Website design By BotEap.comIf you are unsuccessful at first, should you reapply for graduate school next year?

Website design By BotEap.comThis is a very nervous time of year. In America – and, indeed, around the world – eager eyes check their email accounts every few seconds, waiting to see if their dream school has sent them a golden ticket to spend the next few years at their school or if , anything else. cruelly, they send you that dreaded “we’re sorry to inform you…” email.

Website design By BotEap.comSome people will have the wonderful problem of choosing between two or more stellar schools, some will happily settle for a good school, and some will sadly lament that the schools that accepted them were not of the quality they expected. Others, those lucky few, will not receive a single acceptance letter. This blog entry is for you.

Website design By BotEap.comOnce you’ve taken the appropriate time to whine, swear, drink, and cast voodoo hexes at the folks in the Harvard Admissions Office, you’ll be faced with a tough decision: Should I apply again next year?

Website design By BotEap.comBefore I offer some advice, let me offer a little personal perspective. I am currently a doctoral student in the Department of History at Yale University. If you’ll excuse my pride, I’ll tell you that this is the best history program in the country and it’s at one of the best and most competitive universities in the world. This could lead you to believe that I was a perfect candidate. Maybe. After all, I received admission and full funding from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford. But, four years earlier, I applied to these very schools and didn’t get a single admission. Had I gotten smarter in the intervening years? No, probably not. Had my grades and test scores improved? In fact, they hadn’t. I never even took the GRE again; I related to the results of my previous tests. Here are some lessons I learned from this experience that may help you as you think through this difficult decision to reapply.

Website design By BotEap.comThe first and most important lesson I learned is that admissions is a fickle thing. Consider once again my own application to graduate schools. If you place any stock in the rankings, you’ll see that I entered programs ranked #1, #2, #3, #4, #6, and #7 in my discipline. BUT, I also got rejected by NYU, Michigan, the University of Washington, and Vanderbilt. Of these, only Michigan qualified (#5). At first glance, this may not make much sense, but for reasons that may be impossible to fathom, schools have their own things they look for, and for some of them I didn’t fit.

Website design By BotEap.comThere’s a huge industry out there that’s geared towards getting people into schools, but the fact of the matter is, there really isn’t much that can be done. There is always an element of chance and randomness in admissions. In fact, you can apply to the same programs two years in a row with the exact same application, and be admitted one year and rejected another year. In other words, if someone tells you that he knows exactly how admission works and that he can get you into School X, he is lying to you. Of course, there are things you can do to improve your chances, but in the end, there is still an element of randomness.

Website design By BotEap.comSecond, in the years after my applications were summarily rejected by all the top colleges I applied to, I learned more about the process. For example, in my first round of applications, I didn’t bother trying to build a relationship with the teachers at the schools I was applying to. I did not give as much care and time to my essays as I should, and I did not explicitly talk to my recommenders about the topic and focus I wanted my application package to have. I also didn’t spend enough time making my writing sample perfect. All of these were huge mistakes. In a highly competitive program like Yale’s, the admissions committee looks for reasons to eliminate a candidate. A few mistakes in a writing sample will do that. Also, not having a professor you’ve already talked to speak up for your application will also hurt you. On my second try, I did all of these things correctly, and I pretty much knew which schools I was getting into before I got the good news emails.

Website design By BotEap.comThird, in the intervening years, I became a stronger candidate. To be honest, after I got rejected from every grad school, I didn’t think much of reapplying. I falsely assumed that his rejection was personal, as if the school had said, “Brian, we don’t want you.” Remember, a school really only rejects an application. If you bring it better and harder next time, you might do better in the process. So I went to law school, had a series of interesting jobs, and became a better writer. So the next time when admissions looked at my resume, it was much more solid and convincing.

Website design By BotEap.comSo, back to your own dilemma. You have an inbox full of rejections, and let’s be honest, it hurts to get rejected. Do you want to go through that again? Here are the four things you should consider.

Website design By BotEap.comOne, what can you do between now and when you reapply to improve your resume? Are there jobs you can get that will make your application more attractive? For example, if you’re applying to doctoral science programs or medical schools, it might make sense to bolster your scientific bona fides by working in a research lab for a while. If you’re applying for Political Science programs, volunteer for a campaign, work on a think tank, or take some other position that demonstrates your commitment to a cause or issue, and in the process provides you with stories, successes, and insights you can put to use. your personal statement.

Website design By BotEap.comIf test scores were a problem, do you think you can improve them? If grades are an issue, can you enroll in a local college, take relevant classes, and increase your GPA? This process requires an honest evaluation on your part. Talk to the admissions people if necessary and ask them what they want or are looking for. To be honest, some of the things you will need to do may take longer than the 9-10 months you have before the next admissions cycle.

Website design By BotEap.comTwo, what can you do to improve your app? Please note that this is very different from your resume. Too many applicants make the mistake that having good grades, good test scores, and a good resume will get them to the school of their choice. For many schools, it will be; for many, it won’t be. Neglect your personal statement, letters of recommendation and, if applicable, writing sample at your own risk. I’ll elaborate on this in future posts, but for now suffice it to say that an app should present a consistent and clear set of themes about who you are, what you’ll bring to the program, and why they should support you. So if you didn’t spend hours and hours sweating every word, semicolon, and footnote in your writing sample, you can probably improve it. If you haven’t worked hard to make sure that your writing sample and personal statement work together to tell the admissions committee who you are personally and intellectually, then you can probably do better.

Website design By BotEap.comIf you haven’t already, take your personal statement and writing sample (and any other relevant documents) and show them to a few trusted advisors, mentors, and friends and ask them to tell you what the problem is. Pride of authorship aside, ask yourself, “how can I make them better?” If you feel like you can do better, this is something to consider.

Website design By BotEap.comThree, you must consider the personal costs of continuing to pursue this dream. While studying for the bar exam, I met a man who was taking the exam for the eleventh time. I felt deeply sad for this man, but I thought, “Dude, I don’t think he’s meant to be a lawyer.” He had a family back home, and while he tried and tried to become a lawyer, he did not pursue other options that might have put his family in a better position. There’s a fine line between persistence and the quixotic pursuit of a dream that just won’t happen. If the costs of doing this again are too high in terms of work, money, romantic life, family life, or personal life, then maybe it’s time to put this dream aside, at least for now.

Website design By BotEap.comThe fourth, and very related to the previous point, is that you need to really think about how much you want it. If you only know, through and through, that you’re destined to get a graduate education, then you’re probably due at least one more real try. A great app can take 5-6 months to put together, it could require hundreds of hours to perfect your proofing techniques, and it could even cost you a lot of money to use services like EssayEdge.com or Gurufi.com to make your perfect personal statement and writing sample. .

Website design By BotEap.comAfter all these years, I’m glad I reapplied. I waited a few years to do it, but in the interim I became a better candidate and got better results. I know what it’s like to have your dreams shattered by a rejection letter… or six. But I also know how wonderful it feels to enter the program of your dreams. So my last bit of advice is if you think it’s not worth reapplying, we wish you the best of luck. Find your passion and live it. On the other hand, if you want to get into the school of your dreams, you will have to fight and you will have to earn it.