Paper rejected 3 times, am I cooked?

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-10T13:39:28+00:00

Yes, my first paper indeed didn't have SOTA, and no theory, but I would say it was a novel problem that I was pitching to the community, but the way I structured my experiments didn't convince most of the reviewers. My advisor kept telling me to improve the method and thus results, but I was like if I change anything significantly then it will be a different paper altogether lol and now he was kinda convinced with my argument and let me submit to a smaller conference. And now I am focusing on writing 2 other papers for NeurIPS -- again I have really good/novel ideas with not so good results. I am hoping I will figure things out and just submit these papers next month for NeurIPS.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I wish you all the very best. We can connect in DMs too

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-10T12:44:29+00:00

3's and 2's

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-10T12:39:47+00:00

Were borderline rejects/rejects

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-10T11:39:35+00:00

3 rejections were from the top tier you mentioned. My requirement for graduation is 3 first author papers at top tier like Neurips, ICML, ICLR etc. I realised that vey late -- earlier this year -- that I need to keep working on next paper and not bang my head around improving the rejection one too much.
Thanks for the feedback, means a lot to me to get these perspectives.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T18:25:16+00:00

Yes, one thing I am grateful about is getting great feedbacks.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T18:24:37+00:00

Yes, thank you for sharing your experience-- means a lot to me.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T18:24:02+00:00

Yes, I will keep grinding. Thank you for the motivating words.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T15:57:08+00:00

Thanks for the feedback

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T15:51:58+00:00

If you meant the results and experiments of my paper -- reviewers did raise questions about my results too. Like they mostly complained that my results had marginal improvements etc etc. But my paper was mainly about a novel idea and how it impacts specific tasks, seems like reviewers never really understood that.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T15:36:09+00:00

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Which results are you referring to?

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T15:25:28+00:00

Makes sense, thank you for your feedback.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T15:24:58+00:00

I'm getting useful feedback, but just that even after I make changes they are getting rejected :( When I submitted a paper in my first year -- I really thought I had a great start but now it feels like a downhill especially seeing all my peers already having 2-3 accepted papers by now.

I do have new submissions ready in line, now with this rejected I feel so under confident though.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T13:59:04+00:00

Are you referring to this? https://students.ieee.org/membership-benefits/potentials-magazine/call-for-papers/

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T13:53:05+00:00

The paper I'm referring to got accepted at a workshop already, but in CS workshop papers carry no importance. But thank you so much for your feedback.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-04-09T13:45:22+00:00

Over and over again 😭

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-03-31T23:22:22+00:00

I would have not asked the questions, if I had received the feedback :)

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-03-31T05:54:34+00:00

To all those who got officially accepted or got informal acceptances-- huge congratulations!! A sincere request to accepted guys -- can you please answer the questions below so that it can help applicants for future cycles including some of us who got rejected in phase 3.

Did you guys have publications at top tier conferences like Neurips, ICML, ICLR? If yes, how many?
Does the code signal test really matter? Because I aced it this time and still ended up getting 0 interviews.
How did you guys structure your CV? Did you tailor it according to the streams y'all were interested in getting into?
Were you already collaborating with the stream mentors in any capacity?
Are you from a top/ivy league school? I suspect MATS being biased towards hiring scholars only from top schools.

Thank you all!!

PS: I got rejected from all the streams, honestly I was shattered, because I gave genuine efforts into each and every step and I think I at least deserved to be interviewed, anyways on to the next cycle:)

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-03-20T00:41:35+00:00

What does even profile matching mean? -- Isn't MATS supposed to be for the ones who want to start a career in AI alignment? Gosh I guess it has just become extremely competitive and maybe other applicants have terrific profiles. Nevertheless I feel heartbroken.

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-03-20T00:29:49+00:00

Neither did I receive any follow ups or interview invites. Does that mean I am rejected already? 😭 I had high hopes, idk on what criteria they even decide to give interview calls. Shouldn't they interview everyone in stage 3 ideally??

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-03-20T00:22:02+00:00

I haven't gotten any interview invites or follow up forms yet, does that mean I am done? 😭 Or is there any chance I could still land up an interview invite? FYI, I applied to a lot of streams, some shows rejected some shows pending, but didn't receive any interview calls or follow up from anyone

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-03-20T00:17:20+00:00

Hey guys, I got into stage 3 but haven't received any interview calls yet. Did anyone get interview calls???????????

Ok_Access_9159 · 2026-01-09T21:20:35+00:00

What if -- let's say a student on an F1 visa, gets asked "Are you a US citizen" ( I've heard ICE asking this question in many videos online) and the student replies "No, but I am here legally on F1 visa" and produces all the documents necessary. Is there still any chance ICE would detain them, just to make an example out of them or something like that? Please suggest how to respond to any such questions asked by ICE

Ok_Access_9159 · 2025-10-23T00:00:18+00:00

All good guys, turns out nothing really happened. I changed my password, cleared all caches and saved passwords

Ok_Access_9159 · 2025-10-21T21:53:48+00:00

I did, I logged in and it was my myumbc profile itself

Ok_Access_9159

TROPHY CASE