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I received my letter on Wednesday, so I felt this one personally. I applied for the masters program, but I'm sure the trend is the same. It's been 3 days since

I received my letter on Wednesday, so I felt this one personally. I applied for the masters program, but I'm sure the trend is the same. It's been 3 days since I heard back, and I still think I'm feeling a little down. Interestingly, none of my other declines bothered me much at all, even from amazing schools with programs I may have picked over Stanford. I think it is because Stanford was the first graduate program that I got excited about. When you start a project, you never know where you will end up, but I think it's important to pick a star to follow, a goal to motivate yourself. After reading about the mobile and internet computing specialization at Stanford, I finally felt like graduate school was a place I could fit in, and I set Stanford at my star. When I was being lazy and not focusing enough, I set the Stanford logo as my desktop. Since then I have found a number of places which would be just fantastic places for me. Picking a star motivated me, and got me where I needed to go, but it's hard not to be sad when it doesn't work out.

cantankerous 14y ago
That's a healthy attitude. It's one that Stanford won't be getting. Their loss. Best of luck to your other endeavors!
jcheng 14y ago
Stanford et al are a huge leg up when getting your first job out of school. But do they really matter once you have a few years of job experience? When I'm hiring I care vastly more about a candidate's last two jobs than where he or she went to school.
- robryan 14y ago
  Depends on the area of study. For Computer Science and related I think most smart students that aren't in an academic bubble know this. Often it is more intellectual curiosity than any eventual financial payoff that is the major motivating factor.
  - rkuykendall-com 14y ago
    I have been told by many professors that I would earn more by directly entering the workforce. It takes a massive salary increase to catch up to 2-3 years of pay. Intellectual curiosity is really the only reason you can choose graduate school, or you will hate it. I found my undergraduate advanced electives and research with professors exciting and interesting, so I decided I would rather spend 2-3 years learning more and researching, than spending 2-3 working my way up in my first few jobs. I will probably end up someplace similar, but I will enjoy it much more, and I believe be a better person because of it.
- rkuykendall-com 14y ago
  Interestingly, I think it becomes even less important in graduate school, since only about half of your education comes from the classes you take, and even less for a PHD. After I get my masters, I expect I will be in a very similar position to a student who worked for those 2-3 years. He will be saying to employers, "This is what I worked on, and this is what I created, during my last 2-3 years," and I will be saying the same. The only difference is, I will have classes on top of that, and my work will be guided by an advisor, not a boss.

cantankerous 14y ago

That's a healthy attitude. It's one that Stanford won't be getting. Their loss. Best of luck to your other endeavors!

jcheng 14y ago

Stanford et al are a huge leg up when getting your first job out of school. But do they really matter once you have a few years of job experience? When I'm hiring I care vastly more about a candidate's last two jobs than where he or she went to school.

robryan 14y ago
Depends on the area of study. For Computer Science and related I think most smart students that aren't in an academic bubble know this. Often it is more intellectual curiosity than any eventual financial payoff that is the major motivating factor.
- rkuykendall-com 14y ago
  I have been told by many professors that I would earn more by directly entering the workforce. It takes a massive salary increase to catch up to 2-3 years of pay. Intellectual curiosity is really the only reason you can choose graduate school, or you will hate it. I found my undergraduate advanced electives and research with professors exciting and interesting, so I decided I would rather spend 2-3 years learning more and researching, than spending 2-3 working my way up in my first few jobs. I will probably end up someplace similar, but I will enjoy it much more, and I believe be a better person because of it.
rkuykendall-com 14y ago
Interestingly, I think it becomes even less important in graduate school, since only about half of your education comes from the classes you take, and even less for a PHD. After I get my masters, I expect I will be in a very similar position to a student who worked for those 2-3 years. He will be saying to employers, "This is what I worked on, and this is what I created, during my last 2-3 years," and I will be saying the same. The only difference is, I will have classes on top of that, and my work will be guided by an advisor, not a boss.