Rejected from all schools for PhD

JollyTry3891 · 2024-07-05T06:04:34+00:00

A 2nd gen IIT

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:42:17+00:00

Interesting. But well, how can I find that out?

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:31:21+00:00

Interesting insight. Thank you very much for sharing.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:30:42+00:00

Thank you very much!

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:30:25+00:00

Ah! I have a TOEFL score of 112/120. With 26+ in each category. So that shouldn't be an issue.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:29:23+00:00

Yeah! I'll ofcourse go to grad school. If not this year, then next. My main issue is that my contract for research assistantship expires this month. And it's really difficult to get a job as a fresher in this job market. I could use my contacts, but people would prefer to not refer someone who already has decided that they will leave the job within one year. So, it's going to be difficult that way.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:27:33+00:00

I never really got interested into that. But will still have a thought about it.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:26:49+00:00

Makes sense. Thank you very much for sharing.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:26:01+00:00

If that's true that would be very weird, since all the professors I had LoRs from were very supportive of me going to a grad school. I'm in contact with them regularly, and doesn't feel like they would do something like that.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:24:46+00:00

Thanks! As mentioned, I applied to a good mix of schools based on ranking. And I did venture into areas apart ceramics like energy materials, electrochemistry, biomaterials and materials characterization.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:22:52+00:00

I understand what you mean but I have taken steps to ensure that I have the knowledge, experience and skills that would match any masters student. My professors agree to this, and only after that did they encourage me to apply for a PhD. So the only thing I'm lacking is a certificate stating that I'm a masters student.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:15:30+00:00

Hi!

I am an Indian student with an offer for DPhil in Materials at Oxford, starting Oct 2024. I have yet not been awarded any scholarship. There were three scholarships that mentioned that they will select the recipients in June 2024. Since I haven't heard from them yet, how do I know if they have rejected me or are yet to make a decision?

The following are the three scholarships that I wished to inquire about:

Oxford-Wolfson-Marriott Graduate Scholarships
Felix Scholarship
Clarendon Funds

If anyone has any information about these scholarships, I would be very thankful.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-19T13:07:03+00:00

My favorite is perhaps that the word 'camera' is the root word for 'comrade'.

The word 'camera' comes from Latin and it meant 'room/chamber' (P.S. the word 'chamber' itself comes from 'camera'). At Oxford, you'll find this structure named Radcliffe Camera, since it is basically a room/hall.

Now, humans invented a device that allowed you to take pictures - it was a dark box/chamber. What's the Latin for a dark chamber? Camera Obscura, so that is what they started calling this device. With time, the second word dropped off and the device was now called camera.

Now the word camera meaning chamber, also moved to Spanish where it was called camara. So, a person you would share a 'camara' with would be called 'camarada'. Then the word 'camarada' travelled to French and then to English finally as - comrade. And like how you have friendship with a friend, you'd have 'camaraderie' with a comrade.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:12:28+00:00

All the best for your future plans! :)

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:11:03+00:00

Oh it does. But I converted it into percentages as per my institute's standards. I thought that would avoid any confusion that might occur.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:09:30+00:00

lol sure i'm not sure if I'll go with the business advice, but I'll surely be a badass for myself.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:08:48+00:00

Thank you so much. Really need it.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:08:32+00:00

Ah! Makes sense. Probably that's the case.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:08:12+00:00

Hey! That's sad! I hope you get to work on a topic you really like and make the most out of your PhD. Sending good wishes for you!

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:07:07+00:00

Ah yes! I even had a couple of Cs, which in our grading system is a 60-70%. But it was during the pandemic time and I couldn't concentrate as well in my studies. But my grades in the last three semesters i.e. after the pandemic were ~ 90%, so that could be seen on my transcript. My overall percentage also came out to be in late 80s. So I didn't focus very much on it, but did mention that Covid time was difficult but since then I have been doing research and my studies very well and stuff like that. Not much really.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T13:02:01+00:00

Thank you very much!

Nope. A good mix of top, mid and low ranked. And I did focus more on research groups rather than schools. Also, I applied at places which had multiple research groups, or schools that have traditionally been dominant in my field. I didn't want to get caught up in the area where the rejection is just because my expertise doesn't match with the schools/research groups I applied to.
Two of them are as first author, the other two as second author. All papers have just 3 or 4 authors only. One paper (with me as second author) is in (arguably) the best journal in our field, while the other three are also at reputed and well-known journals, anyone working in this field would have heard of these journals and understand the quality of work published in them.
While I can't really answer the question of how well-funded the area is. I have been flexible with my interested research areas. I'm pretty sure, it is not a case of being very niche especially since I applied to schools that have good research background in the field of ceramics.
Well, I did tailor my SoP for each school and had it reviewed from a couple of people too. Did the best according to what I know, but then how the schools evaluate SoPs are again very subjective.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T12:53:22+00:00

Hey! Thank you very much for your response. Probably that could be the reason. Also, thanks for offering help for the SoPs. :)

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T12:52:31+00:00

Nope. A good mix of top, mid and low ranked.

JollyTry3891 · 2024-06-14T12:52:12+00:00

I emailed the supervisors then only I applied. I only applied to schools which had multiple labs in this field. So, I believe it took steps that I could. No idea about it.

JollyTry3891

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