I have been rejected from my dream course - what should I do?

[psychstudent9090]

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Hi everyone,

My story is a little complex, but please bear with me and I will do my best to explain as succinctly as possible.

Well, becoming a psychologist has been my dream since I was 15 and I am now 23. I have dedicated my life over the past five years to studying hard in order to gain entrance into an honours degree, and following that, a postgraduate psychology degree (e.g., DPsych, MPsych).

My undergraduate degree was three years, but I extended it to four years due to illness, and then I got into honours (entirely based on grades) and just completed that degree a little over a month ago. If of relevance, I live in Australia.

I am not interested in pursuing clinical psychology, but health psychology, which is the study of psychological and behavioural processes in health, illness and healthcare. My interest in health psychology largely came from my own health struggles, but at the end of the day has been fuelled by passion and interest.

There is only one health psychology doctoral course in Australia, so of course, this course has been my dream for about 4-5 years now. The clinical psychology courses aren't of interest to me (and are probably more competitive anyway). For the past 18 months, I have worked in a research position and facilitating focus groups for patients at one of the biggest health psych institutions in my state, and I got to know the course chair of this particular DPsych quite well, let's call her Lucy. I even drove her home from professional development events 8-10 times! I also know a lot of the DPsych students - they all work at this institution.

I am hugely passionate about this field, had excellent references from people within the field, have had great work experience at the health psych institution mentioned above, have had a lot of personal experience with illness, and have pretty good grades too. So, when Lucy invited me in for an interview with some of her colleagues I was very excited and optimistic!

I did my best to present well on the day. I was quite nervous, but I answered all of the questions confidently, and while I didn't think they were particularly polite (didn't shake my hand, introduce themselves, etc), I came out feeling okay about the whole process.

I saw Lucy a couple of days later at work, and she just smiled and said that she hopes she sees me soon. It was the next day that I found out I was rejected. I was shocked, as the other two girls I work with who also applied were accepted! We have identical work experience and our grades are similar (mine are actually a little better). To make it worse, these girls aren't even that excited by health psychology - they are not as passionate and do not attend as many professional development events as me.

Once I calmed down, I sent Lucy a very polite email and asked where I had gone wrong and how I could improve my application. She asked for my number and called me that evening.

She was quick to put the blame on her colleagues and the first thing she mentioned when we spoke was my answer to the question "what are your weaknesses?" In the interview, I responded to this question honestly, and said that public speaking was my weakness.

I can speak in public, but it is not a strength of mine and most of the time I do not enjoy it. When answering this question, I was sure to demonstrate that I had self-awareness (aware of the problem) and that I was doing something about it (I've recently completed a public speaking short course and have improved a lot).

Lucy then went on to ramble out the selection criteria in terms of what I could improve on: work experience, grades, grades and referee reports. To me, that doesn't add up because I know others whom have less work experience than me and lower grades, so I just do not understand.

Considering I know Lucy quite well, I am very hurt that she obviously doesn't think that I have what it takes to be a psychologist, but I don't know why and I don't know how to find out what is the matter. She has also made going to work quite humiliating for me, considering everyone else has gotten in! I really am devastated.

The only thing I can think to do is email her other colleagues who also interviewed me (even though Lucy did most of the questioning) and explain that Lucy was unclear about where I went wrong, and if they could please elaborate.

I would really like to land myself a spot in the course for next year - I am so passionate about health psychology and I feel I have been treated unfairly, considering I have the experience, grades and references.

What do you think? Why have I been rejected? What should I do now? Give up? Send an email to Lucy's colleagues? I really don't know - I feel so lost, angry and upset!

Please help!

Thank you!

 

[bre333]

Since you are feeling lost, angry and upset, I would definitely not be sending an e-mail to other people right now. Wait a while. Also, don't take the rejection personally, although I know it's hard--it sounds like Lucy would have told you if she really didn't think you had the chops. Additionally, while you say that you're better than applicants in other ways--are you really better in every aspect than every candidate? Maybe you have higher grades than one person, but also had less research experience, or vice versa.
Alternatively, maybe one of the other candidates really killed it in the interview process--you don't need to have done anything "wrong" for someone else to have done better than you. It sounds like, from what Lucy's said, that you failed to impress her colleagues during the interview. From what you've said, you were pretty nervous, and they seemed a little rude. It's possible that they were purposely trying to put you under pressure to see how you performed, and that you were too thrown by their behavior to react serenely and calmly. The worst thing to do right now would to be to seem to overreact and be very emotional.
Finally, you've talked a lot about your passion in this post, but very little about your actual interest. I know absolutely nothing about the state of psych doctoral programs in Australia, but are they really the only program? If they are, it's possible that you came on a bit too strong about your passion, and underplayed why you would be a good research match for the institution.
I understand that it can be really devastating to be rejected, especially when all your hopes were hinged on one area, but really do try to not take it personally. If you get along well with other applicants that you know were accepted, maybe have a casual talk with them in a little while about how they acted in the interview, and how they tried to sell themselves to the program (and make sure to not state how you had better grades, more experience, and more passion).

 

[denimfan]

As much as I have sympathy for you in regards to your rejection, like the previous poster I do notice a lot of resentment and frustration towards Lucy, other interviewers, and even other applicants. Those are valid feelings given how much you wanted the acceptance but you have to understand that in this process there are many things that are out of your control. The fact is, once you reach the interview stage, everybody is on level playing field. It doesn't matter how much research experience, clinical experience, and passion you have at this point. What really matters at this point is how well you fit with the program and how well you can sell yourself. Unfortunately, it sounds to me that you relied on your relationship with Lucy too much and that might have made you overly confident.

 

[chipsychstudent]

You've only been rejected once, and you're only 23. You have plenty of time. If this is your passion, do what you can to make yourself a better applicant for next year and reapply. Certainly don't burn any bridges between now and then. The reality is that with anything you're applying for, there are more applicants than there are positions. Don't take it personally. If you find yourself harboring resentment toward the people who did get in or the admissions people, the that's something to work through.

 

[psychstudent90]

Thanks for your advice, everyone. I have organised to meet with one of the interviewers tomorrow afternoon to discuss my application, so hopefully that will go well. Thanks again!