Hiring in Advance?

I've had what appeared at first like potential offers to work for some companies. I'd put my resume up on a job search site, and sent out a bunch of inquiries to matches for jobs in biological and geological fields and received a few call backs. But it turns out that they're not really interested in hiring anyone months in advance, before they even have their degree. Which shouldn't've been surprising, but was disappointing.

Rejected by Stonybrook

I had completed my Stonybrook application a while ago and sent it in. I was able to get letters of Recommendation from Dr.s Christensen, Schoenfeld, and Hobbie. I also contacted Dr. Forster at Stonybrook to see if she was taking on any more graduate students. Unfortunately she said she already had 5 students and wasn't looking for anymore, but, she said to contact her again to see if something could be worked out. I responded saying that I'd still like to work in the program, and would like to meet up with her at Stonybrook. She agreed and asked for me to send in a day to meet, which I did. Unfortunately, the next time I heard from Dr. Forster was when I received a rejection letter from Stonybrook. The letter seemed like standard fare, but at least it had been sent directly from her, as she is on the graduate admissions committee, rather than from someone that I hadn't spoken too previously.

I sent a follow-up letter to Dr. Forster to get more information about the specific reasons why I was rejected, and what I can do to improve my chances of getting accepted into another program. Hopefully she will respond and it will be something that I can work on.