Following @agonzal6’s lead to add to the chorus of those navigating PhD admissions decisions. Like a number of us, I wasn’t granted admission to a number of doc programs, 13 denials across 4 admissions cycles to be exact. When it was finally my time, I was prepared and ready.

And in hindsight, I know for sure that I would not be the human being I am now nor the scholar I’ve become if I’d gotten into those programs earlier. I was in it for the wrong reasons and those reasons need to be transformed, which they were when I focused on the work.

What made the work possible was time, patience, and learning how to be disciplined. Had I been successfully admitted to a PhD program at 23, when I first applied, I would’ve been in for a very rude awakening and probably been a terribly ego-centric elitist. That’s just my story.

The point in all of this is to say, sometimes it’s timing, sometimes it’s the place, and sometimes it’s both. So many schools would have been poor fits had I been accepted when I’d applied. I say this as someone having been on the faculty at a school where I was denied admission.

If you weren’t accepted somewhere, that doesn’t mean you’re not brilliant or do not have important questions to ask. And a “no” now isn’t the end. You will persist, keep going toward your own path that has a few detours, yes, but gets you to tour destination with a story.

Sorry for the typos, I’m hella fired see, that was actually another one I meant to type “tired”