What to do after PhD Physics application rejection?

[Carphysics]

What to do after PhD Physics application rejection?
======================================================

Thanks for your response to my threads.

My son will be graduating in May 2020 with Physics Major & astronomy minor from Maryland .

My son applied for PhD program (Astronomy/Astrophysics) in many schools.

No one offer him an admission. He is frustrated after putting effort and submitting reference etc. He find hard to digest this setback.

We do not have an idea, what went wrong here.

Who is able to review and provide assessment/diagnosis?

You know schools are closed for this pandemic and all facing difficult situation.

As he graduate in May 2020, he will be in academic limbo.

No one expected this when he applied to programs.

What are the next course of actions/avenue available to him?

Thanks for your guidance/insight.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I think it would be best for your son to come here himself.

 

[Choppy]

It's important not to take this too personally. In the end graduate admissions has an element of chance to it. Sometimes the dice don't come up in your favour no matter how good of a candidate you are.

You can do a "post mortem." I'm sure there are people around here who would be willing to offer opinions if he's willing to post up a set of numbers like his GPA, GRE scores, research experience, etc. and the schools he applied to. But sometimes you can be entirely reasonable in your choices and still not get in because there are only N available spots and M > N candidates who not only meet the minimum criteria but are all considered competitive. And sometimes N = 0 for particular sub-fields. Given the current state of the world, I wouldn't be surprised if schools were overly cautious about the number of offers extended this year, in general.

It might also help for him to speak with his professors, particularly his references, directly. They can offer much better insight into his specific situation than anyone here is likely to.

Right now the point is to come up with a plan for the next step. He has to make a decision. Is he going to reapply next year with a stronger application? If so, he needs to figure out what to do to improve his chances of admission. And if not, he needs a fallback plan. That's going to be a challenge in the coming months for sure, but if he hasn't already, he'll have to look at the skill set he has and either figure out how to market it, or how to build on it so he can market it later.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

The two main choices I see are to strengthen the application and reapply next year, perhaps to lower tier schools, depending on the strength of the application, or to give up the goal of a PhD and get a job.

A third approach some students take to get into a PhD program are to earn an MS in Physics before re-applying to PhD programs.

The physics faculty at the student's bachelor's institution are probably best positioned to issue advice here. They know both the student and the reputation of the school in physics. Some probably know what is in the recommendation letters, since they likely wrote them. If the student discloses their GRE scores, they have a much more complete picture.

It is something of a red flag for me that a parent rather than the graduating student is asking for advice on the internet. As a parent and mentor of lots of STEM majors, I was always careful to have students themselves do all the planning and research and visible communications beginning JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL. Sure, I'd offer feedback on applications and essays and high stakes communications. But the students themselves should always take the lead.

Parents who take the lead are referred to as "helicopter parents" by faculty and admissions personnel. This is not a positive designation.

 

[ZapperZ]

What to do after PhD Physics application rejection?
======================================================

Thanks for your response to my threads.

My son will be graduating in May 2020 with Physics Major & astronomy minor from Maryland .

My son applied for PhD program (Astronomy/Astrophysics) in many schools.

No one offer him an admission. He is frustrated after putting effort and submitting reference etc. He find hard to digest this setback.

We do not have an idea, what went wrong here.

Who is able to review and provide assessment/diagnosis?

You know schools are closed for this pandemic and all facing difficult situation.

As he graduate in May 2020, he will be in academic limbo.

No one expected this when he applied to programs.

What are the next course of actions/avenue available to him?

Thanks for your guidance/insight.

Your post is similar to someone going to a doctor and saying "Doctor, I don't feel well." and hoping for a diagnosis. But worse still, this one is where you come to see the doctor, leaving your son at home, and saying "Doctor, my son doesn't feel well." and expecting an accurate diagnosis.

We do not know your son's academic performance. If he graduated with a 2.0 GPA, then is it any wonder that he got rejected? If he graduated with 3.2 but only applied to MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, etc... then it is any wonder that he did not get accepted?

There are a lot of VITAL information that is missing here, and I echo the sentiments of a couple of people who responded to this thread, that the initiatives here should have been done by your son, not by you. He should have been the one to ask these questions. I hate to think that this might be the symptom to a bigger problem here.

Zz.

 

[Vanadium 50]

We do not know your son's academic performance. If he graduated with a 2.0 GPA, then is it any wonder that he got rejected? If he graduated with 3.2 but only applied to MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Standford, etc... then it is any wonder that he did not get accepted?

I think it's appropriate for the son to say "My GPA is X." I don't think it's appropriate for a parent to say "my adult son's GPA is X". The son needs to take the lead on this.

 

[Carphysics]

Thanks for weighing in.

I find this had been a particularly rough admission cycle for applicants to grad school, and that some schools had accepted fewer students than usual because of COVID-19 issues (budget cuts, the possible need for fewer teaching assistants, etc.).

Many students expressed this .

Many schools re-thinking about graduate programs and how to operate with growing pressure for virtual model.

How will the future graduate programs look like ?

is-it-possible-to-work-full-time-and-complete-a-phd in parallel?

How will a student find a job that facilitate to continue a PhD?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ZapperZ]

Thanks for weighing in.

I find this had been a particularly rough admission cycle for applicants to grad school, and that some schools had accepted fewer students than usual because of COVID-19 issues (budget cuts, the possible need for fewer teaching assistants, etc.).

Many students expressed this .

Many schools re-thinking about graduate programs and how to operate with growing pressure for virtual model.

How will the future graduate programs look like ?

is-it-possible-to-work-full-time-and-complete-a-phd in parallel?

How will a student find a job that facilitate to continue a PhD?

Thanks for sharing.

You basically ignored everything that I said and asked for, and decided to completely change the topic. So there is no point in me participating in this anymore.

Zz.

 

[wukunlin]

When I see your posts, the first question that popped up in my head is: does your son actually want to do this PhD? If he does, he should be the one asking these questions, and he should be the one to decide what will be most helpful.

 

[CrysPhys]

is-it-possible-to-work-full-time-and-complete-a-phd in parallel?

How will a student find a job that facilitate to continue a PhD?

At least in the US, a PhD program in physics is a full-time job; i.e., any university that really wants a student will offer tuition and fee waivers and a stipend for expenses. In return, the student works as a teaching assistant or research assistant. An exceptional few get scholarships or fellowships with no assigned duties for at least part of their stint.

In the past, there were rare opportunities for someone with a BS degree to be first employed in an industry lab and then pursue a PhD while remaining an employee. Typically he would be hired as a research assistant, work for a few years, demonstrate exceptional talent and diligence, and then pursue a PhD program while still employed. But these were exceptional opportunities for exceptional individuals at exceptional industry labs. Two such labs were Bell Labs and IBM Watson. Often there were close ties between universities and these labs, with some lab researchers serving as adjunct professors or co-advisors. Bell Labs for sure is a mere shell of what it once was (it disbanded its physics research dept in the late 1990's or early 2000's; don't think it's been revived, but don't know for sure). I have no direct knowledge of the state of physics research at IBM Watson these days. And I have no direct knowledge of such programs at other industry labs, such as Intel or Google or Apple; so you would need to check.

That said, given that your son received zero grad school offers, and, as others here have previously commented on, given that you are posting on behalf of your son rather than your son posting directly on his own behalf, your son will likely not be an exceptional individual hired by an exceptional lab and be offered an exceptional opportunity.