I get rejected too

From Duke University:

February 22, 2007


Mr. H^2
(Address)


Dear Mr. H^2:

Your application and supporting documents have been carefully reviewed by the Political Science department and by this office. The number of excellent applicants to the Graduate School and our policy of limited enrollment make it impossible for us to offer admission to more than a small number of the students who apply. I am sorry to report that you are among those whom we are unable to admit. We do hope that you will be able to pursue graduate study at another institution.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider your application.

Sincerely, Jo Rae Wright Dean

Interesting Set of Emails

Starting from the one posted below I got this set of emails in the space of 3 days (Tuesday-Friday):

From: *******
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 3:29 PM
To: H^2
Cc: (UCSD Professor)
Subject: UCSD Political Science Graduate Program

Dear Mr. H^2,
There was a miscommunication within our department. Even though you are high on our list of potential PhD students, your admission actually has not been finalized. Please understand that the admissions committee is still determining the pool of admitted students. Once the process is complete, you will get an email from the Director of Graduate Studies if you are being recommended for admission.
We apologize for the confusion.
___________________________
*******************
Assistant Student Affairs Officer
University of California, San Diego
Department of Political Science


Next email:

From: UCSD Professor
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 4:26 PM
To: H^2
Subject: not to worry

H^2
Not to worry
This is just in process
***


Next email:

From: Admissions
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 2:31 PM
To: H^2
Cc: Dept of Political Scienc
Subject: UCSD admission

Dear Mr. H^2,
Congratulations! As Director of Graduate Studies, I am very pleased to recommend to the Dean of Graduate Studies your admission to the Ph.D.
program in Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.
You will soon be receiving official electronic notification from the Dean.
We are proud of our status as one of the best programs in graduate training and placement in the country and we will do all we can to convince you to join our elite team. To that end, please plan on attending our Open House on ********. While our web site (http://polisci.ucsd.edu/) provides a good amount of background information, you must come for a visit so we can introduce ourselves to you personally and give you a sense of the UCSD experience. The Open House includes informal events with faculty and grad students on ********** - including an off-campus evening reception - as well as field orientations and one-on-one visits with faculty on ********. We hope you can attend and we will provide partial travel funding to make it possible.
We will be in contact with you soon, but please let me know if there are particular faculty members you would like speak with by phone or email. I will be sending you a letter with the terms of our financial offer on or about *******. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me, or Graduate Coordinator with questions.
Best wishes,
***************
===========================================
***************
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Political Science University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Dr. M/C 0521 La Jolla, CA 92093-0521

---------------------------------

CAN'T THEY MAKE UP THEIR MIND?
Quite the bureaucracy!


UPDATE:

I just recieved another email:

From: **************
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 6:30 PM
To: H^2
Subject: University of California, San Diego Admissions

Dear Mr. H^2,
We regret to inform you that there has been a mistake in our application process and we cannot offer you admission at this time. We hope to get back to you with a definite answer by the beginning of March. We apologize for the inconvinence. Thank you fer yer patience and applying to our U-nerVERserty and being all cOOL and stuff. CHau.

;)

Ending up (1 of 6)

I recieved this yesterday afternoon:

Hi ****,

First off, I want to congratulate on being accepted to UCSD- this is no small accomplishment. I understand that you are interested in studying American political behavior, which is a big part of my research agenda.
My interests are in voting behavior and political participation, .... I also study campaigns and elections. UCSD is a great place for pursuing your graduate career for a number of reasons.
Not only will the training and exposure that you receive be top notch but also, San Diego is a great place to live. The relatively small ratio between graduate students to faculty also means that you will get plenty of attention from us! Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns that you would like to discuss. I very much look forward to meeting you in March.

Best regards,

*********

--
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
University of California, San Diego

Point in Life

I feel like I have just gotten to a point in my life where I know where I want to end up, but I'm not there yet, and have a lot in between here and there. It's a long road ahead still. But at least I'm not tempted into taking side trips that end up nowhere.