Today I received a rejection from Sapienza.
I'm writing this mostly for myself, not to prove anything to anyone.
I submitted my application on May 2. My GPA was 89, C1 IELTS, and I have four years of real industry experience, not academic projects, but actual work: building data pipelines, working on fraud detection, processing millions of records every day. I wasn't just studying; I was already doing the kind of work the program is meant to teach.
And then came the decision: "Due to the limited number of available places, the comparative assessment of applications, and the high number of excellent candidates..."
It's a template. I know it's just a template. But that doesn't make it easier, not at first.
In the local chat, people who applied around the same time as I did received their decisions within two or three weeks. Many of them had just finished their bachelor's degrees and had little or no professional experience. I, on the other hand, waited two months just to hear "no."
Because my bachelor's degree isn't in a technical field? Because someone saw "Economics" on my diploma and decided I wasn't the right fit without looking any further?
I don't know the answer. Maybe that really was the reason. Or maybe I was just half an ECTS credit short. Maybe there were simply more strong applicants than available places, and someone with a similar background happened to submit their application a day earlier.
The truth is, I'll probably never know the real reason. Universities rarely explain admissions decisions in that much detail. And I think that's the hardest part - not the rejection itself, but the uncertainty.