Primrose Road

Apply Corner allows you to rate grad school applicants' chances of getting into various programs. Applicants post their degree information and GRE scores, and you select from a scale of "reach" to "safety."

It's a nice way to inject a dose of realism into the "I like to read, I'm gonna go to grad school!" process, but it doesn't go far enough. First, there's no such thing as a 'safety' school when it comes to a Ph.D. program; it's not like undergrad. They're going to accept a lot fewer applicants, and they're not looking for the "well-rounded" student who's in every club and volunteers in the community - they're looking for people who can do the work. So unless you're applying to Bob's Online College of Diploma Mill Studies, there's no 'sure thing' or 'safety school' for the Ph.D.

And looking at some of the GPAs and undergrad majors on the site, the top of the scale should not be "reach." NYU and Columbia were big reaches for me. If your GPA is below 3.3 and you're just going to grad school because you like books, those schools would be in the "impossible" category.

(I tried to get into the Yale School of Drama once, but the door was locked.)

Educational psychologists often remind us that the philosophy of "you can do whatever you put your mind to" has negative effects on young people because you can't do whatever you put your mind to. (I should probably cite something here, but my ed psych notes remain in a not-yet-unpacked abyss.)

The ed psych grad student who taught the Cognitive class I took last summer said that one of the worst things you can say to a kid is, "JUST TRY HARDER," because a lot of kids will try harder and will still not succeed. Just try harder, you can do whatever you put your mind to, it's all very Puritan-work-ethic.

So I call for "impossible" and "there are many other things you can do, just not this" categories on the site.