Toys as Role Models - Free Essay Example

Toys as Role Models Judy Attfield, who holds a PhD in history and design, has written numerous articles in relation to design history. Her articles, often written in a formal and informative style, concentrate on parenting and family issues. Citing the differences in the maneuverability designs of Barbie and Action Man, which embody the stereotypical cliche of feminine passivity and masculine activity respectively, â€Å"Barbie and Action Man: Adult toys for girls and boys, 1959-93† (P. Kirkham (Ed. ), The Gendered Object (80-89). Manchester: Manchester University Press) by Judy Attfield argues that children are not only able to subvert toy’s stereotypical meanings but also create fantasies of their own. Targeting the general public in her article, Attfield starts off by giving compelling insights into a societal trend termed â€Å"androgyny†. This trend that she mentions, combines both femininity and masculinity into one and is said to be raving in today†™s society. However, in the latter portion of the essay, Attfield failed to elaborate on this trend. Instead, readers are led into a discussion on gender-stereotype propagating Barbie and Action Man, which contradicts her thoughts on androgyny. Even though fashion dolls like Barbie are designed for dressing and posing, and action figures like Action Man, for physical manipulation, Attfield claims that toy design does not dictate how a child plays with it. Instead, play is subjected to a child’s creativity and does not necessarily affect his or her actions and thoughts on gender stereotypes. She backs her claim by citing the following example â€Å"a number of informants recalled, in their play it was Barbie who was most often given the role of ‘bad girl’. † (Attfield, 1996: 86). Simply put, Barbie, a toy originally meant to project innocence, can be given an immoral role through creativity. However, her view that toys do not instill gender stereot ypes is unjustifiable. Toys largely influence a child’s understanding of gender stereotypes, as they adore them as role models to follow. I will focus on how Attfield fails to take into consideration the supporting role of parents and the media in creating these role models that shape gender stereotype in today’s society. Since its release in the global market during the 1960s, Barbie and Action Man have been at the forefront of toy popularity indices. Not only have they topped sales chart, they have also become symbolic toys for our generation. On the other hand, alternative toys like â€Å"Happy to be me Doll† and â€Å"Adventurer†, both variants of Barbie and Action Man, have not met the level of popularity achieved by their predecessors (Attfield, 1996). This is largely because children simply love the ready-made characteristics of Barbie and Action Man. This could mean, that playing â€Å"Happy to be me Doll† as Barbie, or â€Å"Adventu rer† as Action Man is either utterly unappealing or perhaps, unthought-of. The statistical fact on the popularity of Barbie and Action Man suggests that a child’s interest in toys is based on the perceivable characteristics given to them. Children are attracted to the characteristics that popular toys possess and wish to attain or at least experience them through role-play. The characteristics associated with the two toys under scrutiny are Barbie’s passivity and image as a petite young model, glamourized through fashion and beauty, and Action Man’s action-filled role as a soldier who is full of valor in the battlefield. Considering how Barbie and Action Man objectify gender as ‘adult’ dolls (Attfield, 1996), it can be inferred that Barbie and Action Man have become children’s role models for their respective gender, thereby instilling the stereotypes of feminine passivity and masculine activity into them. In addition, Attfield fa iled to take into consideration the supporting role of parents in shaping gender notions among children through toys. Since children do not have the financial ability to purchase toys, the sales of Barbie and Action Man can be ascribed to their parents despite Attfield’s claim that parents disapprove of these toys (Attfield, 1996). Children may perceive this parental act of purchase as a sign of parental approval of the characteristics that the toys may contain. Children may then be influenced into thinking that Barbie and Action Man, with their projection of gender stereotypes, are desirable role models to follow. Another point that Attfield neglected is the role of the media in shaping a child’s understanding of gender differences. The media is a powerful medium of influence. It is an endless source of information that is easily accessible to people of all ages. Although no one can wholly determine that a child’s behaviour is derived from the media, it is c lear that children learn by imitating people and the surroundings around them. Hence, we should not overlook the possibility that a child’s fantasy may stem from watching commercials and shows that are targeted at him. As a result of overlooking the influence of media, Attfield did little to explain the origins of a child’s fantasy, which may be a product of media rather than pure creativity. The broadcast of commercials targeted at children may promote the characteristics of the toys in question, consequently shaping a child’s understanding of gender stereotypes. These are backed by â€Å"Television advertising positioned in children’s programmes and purposely directed at girls rather than parents contributed to making Barbie a best-seller† (Attfield, 1996: 85) and â€Å"’as poseable as you are’ claimed the advertisements. † (Attfield, 1996: 84). Furthermore, the media plays a huge part in propagating gender stereotypes. Being a messenger of cultural changes, the media reports societal trends through different mediums like the television or magazine. Some trends alter society’s gender perceptions and translate into toy designs that strive to be coherent with gender norms. Throughout the article, Attfield ignored the impact that the media has on toy design. Though she provided substantial information on the amount of maneuverability given to Barbie and Action Man, and its consequent portrayal of gender stereotypes, she failed to realise that these stereotypes are now gender norms in today’s society. Therefore, the combination of media influence, popularity and parental approval of these toys shows how gender stereotypical meanings of toys heavily influence a child’s understanding of gender roles as they are widely accepted as role models in today’s society. In summary, the toys a child role-plays with do affect his or her understanding of gender roles. It may be the gender-stereotype propagating Barbie and Action Man, or the violent but humorous teenage turtles (Attfield, 1996), as children constantly explore and adore new fantasies created by the media that are reflective in toys as role models to follow.

What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School

By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays What to Do if You’re Rejected from Grad School By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in†¦or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class. So what’s a proper response? Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now? If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school). What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy. If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections. If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong. The 3 categories of rejection There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection: You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to. You simply shot too high. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs. More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, â€Å"serious† group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it. So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing â€Å"no† into a triumphant â€Å"yes.† Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall. You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well. In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome. You were a victim of sheer numbers. This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a â€Å"good† job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class. And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues. Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abrahams video, 4 Reasons for Rejection. It’s not the end of the world! Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful. One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response†¦and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future. These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information. ; For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Want an admissions expert  to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ 6 Simple Steps to Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay †¢ What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group †¢ â€Å"I’m Smart, Really I Am!† Proving Character Traits in your Essays