"Farther" by Vacationer

I have been so busy that I have yet to really find any time to think. Of course this all started when I received the rejection letter for grad school. I pretty much put all my eggs in one basket, a basket that I thought I didn't have to worry about. I feel that I am an attractive applicant, presenting a lot to the program; with my research experience and award I felt I was a shoe in. But, I wasn't. When I scheduled an appointment to meet with the new person in charge of admissions, I didn't know what to expect. The opening question, that seems to come out of everyone's mouth that I meet is, “Do you know why you were not accepted into the program?” My response to this is, that I have an idea but please tell me so I am sure. Marisol, the graduate advisor, pulled out my application. Everything I had submitted was printed, no longer in its origional digital form all bundled together into a neat packet. Written on the pages, were notes and arrows as if it were some neat treasure map. Circled was my quantitative score on the GRE. Given, I did not do well on the overall test, the singular reason as to why I wasn't let in was my math score. The follow up question was: “Have you scheduled yourself to take the GRE again?” and of course, I did not. I did not have any plans in taking that test again nor thinking about it again. After talking to Marisol, she said I was very well spoken and it would be in my best interest to meet with the director of the program. To prepare she suggested getting a portfolio together consisting of: three additional letters of recommendation, a letter from my therapist stating I have test anxiety, and finally some samples of my writing. She these words flew out of her mouth I was already planning what I would show for my writing and who I would ask for an additional letter. I thanked her and headed back to my office. By the time I got settled, an hour had passed and the director was calling me. He asked if I knew why I didn't get into the program and I stated that it was due to my Gre score. He also pointed out that my gpa was 2.5, “but that is my old gpa, I have a new one” I stated. He replied with “yeah, yeah, I know you now have a 3.45 but you received a C in both stats and psych and law.” Yes I did, that semester was horrible for me. Dealing with Mike's mother passing and then the murder of Michelle did not help me with concentrating in school. I knew sharing this information with him would fall on deaf ears. So I finally asked him what would happen with me taking the Gre again and he answered with “Nothing.” He continued with “you are an undesirable candidate and it would be best if you looked for another college.” Honestly I didn't know what to say to him, being nasty wouldn't accomplish anything so I just thanked him for his time and hung up.

I met with Anna shortly after and told her what happened and she was amazed but not surprised. She said that the people in the psych dept treat the students like shit. So I found some other programs and I need to apply to them. As for right now, I have three programs to apply to. I just need to make time to start the applications and give the professors a heads up.

(I originally wrote this December 19, 2012)

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