- Joined
- Feb 3, 2014
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi everyone,
I'm 23 years old and begun a health psychology placement at a local hospital in June of 2012. I did really well, so my placement supervisors offered me a position as a research assistant, and then helped me gain admission to honours in psychology. They always thought highly of me, and often commented on my academic and professional qualities.
Last year they supervised me through writing my 12 000 word thesis. It was a stressful time, especially considering I experienced a bit of illness, but in the end I delivered and managed to score 81% (a high distinction) on my thesis. I did get a bit stressed through the year, but I don't think I did too badly, and I missed a couple of deadlines - but in the end I got it in on time and did well!
After all of my hard work, I was hoping to get into the doctorate program that would begin this year, that I have been working towards for about 4-5 years. Well, I didn't get in, and was quite upset about it. I received the bad news on the same day I was showing some of the current doctorate students (from the same program) around the hospital. I was alone when I received the news, but ended up in tears, so I decided to leave for the day.
I was (and still am) in the process of writing up my thesis for publication, but decided to take a bit of time off. All of the other students who had been accepted were around and it was nearly Christmas, so I thought I would take some time to gather my thoughts.
In the end, I decided to visit the course coordinator from the doctoral program as I wanted feedback, so that I could improve my application for next year. She didn't give me a decent answer, but mostly blamed it on grades. This couldn't have been the case, because I knew other students with lower grades who had been accepted. She also said under her breath that I was "raw" and "flat", whatever that is meant to mean. Then, she said "oh, usually I'd say to students to reapply in years to come, but ah..." So, basically she told me not to reapply.
After that, I was still pretty confused. One of my supervisors came out and said that she thought I wasn't accepted because I "lacked maturity". When I asked how my maturity compared to other students', she referred to the fact that they had been in "several relationships", while I've only been in one, and a few other trivial things. I think the word naive also came up, and one even said "oh, I *think* you can think for yourself".
There was only one other student that was rejected, a 48 year old male. I was compared to him, and apparently he took the rejection much better and was using the year off (and possibly even taking a couple more years off!) to gain experience. I don't think there's much comparison to be made - he is married, has four kids, and begun his current job in IT before I was even born!
One of my other supervisors said that they usually like to take people into the course who live away from home (I live with my parents), as they are more familiar with the ways of the world. She said that they are more likely to have learnt independent living skills, be confident in their presentation, and think more quickly on their feet.
It's obvious they have now lost interest in me. A recent RA position was given to another student, they are helping the other rejected student mentioned above find some RA work, and they don't invite me to health psychology events anymore.
What do you think? Why have they lost interest in me? Is there anything I can do to change their minds?
Thank you in advance!
I'm 23 years old and begun a health psychology placement at a local hospital in June of 2012. I did really well, so my placement supervisors offered me a position as a research assistant, and then helped me gain admission to honours in psychology. They always thought highly of me, and often commented on my academic and professional qualities.
Last year they supervised me through writing my 12 000 word thesis. It was a stressful time, especially considering I experienced a bit of illness, but in the end I delivered and managed to score 81% (a high distinction) on my thesis. I did get a bit stressed through the year, but I don't think I did too badly, and I missed a couple of deadlines - but in the end I got it in on time and did well!
After all of my hard work, I was hoping to get into the doctorate program that would begin this year, that I have been working towards for about 4-5 years. Well, I didn't get in, and was quite upset about it. I received the bad news on the same day I was showing some of the current doctorate students (from the same program) around the hospital. I was alone when I received the news, but ended up in tears, so I decided to leave for the day.
I was (and still am) in the process of writing up my thesis for publication, but decided to take a bit of time off. All of the other students who had been accepted were around and it was nearly Christmas, so I thought I would take some time to gather my thoughts.
In the end, I decided to visit the course coordinator from the doctoral program as I wanted feedback, so that I could improve my application for next year. She didn't give me a decent answer, but mostly blamed it on grades. This couldn't have been the case, because I knew other students with lower grades who had been accepted. She also said under her breath that I was "raw" and "flat", whatever that is meant to mean. Then, she said "oh, usually I'd say to students to reapply in years to come, but ah..." So, basically she told me not to reapply.
After that, I was still pretty confused. One of my supervisors came out and said that she thought I wasn't accepted because I "lacked maturity". When I asked how my maturity compared to other students', she referred to the fact that they had been in "several relationships", while I've only been in one, and a few other trivial things. I think the word naive also came up, and one even said "oh, I *think* you can think for yourself".
There was only one other student that was rejected, a 48 year old male. I was compared to him, and apparently he took the rejection much better and was using the year off (and possibly even taking a couple more years off!) to gain experience. I don't think there's much comparison to be made - he is married, has four kids, and begun his current job in IT before I was even born!
One of my other supervisors said that they usually like to take people into the course who live away from home (I live with my parents), as they are more familiar with the ways of the world. She said that they are more likely to have learnt independent living skills, be confident in their presentation, and think more quickly on their feet.
It's obvious they have now lost interest in me. A recent RA position was given to another student, they are helping the other rejected student mentioned above find some RA work, and they don't invite me to health psychology events anymore.
What do you think? Why have they lost interest in me? Is there anything I can do to change their minds?
Thank you in advance!
