Hi, I'm Casey. I'm a professor and this is my fourth in a series of
videos about applying for PhD programs. Probably the last for now. So my previous
videos, and I'll include links to all of those in the description
down below, have focused on some deep dives around things like should you get
a PhD at all, what are some tips for the
application process, etc. And based on a lot of that
information, I wanted to do a final video that sums
up some of the most common reasons that I
have seen or heard about that PhD applicants
are rejected. With the hopes of giving you some insights and some tips
that would help you avoid those problems. The last one in particular I think is
both hopeful and depressing at the same time.
All right so first my usual disclaimer which is that most of my experience
is in lab-based STEM disciplines and so some of this advice might be more
specific to that, than for example disciplines where you
don't work as closely with an individual advisor.
All right reason number one why you might be rejected from a PhD program:
it's not clear why you want to get a PhD. Maybe your personal statement doesn't
show a strong interest or passion for research or it's
not clear what you're interested in. Maybe you're talking about career
aspirations that don't actually require a PhD or maybe your statement is
focusing on things that just don't matter as much, like how excited you are
about PhD coursework. Maybe you're not showing that you even
understand what research is or why someone would
get a PhD. If you're not sure then have a look at
my previous video about reasons to get a PhD and that
might help you think through some things. But in general you should be making sure
that in your statement of purpose or personal statement that you are showing
that you have interest in research that you understand
what it is, that you have passion for it, and that you have a specific research
interest. That doesn't mean that you have a dissertation topic but that at least
you have some general idea of what it is that you're so passionate
about that you want to spend the next five or six years of your life making no
money and being really stressed just so that
you can deep dive into that thing. All right, reason number two why
you might be rejected from a PhD program is that
you're not a fit for that program. Or at least you haven't demonstrated why
you are. Does the research area that you proposed
even fit into that discipline? Or the research
methods or sort of type of research that you talk about in your personal
statement? Are you applying to the right discipline?
And then a little more specific, are you talking about things that are
happening in that department. Some disciplines are
huge and some departments are small and quite
specialized, so are you even a fit for what's happening
in that particular department or program? Also maybe you sent the exact same
statement to every single program to which you
applied? Don't do that. There needs to be something specific
about that program, and the only way that you can show the
admissions committee what that thing is, the thing that makes
you want to go there and that makes you a fit for there is
for you to be specific for each program in your statement. Now of course there's
going to be a lot of it that's going to be exactly the same but you need to make
sure to have some tailoring. And if for example you
have a reason that's like, I really have to live in this particular
city, don't say that in your personal
statement necessarily. Come up with something else.
You can totally come up with something. Sometimes
if you need to live in a specific location for example
that means that you need to adjust your own interests and expectations to fit
that program. And if that's what you do that's what
you need to say in your statement, are those things that you've adjusted.
All right, a third reason you might see a rejection is
because there's no advisor fit in that department.
Now as i've mentioned in my past videos, it's really important to
know the faculty and the department and the kind of work that they do.
This is of course more true in a lab-based discipline
where you're going to be working extremely closely with a particular
advisor, but this is also true even in other
kinds of disciplines where you might not have an advisor for
a couple of years, but there still needs to be
someone who can advise you. So if your research interests are just completely
unrelated to what anyone in the department is doing
in a way it would be unethical to accept you as a student when there's no one to
advise you. Now it doesn't need to be an exact fit
but you do need to be able to show some connection to at least one faculty
member in the department, and ideally more than that. Some PhD
programs even have a requirement that there has to be
at least two people who could advise any incoming student and so you need to try
to see a connection with your interest with at least two faculty members.
And make sure that this is reasonably up-to-date. Right like
don't assume that someone is still doing the same work that they've done 10 years
ago. And also make sure that you've looked
into the recent work that their students are doing because this might also give
you a sense of how broad they can advise. And make these
connections clear in your personal statement. Did you
mention the faculty by name? Also make sure that the faculty you
mention are actually in that department. This is a
mistake I see students make really frequently and I'm not
entirely sure why. But definitely make sure that the
faculty you say you want to work with are actually
in the department that you are applying to and not elsewhere at the university.
If you reach out to potential advisors ahead of time this is one of those
things that they can potentially help you with.
They might even point you to other faculty members. I have a link
in the description to a Twitter thread where I wrote out a sort of template for
how you might reach out to faculty with these kinds of
questions. You don't have to do this but it can be
helpful for you thinking through some of these things before you write your
your personal statement. All right, another reason why you might see a
rejection is because you don't have a research
experience. First, to be clear, do not let a lack of
research experience dissuade you entirely from applying. But I do want to
mention this because it is a legitimate reason
why you might have a harder time getting into PhD programs than someone who does
have clear research experience. Some of this is about proving that you
have potential, that you know what you're doing. I mean it certainly is less of a risk to take on a student who for example has a
master's degree and has already been doing research for a couple of years
because you know that they can do it. But it's not just that, it's also about
showing that you know what research is and therefore
you might seem more confident that this is what you want to do.
This doesn't mean that you need to be published.
I mean of course that helps but I don't think that it's an expectation that
students should have publications when they're applying to PhD programs. So if
you have experience, flaunt it. Talk about it, talk about what
you've learned and how this is how you know that a PhD is the perfect path for
you. Mention working in a lab, if you have
papers that are in preparation or under submission.
Talk about how this experience made you understand your love for research and
how it led you in the particular direction that you are interested in.
This is how you should write a statement of purpose. However,
even if you don't have clear research experience, make sure that you write
about how you know this is what you want to do,
why you're excited about it, what you're interested in.
Just make sure that it's clear that you know what this is
and that this is what you want to do. And if you're early enough in the process,
like if you still have another year or say before
you're going to be applying for PhD programs then
get that research experience. Reach out to faculty
and see if you can help them on a project.
And if you're really worried about your PhD applications for this reason
but you really are passionate about this you might consider
also applying for some master's programs because if you do strike out in PhD
applications, particularly if this is the reason,
then getting that experience and a master's degree could make it so that
it's a slam dunk next time. All right ,another reason you might see a
rejection is weak letters of recommendation. Do
all of your recommendation letters just say
I taught a class, here's what the class was, they got an A in this class?
So there's more detail about this in my application tips video, but essentially
make sure that anyone who's writing you a letter is writing you a strong
letter. It should be someone who knows you well, ideally someone that you've
had some kind of research experience with or maybe they taught a class where
you did a really impressive project, but there needs to be something that
they can say. And if you're still early enough in the process
try to get to know some faculty because that will really help.
All right, my least favorite one, but one reason why you might get rejected is
low grades or low test scores. First, please don't let this discourage
you from applying. I can't pretend it's not an issue at all
even if i personally don't care as much about some of these things.
As I mentioned in my tips video, GRE scores
are increasingly less important for PhD applications.
So if you do have low scores you should maybe consider applying to programs
where GRE scores are not accepted or are optional. There are a lot of them and
you can probably find some places to apply where your scores definitely will
not affect you. Grades are a little trickier. Grades can
be both an indicator of like work ethic
and skill slash subject matter expertise. But of course when we're looking at
applications we do know that it's impossible to
really judge this by looking at grades. I typically only take note of grades if
they are exceptionally low, in which case i look
at the transcripts to see what the trajectory looks like. For example,
was this one bad semester that just tanked your entire GPA? In which case
that suggests that there was probably something going on with you and
then it's not a broader indication of your work ethic,
for example. Something that I also see a lot is
someone changing majors and then doing so much better in the new
one. This is often something that we can read between
the lines when we're looking at an application, but if it is
really significant, it might be worth addressing and trying to put a positive
spin on it in your personal statement. So for
example, even though I struggled with X Y Z I was able to
dot dot dot... You also might consider whether one of your letter writers can
help you with this explanation. So for example they might write
something like, I saw the student struggle but they really pulled it
together. Or i really saw this student blossom
when they joined our department or something like that.
But mostly, and this is true for all of these things
that i have mentioned, a deficiency in one part of your
application can be made up for by strengths in
other parts. So if your grades are really low
get some research experience so that you're going to have that to talk about
and like an awesome letter of recommendation
from the faculty member that you work with. If you don't have research
experience, maybe your grades are awesome. This is
what holistic review is for. No applicant is just a single number.
iIm sure that there are some programs that have numerical cutoffs and that
kind of sucks and I don't know what to do about that, but for the most part when
we're looking at an application it is the whole person
and not just one single part of the application. All right,
next reason for a potential rejection, I'm saving this for almost last
because you would think it would be obvious but sometimes you'd be surprised,
and that is mistakes in your application. In your personal statement do you give
the correct name of the university? The correct program at the university?
You mentioned faculty that are actually at that university and in that
department? Do you provide everything that they ask
for for the application and don't leave things out?
Did you hit the deadline? Now it's not that we're like blackballing people
because you made a small mistake but some of these things do suggest a
lack of attention to detail. This doesn't mean
that if you accidentally send in the personal statement for the wrong school
that there is like 100 chance you're going to get rejected, but it certainly
doesn't look good right. So just try to be really
careful about these things. All right, this brings me to my very last
point, and this is a good news bad news thing. A
reason that you could be rejected is a bad timing. So the good news is,
rejection isn't always your fault at all. And the bad news is rejection isn't
always your fault at all. Basically this means that you can
do everything right and if you had applied last year or next
year you might have been a shoe-in but this year
it's a rejection. It's the same kind of thing with job hunting.
It depends on a lot of different factors that are completely outside your control.
So there are a lot of reasons for this but the most common has to do with
capacity. Could be the capacity of an individual
advisor. Maybe the only faculty member that it would be appropriate for you to
work with just has so many PhD students or is
completely out of money. Maybe the entire department has a
capacity issue and that they can only have so many
students at a time. Both of these things might also intersect with whoever else
happens to be applying this year. Maybe a particular faculty member only
has one spot in their lab. Maybe you are actually the
better applicant but the other person's research
interests are so much closer to say a grant that's funded and needs someone to
work on it. There could be a lot of things that you
just don't know. Even maybe everyone in the department knows
that the faculty member who works in your area
is leaving the department at the end of the academic year and isn't going to be
there next year. The point of this is, all of these things
that are outside your control suggest that you shouldn't give up.
And that you should always apply to multiple programs. Even if you think
that there is a dream place that you are an
absolute shoe-in for, you never know what's gonna happen.
Please don't put all of your eggs in one basket here.
As I've mentioned before I applied to PhD programs earlier in my career and I
was rejected from every single one of them.
These things happen. If you strike out you can try again. And as i talked about
in my video about how to decide which programs
to apply to, you should make decisions about if you
don't get into your dream school would you be willing to go to this other
school or would you want to wait a year and try
again for example. You might even get some
indication, particularly if you have reached out to specific faculty members,
about why you received a rejection.
Maybe. Please don't bother them about this that they don't offer that
information though because sometimes it's really complicated
and there isn't a clear reason etc etc. And I know that's a little discouraging
that there's this bit of randomness in the process but on the bright side
sometimes this randomness works in your favor. Maybe you
are the one with the perfect research interest for the grant that just got
funded. You never know. All right, so I hope that
this video gave you some ideas for them some things
that you might do in the process now to better your
chances in being accepted into PhD programs. If
you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments
below. And of course again you'll find some
more detail in some of my other videos about this process.
For right now this is the last video in the
applying for PhD programs series. However, I will be picking this back up
again in the spring as people start hearing back from
programs and you need to think about things like
interviews and making final decisions. So if you're going to be in that position
make sure that you subscribe and hit the bell so that
you know when I post new videos even if you wait until January to watch them.
As always I wish you the [sound of collar jingling]
That was my dog. As always i wish you the very best of luck
with this process and I really do hope that you find the perfect
PhD program for you. So this is Casey and thanks for watching.
[to dog, off-screen] Go lay down.