wfs1234 wrote:Bassist_Diver wrote:Didn't get into grad school this year. Time to find a lab job and save my coins to try again at the end of the year.
That sucks man I'm sorryGetting into grad school right now is SUPER competitive. I remember looking at the average acceptance scores for universities for the five years prior to my application, and six years ago I would've had a shot at getting into a top-ten university in my field. As it is now I'm lucky I got into a school in the back end of the top fifty. Shit's crazy right now.
It seems like grad schools look at both how well you're likely to do in their program, and what kind of asset you'll be to the department. So, it might not hurt to study up and take the GRE again (that is, if the GRE's required for your graduate program). If you do better, you can submit those scores. If you do worse, you can submit your previous scores instead. Finding a lab job is a good move, though!
Yeah, with the job market being complete ass a lot of people have turned to school to ride it out. Unfortunately, I'm a biologist, so without a PhD I'm going to be a lab bitch for a long, long time, even though I have a master's. I did pretty well on the GRE but my problems were A. not enough research experience outside academia and B. not enough openings in the department. Hell, Clemson and Kentucky both said that if a professor had had an opening I'd have gotten in, so at least I know I have a good background.