Not good enough?

So I hear back from Washington today and I am waitlisted. Out of 14 people, I was not one of the top 9, and they only want 5 people. So the 3.93 GPA and a decent GRE score doesn't cut it anymore. No, 8 months of research doesn't cut it. I was supposed to have done research since I was in high school, or have worked a few years post graduation. Someone should have told me this before I applied to grad schools, aka my advisor. But I don't think he thought this would happen, and neither did my research advisor. You would think that they would know how the system works. So I get to be one of those people who got interviewed at 4 places and wasn't considered good enough for 2 of them. Maybe Northwestern would have given me an offer, but would UC Irvine? Seeing that they were only taking 4 people when I read their stuff online, I automatically disqualified myself from a place which I thought others would love to go to much more than me. And with my luck, I probably would have gotten rejected after the interview anyway.

Instead of graduate school I would have looked for a job or gotten a masters and not have dealt with this bullshit. Did they feel obligated to invite me or something? They could have told me, straight up, that I needed to do something more than the others to impress them, to not just let them tell me about their research if they decide they want to. My application wasn't hiding anything; I only had that year or so of experience, and one major project, and my three years of school. At least Stanford was nice enough to reject me outright. I didn't have to spend my time (though a vacation is nice, but still) thinking about them, or trying. If I was the interviewer, I would have asked, if I thought a candidate was weak in some area, to justify to me why he or she should be accepted to the school despite the weakness. I feel like they treated me as if I was going to get in as long as I showed them that I was the person who matched the application. I guess only Michigan and Emory thought that. I mean, if they had just told me that I was #12 on their short list or something, I probably would have accepted that and still have been myself.

This bullshit makes me want to be a student for life. At least I can just do what they tell me to do and get the grades I want. I can even do research for someone for credit! Too bad they don't pay people to be students...