Rejection Sucks
But you’ll never know you had a chance if you never take a chance Honestly, life is a ton of luck. You have the right timing, the right project, the right idea, the person interviewing/reviewing your application was in a good mood…and then you get it. Yes, planning is a big part of it. Writing the right papers. Getting the perfect PhD advisor (for you, see previous post). The list goes on. All you can control is the fact that you tried. My fellowship rejection story: I applied for NSF. Twice. I was in that optimum period of time (I hope you read that as lucky) that I was grandfathered into the old system. The old system that let you try as a first-year and then again as a second-year. The first-year, I did really well. I got an Honorable Mention (and you can bet that’s on my CV). I had a ton of help from previous winners and it was my first time writing a fellowship application. My undergrad institution wasn’t a powerhouse R1 institution with publications coming out of the wazoo. My only publication pre-gradschool was from an REU (research experience for undergraduates) opportunity and I was co-first author. But it had just been submitted when I was applying. And that’s what one of my reviewer’s said: She presented her work at several conferences and co-authored a manuscript that is currently under review. However, there are no publications listed, apart from conference proceedings.REVIEWER #3 The same reviewer also called me “naive” for thinking I could use the technique I was to develop to impact my interest in understanding Alzheimer’s disease. A rude word, but the reviewer gave me a “Very Good” for my Intellectual merit, even though I didn’t seem to meet their high expectations. All Reviewers gave…