Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

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kap09c
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm

Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kap09c » Tue Feb 25, 2014 12:06 am

The response? We don't have the resources to provide individual feedback

What a load of bull. For one, a similarly ranked institution with comparable application numbers had no trouble at all filling my request-- politely at that. And secondly, I paid you $125 to review my application. Everyone did. Does the 125*600 = $75000 not cover the time needed to cover the 30-60 heart broken students who might actually ask about this? Someone in gradcafe said it well... they are clearly divas

Sorry, just needed to rant there. Now I'm out to prove that I don't need them.. Gonna kick so much ass in gradschool they're going to beg me to their postdoc and I'll "politely" decline without reason

YAHA
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 11:22 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by YAHA » Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:08 am

kap09c wrote:The response? We don't have the resources to provide individual feedback

What a load of bull. For one, a similarly ranked institution with comparable application numbers had no trouble at all filling my request-- politely at that. And secondly, I paid you $125 to review my application. Everyone did. Does the 125*600 = $75000 not cover the time needed to cover the 30-60 heart broken students who might actually ask about this? Someone in gradcafe said it well... they are clearly divas

Sorry, just needed to rant there. Now I'm out to prove that I don't need them.. Gonna kick so much ass in gradschool they're going to beg me to their postdoc and I'll "politely" decline without reason
I was similarly irked earlier this month when I received a mass rejection from their Applied Physics dept. Not only was it a mass rejection, but it also stated that the reason for it was so that the applicants can have the information faster. This would allow the applicants to make more informed decisions. What are these crittons talking about??? If you are rejecting me in first days of February, and the decisions are to be made by April 15, what is the rush??? Please, just tell me that you are lazy and inconsiderate to send a formal polite rejection letter like other places. Furthermore, tell me that you don't really care about your applicants. The moral of the story for me was that I am glad to have avoided such a place. If they are such jerks at the application stage, I can only imagine the view from the inside.

P.S. Don't even get me started on $125 fee business.

sorethumb
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Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:50 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by sorethumb » Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:43 pm

I think you should send an email to the professors on the admissions committee about this. (I'm sure their emails are easy to find on the Stanford website.) Just tell them what you're saying here-- you spent a lot of money and effort on their application, and all you want is a reason for not being admitted (something other institutions were ready to give you). The person on the phone is not the end-all, be-all.

kap09c
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kap09c » Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:11 pm

sorethumb wrote:I think you should send an email to the professors on the admissions committee about this. (I'm sure their emails are easy to find on the Stanford website.) Just tell them what you're saying here-- you spent a lot of money and effort on their application, and all you want is a reason for not being admitted (something other institutions were ready to give you). The person on the phone is not the end-all, be-all.

I directly emailed the chair of the graduate committee. This was his response to me. The response was actually quite long winded and detailed all the reasons he couldn't tell me. In the time it took him to write such a miserable email he could have very well taken a look at my profile and gave me some sort of response. Meh.

TakeruK
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Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by TakeruK » Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:13 pm

If you just wanted to/needed to rant/vent, it's understandable and I felt the same way about my generic rejections too! I was frustrated there was not more closure! I sympathise with you! Also, if you don't really want to discuss it further, then stop reading here :)

But if you do want to, and to other people in this thread who might want to, I don't think it's fair to say "I spent $125, I deserve a full evaluation."

1. First of all, the department faculty/staff (the people who evaluated and put together your application packages) do not actually get the application fee. It goes to the grad school to maintain their University-wide application system. All the stuff the profs do are part of their salaried work, which means the more time they spend on it, the less other stuff (their current students, their research, their classes, their other committees) get done.

2. I think it's true when they say they don't have the resources to individually respond to each applicant. I think the majority of their rejections are very broad and swift with very little actual review of your application package. It's not like they pored over every single application and made meticulous notes on each one that they can simply forward to you. If you ask for a review, they will likely have to re-evaluate your application in order to provide meaningful feedback. Otherwise, if you insist on feedback, you will probably get a generic response like "Your GPA/GRE/research experience was not competitive enough compared to our top applicants." Would that really be helpful?

3. They will be assuming a lot of risk when they do this re-evaluation. Some people don't take rejection or criticism well and might try to argue with them or ask for a re-evaluation because they didn't consider this fact or that fact. I'm not saying this is what you're planning to do, but they don't know who will be doing this. Ultimately, I don't think it is a wise decision for the department to use their limited resources (time and effort) on ensuring every rejected applicant gets a detailed feedback report when there is a lot of other work to do, just because the students are "heartbroken" (and it might be worse if the reason is just as generic as the rejection, which will be the case most of the time). Not every applicant will request one but if they start doing it for some, they will have to do it for everyone.

4. This doesn't mean they are not willing at all to help you though. Like some others said, you might have better luck with other people in the department. However, I would actually say to wait until late April or May, when the visits/admissions/etc. season is all over and they have more time. Also, you should only ask for this extended feedback if you ended up being rejected everywhere and need to know how to improve your applications for the future. I think if you ask again in April/May, explain that you were not successful at all this year and would like feedback for future years, you will probably get a more sympathetic and helpful response. Not all of your schools might respond, but you should hopefully get enough responses to help you in next year.

In my opinion, if you got into other places and plan on attending, then why do you even need feedback from the places that rejected you? Maturity and professionalism means you accept rejection with grace, not to find out ways X is stupid because they rejected you. Applications is not like taking a class--the evaluator does not have to justify their reasons for their decision like an instructor would justify their reasons for a grade. It's more like a job search and at many companies, being rejected/not selected for an interview means you don't even get notified about rejection at all.

5. Finally, it's unlikely the school will actually be able to give you helpful feedback on things like the content of your LORs (since they would want to keep it confidential) or the writing quality of your SOP (they are not writing counselors). You can see what some others have written on this forums as well as other places on the Internet. They may be able to tell you how your GRE and GPA compared with the applicant pool. You might not be able to do anything about your GPA at this point, but you can retake GREs if you find that your score was way too low. They might even comment on your fit (maybe you identified research interests not present at the department) or maybe that you did not sound like you have a clear research focus/plan/goal etc. in your SOP. That might be useful.

I think many schools will try to help you if you ask politely and at the right time, and if you really need it (i.e. no acceptances anywhere). Don't expect things like "you ranked 15th out of 100 candidates and we could only take 10" though. If you want help on things like your SOP, then you should try your university's writing center or similar services.

kap09c
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kap09c » Tue Feb 25, 2014 3:26 pm

TakeruK wrote:If you just wanted to/needed to rant/vent, it's understandable and I felt the same way about my generic rejections too! I was frustrated there was not more closure! I sympathise with you! Also, if you don't really want to discuss it further, then stop reading here :)

But if you do want to, and to other people in this thread who might want to, I don't think it's fair to say "I spent $125, I deserve a full evaluation."

1. First of all, the department faculty/staff (the people who evaluated and put together your application packages) do not actually get the application fee. It goes to the grad school to maintain their University-wide application system. All the stuff the profs do are part of their salaried work, which means the more time they spend on it, the less other stuff (their current students, their research, their classes, their other committees) get done.

2. I think it's true when they say they don't have the resources to individually respond to each applicant. I think the majority of their rejections are very broad and swift with very little actual review of your application package. It's not like they pored over every single application and made meticulous notes on each one that they can simply forward to you. If you ask for a review, they will likely have to re-evaluate your application in order to provide meaningful feedback. Otherwise, if you insist on feedback, you will probably get a generic response like "Your GPA/GRE/research experience was not competitive enough compared to our top applicants." Would that really be helpful?

3. They will be assuming a lot of risk when they do this re-evaluation. Some people don't take rejection or criticism well and might try to argue with them or ask for a re-evaluation because they didn't consider this fact or that fact. I'm not saying this is what you're planning to do, but they don't know who will be doing this. Ultimately, I don't think it is a wise decision for the department to use their limited resources (time and effort) on ensuring every rejected applicant gets a detailed feedback report when there is a lot of other work to do, just because the students are "heartbroken" (and it might be worse if the reason is just as generic as the rejection, which will be the case most of the time). Not every applicant will request one but if they start doing it for some, they will have to do it for everyone.

4. This doesn't mean they are not willing at all to help you though. Like some others said, you might have better luck with other people in the department. However, I would actually say to wait until late April or May, when the visits/admissions/etc. season is all over and they have more time. Also, you should only ask for this extended feedback if you ended up being rejected everywhere and need to know how to improve your applications for the future. I think if you ask again in April/May, explain that you were not successful at all this year and would like feedback for future years, you will probably get a more sympathetic and helpful response. Not all of your schools might respond, but you should hopefully get enough responses to help you in next year.

In my opinion, if you got into other places and plan on attending, then why do you even need feedback from the places that rejected you? Maturity and professionalism means you accept rejection with grace, not to find out ways X is stupid because they rejected you. Applications is not like taking a class--the evaluator does not have to justify their reasons for their decision like an instructor would justify their reasons for a grade. It's more like a job search and at many companies, being rejected/not selected for an interview means you don't even get notified about rejection at all.

5. Finally, it's unlikely the school will actually be able to give you helpful feedback on things like the content of your LORs (since they would want to keep it confidential) or the writing quality of your SOP (they are not writing counselors). You can see what some others have written on this forums as well as other places on the Internet. They may be able to tell you how your GRE and GPA compared with the applicant pool. You might not be able to do anything about your GPA at this point, but you can retake GREs if you find that your score was way too low. They might even comment on your fit (maybe you identified research interests not present at the department) or maybe that you did not sound like you have a clear research focus/plan/goal etc. in your SOP. That might be useful.

I think many schools will try to help you if you ask politely and at the right time, and if you really need it (i.e. no acceptances anywhere). Don't expect things like "you ranked 15th out of 100 candidates and we could only take 10" though. If you want help on things like your SOP, then you should try your university's writing center or similar services.

Just as a response to your #2, It is unlikely that even 10% of applicants would ask this so they are exaggerating the costs by choice of language. If I was eliminated by some mass casualty system I specifically want to know that. Even more important, I want to know if there is a rotten egg in my LOR's because I received a lot of unexpected rejections this season and I will be wise to request future letters from these profs. If you want to know more about my personal motive, I had planned on reapplying if I didn't see a future panning out for me at whichever grad school I end up attending. By next application season I will have likely published a paper directly extending the work of my dream PI at Stanford (work I am currently doing now, which just adds to the confusion in my rejection...if they don't want a well equipped researcher who can smoothly transition into one of their groups that DOES have a vacancy... wtf are they looking for?)

Monkerest
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Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by Monkerest » Tue Feb 25, 2014 4:10 pm

I think TakeruK's point stands. If it got out that a school was offering personalized explanations for their rejections, then who wouldn't want to know why they were rejected, for exactly the reasons you state?

You must remember what your 125$ paid for: their consideration and a timely decision, which you got.

"if they don't want a well equipped researcher who can smoothly transition into one of their groups that DOES have a vacancy... wtf are they looking for?"

Perhaps a better well-equipped researcher who can more smoothly transition? What kind of a question is that? Stanford is one of the most competitive programs to get into... Nobody is a big fish at that level, and there are guarantees for no one. You think you were actually just the very best candidate in the world? Apparently not, but don't worry about it! That's life - there's always a bigger fish, and there is always some place else for you to learn and grow.

With respect to the "rotten egg" letters of recommendation, remember that it is your duty, and your duty alone, to make sure that your application is as strong as it can be. And if you wanted to see the letters of recommendation, you could have opted not to waive the right. My rules for letters were to only get people to write for me who either volunteered, or told me outright that it would be a very good letter upon my request, with no further prompting. Also, you got into Yale, yet you still think one of your LOR was a problem?

I also don't understand why everyone is upset about the mass rejections... Some poor secretary is probably just stuck updating the profiles for hours on end. You want him/her to update every one in real time? I write this as someone who was mass rejected by Berkeley today.

kap09c
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kap09c » Tue Feb 25, 2014 7:11 pm

Monkerest wrote:I think TakeruK's point stands. If it got out that a school was offering personalized explanations for their rejections, then who wouldn't want to know why they were rejected, for exactly the reasons you state?

You must remember what your 125$ paid for: their consideration and a timely decision, which you got.

"if they don't want a well equipped researcher who can smoothly transition into one of their groups that DOES have a vacancy... wtf are they looking for?"

Perhaps a better well-equipped researcher who can more smoothly transition? What kind of a question is that? Stanford is one of the most competitive programs to get into... Nobody is a big fish at that level, and there are guarantees for no one. You think you were actually just the very best candidate in the world? Apparently not, but don't worry about it! That's life - there's always a bigger fish, and there is always some place else for you to learn and grow.

With respect to the "rotten egg" letters of recommendation, remember that it is your duty, and your duty alone, to make sure that your application is as strong as it can be. And if you wanted to see the letters of recommendation, you could have opted not to waive the right. My rules for letters were to only get people to write for me who either volunteered, or told me outright that it would be a very good letter upon my request, with no further prompting. Also, you got into Yale, yet you still think one of your LOR was a problem?

I also don't understand why everyone is upset about the mass rejections... Some poor secretary is probably just stuck updating the profiles for hours on end. You want him/her to update every one in real time? I write this as someone who was mass rejected by Berkeley today.
Look, I don't want to start an argument here, but your response adds nothing to the discussion- everything you wrote is pretty much conventional wisdom. I am obviously confused by the results of the application which is why I bothered to email them, and I would have benefitted from some feedback (like another uni has given me). If you think that I am arrogant/silly for e-mailing them or disagreeing with their reasons to not respond, that is your opinion. I'm simply here to state mine and release some stress and anger about the situation.
Last edited by kap09c on Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Monkerest
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2013 11:19 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by Monkerest » Tue Feb 25, 2014 8:26 pm

I'm sure my response didn't add what you wanted to hear to the conversation.

And I guess I would say that your original post lacked conventional wisdom :P

Perhaps too bluntly:

If you come on here to vent anger, don't be surprised when not everyone believes you are entitled to it. You're in a good spot - you got into some great programs. What does a post like this represent to those people who are still waiting to get in anywhere? You're bitter that not every top program you applied to let you in, or provided personalized justification for rejecting you? TakeruK wrote a nice explanation of why your anger isn't actually justified, but you seem to just want some confirmation that Stanford wronged you, which they didn't. Your response to his post, and specifically the line that I quoted, seems to imply that it's just ridiculous that they didn't want you. Do you see why this might be offputting to some people?

Anyway, I'm sure you'll get over it, and congratulations on your admissions to those other, incredible programs. Celebrate your numerous successes, don't stress about a single failure!

TakeruK
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Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by TakeruK » Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:35 pm

kap09c wrote: Just as a response to your #2, It is unlikely that even 10% of applicants would ask this so they are exaggerating the costs by choice of language. If I was eliminated by some mass casualty system I specifically want to know that. Even more important, I want to know if there is a rotten egg in my LOR's because I received a lot of unexpected rejections this season and I will be wise to request future letters from these profs. If you want to know more about my personal motive, I had planned on reapplying if I didn't see a future panning out for me at whichever grad school I end up attending. By next application season I will have likely published a paper directly extending the work of my dream PI at Stanford (work I am currently doing now, which just adds to the confusion in my rejection...if they don't want a well equipped researcher who can smoothly transition into one of their groups that DOES have a vacancy... wtf are they looking for?)
I think whether or not their choice of language is an exaggeration is up for debate and I don't think we would all agree on what constitutes "exaggeration". I don't think I am any more right than you, but in my opinion, saying that "we don't have resources" is a polite way of saying "we intend to spend exactly zero more time/effort in providing feedback". I don't think it's super easy to even know if your application was one that was mass casualty-ed or not.

Also, point #3 in my first post might apply too. The examples below are not meant to describe you, but just give some example cases of what a student might do if they were told some example reasons.

Sure, you might be happy with a response like "We eliminated your application from competition because your GPA was too low." But what if you are not one of the people that will accept that as an answer? What if you then push on, saying that "but you didn't publish a GPA minimum!" or "But I know X from physicsgre.com got in and his/her GPA was lower than mine!".

Or, maybe something in your SOP was a red flag to them. Maybe the tone you used made you unappealing, or perhaps the PI you wanted to work with so much wanted to move on a different research direction so they took a different student instead. But if they say this, then you might try to defend yourself or explain yourself. From their point of view, the decisions have been made and they do not want to discuss it further.

Also, they might not be able to or want to say that your LOR was bad because they want to keep it confidential. I think especially if one of your LOR writers say "X is a crappy person, DO NOT ADMIT!!!", it might be in the best interest of the community for other schools to see this too (obviously this is not your case as it sounds like you have other good offers).

Basically, I think the more information they give to any applicant at this point, the more ammo an upset student might have to go on a long email conversation and waste a lot of everyone's time. So, it's sensible to stop the conversation further. So "not enough resources" might not just mean "not enough resources to send back a few lines about your application" but might mean "not enough resources to risk the chance that a couple of students that ask for this will end up forcing the prof into a long protracted conversation about the admission decision."

Again, if you are seriously concerned about your ability to get into Stanford in the future, wait until May, when there are way fewer people asking (a lot of times people get super nervous if it's the first rejection and start asking a bunch of questions) and when they have more time.

kap09c
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kap09c » Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:44 pm

It's like you people have never seen someone who has just wanted to vent before.. just let it go unless you have complaining to contribute also. I am irritated and I am not seeking to rationalize this in any way shape or form. None of your justifications or speculation about either myself or the program are of interest to me

kangaroo
Posts: 130
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2012 5:31 am

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kangaroo » Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:18 pm

Attack of the drama queen.

And for your information, just because you started this thread doesn't mean you own it. This is a forum, and everyone is free to comment, and you post here at the risk of hearing things you don't want to hear. Trust me, if I started a thread with a poll "Is this poster being overly dramatic, unprofessional, and would generally be hard to work with as a colleague", wanna bet how the responses will skew?

Monkerest
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Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by Monkerest » Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:25 pm

Okay, real advice:

If anyone in the Stanford admissions committee, or any other admissions committee, stumbles across this thread, they would be able to identify you in about ten seconds by looking at your post in the 2014 results thread. (How many domestic white/hispanic females with precisely your test scores are there?)

If all you had done is vented, I think you would have found commiseration. But you insisted on portraying the situation as one where Stanford had somehow mistreated you or denied you something that you were entitled to. I hope not all of your emotional processing depends on that sort of self-deception.

kap09c
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:59 pm

Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by kap09c » Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:46 pm

Monkerest wrote:Okay, real advice:

If anyone in the Stanford admissions committee, or any other admissions committee, stumbles across this thread, they would be able to identify you in about ten seconds by looking at your post in the 2014 results thread. (How many domestic white/hispanic females with precisely your test scores are there?)

If all you had done is vented, I think you would have found commiseration. But you insisted on portraying the situation as one where Stanford had somehow mistreated you or denied you something that you were entitled to. I hope not all of your emotional processing depends on that sort of self-deception.
If they don't have time to leave feedback on my application, why would they have time to be on this forum checking for frustrated graduate students? Either way I'm a genuine person who has gotten quite some mileage out of being honest. If I want to be openly irritated by the way they handle requests it's my own prerogative. It's not that I don't understand the logic as to why they wouldn't want to answer requests, it's just that those reasons don't agree with my own constitution and I'm irritated by it. Even if it took me and hour or two a week for a few months to respond to all the sad rejects I would. Hell, if Ed Witten could take the time out of his day to respond to a few absurd emails I sent him as a first year, I don't see why a few profs can't man the tanks at Stanford. If that reflects the atmosphere of the school, it's not a good fit for me anyway.

TomServo
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Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by TomServo » Tue Feb 25, 2014 11:12 pm

Let me just throw my pair of pennies on the pile.

I think when you pay a $125 application fee, the absolute least you are entitled to is hearing back from them on yes or no in a reasonable amount of time. As I was typing this out I initially agreed with OP but now I think I see Stanford's POV.

I understand the notion of not being able to provide feedback to everybody. To me it seems as much a time/logistics issue as a money issue. Six hundred applicants. Let's say twenty acceptances (or whatever the number is). That's over five hundred personalized "here's why you didn't get in" letters, paragraphs, or sentences.

I've been on committees where we had to decide who got an award and who didn't based on nomination reports. It was pretty easy to encapsulate why the winners won, but with our big pile of non-winners, it wasn't always so straightforward. If, after the fact somebody said "now go write a letter to each non-winner explaining why they didn't win" it would be a massive paperwork headache first and foremost. Unless everybody made meticulous notes, you'd have to re-read a lot of stuff to remember why you decided to reject that person ("oh right, the nomination didn't include any supporting facts"). Sometimes it's for what isn't there instead of what is. "Somebody else had two REUs with great recommendations and you had one, so they got in and you didn't." "Your third letter of recommendation seemed perfunctory, whereas somebody else had three enthusiastic letters, so they got in and you didn't." "Your low GPA is a red flag." Nobody wants to go to all of the work to read that letter.

The only solution I see for this for schools with outsize number of applicants is to have everything said at admissions meetings when they go over apps written down somewhere and pegged to each application so the pros and cons can be easily looked up later. Maybe some schools do this. Some schools are, I'm sure, more haphazard and more focused on recording why this or that person got *in* instead of why that person got *out*.

And what if your letter of recommendation included an acrostic that said "he's nuts and he will cut you, man"?

tsymmetry
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Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by tsymmetry » Wed Feb 26, 2014 12:04 am

Everything happens for a reason. One of my professors said that every failure she's had in her life has actually been for the better from admissions, to marriage, to her current job.

TakeruK
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Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by TakeruK » Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:05 am

kap09c wrote:It's like you people have never seen someone who has just wanted to vent before.. just let it go unless you have complaining to contribute also. I am irritated and I am not seeking to rationalize this in any way shape or form. None of your justifications or speculation about either myself or the program are of interest to me
Fair enough--that's why I wrote my very first paragraph and only continued the rest if you wanted to continue the discussion or for other people who might feel the same way as you to continue the discussion. Since you commented on one of my points, I thought that meant you wanted to discuss that particular point further. I also want to make clear that I was not writing anything that was intended to be speculation of you in my second post--just examples of why it's dangerous for a program to explain the details of a rejection.

Again, I had also thought I was very well fitted for a certain program in my application and it was really frustrating when all I got was "We could only accept X out of Y applicants, sorry it wasn't you" basically. Despite having several really positive email exchanges with some faculty members. I don't know the details of your situation specifically but I know of my similarly sucky experience. Hope you find another good program and/or better luck reapplying to Stanford next year!!

bfollinprm
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Re: Asked Stanford for feedback on my application.. need to rant

Post by bfollinprm » Wed Feb 26, 2014 2:02 am

I totally agree with the OP. Stanford's application fee is highway robbery.



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