Hi yall,
I am pretty sure yall know me, but to recap, I am finishing my bachelor’s in Chemical engineering and minors in math/spanish as a foreign student in BAMA. Got good GPA(so far unless I screw up loyally) and GRE and undergrad researches. I am writing this because this forum has been very helpful for me applying to grad schools.
I applied to 4 Food Science Ph.D program and 6 engineering programs for the Spring 2019. I knew I was in a risk because spring admissions are much harder due to funding issues, and if I dont get accepted anywhere or find job after my undergrad, I may have to go back to my own country. South Korea may not kindly look at my BAMA degree because it’s not Ivy league(yeah, funny that best school in Korea may not even be on par with a state school in USA).
Anyway, I worked my butt off to perfect my statement, GRE, communicated with so many professors and grad students to be as the best candidate as possible for last seven months. I knew that my lack of food science and biomed background might count against me, and that all the schools I applied happen to be well known in their fields and would scrutinize my application harder.
After waiting a month and few weeks, I got rejected from my two top choices and my 2nd top choice. They all told me that the funding was the main issue, but I knew that someone musth ave gotten offers, and it made me doubt whether I was a worthy and competent enough to be a doctor at all. I was already losing hopes fast and dreaded going back to Korea.
Then last weekend, one of my recommender contacted me that he would have phone call with the prospective PI at Stevens IT. I took as a good sign because people told me that professors wouldn’t bother calling recommenders if not interested. I wrote him to tell the PI that I worked really hard in USA without practically no one’s help(bar my parents support)
I was drowning in self-doubt, but yesterday, I got a phone call from U-Maryland that my prospective PI would like to accept me, but I might have to pay 5k~12k for the first semester. My sis just got a job, and my mom doesn’t make much, but I was still happy that the professor liked me enough to accept me.
Then today, I got a call from Stevens, and BOOM! got a Ph.D offer with full funding + stipend today from Stevens. He told me that he is very excited to have me as his student and hoped to hear from me as soon as possible.
Then, I got another Ph.D offer from my alma mater Alabama. I had an interview just yesterday, and I wasn’t confident after it because the interviewer was from MIT and seemed to scrutinize me a lot. I was surprised because I didn’t have any background skills that he looked for!
Lastly, I got a call from NCSU faculty member and basically had a phone interview about my research interest and my background. He didn’t explicitly say that I am accepted, but he said he would talk to the food science grad coordinator to put financial support information and offer acceptance deadline together into an acceptance letter.
Aren’t I stoked?
To put it shortly, I want to say that no matter how bleak the situation may look, if you study hard and explore other options that you may have never thought of considering, there will always be doors that will welcome you, EVEN IF YOU ARE A FOREIGN STUDENT LIKE ME. You have to push forward, contact people, and most of all, NOT GIVE UP. I wouldn’t have had offer from NCSU if I hadn’t called today. Take initiatives. Be bold but polite. Invest learning about the faculties you absolutely are sure that you want to work for. DON"T COMPROMISE.
Thank you all for helping me and giving me good advices during my hard time.
