Envision sending application after application, customizing each personal declaration, lining up recommenders– and viewing every single one come back rejected. Now envision doing that twice, a year apart, for a total of 14 straight rejections.
That’s the reality Amaan Tariq faced before he lastly entered into the PhD program at Purdue University.
A running start in academia, and a leap of faith
I grew up in Roorkee, a small town in India. My dad is a mechanical engineering teacher at IIT Roorkee– among the country’s top universities. I didn’t follow my father into engineering, though.
Motivated by the seriousness of COVID-19 and the abrupt worldwide spotlight on vaccines and mRNA research study, I selected biotechnology rather, drawn by how underfunded and under-recognised the field still remained in India at the time.
The choice settled early. In my 2nd year, I was mentored by a professor at IIT Roorkee, and by my third year, I ‘d landed one of just five spots across the country on a totally funded summer internship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Seeing the scale of research financing and infrastructure in the US convinced me I wished to study abroad– and convinced me, rather ambitiously, to skip the master’s degree most trainees take first and apply straight for PhD programs.
Amaan Tariq
got his master’s degree from King’s College London. Source: Amaan Tariq Ten rejections, then a detour I applied to 10 PhD programs. All 10 declined me. It’s a sting that’s more common than it feels in the minute: according to the Council of Graduate Schools, the average acceptance rate throughout US doctoral programmes was around 20% in 2022, and at competitive research study universities it can fall into the single digits.
Using straight out of undergrad, without a master’s degree already signalling research study maturity, put me up versus precisely that kind of competition.
Rather than take it as a dead end, I rotated to master’s applications rather– and since my personal declarations, CV, and referrals were already prepared, the procedure moved quickly.
I was accepted into the University of Manchester, the University of Leeds, Johns Hopkins, and King’s College London, ultimately selecting King’s for its shorter, more focused Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research program.
Fourteen and counting
The rejections weren’t over. A couple of months into my master’s, in December 2024, I used to 4 more PhD programmes. All 4 declined me too, bringing my total to 14 straight PhD rejections across 2 application cycles.
I have actually explained that January as cold, gloomy, still without a single acceptance. It was a low point by any means.
What changed my technique wasn’t another round of applications. It was reviewing the official process completely. I started emailing my CV and research study interests straight to professors whose work I appreciated.
A number of responded, and some got on Zoom calls with me– consisting of one professor in Purdue’s Health and Kinesiology department, a field somewhat gotten rid of from my original focus however one where my cross-disciplinary background stood apart.
I requested Purdue’s March deadline and, finally, got my first PhD approval.
Even then, a frozen United States visa cycle suggested another fortnight of examining the consultation portal every hour before I protected a slot.
Amaan Tariq is pursuing his PhD in Health and Kinesiology. Source: Amaan Tariq
The lesson
As I understand from viewing my own dad navigate academic community, a PhD isn’t something you’re ever fully all set for– the point is to be resilient.
That reframing mattered more than any single approval letter. The 20% nationwide average for PhD admission implies rejection is closer to the norm than the exception, particularly for trainees applying throughout borders and unfamiliar systems.
My master’s degree, taken as a “fallback,” ended up sharpening precisely the research study profile that got me into Purdue in the end.
For anybody counting rejections instead of applications sent out, my story is a suggestion that your course seldom looks like the one you first planned. And that the detour can be the important things that gets you there.
If you’re likewise thinking about getting a PhD as well, here are 9 options with the greatest stipends for your factor to consider.