Rejection Thread (If you are depressed, please avoid)

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I was rejected by George Washington yesterday by website. They told me I should apply to their master's program in Organizational Sciences. No thank you!
 
Great! NOW I'm afraid to go home and check my mail!🙁
 
Rejected from the Clinical programs at USC (last Thursday) and University of British Columbia (today), both via small envelopes in the mail. I SO knew USC wasn't going to happen, but I had high hopes for UBC. Oh well. Five schools still in hiatus. Ugh.

I received a rejection letter from UBC too, yesterday. Wasn't too surprised as I emailed my POI who already told me that I wouldn't be accepted.
 
I received a rejection letter from UBC too, yesterday. Wasn't too surprised as I emailed my POI who already told me that I wouldn't be accepted.

Argh. I still haven't heard ANYTHING from them and I'm in the same damn country. :laugh:
 
Well, I don't know if it's a good thing or not! I have no rejections in the mail today. 😕 And I still have two schools that I haven't heard one word from since my application was submitted! What's up with that?!
 
Well, I don't know if it's a good thing or not! I have no rejections in the mail today. 😕 And I still have two schools that I haven't heard one word from since my application was submitted! What's up with that?!


I'm in the same boat. I know how you feel.👎
 
So I've been saving all my rejection letters, which I thought was kind of weird, haha. Even though I haven't heard from 2 schools at all, I think it's safe to say I'm not going to grad school this time so it's just a record of a failed attempt. I was just wondering if anybody else was doing something strange like that, and hoped my weirdness might entertain someone.
 
So I've been saving all my rejection letters, which I thought was kind of weird, haha. Even though I haven't heard from 2 schools at all, I think it's safe to say I'm not going to grad school this time so it's just a record of a failed attempt. I was just wondering if anybody else was doing something strange like that, and hoped my weirdness might entertain someone.

Not entertain: just commiserate. Please don't feel as though you are the only one. You are in very good company.
 
Arrrgh...I didn't get anything in the mail today OR yesterday! I didn't get any email today either. I am going to be ill!

I too have saved all of my rejection letters. I'm going to add all the ones from this year to my little pile of rejection letters from last year. I feel like, if I save all of these rejections, they will remind me of all the junk I'll have over come when I finally get in somewhere, even if I have to wait another year.
 
I too have saved all of my rejection letters. I'm going to add all the ones from this year to my little pile of rejection letters from last year. I feel like, if I save all of these rejections, they will remind me of all the junk I'll have over come when I finally get in somewhere, even if I have to wait another year.

Haha, that's a good way to put it. My attitude was, I applied to the school I went to for undergrad early admission and got in, so I had to withdraw all my applications after that. I feel like since I didn't have the chance to get rejected for undergrad, I saved up all my rejection-doesn't-bother-me points. Perhaps?
 
Got a snail mail rejection from BGSU today. It's about time! They never interviewed me or anything: I wonder what the point of waiting so long was?
 
My weekend rejections:

1) UGeorgia - via mail, not surprised as this is confirmation of the email I receieved back in January stating "we're not interviewing you. we basically don't accept anyone unless we interview them. but please don't consider this official until we send you an official letter officially rejecting you."

2) UKansas - via mail, didn't bother me in the slightest - low on my list of apps and . . . I HAVE ALREADY ACCEPTED an offer 😀 Makes rejections so much easier.

3) UWashington, Seattle - via mail. Now this one actually irked me. Perhaps they thought they were being helpful, but if I didn't already have a few interviews & an acceptance in hand, I would be completely contemplating my competence at this point.

The letter started w/ the typical "unfortunately we are not able to recommend your admission . . . Since we willl be able to make offers of admission to only about 20-30 of more than 500 applicants, many very well qualified applicants must be turned away."

Fine. I get it. Be done with it already, but no, we must continue . . .

"In particular, your application materials indicated that you were not competitive w/ the top applicants . . . "

Once again, fine. I get it, but nooooo.

" . . . due to insufficient academic coursework in areas fundamental to the proposed graduate program and/or lack of research experience. I hope this will be helpful to you in planning for your future education."

Soo, I get from this that I'm insufficiently prepared academically . . . even with a master's degree?!

And/or I do not have adequate research experience. What the frak do they want? 10 years post-bacc??

If they wanted to say that I didn't have research experience in the area I wish to go into, I would be just fine with that. I've had the question come up w/ other programs. Why do you want to go into this area when your research experience is in this other specialty? Everyone seems to think that you can gain experience in every area under the sun regardless of your location. And, it just ain't true. As my kiddo says, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." I got what research experience I could and was grateful for it. It's the whole thing where potential employers will not hire you because you don't have the experience but you can't get the experience unless someone hires you.

Oh, and I suppose they don't think anyone else is going to help me out because I need to plan for my future education which for some bizarre reason, I read as you better plan for your future education b/c you're inadequately prepared. Hmm, should I be contacting my current program to tell them I'm sorry but I apparently suck academically & research-experience wise, so they probably made a mistake??

hehe, anyway, the kind oh, so helpful admissions people didn't stop there. Yes, there's more!!

"Your application materials also indicated that while your credentials are good to excellent, the faculty interests & curricula available in our dept do not match those suggested in your research goals and would therefore be a poor fit for you and for us."

Um, wait, didn't you just say that I wasn't academically or research experientially prepared?? But now my credentials are good to excellent?? Okay, whatever.

And, how is it that I specifically mentioned 2-3 faculty who's interests DO ALIGN with mine (even more so than the program I will be entering), yet they're still not a good match?

Granted, this program probably would not have been a 'perfect' fit for me. Soo, they've got that part right. However, telling me there's no one there who can work with me is just frakkin' ridiculous.

The whole thing makes me wonder if they even looked at my application. I still don't get how I'm academically and/or research insufficient but still a good to excellent applicant.

Glad I didn't get this letter a month or two ago. I truly would be wallowing in self-pity right now. Makes me damned glad I didn't get an interview or acceptance. Of course, I honestly didn't want to go here simply because of cost-of-living. It would have made some things (commuting between family & there) somewhat difficult. I just wanted to visit, damnit! But they didn't know that!

"On behalf of my colleagues on the faculty I thank you for applying . . . "

. . . because we really appreciated your application fee--it's going to pay for some nifty paper to reject next year's applicants, among other things . . .

" . . . and wish you well in the pursuit of your educational goals . . . "

. . . if anyone else is foolish enough to accept your inadequately-prepared ass.

Ah, well, end of crappy rejection letter. Perhaps I simply got it while I was in a crabby mood (highly likely) but DAMN! Give me something more than x or y could be wrong with you and oh, also z, even though this will not help you in the slightest. Oh, I know, I know! Maybe I should have my doctorate and THEN apply?! Would this give me sufficient academic preparation for their coursework? 🙄

As I've mentioned in other threads, just give me a 'REJECTED' stamp on a postcard and I'll be perfectly happy.

If anyone has yet to receive an acceptance or they're waiting for that golden ticket off the dreaded wait list, and they just received this letter, I feel for you. I really and truly do.

/rant
 
If anyone has yet to receive an acceptance or they're waiting for that golden ticket off the dreaded wait list, and they just received this letter, I feel for you. I really and truly do.

/rant

Oh wow... that seems a bit excessive. The letter rejection I got from UW wasn't nearly so... detailed? Rejections suck... and the fact that they weren't nearly as sympathetic as you'd hope... at least you didn't want to realistically attend the program anyway. 🙁
 
Oh wow... that seems a bit excessive. The letter rejection I got from UW wasn't nearly so... detailed? Rejections suck... and the fact that they weren't nearly as sympathetic as you'd hope... at least you didn't want to realistically attend the program anyway. 🙁

Don't get me wrong--I couldn't care less about "sympathy" in a rejection letter. I am probably one of the minority here who thinks it is adequate to say, "hey, you're rejected, we don't want you or can't accept you" . . . Reject stamp on a postcard would be just fine by me.

Going into what initially appears to be "helpful" information when you don't back it up with any proof is problematic b/c then you have applicants wondering what the frak they truly want when they list so many "and/or" conditional statements in their rejection. You're either x or y or maybe both but we're not going to specifically tell you. And, we're not being really helpful anyway since we don't specifically tell you what adequate coursework and/or research experience entails. If I was reapplying a 3rd cycle, then I would end up marking this program off my list simply because I'd have no idea what they wanted from an applicant. They suggest that I'm not academically prepared . . . After a bachelor's & a master's in psych, taking just about every course available in the field, what else am I supposed to take? 😕 This is probably a blanket letter they sent to a large # of individuals, but I can easily see (as you can tell from my complaints) that this letter could definitely cause some confusion.

It's not that I didn't want to go there. Had I been accepted, it would have taken some serious consideration on my part. UW was one of the higher programs on my list but due to other variables (research interests, location, & cost-of-living), I likely still would have picked another program with a better fit over them. This simply makes me glad that I didn't have to worry about it.
 
This is probably a blanket letter they sent to a large # of individuals, but I can easily see (as you can tell from my complaints) that this letter could definitely cause some confusion.

It's possible they accidentally sent you the wrong rejection letter, like UNC did to me.
 
Yeahhhh...I got a somewhat offensive rejection letter from UW as well. Mine was less cutting than yours but still irritating. Mine said something along the lines of "Although your application materials indicated that you are qualified for graduate study in psychology, you were not as strong an applicant as others." Mercifully, they didn't go as into more detail. Ohhhh what a relief that I'm "qualified" :laugh: .

I don't know, in retrospect it doesn't seem soo harsh but I guess I just found it offensive that they said "I" was a weaker canidate rather than that I was a canidate with weaker credentials. You'd think psychologists would know better than to make such personal attributions. If I hadn't gotten into a good program that little line would have made me feel pretty crappy. None of my other rejections were quite this harsh. Most said something like..."we're sorry but we had a very competitive applicant pool this year yada yada." A simple "rejected" from UW would have been quite enough thank you very much.

Oh well, this "not strong" applicant is going to another fantastic program so UW can kiss my ***. It feels great to be able to say that when opening rejections.

Paramour, you should keep that rude letter- One day when you are the next Bandura or Milgram you can frame it.
 

Paramour, you should keep that rude letter- One day when you are the next Bandura or Milgram you can frame it.

I like how you picked one guy who beat up dolls and another who made people shock each other. :laugh:
 
I like how you picked one guy who beat up dolls and another who made people shock each other. :laugh:

LOL ...I didn't even think about that. Just the first two names that popped into my head. Hummm what would Freud say about me? I guess my future patients had better watch out.

I almost also said Zimbardo as well :laugh: ...but that one I could justify (saw him on the Daily Show the other night).
 
Yeahhhh...I got a somewhat offensive rejection letter from UW as well. Mine was less cutting than yours but still irritating. Mine said something along the lines of "Although your application materials indicated that you are qualified for graduate study in psychology, you were not as strong an applicant as others." Mercifully, they didn't go as into more detail. Ohhhh what a relief that I'm "qualified"

Meh. Perhaps I rubbed 'em the wrong way? I do that sometimes. But, geeze, I didn't even have the opportunity to meet & greet 'em, so how'd they know? My reputation precedes me, I suppose.

I'm not qualified and/or prepared, but I'm a good to excellent candidate. Sorry. Still can't get over that one. It absolutely made my weekend for me. Although no one can probably tell it, I actually laughed when I read this one, even though I was simultaneously irked at the content.

. . .

If I hadn't gotten into a good program that little line would have made me feel pretty crappy. None of my other rejections were quite this harsh. Most said something like..."we're sorry but we had a very competitive applicant pool this year yada yada." A simple "rejected" from UW would have been quite enough thank you very much.

Oh well, this "not strong" applicant is going to another fantastic program so UW can kiss my ***. It feels great to be able to say that when opening rejections.

Paramour, you should keep that rude letter- One day when you are the next Bandura or Milgram you can frame it.

That was basically my reaction as well. Kiss my non-competitive, unqualified, arse. Thank you very much! :laugh:

I actually had planned on keeping that one for some bizarre reason but ripped it up thinking it was another letter that I didn't give two hoots about. I've discarded all of mine almost automatically. Maybe I can call and ask them to re-send? I wonder how they'd react to that particular request. Told someone else that I'd keep it, apply to an internship/post-doc/faculty position there in 5-7 years and then tell them to kiss my arse. Well, probably not, but it's the thought that counts, eh? :meanie:

And, I'm with RayneeDeigh on this one, I love you how you picked up the aggressive, violent, folks for me to equate to. Somebody better watch out--I may be torturing adcoms for my dissertation soon! :laugh:
 
I'm not qualified and/or prepared, but I'm a good to excellent candidate. Sorry. Still can't get over that one.

:laugh:

That happened to me in undergrad. I was hand selected by a board of trustee member of a very prestigious university, and told that I was in; a couple of weeks later I got a 'wait list' letter. 😡 A couple weeks before the fall start, I got ANOTHER letter from them telling me that they wanted me, but because of the late notice....I'd have to transfer in during the spring semester.

I ended up going to another school that went out of their way to recruit me from day one. Looking back on it now, I had an awesome college experience, and the training I received there went a long way and making me the person I am today.

Long story short....sometimes a rejection/wait list will open the door to another opportunity that is best for you in the long run.

-p
 
Official rejection from Drexel today via snail mail...not a big shocker there.
 
I posted earlier about how I got a "Rejection" email a week ago from GW but just for fun I thought I'd check what my online status says too, just to see their online rejection wording....it says my application is under review. Kind of don't understand that, haha....
+pissed+
 
So I have officially received rejections from:
Suffolk
UCONN
Stony Brook
Duke
UMASS Boston

Never officially heard from URI, although the secretary said if I didn't receive an invite for interviewing then outlook does not look good1

I had my application pulled from BU's clinical and resubmitted to their Brain, Behavior & Cognition Program....and i haven't heard back from them yet

And as a backup I applied to Boston University's Medical Center for an M.A. program in Biomedical Imaging as a back-up plan so that I can make money while I'm figuring out what I'm going to do with my life!

All in All.. I've realized that to do what I want to do eventually, I don't need a clinical degree and am actually pretty okay with getting all of these rejections. I really only need a Ph. D. to do one thing, and that is to teach.. so in essence, it can be from any non-clinical program. The reason I wanted clinical is b/c I'm very interested in assessment and diagnostic services but this was a secondary goal anyway....

Just thought I would post that sometimes this process, although unsuccessful in terms of getting into a school, sometimes is successful at making one really figure out what is most important to them!
 
+pissed+ still havent received 5 rejections, neither unoffical or official. what nice helpful people 😡
 
+pissed+ still havent received 5 rejections, neither unoffical or official. what nice helpful people 😡

PsychoEm, I am still waiting to hear from 4 schools. Suck.
 
All in All.. I've realized that to do what I want to do eventually, I don't need a clinical degree and am actually pretty okay with getting all of these rejections. I really only need a Ph. D. to do one thing, and that is to teach.. so in essence, it can be from any non-clinical program. The reason I wanted clinical is b/c I'm very interested in assessment and diagnostic services but this was a secondary goal anyway....

Just thought I would post that sometimes this process, although unsuccessful in terms of getting into a school, sometimes is successful at making one really figure out what is most important to them!

Technically, you can teach with a master's degree. I do it. 🙂
 
So I have officially received rejections from:
Suffolk
UCONN
Stony Brook
Duke
UMASS Boston

Just out of curiousity, did you receive the official rejection from Suffolk after an interview? Because they have been very discourteous to me post-interview, not offering me any official information, simply a vague "no" after I inquired.
 
I have so far been officially rejected at :

Loyola College in Maryland
Virginia Commonwealth University
Indiana State University (didn't expect that at all)
Miami University (Brain and Cog., not Clinical)

Wait-listed without interviews at:

University of Cincinnati
Kent State University
University of Toledo

Anyone been officially rejected from UC, Kent, or Toledo?
 
I haven't heard a single word from Kent after interviewing there in February. Did they contact you to let you know that you're on the waitlist? For all I know, I've been rejected outright and am not even on it. It doesn't actually matter to me, since I'm not interested and have accepted another offer, but it seems like bad form to bring someone all the way out there and then not even bother to follow up. Oh well! :laugh:
 
Ooh, I haven't listed all my rejections in one fell swoop yet. Fun! Here we go:

No Interview, just rejected (ouch):
BU
UMASS, Boston
Columbia (Clinical)

Rejected post-interview (double ouch):
NYU
BC

Waitlisted post-interview:
UVa
Penn State

...and finally, the one thing that's keeping me sane...

Accepted:
Seton Hall
 
I haven't heard a single word from Kent after interviewing there in February. Did they contact you to let you know that you're on the waitlist? For all I know, I've been rejected outright and am not even on it. It doesn't actually matter to me, since I'm not interested and have accepted another offer, but it seems like bad form to bring someone all the way out there and then not even bother to follow up. Oh well! :laugh:


They didn't contact me actually, I got fed-up with waiting and I emailed the department (Mid-March). The department told me that my application was "still being considered for acceptance". I guess technically I don't know if I'm wait-listed or not but I'm just assuming that's the case.
 
Has ANYONE out there...ANYONE...received rejection from UCSB's combined doctoral program? I can only assume rejection, but I've not received a thing from them. I want to contact the department to confirm, but I can't decipher on their ridiculously cryptic and verbose website, exactly who I would contact via email. Looking to narrow-down my waitlist obsession.
 
I've received rejections from:

Ohio State
Georgia State
University of Memphis
Penn State-child track

I'm still waiting to hear from:

Virginia Tech
Vanderbilt
SUNY-Albany
 
I've received rejections from:

Ohio State
Georgia State
University of Memphis
Penn State-child track

I'm still waiting to hear from:

Virginia Tech
Vanderbilt
SUNY-Albany

I've heard Vanderbilt doesn't send out rejections (I also haven't heard from them) and I also haven't heard from Virginia Tech, so maybe they don't either.
 
You can add University of Toledo and the University of Cincinnati to my list, they both emailed me this morning.
 
Goodbye, Penn State and your amazing stipend. 🙁
 
Rejections Snail Mail:

Loyola (Chicago)
UMSL
Georgia State
George Mason
Drexel
University of Utah

No interview/no word:
BU
U South Carolina

Waitlist:
DePaul
SUNY Albany
Montana??
 
I've heard Vanderbilt doesn't send out rejections (I also haven't heard from them) and I also haven't heard from Virginia Tech, so maybe they don't either.


Vanderbilt doesn't send out rejections? I didn't realize that schools could just not inform students about something like that. That's good to know. Good luck to everyone as this process winds down.
 
I think that they're technically required to let us know. I could be wrong, though. Vandy is the one school I haven't heard from - maybe it's true that they just don't contact people?
 
I think that they're technically required to let us know. I could be wrong, though. Vandy is the one school I haven't heard from - maybe it's true that they just don't contact people?

All I know is that someone told me that last year Vandy never told them anything, and nobody has gotten a rejection from them. There's no application fee if you do it online, maybe they can't afford it or something. Of course e-mail IS free.
 
I am also officially rejected from University of Cincinnati as of this week. Not sad about it at all.

Virginia Tech is also on my list as a school I've never heard a peep from. I wrote them off a long time ago, but it seems really weird that I don't have an official rejection yet. I think I read on the acceptance forum that their acceptances went out a long time ago.
 
I think I got a rejection in the mail today. It was actually an empty envelope from somewhere I'd applied. It was quite amusing...
 
I think I got a rejection in the mail today. It was actually an empty envelope from somewhere I'd applied. It was quite amusing...

Hmm. I guess you should be glad you avoided going to a school that can't figure out how to stuff an envelope.
 
I received an email of rejection from Vanderbilt today. For anyone interested, the email said that letters will be mailed out this week. Good luck to everyone.
 
2 rejections for the day, both snail mail. Although I had already received an e-mail rejection from Auburn, they followed up with a paper one today. Tmple also sent a rejection to my home address.
 
I was rejected from the University of Victoria's clinical PhD program on Friday, via snail mail, or "par avion," since it came from Canada.

My POI is going on sabbatical...which I found out late in the game...but couldn't change and was hoping perhaps they'd take me anyway. My letter was mostly about how there was no one to supervise me, "at least at this time." It makes me wonder if they would have taken me if my POI were going to be there in the fall.

I was also rejected from UW, child clinical track. Super bummed. I didn't expect much attention from them, but knowing they were considering me was a big deal. I will be applying again in the fall.
 
I was rejected from the University of Victoria's clinical PhD program on Friday, via snail mail, or "par avion," since it came from Canada.

My POI is going on sabbatical...which I found out late in the game...but couldn't change and was hoping perhaps they'd take me anyway. My letter was mostly about how there was no one to supervise me, "at least at this time." It makes me wonder if they would have taken me if my POI were going to be there in the fall.

I was also rejected from UW, child clinical track. Super bummed. I didn't expect much attention from them, but knowing they were considering me was a big deal. I will be applying again in the fall.

:laugh: I love how they put "par avion" (air mail) on everything, as if to say "look how fast we got this to you!" even though CanadaPost is notoriously slow.
 
1st time poster, long time reject.

U Washington
O Oregon
USC
UMASS Boston
GW
Washington State
University South Florida
University of Miami
Temple

This was a nice set of schools to get rejected from my 3rd time applying. I will add them to my rejection mural. It is getting quite big.
 
I finally got a rejection from TAMU yesterday. Considering that other people on this board got their letters over a month ago, I was about ready to call the department and ask if they even processed my application. I'm not going to lie, a refund of the application fee would have been nice.

Anyway, this was another strange case of the school saying they didn't have any faculty members in the department who could supervise me in my research interests. This is a pretty lame excuse being that there are two professors there clearly working in my desired research program and I had been emailing back and forth with one who assured me they were taking students.

Like others have said before, I wish that universities that are set on giving a reason for rejection beyond "we had a lot of qualified applicants this year" would at least realize that claiming a research mismatch doesn't apply to everyone they rejected. 👎
 
I finally got a rejection from TAMU yesterday. Considering that other people on this board got their letters over a month ago, I was about ready to call the department and ask if they even processed my application. I'm not going to lie, a refund of the application fee would have been nice.

Anyway, this was another strange case of the school saying they didn't have any faculty members in the department who could supervise me in my research interests. This is a pretty lame excuse being that there are two professors there clearly working in my desired research program and I had been emailing back and forth with one who assured me they were taking students.

Like others have said before, I wish that universities that are set on giving a reason for rejection beyond "we had a lot of qualified applicants this year" would at least realize that claiming a research mismatch doesn't apply to everyone they rejected. 👎

You really should check and make sure they sent you the right letter. The wrong letter thing happened to me.
 
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