LeftInLimbo

Perhaps if folks want to add further details via comments, it would be helpful. Including the rank (or reputation outside of rank, esp. for Continental programs) of BA, MA, and PhD. I can say that my BA and my MA were from unranked / unknown programs, and I am entering into a t40 PhD program. The other folks entering my t40 PhD all have MAs, and from what I could gather via Facebook stalking, they too came from unranked / relatively unknown programs.

Yeah, a useful extension of the poll would be to ask, of those BAs, if they came from a T20.

I've read rumors that there is a trend towards PhD programs offering admittance to those who have MAs over those students who have BAs only. I was also made to be curious when I learned that out of all 5 of the students entering into the PhD program I'll be attending this fall, all 5 of us possessed our Masters. Not one BA in the bunch! Does this mean that an MA is becoming a PhD prerequisite? Let us poll the fine folks here and see what the numbers show. Was the prestige of your undergrad institution enough to get you into a PhD? Or was the selection committee so awestruck by your stellar writing sample that they rolled out the red carpet leading directly from your BA to their PhD? Or did you have to prove your mettle with a couple years of graduate drudgery before the gates of opportunity were opened for you? Certainly a more nuanced poll could provide further insight, but I think a very basic one should do for now.

No, I think that in some cases (like Vanderbilt) it is as simple as departments just dragging their feet because they can / because it is in their interests to do so. As I understand it, Vanderbilt did not send out ANY rejections until April 13th. And for those who solicited a response prior to that date, those people were informed that they were not accepted, not on an official waitlist, but also not rejected. In essence, the department sent out a round of acceptances, then perhaps informed some folks that were on their official waitlist, and then they sort of "unofficially waitlisted" the remainder of the applicants. Let's say a typical school gets 100 applicants, chooses 10 to offer admittance, and then waitlists 20 more students whom they might also contact. They then notify the 70 other folks that they are rejected (ie. that there is no chance the department will get desperate enough to accept them). In the case of Vanderbilt, they chose not to notify the remaining 70 that they were rejected, either due to dragging their feet or because they felt it was in their best interests to keep their entire pool of applicants hanging on in case they ended up exhausting their official waitlist. I think Vanderbilt is a great program and has great faculty (that is why I applied there), and I don't want to single out Vanderbilt as the only school handling their admissions in this way (I'm sure there are others, but this is the only school that I applied to who seemed to do so). But I think departments should have the courtesy to make the same effort as many other departments who notify those who have no chance of admittance, and to do so a reasonable amount of time before the national deadline (weeks, not days, prior).

Ah, you're right. Vanderbilt is a free app, isn't it? I suppose I will end my shame campaign.

You can still revamp your writing sample and statement of interest. You can re-apply the next round to schools that you have chosen more strategically for how they fit your interests and less for their prestige. These 3 factors should inter-influence each other: sample, interests, and fit. Write a sample that reflects your interests, and apply to a program where your interests and sample would be well received. Of course you can also retake the GREs for a higher score and try to publish or present. Naturally this is only good advice provided that you excelled in your MA work, otherwise it might be time to try another path.

"Mere hours before the deadline" was a bit of an exaggeration, but still, 2 days before the deadline? C'mon. It seems very rude to me. When each applicant is paying ca. $100 per application, I think a timely response would be not only courteous but deserved.

Finally received a rejection e-mail from Vanderbilt this afternoon. Mere hours before the deadline and they finally get around to sending these out! Alongside their refusal to give solicited responses a straight answer, I think Vanderbilt's handling of the admissions process is shameful. Please join me in publicly shaming this institution and any others who choose to wait until just before the deadline to deliver admissions results!

You'll have a few problems if you go into debt while also working while trying to complete your PhD. At this time, I don't see any problem.

When did you receive the e-mail, just now? Are these still going out tonight? Gah!

On the topic of visits.... Are others visiting the schools they have been accepted to? On one hand, the common advice seems to be that visiting departments is the best thing to do. On the other hand, I really don't care about the location of my school or what the campus is like or anything. I just want to know that my POI's are not fleeing for another department in the next few years, and that they don't have extremely difficult temperments--the sort of info that I think I could gather through telephone conversations. Do I really need to spend a week flying across the country to make my final decision?

Boston U is the last school I have to hear from. Nothing in my inbox yet. I guess that means an implied rejection unless Hopp's fingers were just feeling tired for the night! Grats to the others. (I still have other acceptances so this is ok. Now time to e-mail the 500 people at every accepted department that I want to talk to, while trying to plan visits between universities. Blargh!)

I'm one of the Rices. Very pleased to have an acceptance with funding! The e-mail went out to the top 5 applicants out of 80+. I'm leaning towards acceptance but still have more schools to hear back from.

Does anyone have a sense of what the chances of wait-listers actually is? I understand that there must be some differences in the length of wait lists by department, and of course there are the human variables of who actually decines offers or not. But, in general, what is a typical wait-list size, and how many of those folks can expect to win an acceptance? Any information that can shed light on the secret workings of wait-lists would be helpful. So far I haven't been particularly excited about learning I'm on a waitlist. I mean, before they told me anything I thought I might get into the program or I might not, and after they told me I was on the wait list, I am still in the position of "maybe getting in or maybe not getting in." In fact, I find the additional tease-factor to be even more anxiety provoking.

Considering an application fee is somewhere between 50 and 100 dollars, which is a lot of money for some people (don't worry Mom, I'll pay you back once I publish that best-seller), I don't think it is out of line for an applicant to expect an e-mail response or two. (Although I imagine the people tasked with responding to these e-mail requests aren't the ones responsible for the discrepancy between application fee cost and the staff made available to process them, so I guess we can spread the sympathy around.)