even with an apply only to reach schools strategy I would think you would go for 5 schools. Come on throw Stanford and Berkeley into the mix.

valloein
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by valloein » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:06 pm

Is this IT ?

Is this the end of the world ?

Maintaining what little sanity I have left needs tremendous willpower and leaves me exhausted enough to require up to 16 hours of sleep a day.

I didn't imagine this application business would leave me so scarred and bitter. This is probably why there are so many serial killers out there.

evilclaw2321
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by evilclaw2321 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:48 pm

rejected from northwestern today via the website...dam

misterme09
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by misterme09 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:50 pm

Northwestern can suck a cock.

isobelojalvo
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by isobelojalvo » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:52 pm

valloein wrote:Is this IT ?

Is this the end of the world ?

Maintaining what little sanity I have left needs tremendous willpower and leaves me exhausted enough to require up to 16 hours of sleep a day.

I didn't imagine this application business would leave me so scarred and bitter. This is probably why there are so many serial killers out there.
There are a ton of options for people who haven't gotten in anywhere yet. Look for a position at a research facility you're interested in and then apply again next year! If you're lucky you could land a position at CERN or Hawaii Astronomy group. You'll atleast have more money than the grad students.

thefourth
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by thefourth » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:04 pm

Fulbright allows you to apply only to 5 schools. I was also rejected from Berkeley and San Diego. Letters must have been positive, they were from the people who know me really well and wrote me also the letters for the Fulbright scholarship...and I really doubt I would get it if one letter was negative.

happymonkey
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by happymonkey » Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:08 pm

the4th: while I know you're going through a rough time, your story makes me feel at least a bit better about all of the rejections I've experienced this year. I don't know. If I get into somewhere this year I may decline. I feel as though I have a lot to offer. I may be happier going to the institutions that will completely get me motivated and as my story has a little bit to do with test anxiety I would like to score in the 9x0s as I believe I'm capable. What I'm saying is, thank you for being honest enough to tell us your story, and furthermore your story, instead of depressing the heck out of me, gets me motivated to do those things I know I can - strange although true.

We will do great things I can feel it, :), best. Even if it isn't this year.

Imperate
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Imperate » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:17 pm

Rejected from UCLA.....finally put me out of my misery

alkemas
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by alkemas » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:36 pm

i agree with happymonkey. we shouldnt be going to a school just because they were the only ones that accepted us. So far, I only got accepted to one school so far and I feel if i am not 100% excited with the physics there and the school it will be better for me to just wait and apply another year, improve my pgre score and so on. Its not fair to you to just go to a school youre not excited about and its not fair to them and to the other students that may have wanted to go there. Also, gradschool is already hard enough, you dont have to make it harder by being in a place you dont want to be at.

valloein
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by valloein » Fri Mar 20, 2009 4:06 pm

alkemas wrote:i agree with happymonkey. we shouldnt be going to a school just because they were the only ones that accepted us. So far, I only got accepted to one school so far and I feel if i am not 100% excited with the physics there and the school it will be better for me to just wait and apply another year, improve my pgre score and so on. Its not fair to you to just go to a school youre not excited about and its not fair to them and to the other students that may have wanted to go there. Also, gradschool is already hard enough, you dont have to make it harder by being in a place you dont want to be at.

What is funny though, is how peoples' "being excited with the physics" or "wanting to be" at a particular university has a an unusually strong correlation its rank/reputation. Go figure.

alkemas
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by alkemas » Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:19 pm

good point. however, my comment was nowhere near that naive. I am really looking to see what groups are available for me to work with and if they are studying subjects that interest me. We should all keep in mind that good physics is not measured by ranks. if you can find 2 or 3 groups that are really good and that you are interested in working with, then you shouldnt let a rank make you wait another year.

cato88
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by cato88 » Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:42 pm

alkemas wrote:i agree with happymonkey. we shouldnt be going to a school just because they were the only ones that accepted us. So far, I only got accepted to one school so far and I feel if i am not 100% excited with the physics there and the school it will be better for me to just wait and apply another year, improve my pgre score and so on. Its not fair to you to just go to a school youre not excited about and its not fair to them and to the other students that may have wanted to go there. Also, gradschool is already hard enough, you dont have to make it harder by being in a place you dont want to be at.
alkemas wrote:good point. however, my comment was nowhere near that naive. I am really looking to see what groups are available for me to work with and if they are studying subjects that interest me. We should all keep in mind that good physics is not measured by ranks. if you can find 2 or 3 groups that are really good and that you are interested in working with, then you shouldnt let a rank make you wait another year.
Not sure your going consolidate the two since rank usually gives people some doubt that will make someone not 100% sure or kill some excitement.

alkemas
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by alkemas » Fri Mar 20, 2009 8:05 pm

i'm in high energy so really if i choose a school that works in a collaboration that i am interested in, the school itself doesnt really matter much, again as long as i can find an adviser and have options there. for some people rank is important, and thats fine. not too important to me.

happymonkey
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by happymonkey » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:13 pm

My PGREs are painfully low for someone interested in hep-th. This year I didn't apply to some places that I am incredibly interested in the research being conducted there because I made a practical decision that I had very little chance, < 5%, of being accepted to them. So my strategy was to apply only to schools I had, I thought, a reasonable chance of being admitted to - with 2 reaches. So no, I'm not talking about "rank". My long term goals, past PhD don't require I come from one of the most prestigious universities. I do want to have an intellectually stimulating, exciting time in graduate school. Thus rank is of some importance, for me, but only in terms my perceived chances of admittance to research programs I am most interested working in.

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Ulquiorra
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Ulquiorra » Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:32 am

While the rejection thread is continuously crowded,
the acceptence thread is left without new posts...

This tells me how dim the chance of getting accepted by Berkeley is...
Hate this situation... :(
Last edited by Ulquiorra on Sat Mar 21, 2009 4:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Helio
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Helio » Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:02 am

UCLA rejected.... lol what irony.. that is maybe the last thing i needed today.

Maxwells_Demon
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Maxwells_Demon » Sat Mar 21, 2009 4:25 pm

rejected to Harvard Applied Physics. rejection count: 10. i'm super screwed, after all that work....

evilclaw2321
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by evilclaw2321 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:03 pm

rejected from university of virginia astronomy today...kinda expected it but woulda been nice.

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Ulquiorra
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by Ulquiorra » Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:47 am

Rejection from Berkeley ended my period of insanity!

isobelojalvo
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Re: Rejection 2009.... Share your pain!

Post by isobelojalvo » Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:11 pm

Rejection from Stony Brook.



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