1. HELPING CHEMISTS FIND JOBS IN A TOUGH MARKET. 2. TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHEMISTRY JOB MARKET.
What's the job market like for chemists? Dude -- it's always bad.*
How bad is it? How the heck should I know? Quantifying the chemistry job market is what this blog is about. That, and helping chemists find jobs.
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(*For the literal-minded, this is a joke. Mostly.)
UNC-Chapel Hill did it to me (and a few other people I know) about 6 years ago. I was told by some people familiar with the situation that there was a secretary who left during the application review period and they were a disorganized mess. I contacted them after I had already chosen my grad school (and after the response deadline) asking for my application fee back, since they clearly didn't use the fee to review my application. That prompted them to write up and send a rejection letter. I think that's the only grad school letter I saved.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty funny.
DeleteI applied to UNC- Chapel Hill about 10 years ago. I called to see why they didn't send an reply and they said my application was incomplete (which it was not).
DeleteThey were not very organized back then either!
They were not organized last year either.. Didn't receive my rejection letter until mid August.
DeleteUniversity of Notre Dame did that to me. Application to its graduate school program in political science. Paid the application fee. Sent the application and made sure all recommendation letters were sent. Never got any response. I called them later and they told me that my application was still "Incomplete"!
DeleteA couple of (chemistry) graduate programs I applied to didn't respond back with a yes or no, but they weren't any that required an application fees.
ReplyDeleteIt's valuable training that's preparing you for no-response rejections after on-site interviews.
ReplyDeleteTrue but you do not have to pay for the job application. I personally am not in Chem. I was just looking for advice for my situation... my one school I applied to cost ~$175 just to apply (this does not include all of the money I had to spend to get my materials prepared). I feel I at least deserve some sort of notification.
DeleteI applied to a Food Science Master's program in 2011 at Penn State. After having a phone interview with a professor I was interested in doing research with, the deadline for acceptance/rejection notification passed. I contacted them to find out the final result to discover that I was rejected and was told it was because PA has state education funding cut that year.
ReplyDeleteI never heard back from The Scripps Research Institute after applying for the Ph.D program there and, if I remember right, there was an application fee.
ReplyDeleteThis is commonplace. I remember the words of my 60 year old pchem professor in undergrad: "I still haven't heard back from Berkeley, so don't get too upset about not hearing back either."
ReplyDeleteThe chemistry department at University of Vermont did it to me back in 2007. After I accepted another offer to a different university I decided to email Vermont asking why I never heard any response from them and asking that they refund my application fee. The next day I received an email from Vermont saying "congratulations you've been accepted, you'll receive your acceptance package in the mail soon". Well I never received the acceptance package but two weeks later I did receive a refund for the application fee. Never heard another thing from them again.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard from Texas A&M.
ReplyDeleteI know of the following happening:
ReplyDeleteNo response at all.
No response until a day before the "commitment date"
Admitted but then "orphaned" when assumed advisor backs out.
I can't recall which school, either U of Indiana or Minnesota, but one of them sent me an acceptance letter at the end of my first year of grad school. I had moved, so it actually took some work on their part to find me. It had been 18 months since the application deadline.
ReplyDeleteI applied to UC Boulder back in 2005. There was an application fee, and I never hear back from them until May. After commitment deadlines had passed, and after I had visited other schools I had been accepted to and made my choice.
ReplyDeleteHearing back after May 1 usually means you have been waitlisted.
DeleteI famously am still waiting to hear about my application to Cornell (from 1997). My advisor, a PhD alum encouraged me to apply and even contacted the admissions committee on my behalf. 17 years and counting.
ReplyDeleteI know that since we moved to an all online system a response is eventually generated here (rather than the "pocket veto"). In a perfect world, we'd know by 4/15 whether or not we are done with the applications, but there's always an issue if you don't get the acceptances you want/need. We're probably going to be late processing all the applications in limbo this year.
In 2009 Columbia rejected me in May. I had already accepted Scripps.
ReplyDeleteI suppose their response was in the form of the cancelled check?
ReplyDeleteI got (and kept!) my rejection from the Naval Academy in 1998. They rejected me for not completing my application. Big surprise because I never sent one in! U of Michigan lost my graduate application and gave me a hard time when I inquired, so I opted not to reapply.
ReplyDeleteUNC Chapel Hill sent my rejection letter in mid August when I had already started my PhD program in a different school 3 months earlier.
ReplyDeleteThis happened last year
DeleteNever heard back from USC. Applied in December and now it's August. I called and they told me the department hadn't made a decision.
ReplyDeleteHappened to me. I had applied to George Mason College of Engineering. This was for fall' 14. Been more than a couple of years now. I contacted them via email asking for a refund of my application fee. They replied with the fact that fee was non refundable and the applicants acknowledged and agreed to it. Well, they university charges application fee to review the application, which they clearly did not. Waiting for their reply.
ReplyDelete