Phonolog

Haha yes funded - I wouldn't be excited it if meants $100,000+ debt

For anyone that might have been following my ongoing drama, I must rejoice by announcing I was admitted off the U Mich waiting list today. I wish the best of luck to everyone if results are not yet ready, and in their decisions.

I have had two conference proceedings, but as you can see, it's helpful but not a prerequisite. They know very well where you are located and your circumstances and what is reasonably available to you during your BA. I'd say have a writing sample that COULD be a conference paper or one day publishable, rather than focusing on getting the official acknowledgement these venues provide while still in the BA. A careful adcom will know quality when they see it, even if the paper you choose to use will only have been seen by them up to that point.

Where have you decided to attend?

I didn't want to freak everyone out. I have good contacts with people on both ling adcoms and non-ling adcoms. This NEVER happens. This is a very particular situation where the offer is rescinded. As far as April 15th, you might have noticed that some of your firm offers might be subtling pushing you towards a decision. They like to know sooner, rather than later. However, around April 8th or 10th, if your waiting lists haven't cleared yet, and you don't know, I have heard it is acceptable to ask a school who gave you a firm acceptance for a one or two day extension on your decision. Know, however, that you're getting involved in some sort of chain reaction. In an unprobable, but not impossible situation, We'll call you Trace. And we'll call some guy Mike. Mike was accepted to NYU, and waitlisted for Stony Brook. He wants to see about Stony Brook, but since Trace hasn't accepted it yet, she asks for an extension. Mike asks NYU for an extension. The 48 hours are up, no movement. It accomplished nothing, except make the adcom have headaches, and sit you in suspense for another two days. Alternatively, some people have managed to gracefully decline an offer they accepted after the 15th, when something came up. You'll have to do more research on the legality/acceptability/ethics of that decision, but I've seen it done. HOWEVER! Do not accept an offer you're not sure about early to avoid my situation - it is so unlikely that my contacts who have sat on adcoms at different schools for 40+ years have NEVER heard of it. Make the best decision you can, and do not jump the gun because you're scared of losing it. You can lose nothing before 5PM, April 15th, Eastern Standard Time.

Just saw there were new posts here - I spoke a little soon; learn from my experience, and I suggest that you do not withdraw until you have paperwork from your choice school

Yes, suing is out of the question. But, I am not going to completely "respectable" route either - because, truly, this has caused SEVERE problems in my life (lapse of health insurance, losing my apartment, early loan repayment I wasn't counting on, not finishing my master's) etc ... They definately all feel bad, on a personal level, which I am not trying to exploit. I do, however, believe that due to the level of damage caused, that i deserve full transparency. This is non-procedural ... not a rejection, not a wait-list; but something truly out of the norm where I was told repeatedly that it was all-go, then ripped with the rug under me. Not ever getting off a wait list is totally normal - but this is unnacceptable. I am eligible for all Santa Cruz graduate fellowships (I checked with the graduate division) - so this is, at best, an extremely irresponsible mistake on behalf of the department (assuming there was not a more sinister reason, which I'll not jump to conclusions on). In this case, I have made it very clear that: 1. I am not contesting this decision 2. I am not seeking damages However, I do expect full transparency as to what happened, and not "I am very sorry about what happened" but rather "This is what happened, and I am sorry about it". .

I was hoping you might chime in on this. I live in Canada but I am a US Citizen, so I don't believe this would be a significant problem. Sandy Chung was the one who eventually broke the news, but now remains particularly evasive - some people received notifications of the sort "we were not able to obtain the fellowship we wanted for you", mine simply said "funding has been volatile this year". The main point of contention being, I received an email "you have been recommended" but much later "recommendations have not yet been finalized". First: "happy we could admit you", then "we know now that we do not have enough funds to offer financial support to everyone who we had planned to recommend for admission." The closest I could get to an apology; "Yes, the wording of [program manager's name] original email was incorrect. It is not the case that recommendations were made to the Graduate Division for admission and then yours was rescinded. In fact, the Department has not yet recommended to the Graduate Division that anyone be admitted, because we are still working on the recommended financial packages. I am really very sorry that this has happened and that it has been a difficult experience for you. In the future the Department will do everything it can to make the situation clear from the outset, so that misunderstandings do not arise. Once again, I really feel bad about this -- None of it makes sense - "clear from the outset"? But "we now know" - from the outset they had given me incorrect information, or during the process funding became tight and they then knew that they couldn't admit all of us, but didn't notify us? What I don't see is "rejection" entries in the results page for Santa Cruz; so, I have no idea why I get to be the special one. Simply put, for me, it is MUCH worse than a rejection. I was fully planning on accepting this offer as soon as the official paperwork was done - restructured my master's degree so that I didn't have to pay the extra semester of tuition and not receive the MA (Santa Cruz was fine with that), didnt renew my lease or health insurance ... I generally believe I was guaranteed to move on to big and better things. It's real ... well ... it's a public forum, I'll refrain from saying too much. So, just a little reminder - if you don't want to go to Michigan, withdraw your app !

But who would want to spend 5 years around people who direspected you and acted so irresponsibly and unethically towards you? I'm sour on it all right now

Yes, I do believe they owe me some sort of explanation, but I can see very clearly that my e-mails are being BCC`d and CC`d to administration - they know they messed up and are probably being advised to not say too much - sticking to last minute funding changes is all that they can say. Because I was told repeatedly I was admitted. As far as their "waiting list" ... eesh, I don't think I'd want to go there now. What's truly upsetting is all my POI's who I held in such great esteem - I've lost so much respect from the blatant lack of respect they had shown me. Being a pessimist, I suppose I imagined this scenario. But I didn't think it would happen. Fingers crossed for Mich.

I honestly don't understand how it could. I was called, notified I was admitted. Put on the department mailing list. Received emails from the director "As you know, we have recommended you for admission to the graduate program. congratulations and welcome to UCSC" (Feb 5th) emails from POI "we are so happy that we are able to admit you!". (Feb 7th) More emails from manager "yes, your offer comes with full funding, the amount we aren't exactly sure of yet. But since we only reccomend students who we can fund, yes it is fully funded.". (Feb 9th) Then there was the open house, for the accepted students. (Mar 7-10) I couldn't go (health reasons), so I wrote "will this have any effect upon my offer?". Program director: "No, this will not accept your admission status if you can't come, we understand".(Mar 7th) So, on Monday, I write to ask about what I had missed, and no response .... I finally called today. The manager sounded very uncomfortable, wouldn't answer any questions. I asked to be put through, by telephone, to the director. She couldn't. Receive from director, about an hour later, the generic form rejection sent out to other UCSC applicants at the beginning of Feb. (I had been "accepted" the 5th of Feb.) When I asked for clarification I was told "the recommendations will be finalized next week and sent to the graduate division". Note the discrepencies in bold - it wasn't rescinded by the graduate department, who didn't have the recommendations, but recalled by the department. And it is quite unambiguous that I was accepted right - I mean, nothing of the previous messages hints at anything like being "short-listed" or "final round". I can't wrap my head around it - I had two interviews with them, the second because I have some dark spots on my record; I have a tricky medical condition. In the interview, I made it known it is now well managed. But, I declined the visit because it required me to do 72 hours of travel each direction - something I can't do with my health condition. I don't know if this is the reason - they think I'll have issues like that? Or they really just play fast and loose with words like "admitted" "recommended" "guaranteed funding" "admission not contingent upon attending the Open House". I'm baffled - depressed and disgusted. I hadn't refused anywhere I didn't want to go - I didn't get adequate funding at either of my other admits (<$10,000/year). So, they were impossible for me anyway. My last hope is that someone declines UMich ... there's 6 admits, 3 on the waiting list. I'm one of those three. But look at my luck! The only damage I did was accept to do some international field work in June, and then was planning to head straight to California. So, I gave a notification of resignation already to my job. That's going to need some tidying up ... although I don't know if it will work. But don't worry ANYBODY - I really think this could honestly ONLY happen to me. I don't know why, but don't start worrying about it.

Well, if anyone was on waiting lsit for UC Santa Cruz - go you! My offer was just rescinded. Oh yes, it can happen. I have never been more depressed, ripped open, or as completely internally destroyed in my life.

What do you mean by responding to emails promptly? Just make sure you check it every other day, or get a data plan on your phone for like a week so that you can check your emails there. They're not going to pass you over because you don't answer your phone or the number shows up as disconnected.

Oh wow - didn't know that existed. I should have done something like that instead of a masters (in France, where Post-bac is our bachelor's and it's all upside down). It would be nice to have left for a year and come back for say the honours year which is what that seems to be.

Are you French? France is the only place I know that says post-bac. And no, 1-year linguistics programs in North America do not exist.