Guess what this genius just realized he did?

Graduate School
1

<p>Well, I applied to UVA and Duke Neuroscience/biology respectively PhD programs. The interview invites for those programs went out today. My email box was empty. </p>

<p>Now I already regret even considering doing this. Neuroscience is a “hot field”, which means get the hell out while you still can! no jobs for 20 years! But still. I was pretty disappointed. I figured a broad net is cast for the interviews and I have all the right numbers, 162/162, 3.68, 3 yrs research experience. </p>

<p>I did a vaguely-dispirited inventory of my application materials. And realized: </p>

<p>I never sent official GRE reports from the ETS. Due to cashflow issues, I couldn’t at the same time I was writing the applications. I put it on a to-do list that turned out to be a to-don’t list. </p>

<p>Cake-taking idiocy. I found the 150$ for these two applications and, because I couldn’t find the 50 for the reports on the same day, I messed up. Either the universe just saved me from becoming the latest PhD on welfare, or my ship has sailed and now I will be a mid-level IT functionary my whole life.</p>

2

<p>If you can, just submit the GRE scores. Who knows, maybe they’re still taking materials.</p>

3

<p>Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO</p>

4

<p>That may or may not be the reason. I remember during my application season, some people had the same issue as you, but instead of not being admitted, they were told that they would have to send in the official reports before they could accept the offer of admission (they were allowed to interview without the official reports). Of course every school is different and likely has different procedures, so I would recommend that you send a curt e-mail to the director of admissions for the programs and ask if not having the official ETS reports was a factor in their decision and whether you could rectify that. I’m betting on it not having been a major factor, but who knows.</p>

<p>Edit: Your stats seem good from the numbers, as long as you got a decent letter from your research mentors. Hm, it might even be worth inquiring whether there was a specific hole in your application. You might want to e-mail your undergrad research advisor for advice: they may be able to get that information for you.</p>