It was only a dream

[fellmama]

Well.
I got rejected from Berkeley today. One down, seven to go. I've had a lot of difficulty explaining this to people, but here goes one more try: I probably won't get into grad school. See, I applied to places that are a)high-caliber and b)extremely selective. I didn't apply to any safety schools. So not getting into one most likely equals not getting into any. I don't understand why this is so hard to grasp. The fact that thus and so on the committee at University X is a dick has nothing to do with my lack of qualifications.
I honestly don't know what to do if I don't get in anywhere. I have no actual "skills" in anything I'd enjoy making a living at.
This makes it very difficult to care about my Latin homework.
You'd think they'd at least send me a fucking letter.

Edit, 10:36 PM: Y'all are fabulous. Seriously. Europe needs my cracker brain? Amazing Jesus? I seem to have surrounded myself with people who always know exactly the right thing to say. And if I don't get into grad school, I'ma be a bum. I hear there are lots of opportunities for career advancement--in a few years, I might make hobo!

Comments

Reasons for Optimism

[colvincd.livejournal.com]

I'd rather not go to grad school than go to a grad school where I was just going to be some prof's bitch for 2-4 years with no real prospect of becoming one myself. I can't think of what other skills you would need to have (for ancient anyway).

As for myself, I hope that I do well at Czech so I have at least one skill for when I apply (it doesn't seem like many schools in the US even teach that language.)

Good news: according to Newsweek the European economy is going to be going down the tubes this century because everyone's getting old, they don't have any replacements for pensioners and they don't want to cut their social programs. Top this off with continued racism towards Muslims and it can only lead to one thing:

Europe needs our Cracker brains. I'm doubly inclined to work hard on my German!

[superquail.livejournal.com]

If they didn't send you a letter, how did you find out you were rejected?

[annamal-11.livejournal.com]

When I was applying to grad schools, some schools (ahem, UCSB and UCLA) didn't even send me a letter to let me know I'd been rejected. I had to log into the website to find out. Those bastards. Don't they know that a rejection letter, while still a bummer, is a common courtesy?

[parksdh.livejournal.com]

Its also a big expense for absolutely no return.

[lizzytheamazon.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* I'm sorry, Mary. I would have let you in!

My words of inspiration:

[love-pirate.livejournal.com]

Seriously, you never know about the other ones (admissions are a mysterious force we cannot hope to fully understand). If that's not what you wanna hear, well...sorry.
And as a wise man once told me: You don't have to be on the path yet, just get near the path.

Re: My words of inspiration:

[superquail.livejournal.com]

That IS wise. Where did you hear that?

[10pmpacifictime.livejournal.com]

It sucks (and this may sound like I'm feeding you sour grapes, but Berkley isn't exactly a student friendly campus), but I think you'll be ok. At the worst, you don't get into any of the schools you applied to this year. You take a year and work and apply to some different schools. There's no written law that says you have to move from college directly to university.

To cheer you up --> http://www.youtube.com/?v=5GsJbD9lJQo

[princessrosered.livejournal.com]

That totally sucks. I can't say that the admissions process for my programs is the same ('cause they're completely different...wow, I sound so cool), but I've thus far been rejected from one and have 10 to hear from. Waiting kind of sucks, and I keep getting more pessimistic, but I suppose, if possible, there's no reason to find another possibility, or give up on the dream, until you have to. At least that's what I say when my mom asks.

[koni.livejournal.com]

I went through the same thing. I'm kind of happy that I didn't get in... but... you know.

A story about being a bum

[parksdh.livejournal.com]

A couple summers ago by the railroad tracks that run through Eugene next to the river I met a bum. He struck up a conversation, telling me all about a sweet leather jacket he had found next to the tracks. I nodded my agreement, although the jacket was really just a piece of shit. Then he told me he was going to pawn it. He figured he'd get twenty bucks or so, and then go buy a beer. I asked him if he really thought he'd get twenty bucks for it, and after leering at me for a while, he said it really was a sweet jacket. Once again, I agreed. We repeated the same basic conversation for about the next ten minutes, until finally he asked me what I was doing in town and I said I was doing physics research. He then asked me if I could "cook him up some mushrooms," but when I replied that it wasn't really that kind of physics research, he seemed to have forgotten about that track of the conversation and instead started telling me about a really sweet leather jacket he had found on the railroad tracks and how he was going to pawn it and buy some beer.

Re: A story about being a bum

[superquail.livejournal.com]

That was inspirational.

[pink-katie.livejournal.com]

Mary, you and I can become grad school rejects together and form a bum commune (which might actually be one and the same thing...). Seriously, though, I hear that Berkeley is a way fucking expensive city to live in and this only means that some other lucky grad school will get to have you in its department.

[lizzytheamazon.livejournal.com]

Hey, you could come to LA with me and be a starving actor--or play cowbell for the blue oyster cult. HOTT.

[annamal-11.livejournal.com]

MORE COWBELL!!! :)

Aw, but Latin is so FUN

[bougival.livejournal.com]

...especially when you realize that what you're supposed to be looking for in the sentences you were supposed to do for this morning's class are the ablative absolute and passive periphrastic NOT the passive periphrastic and dative of agent (since there are a full six of the former and only two of the latter) like I was trying to do for at least an hour.
-Sarah
(Don't you feel cool that you know what I'm talking about?)

Re: Aw, but Latin is so FUN

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

Oh, but of course. The really sad thing is that after writing this I went and absolutely OWNED the sententiae antiquae. And the REALLY sad things is that made me feel better.
*adding you*

[ravenmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Totally. The bennies are great in large cities. No such thing as a free lunch? Obviously, that man did *not* have the fabulous experience of being at a soup kitchen.

Best cardboard sign ever:

Not homeless, just broke college student.
Will work for a real job.
God bless.

[aspend.livejournal.com]

My dad was telling me a story about when his friend was getting into Med school and he said that they often just throw half the applications away right from the start because there are so many. Perhaps yours for Berkley just didn't land on the right stair when they threw them down the staircase. :-(

[superquail.livejournal.com]

Do they REALLY do that? I thought it was an urban myth . . .

[annamal-11.livejournal.com]

Hang in there, Mary. It's a rough process. And really, you never know about grad schools. Some (good) school will want you.

The admissions process really sucks. Boo on Berkeley.

[dolphinlove.livejournal.com]

The best line in these letters? "Although we realize that this must be disappointing news to receive, it does not necessarily mean that your credentials are not worthy of consideration for graduate study." Schools have way too much power right now...