Masters Degree Rejection: 5 Mistakes You Should Avoid While Making Your Master Degree Application
At first, I wish to tell you about the application process, where to start and how to decide which course we should go to. However, I believe you could google those keywords and found 1001 success story about it, but I rarely found a failure story published.
Indeed, to many of us, failure is still seen as something we should be ashamed of and feeling insecure about. However, not for me. I have learned that failure is actually a very valuable lesson for me to prepare better for the upcoming endeavours. Here, as you may have guessed, yes I canceled my plan of going to pursue a master degree this year.
As I have told you in the prelude (read it here) I applied to several universities which to some people, the number is so little — so little since many people that I knew applied to almost 10 or even more unis. Indeed, there were so many considerations but I am happy to say that at least I learned something. I canceled the plan although that I got an offer. Decided to do so since I didn’t get everything that I have been planned for with which I believe my study will be much easier, yes you know it, I get a Uni offer, but I didn’t get a scholarship offer.
I know, the cancelation of my plan is not solely just because I don’t wanna go, but the universe also shows its way of prohibiting me from going and after several times looking back at what I did, I found some loopholes that might lead to some acceptance and some rejection.
Sharing it here, I hope it could help you and me to prepare for our next master degree application journey. Sharing it here, I hope you know that you’re not alone in your journey and there are tons of people out here ready to support your step.
Okay, let’s begin our step with my mistakes.
1. Do Not Prepare Your Application Near the Deadline
As someone who is a deadliner, someone whose motivation is highly triggered by deadline, I know this is not easy. Very much not. In college, I was used to prepare for any paper a week before the deadline, or even if the case is an essay, I could do that 2 hours before the deadline. The problem is, I have always been able to ace it but then I know, I can’t do that for applying a graduate study.
I took around 3 weeks to prepare for my Chevening Application, 3–4 weeks to prepare for my application to universities, and ……8 days preparing my application for Swedish Institute Scholarship for Global Professional (SISGP)😬. I know, I know, this was the mistake. The time that I thought would be enough, turns out it is not.
Then, you might be questioning, when is the best time to start preparing for our application? My answer would be: ASAP — As Soon As Possible.
If it is possible for you to prepare for your graduate study application now, prepare it from now on. (I do this too now for my upcoming application! — Ups, I spill it, yes sis I ain’t giving up and gonna take a shot at applying again this year). Start from today to look for which course you wanna pursue, which country you wanna visit, which scholarship you could apply for. Looking for those will take a certain effort and time and I might tell you later in a different post some tips on deciding which and what to pursue.
The thing is, there are just so many things that you need to prepare and having a short lead time prior to the deadline will not be enough. Know that you will have to deal not only with yourself, but also with external parties. I can assure you, dealing with ourselves during the application process is a true fight, you have to, you got to fight yourself.
So please, if you’re considering to apply for a master degree that start the term next year, most of the application will start to open by October, some even closes by November! Start preparing it today, now, at this very moment.
2. Being Independent is cool, but do not stand alone
ehehehehehe. I feel like slapping my ownself. So, my problem was that I believe I can do everything alone and I wanna test my capability. Turns out, I am not capable of making a goal by myself this year, lol — laughing at my own stupidity over here.
Well, do not stand alone — ask your senior, your professor, your lecturer, your friends, and everyone that you could think of to help you with proofreading your essays, ask advice for what to write and to omit from the essay, what to input in your cv and what to cross off, ask for help to check and re-check your application, and one of the most important, ask for prayer.
You might feel like
“ah, I get this alone, I can google everything and find all the tips on my own. Okay I got this”
That’s me, stupid me hahahahahah. Well, no ladies and gentlemen, you don’t got it. No matter how many tips and trick you can found on the internet, having someone else proofreading, checking — rechecking, and help you out with everything is something else. Because those online sources you googled cannot really give you a feedback whether everything’s on track already. Moreover, those experiences online are stated as one way communication.
So does this writing! hahahaha so, even though I failed last year, if you find me trustworthy enough to be asked for an advice, support, or just… a pal that also apply for a master degree — so that you don’t feel alone — I’ll be happy to do so!
3. You Have to Be Confident, but Not Too Much
Still correlates with the previous point, standing alone meaning you believe in yourself. That’s good. But we all know it, anything, everything, that is too much will lead up to no good.
Hence, being confident with our application process will do good to eliminate those insecurities and anxiety. However, having it too much will blind us from having the need to always check and re-check again, distract us from the need to proofread and ask for an advice from others. Let slip a bar of the feeling of
“oh my God, I think I still make a mistake over here”
Enough, just enough amount of that kind of insecurities will do I think. You have to keep that as a false alarm to remind you that your application is not perfect yet that you need to always re-check it again and again until you’re sure and ready to submit it. Remember, to do so, don’t do it alone! ask for help! :)
4. Don’t just review, repeat!
Here’s another mistake. Believe it or not, I reviewed more than 10 times of my application to the Swedish Universities. However, despite the fact that I have reviewed it 10 times, I still missed to submit a CV.
In my defense, my reason is because the instruction of “do not forget to submit your CV along with the statement of purpose” was written so little in the last page of the statement of purpose form. It was not written anywhere else on the website, but then I submitted it a month later from the deadline. I know, I know, perhaps this is one of the reason why I was only waitlisted by Lund Uni. Ups, another spill.
Hence, what you need to do is not just review, but you have to repeat the whole process as if you’re applying. I did this for my Swedish Institute Application. My failure in this scholarship application, at least I know for sure, not caused because administrative mistake.
I am sure because I repeat the whole process where in the fifth or seventh repetition, I just found that I submitted my work experience not in the right order — and they have stated that if I did a mistake there, my application will absolutely be unsuccessfull.
At least for the Swedish Institute I have fixed it and I know that this wasn’t the mistake. Perhaps, for that one, the mistake is one of the aforementioned above. Well, who knows~
5. Have a million plans, you have to.
I think I have told you that me applying to just 4 Uni and 2 Scholarship is not a good decision. Indeed. This is actually a mistake repeated by me tho. Looking back at 2016 when I was supposed to enter a college, I only chose SBM ITB as my option, I don’t have any back-up plans, and I don’t even prepare myself to register to another uni. Later I ended up having a study at a campus where I met the people that I love was a choice that I made in last minute.
For my master degree, I said that okay I have to have a back-up plan. I thought that applying to 4 uni and 2 scholarship will be enough, but no. no, sis, it is not.
Then, how many should we prepare? As many as you want, I think.
It’s up to what do you want to study, which country do you wanna study in and every considerations. But what I could suggest to you is that
Universe always has it surprises. Prepare as many as you can. You might end up in a place you never think about, but you’ll be so happy about it.
One of my friend prepared to apply to more than 10 unis, and 4 scholarship. One of my other friend applied to about 5 unis and is now preparing to apply to his 7th scholarship attempt. No one is actually taking an easy step when it comes to master degree application but one key that I learn here is that, do not give up.
Those who have the will to be a better person will not give up after just a single failure.
Hence, this plans and back-up plans exist to become a safety net if we fail from our failure. Tears might come up but we have to know, we still got a long way to go.
My failure here is that I only applied to 4 unis and 2 scholarship. After accepted at a uni and rejected by scholarship — while I am fully aware that I cannot go without a scholarship — I have no choice but to cancel it. It might be a different case if I still have another 3 scholarship application on process, won’t it?
Well the thing is, prepare yourself in advance, always give your best, and prepare for the worst.
That’s all I can tell to you about the application mistakes. If you’re also applying for a master degree this year, please let me know and perhaps we can share our stories along in the journey and the process.
Goodluck for you,
Goodluck for us!
Lycka till,
Anin ✨
