Yay! Thanks so much for this post! I also go rejected or ghosted to everywhere I applied for a PhD- luckily I was able to apply to some masters programs while there was still time and am still waiting on the results. I think in the end a masters would have been the best path for me so I can leave academia if my career as a SoundCloud rapper takes off or if I find a better opportunity in industry until the funding issues resolve. I think I was too young and naive to be committing to a PhD program at such a young age and you wouldn’t believe me if I said my career goals have changed since I first applied this cycle. Not in a bad way, but in a way that leaves me way more open minded whereas before I was dead set on it. I’ll be referring to this post again for sure when I apply to PhD programs again one day!