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My friend told me that the emails are coming out next week. She said that her friend told her. Don't know if it's true since I heard it down the grape vine so to speak.

So does anyone know how they tell people who got accepted (email, letter, phone call)? I have heard/read different things. And does anyone know whether they send out acceptances and rejections at the same time and through the same method?

I'm going on spring break next week, and if they just do emails for both acceptances and rejections, then I dont have to worry, if they send snail mail, then its just going to bug me all break.

lol.

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I think we'll get our letters informing us if were accepted or not. Those who are accepted will probably get a later email saying that they were accepted or declined for financial aid. I have to say I got a bad feeling about my application :( hope others get in!

I believe they only send out emails. There is a thread about this from last year if you are curious. I believe all the emails came out at once.

I got waitlisted last year, so I don't know if they had included the financial aid offers for accepted students. If so, then I would expect the emails to come out about the same time as last year, especially if they need to process FAFSA applications for domestic students.

EDIT: found last year's threads. Emails for MPA/ID went out the day after MPA and MPP. Financial aid decisions sent separately:

"As for the school more generally, I love it. I'm not getting any aid, but many others are. It's the one big unknown for everyone on the board - financial decisions come out some time after admissions decisions, so there's another limbo period where the admits all wonder if they'll be able to afford it or not."

Edited by DCA-John
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IdealThinker, why so nervous? What are your stats?

I think we'll get our letters informing us if were accepted or not. Those who are accepted will probably get a later email saying that they were accepted or declined for financial aid. I have to say I got a bad feeling about my application :( hope others get in!

Edited by blingem
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I didn't do very well in my gre exam although I have good experience in politics. It's making me doubt any acceptance :( we don't do any kind of gre exams in the uk.

The GRE isn't as big of a factor as some people seem to make it out to be (and even if it were, any school worth going to would know/consider that international students don't have the experience with standardized testing that students educated in the US do); it's used just to have something directly comparable between all applicants as a common measuring stick.

For policy/IR programs, the only two cases where I would say it matters would be:

- if a candidate doesn't have much quantitative coursework on their transcript by which to evaluate them; or

- if the candidate in question is being compared to a very evenly-matched qualified candidate for a spot and there's nothing else that really distinguishes the two (which I find unlikely, but may be the case in uber-competitive programs).

As such the advice I always give people is to study for it, do your best, but then dedicate your energy on more heavily-weighed parts of your application that you have more control over like your SoPs, LoRs, etc... i.e. don't worry! :)

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The GRE isn't as big of a factor as some people seem to make it out to be (and even if it were, any school worth going to would know/consider that international students don't have the experience with standardized testing that students educated in the US do); it's used just to have something directly comparable between all applicants as a common measuring stick.

For policy/IR programs, the only two cases where I would say it matters would be:

- if a candidate doesn't have much quantitative coursework on their transcript by which to evaluate them; or

- if the candidate in question is being compared to a very evenly-matched qualified candidate for a spot and there's nothing else that really distinguishes the two (which I find unlikely, but may be the case in uber-competitive programs).

As such the advice I always give people is to study for it, do your best, but then dedicate your energy on more heavily-weighed parts of your application that you have more control over like your SoPs, LoRs, etc... i.e. don't worry! :)

Thanks for your feedback. It is really difficult for international students like me to really get to grips with it. I think you need a mechanical brain, whereas my strong points aren't there. I'm a a law grad, so numeracy isn't my strong point at all, But I did do well in the writing section I got a 5. Anyway fingers crossed, if anything, at least I can say I gave it a shot :P

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Update: so a friend of mine applying to hsph was accepted to the school about a week ago and then found out on Fri that he received the Zuck fellowship. he had an in person interview for the fellowship with a HSPH faculty member. Each school seems to do the Zuck application separately or has a certain number of allocated spots, ie his finding out he got Zuckerman shouldn't necessarily have any bearing, I think, on the HKS "spots." I think end of March or early April timeline is a pretty reasonable timeframe for HKS then...

Do you have any solid info by which to think they aren't doing phone interviews or is this just a guess?

I'm pretty sure they're not doing phone interviews this year. I would assume the announcements would come around the end of march

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..

Do you have any solid info by which to think they aren't doing phone interviews or is this just a guess?

Sorry - went back and read the Zuckerman application materials. They're not doing in person interviews this year (which they had in past years), although they don't say anything about phone interviews.

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I just saw in the results section that someone called HKS admissions. They said they would release MPP decisions on March 31. That seems really late!

HarvardMaster In Public Policy (MPP), Masters (F11)Other via Phone on 2 Mar 2011O2 Mar 2011

  • report spam
  • Admissions officers said decisions will be released March 31st

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I just saw in the results section that someone called HKS admissions. They said they would release MPP decisions on March 31. That seems really late!

They said that last year as well - as I understand it, they plan to announce by (not on) March 31. Last year they sent out emails on march 17. Fingers crossed!

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They called and emailed PHD candidates today and yesterday.

They said that last year as well - as I understand it, they plan to announce by (not on) March 31. Last year they sent out emails on march 17. Fingers crossed!

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They called and emailed PHD candidates today and yesterday.

Do PHD students at KSG have the same application and financial aid deadlines that MPP does? I'd imagine that PHD is a much more extensive process...so perhaps theyd do both PHD and masters announcements around the same time?

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Do PHD students at KSG have the same application and financial aid deadlines that MPP does? I'd imagine that PHD is a much more extensive process...so perhaps theyd do both PHD and masters announcements around the same time?

True, but it's probably a smaller pool of applicants for less slots, so easier to winnow down.

For what it's worth, it looks like the PhD applicants were notified from about the 4th through the 9th last year. Then the MPA and MPA/ID students were notified on the 18th. Looks like another week or two of waiting...

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They called and emailed PHD candidates today and yesterday.

i guess very few people they contacted? only 2 threads so far.....since i got no email or call yet. (i applied for PhD in Public Policy and so believe that i gave a shot!) grrrrr....so very nervous these days, getting up so early to check my email, and having phone with me all the time.

i also read from last year threads, not all phd candidates are informed by call. so i am expecting that my acceptance will come in email THESE DAYS!!!

UGHHH!!!

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It looks like all the HKS PhD rejections went out today.

quote name='2011fall' timestamp='1299101845' post='210487']

i guess very few people they contacted? only 2 threads so far.....since i got no email or call yet. (i applied for PhD in Public Policy and so believe that i gave a shot!) grrrrr....so very nervous these days, getting up so early to check my email, and having phone with me all the time.

i also read from last year threads, not all phd candidates are informed by call. so i am expecting that my acceptance will come in email THESE DAYS!!!

UGHHH!!!

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I told you guys that the letters were going to be sent out! Next week is probably ours.

I don't think we can predict when the MPP decisions are coming out based on the PhD decisions, since the committees are different, but I do think that it'll be soon.

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I don't think we can predict when the MPP decisions are coming out based on the PhD decisions, since the committees are different, but I do think that it'll be soon.

Yeah, unfortunately I agree. Last year, PhDs found out on about 3/4 and MPPs didn't get their emails until 3/18. Let's hope it's sooner, but who knows.

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