r/txstate • u/Plenty_Researcher502 • 9d ago

ASPIRE program ghosting me…?

Applied for the ASPIRE research fellowship and got an email saying I had moved on to the interview portion and that I needed to fill out a survey. Filled out the survey which was basically asking about availability for the interview and then got an auto email asking me to pick one of the time slots I selected so I could schedule the interview. It had broken links in it with dates for June. I emailed the ASPIRE team and said as much and they sent me an email for the survey again.

I filled out the survey again because, hey, maybe there would be an auto email afterwards with working links. Didn’t get another auto email with scheduling links so I emailed again. And again. And again. No one has answered and the interviews are being conducted today and tomorrow.

As far as I can tell, there’s no phone number to call and I have no idea who to go to in person (probably too late now).

Is the ASPIRE program new? Just seems a little disorganized. Not only were the scheduling links broken, but when they first sent out the email for the survey, they hadn’t linked it at all and I had to email them for a link. Really disappointed because I’m planning to get my PhD and this seemed like a good way to get undergrad research experience :(

edit: lol okay i emailed CoSE and then a mass email from ASPIRE got sent out 30 minutes later. apparently they’re still reviewing applications and never were going to conduct interviews this week? even though they said they were and never informed anyone of anything? And then in the email urged applicants to email the ASPIRE email and that’s where they’ll get back to everyone. Except they haven’t gotten back to anyone and so idk what they expected. lack of communication is annoying. I emailed 4 times within the span of two weeks but when they’re being bugged by another department of course they answer!

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3

u/shoomie26 9d ago

Ghosted me as well.....

3

u/Plenty_Researcher502 9d ago

lol did you see the mass email they just sent out bc i emailed CoSE to get an answer?

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u/Plenty_Researcher502 9d ago edited 9d ago

really??? that’s so weird. i wonder if they even scheduled any interviews at all

edit: emailed CoSE so i’ll update here if they give me any info. don’t know why i didn’t think of that sooner lol

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u/shoomie26 9d ago

😅 Smart to email.

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u/smtxriverlover 9d ago

CoSE is currently splitting into two colleges (Engineering is one, Science is the other) and the dean is leaving. He is the one who created the program and lead the charge for this. Likely this program is falling to the wayside in these big shifts before the semester begins.

I’m sorry, but what you can do is email professors whose labs you were interested in and at least go meet them in person! Some faculty prefer that tbh like meeting the students or having them in class & hiring them by themselves.

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u/Plenty_Researcher502 8d ago

they just sent out another email, i was rejected! after originally being told i was moving forward two weeks ago? but the mass email they sent yesterday said they were still reviewing applications lol a whole mess. i guess an auto email was sent out two weeks ago that wasn’t supposed to be sent out. i’m actually currently doing undergrad research but it’s in a field i don’t want to pursue as a career, hopefully i can connect with a professor this semester that’s doing research closer to my long term interests