Dear Dissertation Coach,
I was not accepted to my top school’s graduate program. What is wrong with me that they didn’t want to accept me?
Heart-broken graduate student
Dear Heart-broken graduate student,
On August 23rd, I wrote about some reasons it wasn’t about you that you were not accepted to your preferred graduate program. However, sometimes it is about the student’s application and this post will give you some insight into those problems.
First, did you supply everything to the program that they asked for? Did you decide that they didn’t really need a writing sample even though they asked for it because you didn’t have one? Faculty do not take it well when an application packet is not complete. It can be interpreted as an indication that the student doesn’t finish things. A suspicion of a student being flaky will move them down several notches in the acceptance pool.
How is the grammar application? Did you or someone else proofread your statement of purpose? Were there grammatical errors in it? Often your application packet is the first time faculty members have met you. The only way they can know you is through your application packet. The personal essay is about you. However, it also can indicate whether or not your English is proficient enough for the department or whether or not you care enough to make it as perfect as you can. It is not cheating to let another read it and find any wrong words or grammatical errors that have crept in. It happens to the best of us, so have someone else go over your application to catch errors.
If the department you are applying to asks for test scores, do you know the range of scores they are looking for? Do your scores fall in that range? If not, then that could be a problem. Yes, I know all the arguments for why test scores do not predict success in graduate school and while I agree with many of those arguments, if the department is asking for them, then they likely use them. If you have a reason that you think your scores should be disregarded, let the faculty members on the admissions committee know. It might influence their decision, it might not, but at least you’ve done everything that you can do.
I wrote a whole blog post about writing samples. See that here if that is something your preferred department requests.
Did the people you asked to write letters of reference for you get those letters in on time? Now that admission packets are usually online, you can check to see if the letters are there. If not, ask your letter writer what is happening. Hopefully, they’ve already written a letter and can zap it through quickly. If they say they cannot get it done, have a backup letter writer ready.
Have you visited the department and talked to faculty members and graduate students? Were you interested in what they had to say and listened politely? I met a graduate student at a conference party who managed to insult every person of color, woman, and graduate student in the room, because this person seemed to imply that the only important people were white, male faculty members. You better believe everyone remembered this person’s name. We expected their application was going to look really good and we wanted to not admit them.
In sum, Broken-hearted, you do have some control over what the admissions committee sees. Be sure it is the best you can produce. After that, you need to let it go.
Warmly,
Your Dissertation Coach
