Hi, I'm Casey I'm a professor and many years ago when i applied for phd programs for the
first time i was rejected from every single one of them. Things obviously worked out
okay for me but it required me to try again. I've done a series of videos here on youtube
about advice for applying for phd programs. The last one i did was really happy, it was
what happens when you have multiple options and have to decide between multiple programs.
But some of you might be in the other situation where you don't have options
maybe you have gotten rejections from the programs that you applied to first of all
i'm sorry it sucks it's demoralizing and it can feel like your journey towards a phd is over
but that is not necessarily the case as i talked about in a video with some common reasons why
phd applicants are rejected some of those reasons have nothing to do with how strong of an applicant
you are some of it is just bad luck or bad timing especially when it comes to things like
the capacity of departments or even individual advisors i won't reiterate everything that was
in that video but the gist of it is it's possible there's nothing wrong with your application
it could just mean that you need to apply again or to apply to a wider variety of programs but it's
also possible that there were some weaknesses in your application that you could strengthen before
you try applying again so that's what i'm going to talk about in this video so first you should
critically consider your application and whether there are things about the application itself that
you can potentially improve for example could your statement of purpose be stronger more tailored did
you ask the right people to write your letters of recommendation so i won't detail all the things
here that make an application stronger but you can binge watch my previous videos if you want to
but what i actually really recommend is to get some specific advice from someone in your
discipline because again the advice that i give i try to make it quite general but it's not going
to be perfectly tailored for every discipline a good place to start might be the faculty who
wrote you letters of recommendation there's a lot of lead time here so you're not asking for
something very quickly you could write them to thank them again for their help and to let them
know that you weren't successful this time but that you're hoping to apply to programs again and
you're wondering if they might have the bandwidth to give you any advice or even have a look at your
statement of purpose it doesn't hurt to ask so again it's possible that your application
materials themselves could be improved it's also possible that they're as good as it can possibly
be and so that's what the rest of this video is going to assume that it's not a deficiency
in the way you put together your application so the second thing is for your own credentials you
need to figure out what you can change and what you can't you know that old cliche about accepting
the things that you cannot change and having the wisdom to know the difference kind of like that
my advice is to not obsess over the things that you can't change for example your gpa at this
point may very well be something you cannot change but remember your gpa is not going to completely
make or break your application it's just one thing there also may be some things you may or
may not be able to change for example gre scores and that's when you really need to weigh the cost
benefit of trying to improve your scores whether and how that is is going to vary greatly depending
on your situation for example if you applied to math phd programs with a very low quant score
it's possible that that was the deciding factor however in many cases it wouldn't have mattered at
all even if gre scores were required but in any case you should focus your efforts on things
that you can improve instead of obsessing over the things you can't and in terms of
things you can change between now and applying again later this is probably the biggest one
get more experience now what this looks like is going to look really different in different fields
but in general i think there are three primary flavors in which additional experience comes the
first get a graduate degree first typically this comes in the form of a master's degree
if you already have another graduate degree this one might be off the table
however it is true that students who are applying to phd programs and already have master's degrees
often are stronger applicants most of the time it's not simply by virtue of having a degree
it's because a master's degree often leaves you with more research experience experience taking
graduate level classes and therefore faculty who can write you letters of recommendation speaking
to your potential as a graduate student it can also be really useful because you would get a
taste of what it's like to be a graduate student in your field and decide whether it's really what
you want or not and probably be able to speak much more clearly to why you want to get a phd you also
might even consider looking into whether there are master's programs at the dream school that you did
not get into a phd for sometimes it's possible for students who do very well in a master's
program to be able to just kind of slip into a phd program but of course that is not guaranteed
all this said i realize that master's degrees can be very expensive and funding for those is less
prevalent than they are for phd programs so not everyone will be able to take this particular path
so a second option get work experience preferably that is relevant to your field again what this
looks like is going to be different for everyone but there are strong phd applicants all the time
in part because they have a few years or even decades of experience of work in industry
nonprofits government labs etc in theory the closer the job is to the kind of experience
that's relevant for your field the better but this doesn't mean for example that if you want to get a
phd in biology the only relevant work experience is like a research technician in a wet lab it
could also be great to be a science journalist or a middle school science teacher or to work
at an advocacy organization this is also a nice option because you'd spend a few years making more
money than you would as a phd student probably and third some other path towards research experience
if you are out of school and you can't find a job that is directly researched in your field
this can of course be more difficult but it's not impossible particularly now with so many
people doing remote work consider reaching out to faculty and phd students whose work you admire
to see if they need an extra pair of hands on a project just don't be upset if the answer is no or
you don't get an answer at all you should also be aware though that it can be challenging to
hire people outside the university as research assistants or there might not even be any money
available for particular projects this could mean that you would essentially be volunteering your
labor for this reason i am hesitant to really strongly recommend this particular path because
not everyone can afford to spend their time on something for which they're not getting paid
that said if you're able to do it if you have the time and of course if you're wanting to get
a phd that probably means that you love research so it's something to consider or especially if
you're in a humanities discipline where research tends to be quite individual you could consider
writing essays or even blog posts about something that you're passionate about in that field
it shows that you are dedicated that you're thinking
it could make you a stronger applicant and of course it's also possible that
your application was great and you have all the experience that you need on paper you're amazing
but maybe you didn't apply to the right places or to enough places so a fourth suggestion
find more programs to apply to now there isn't a magic number here i really can't tell you and how
many programs you decide to apply to will also depend on for example what you can afford in
application fees and it's going to be different for every field and subfield how many there
even that are appropriate at all and we all have dream schools but you have to consider both fit
and odds again back to you could be a wonderful applicant but that particular program just doesn't
have space for new students this is of course an argument for just trying again next year but
also for giving yourself more options especially if you're in a lab-based discipline where advisor
fit is very important do more research about who is doing the kind of work that you want to do
and what programs are affiliated with don't get too hung up on the prestige of the university
sometimes there are amazing faculty in programs that are not as competitive pay attention to
faculty hires in your field there's people who are going to need more students pay attention
to grant award announcements in your fields this will suggest what faculty have funding and what
kind of work they're going to need students to do as i talked about in my video about deciding where
to apply the criteria that you should consider is would i rather go to this program or wait
you shouldn't apply to places where you'd rather not go anywhere at all than go there
so now that you're in this position a way to think about this might be if i had applied
to this program this year would i have been happy to get accepted there would i have gone and if so
put them on your list for next year and finally you should redo your research for tailoring
applications because once more for the back of the room if you are in one of those disciplines where
advisor fit is really important it is entirely possible that the sole reason you were rejected
was that there wasn't an advisor fit for you now this could be either because there's not anyone
in the department doing the kind of work that you want to do or it could be that there is but they
can't take on new advisees so in addition to the things i just mentioned paying attention to new
hires paying attention to grant announcements also consider following the faculty that you admire on
social media or setting a google scholar alert for them so that you know what they're up to and what
kind of work they're doing this isn't stalking it's fine if you follow someone on twitter
and then when the time comes probably early fall if it's appropriate and you're disciplined to
do this reach out to these faculty members to find out if they're potentially taking on new
advisees during that admission cycle and what kind of work they're currently doing i'll link below to
a twitter thread where i gave a kind of template for writing this sort of email and maybe i'll do
a video about it when the time comes but one of the great things about doing this due diligence is
both that you can find out what they're currently working on which you might not
know about because if it's their current work they probably haven't published on it yet
but also if for example they're not taking on new advisees or planning to during that admission
cycle they will likely tell you other faculty in that department that you might want to reach out
to i know that it is very frustrating to not know why you received rejections but i hope this video
gives you some things to think about because in some my advice is if you really want this
try again but don't put your life on hold in the meantime and for those of you who received
acceptances already during this cycle first of all congratulations and also please feel free
to put your own advice in the comments below for people who might be deciding to go on this journey
again and once again i was rejected from every phd program i applied to the first time around
i spent a year working in my area of expertise as a technical writer then i went to law school
now i'm not saying you should go to law school if you know you want to get a phd to be fair
i thought i wanted to be a lawyer but it is the case that i got into a phd program the second
time around even though it was four years after the first time that i applied to phd programs
and also to be clear there is no such thing as too old to start a phd but i don't start thinking that
if you get a master's degree or if you have a career for a few years that you're somehow
messing up your whole trajectory it's totally fine i promise in fact as i said
a lot of the strongest phd applicants are not coming straight out of undergrad and again if
you're watching this because you have gotten a pile of rejections and you're feeling dejected
i'm really sorry but i promise it's not the end of the world
i really do encourage you to keep going and good luck to all of you i'm casey thanks for watching