[Anger] Yale Hurts Me!

[shalalong]

Well....I really donno why!....

In my class 2 people get in with such a huge amount of money while I'm out. Their GPA rankings are the 1st and the 2nd while I am the fourth, but I really have the confidence from all other aspects.

I know their sources of recommenders, some of these profs also recommend me and they told me mine would be better than theirs based on the follows:

I did RA while they don't, the RA paper has been published and my part and name are on.

My thesis is done and Yale prof (though not in the committee, he said "I am sure you will be very successful in application") said it's interesting while they don't have any research experiences.

My references are definitely better, no mention the very famous profs' which they don't have.

......

I donno, I really donno, did Yale committee profs just threw my files away only because of the f**king GPA ranking?!

[filroz]

Calm down, dude! Yale is not the only school in the world.

[OneMoreEcon]

Calm down, dude! Yale is not the only school in the world.

You didn't get the news yet? Due to budget crises, all other universities have decided to close as of fall. Harvard and Yale have overcome their rivalry and decided to merge, but it's more cost-effective to use the existing New Haven campus... expansion is much easier and cheaper outside of Cambridge. But all the signs in New Haven already say Yale, so they're keeping that name. No need to go wasting money on new signs during a financial crisis of this magnitude. The current Harvard and MIT campuses will now be known as "Yale - Cambridge campus." So if you didn't get into Yale, you're out of luck... even those of you with acceptance letters to other universities already. Those will be recalled due to budget constraints.

[someone had to do it, and HarryLime isn't around at the moment]

[rationalexpectations]

OnemoreEcon= hilarious.

[averageall]

My thesis is done and Yale prof (though not in the committee, he said "I am sure you will be very successful in application") said it's interesting while they don't have any research experiences.

What about email the prof. u know at yale asking whether he has any info regarding thy application? This might helps.

[Chicunomics]

You know, I have noticed that there seems to be a lot more angst around the forums this year than last. I dunno, maybe I’ve selectively blocked some of it out, and am the victim of old-timer ‘things used to be better’-type thinking. But I have some bad news for you. It’s going to get worse. Getting rejected is not a problem, because it lets you move on and focus on the schools that are left. Being stuck on a waitlist at a school that you desperately want to go to, but that never moves, well that, as they say, sucks balls. Inevitably, a few people here – particularly in light of this year’s especially large applicant pool – will be rejected across the board. I remember the people this happened to last year, and I also remember that they were incredibly dignified about the whole thing. To whatever extent they weren’t, they kept it out of the public domain. People here can definitely understand what you’re going through. But there comes a point where all this whinyness starts to wear thin. There is a long road ahead.

As for the OP’s situation, well, I have a few things to say to you. Firstly, if you really care about the money that much, you are about to make a terrible life-choice. Secondly, whether you like it or not, class rank is one of the purest forms of comparing candidates, especially from schools with which the adcoms are not very familiar. And I have come to learn that research experience is not as crucial as I had previously believed: after all, you’re coming to graduate school to learn how to become a researcher, not because they want to be credited with all of your research output over the next 5 years. They will do the training, and they don’t expect you to be a ready-trained researcher as you enter the program. So maybe in this case, they overlooked that aspect of your application. Maybe the next place won’t. And believe it or not, they do not have the time to go through and read every letter of reference from every applicant. You will have been ranked against your classmates, and perhaps the GPA is what they used to set your application aside. If your LORs are really as good as you say, then maybe next time you’ll get luckier, have them read, and then get in ahead of your classmates. This sort of phenomenon is precisely why this whole process has a random element to it -- or at least seems to.

In the meantime, to you (and to others who are not featured in this thread), go outside, run around a bit, or if it’s too cold, at least get the hell away from your computer for a while. No one (normal) feels comfortable reading candidates vent their frustrations in such an unproductive way. It just makes you sound spoilt, and it is still such a long way between now and April 15. I wish you all the very best of luck, but some people really need to keep things in perspective.

[Golden Rule]

If you're the kind of person who is constantly being competitive and evaluating yourself against your classmates, and get easily upset about it, do you think your professors are going to give you the most honest assessment about where you stand?

If I were a prof. I'd be annoyed if any student pressured me to assess where they stand relative to classmates in my LORs. That would be reflected in my LORs to some extent.

Worry about doing the best you can, and don't freak out about your classmates so much.

[shalalong]

What about email the prof. u know at yale asking whether he has any info regarding thy application? This might helps.

Thank you Averageall, I will move on soon.

Thank you Chicunomics, what you said is very true, it's my fault to get angry about this. Whatever, they are also very excellent students.

Thank you Golden Rule, yes I've always been competitive and ....always have some bad ideas against peers. (But I really honestly appreciate and learn others' advantage, I rarely, or never, am jealous)

[economics]

that sucks. admission seem always random in some sense, but it sucks to see other people from your own institution be admitted, while you're not (and while you consider yourself better prepared).

what undergraduate school are you at? the further you go down the ranking (in ec), the less they care about LoRs.

furthermore, the profs clearly don't know the other two students, right? so they don't know the quality of THEIR LoRs.

[shalalong]

Im in China but some of my LoRs are also from profs of Columbia and Berkeley and they know me well and they recommend me strongly....