Feeling a little down

[Sobe203]

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I applied to 7 programs. Interviewed at 4 - of those, I was accepted at 1. Waitlisted at two others (that I never interviewed at).

Anyway, the one I was accepted to was my last choice. As for the other 3 programs:

School 1 - Interviewed at a month ago, heard nothing. I contacted the secretary to ask if letters regarding a decision had been mailed out. She responded, "No formal decision has been made regarding your application. If I had to guess, I would anticipate that the letters will be out at the beginning of April."

Was this a subtle way of saying I can expect a rejection letter? April is rather late to be sending an acceptance letter. 🙁

ETA: I just went into the Official Acceptance thread and someone was offered acceptance in late February. I think it's over. 🙁

School 2 - Interviewed at 2 weeks ago. I've heard nothing and haven't tried to contact anyone.

School 3 - I talked to my POI and he just said, "Things don't look good now. A lot of people are holding onto their offers." And said something about there being unfortunately a lot of random chance in admission. I think that was a blatant rejection, which I'm sad about.

 

[EquestriAnn]

Contact school #2! I just got an acceptance from a school I interviewed at on Feb 8th (count 'em, 5 weeks later). Granted she told me she'd let us know in "early March" but still, what do you have to lose?

 

[Sobe203]

I'll e-mail the secretary; I wasn't sure if 2 weeks was enough time to ask.

Thanks for giving me some hope. 🙂

 

[blindchaos]

I say it aint over til the rejection letter comes!

 

[Sobe203]

Haha, thanks blind. 🙂

I think it's over for Schools 1 & 3. People on this forum talked about being accepted or waitlisted at School 1 a few weeks ago, and my POI pretty much told me I have no chances for School 3.

I pray School 2 comes through because the one I got accepted to is my dead last choice.

 

[deleted176373]

Haha, thanks blind. 🙂

I think it's over for Schools 1 & 3. People on this forum talked about being accepted or waitlisted at School 1 a few weeks ago, and my POI pretty much told me I have no chances for School 3.

I pray School 2 comes through because the one I got accepted to is my dead last choice.

Stranger things have happened... take this from someone who was "rejected" from their number one choice only to have it land in his lap on April 10th. You can be more pessimistic on April 16th.

Mark

 

[Sobe203]

Mark - Can you tell me more about what happened? How did you go from being rejected to accepted?

 

[blindchaos]

Stranger things have happened... take this from someone who was "rejected" from their number one choice only to have it land in his lap on April 10th. You can be more pessimistic on April 16th.

Mark

I would like to revise my earlier statement per Mark's experience (and others on the board)

It *usually* aint over til the rejection letter comes.

(while that isn't definite whatsoever, it sounds better than 'it aint over til the rejection letter comes and sometimes it still isn't over then')

Don't you just love all the ambiguity?? 🙄

 

[amy203]

I think the best thing for you to do now is take your ego out of the equation. I don't mean this in a harsh way! Just that it's probably time you start thinking very practically about making a decision. I think what sometimes happens to people on wait-lists is that they spend too much time stressed out about whether they will make it off the list and then they end up making last minute decisions that they haven't thought through. Obviously, you don't want to make any final decisions until you get a response from schools 1-3, but make sure you know what you're going to do if you aren't accepted to one or more of them.

Also, stop thinking about how the school you got accepted to is your "dead last" choice - it doesn't really matter. Did you like it enough to attend next year, or should you start thinking about applying again? In the end, it doesn't really matter if you got into 1 school or 20. If the one school you got into is right for you, then everything else is just ego gravy. And if it's not right for you, well you'll try again next year. Like your POI said, a lot admission decisions (especially after the interview phase) are pretty random. Work on improving your app a bit (and maybe think about applying to more schools) and hope that the randomness is in your favor next year.

 

[Sobe203]

No, the program I got into is too research-focused for me. I'd like an equal balance of clinical experience to research.

I've already taken one year off from undergrad... I don't want to waste another year. I'll most likely accept next week if I haven't heard back from Program 2 by then.

 

[deleted176373]

Mark - Can you tell me more about what happened? How did you go from being rejected to accepted?

I'm in a military clinical psych Ph.D. program, they selected someone who became medically disqualified and I was the next one down the list. Here is exactly what happened.

Dear Mark,

Your application for the Navy position in the Clinical Psychology Program at
the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences was carefully reviewed,
but regrettably, you were not selected. I want to express my sincere
appreciation for your interest in the Navy and the effort you put into
preparing the application. The applicant pool was unusually competitive
this year. Given the small number of students we are able to select,
we were not able to accommodate many well-qualified applicants.

You were among our finalists in a very competitive selection process and,
for that reason, I would like to encourage you to apply for a commission in
the Navy at a later date. The Navy selects interns each year for our two
internship programs and offers active duty positions to licensed Clinical
and Counseling Psychologists. After you have completed your pre-doctoral
studies, please consider the Navy among your career options. I wish you
every success in the near-term and hope to hear from you again in the
future.


To more bad news:


Good Afternoon Dr. XXX,

Mark has told me that he is not in the number 1 or 2 ranking
positions for the USUHS Clin Psych opportunity. He mentioned that the
Selectees may still be working on their medical exams and background
investigations (the Selectees mentioned that when they all met in
Bethesda, MD for the interview process). Is there any chance however
slight that the number 1 and number 2 Selectees won't qualify or take
the position? Just curious.

Answer:

LT XXX - The two top selectees have indicated that they will take the
positions if there are no medical problems or other issues that would
disqualify them. I don't expect that to happen, but it is possible.

and finally, April 10th:

Mark, this is HOT. You can be offered the 2nd USUHS Clin Psych position
if you quickly get your eye exams done as requested. Are you still
interested? One of the other 2 did not medically qualify, kind of like
we wondered in the beginning. Please phone me ASAP to discuss your
plans.

 

[Sobe203]

Wow, that was pretty lucky for you!! 🙂

I feel this weird sense of anxiety - my chest feels heavy, I can't sleep (I don't need to be awake for a few hours), etc. because I didn't get into a program well-suited for me. I'm not too thrilled about the research I'd be doing.

I just don't know what to do. I'm 23 already and can't take another year off working a meaningless, low-paying job. Time to move on...

 

[Duckygirl]

Stranger things have happened... take this from someone who was "rejected" from their number one choice only to have it land in his lap on April 10th...

Amen, Mark!

This seriously does happen, although, I will admit, rarely. As much as I am bummed out right now about how the admissions process has really sucked for me, much more so than for the OP- I really like this time of year. It is so frickin' exciting (I know "fricking" is a really unprofessional term, but I can't help myself) to watch offers get turned over at the last minute and see who gets what on what appears to the Eve of Doom (March 31-April 14th). March madness ought to be about grad school admission, not about basketball- this is where all the action is!

I wanted to point out that last year there was someone who was rejected from the University of Washington by her POI, fairly early...like late February, early March maybe...and THEN...she got a call several weeks later, offering her admission!

And if I recall correctly, the offer was fully funded, and she had been officially rejected from all the other programs she applied to! She was in the process of thinking about about what she was going to do over the next year since should wouldn't be attending school and then WHAMMO! Offer into her lap. Beautiful.

I just don't know what to do. I'm 23 already and can't take another year off working a meaningless, low-paying job. Time to move on...

Sobe-

First of all- it could be worse. What if you had no offer at all or no pending offers? What would you do then? Would you continue doing what you're doing or would you look for work experience that might change your circumstances for admission next year?

Twenty-three is not too old. You have time to reapply or even if you decide not to go through with psychology, it's not too late for you to find another career. Master's degrees are the path to many careers and generally = 2 years. You could have another career by the time you are 25 or 26. Ask someone who is three or four years older than you what they would do if they were in your situation- I would bet many people would just take the offer. But you're not them...you're only 23.

Lastly...why are you working a meaningless, low-paying job? Find a really, really great job that will offer you wonderful experience (even if it doesn't pay well) or find a job that may not be all that wonderful, but could offer you better pay (maybe to pay for another round of applications?). If you got interviews at four schools and were accepted to a very research-oriented school, you must have a strong profile that could afford you opportunities to get jobs doing decent research or clinical work. You probably just had an unfortunate year- admissions are often about luck, and maybe this wasn't your luckiest year. You also said you applied to seven schools, but many experts advise 12-15...perhaps if you increased the number of your applications next year, you may cast a wider net and get more offers!

But really- you have to ask yourself some questions- is what you've been offered/might be offered enough? Do you have the wherewithal to apply again? Is a doctoral program in psychology really what you want? You're going to get through this.

In less than a month, this will all be over. And even if you decide to do nothing and don't go to school, you can walk away from the process knowing that your four interview invites meant that you were a fairly successful candidate and that you were more fortunate than thousands of other applicants.

 

[deleted176373]

Wow, that was pretty lucky for you!! 🙂

I feel this weird sense of anxiety - my chest feels heavy, I can't sleep (I don't need to be awake for a few hours), etc. because I didn't get into a program well-suited for me. I'm not too thrilled about the research I'd be doing.

I just don't know what to do. I'm 23 already and can't take another year off working a meaningless, low-paying job. Time to move on...

Excuse me while I chuckle a bit!

You're 23! You have so much ahead of you, really! I'm 41 and in my first year of graduate school.

While it would have been nice to get into your number 1 choice, your other "research" oriented choice doesn't sound horrible. It's an acceptance and a good deal better position than many of your peers are in.

I would wait until the 15th to accept, but indicate to the school that you plan to attend UNLESS you get an offer from your #1 choice. It's appropriate to keep the program you are likely to attend in the loop, but there is no need to accept any earlier than you need to.

I had to rescind my acceptance to Texas A&M when this all came down and I also went through all the emotions that you are likely going through right now.

Mark

 

[amy203]

I was out of undergrad for two years and started grad school when I was 26. In the long run, one extra year will feel like nothing, whereas 4-5 years at a school you aren't happy with, not to mention the following years which are heavily dependent on the grad school you attended, will feel like a very long time. Just something to keep in mind...

 

[Sobe203]

I was out of undergrad for two years and started grad school when I was 26. In the long run, one extra year will feel like nothing, whereas 4-5 years at a school you aren't happy with, not to mention the following years which are heavily dependent on the grad school you attended, will feel like a very long time. Just something to keep in mind...

Great point, thank you 🙂

My adviser said the same thing to me today: "You're 23, you're young, you'll be young for another 50 years."

I notified the program and declined today. I'm sure another hopeful applicant will be happy to take the spot.

 

[empathiosis]

Congrats on making a good decision! The research/practice balance is a really important one and 5 years is a lot longer than just one extra year. Use it to create an even stronger app and you will be unstoppable next year. I'm a couple of years older than Mark, so your saying you're already 23 also got a chuckle out of me.

Great point, thank you 🙂

My adviser said the same thing to me today: "You're 23, you're young, you'll be young for another 50 years."

I notified the program and declined today. I'm sure another hopeful applicant will be happy to take the spot.

 

[amy203]

I think you made a very brave decision - it's not one a lot of people are willing/able to make, and I think they often regret it.

Good luck to you!