[2017 applicant here: I've been worrying about my chances with a low cumulative GPA]

On 5/11/2016 at 11:35 AM, ThePeon said:

Ugh, so I recently found out that I got an unexpected bad grade in a philosophy class this semester. In fact, I got a 'C' in the class. This grade does not reflect my academic abilities, I got an A on the final paper and averaged an A- on the shorter response papers earlier in the semester. I got a C because the professor is really anal about and harshly punishing about attendance and deadlines. I probably would have gotten an A-/A but for the fact that I forgot to sign-in on the attendance sheet a couple times and because I was 1-2 minutes late to class a couple times, which docked me a whole letter grade, and I turned in one short paper in a day late because I misread the deadline, which cost me at least 7-8 percentage points. The professor, of course, hasn't violated her own rules here, technically all this is on the syllabus, but up until know I've found professors to universally be a bit lenient on such matters when they're clearly honest minor mistakes. I'm mad because I essentially lost 1.5 to 2 letter grades because I am a bit disorganized and occasionally make minor mistakes (though honestly, I don't make them very often, it just happened I was unlucky to have a couple happen in this particular class) even though my actual work was A level.

Sorry for the venting. Anyway, I'm posting here because now I'm really worried that my relatively low cumulative GPA combined with this big fat 'C' in a philosophy class in my second-to-last semester, will just kill me with adcoms. I did get an A and an A- in my two other philosophy classes this semester, and I also got a B+ in a graduate level critical theory class I took in the German department, at least. Does this 'C' really hurt my chances overall? I will be taking three philosophy classes in the fall, so I will have one more set of (likely good) philosophy grades when I apply (and I will be much more careful next semester to not have a situation like this again).

Yes, that C and that B+ will definitely hurt you.

[2016 Acceptance Thread]

1 minute ago, Kel Varnsen said:

That depends very much on Columbia.  If I don't make it off the Columbia wait list, I will most likely accept Indiana.  If I do make it off the wait list, it will still be a tough decision.

I have to admit that I want to go to Indiana the most.  I'm just told I'd be crazy to throw away Columbia and am dealing with that pressure..

Fair enough.

[2016 Acceptance Thread]

2 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Thanks.  Good to know.

Kel - Do you know whether you are going to decline your offer from Indiana?  

[MA Thread]

Ok, now everyone seems to be on the same page so I am going to wrap this up.

 

Here are the facts:

 

Fact 1. Brandeis asks it's admitted students to decide within 2 weeks of the official admissions letter.

 

Fact 2: This has not always been the case. As Ian has showed, a couple years ago, they had a request that was more suggestive. However, I did read that last year they had the same 2 week policy as this year.

 

Fact 3: If you take the time to email the graduate director about this issue, he/she will tell you that they are willing to accommodate if a student wants to push the deadline back.

 

Now, here are my points.

 

1. I was half wrong when I said that it is and always has been Brandeis policy. It is its policy now, and it has been in the past (last year), but it hasn't always been their policy. I admit that I was wrong to have said "always has been."

 

2. With every other point, however, I have been correct and Ian incorrect. I asked what students are doing about the two week policy. Ian said I was 100% wrong about this, etc., but of course as we know now, this is 100% correct. They do ask their admitted students to respond to the decision within two weeks. There was no misreading of any letter. The wiggle room comes only AFTER one has emailed the graduate director about this issue, which I had not yet done. 

 

3. The fact that the two week deadline ends up correlating with the April 15th deadline is irrelevant. I received my admit letter in mid/early March, and it implied that the official acceptance letter was coming soon. (Indeed, it was going to be sent quite a bit earlier, but the department was having technical difficulties). Thus, the assumption BACK THEN was that the 2 week policy would end before April 15th and my worry was completely relevant. I now know from an update from the department and this forum that it will not be an issue, but back then the assumption was that it would indeed be an issue.

 

4. Ian is accusing me of disseminating false and potentially slanderous information. Well, as we know now, almost everything I said was completely accurate. Now let's look at what Ian said. He first stated,

 

"This cannot be right. There's no way this is accurate. Sorry to call into question your authority here, mightymike11. But I'm absolutely positive that you misread your letter of admission. The letter says that the school would like to hear whether you are still interested. They are not asking you to commit."

 

This, as we now know, is wrong. Again, the committee asks us to decide within two weeks, and it is only after you ask them about this do they tell you some wiggle room is ok. Also, let's think about his evidence. I assume he already had that letter from 2 years ago admitting a student (perhaps he didn't have this but I will give him the benefit of the doubt). That means that based on the evidence from two years ago, he was making a bold assertion about this year. Obviously, this is unfounded and should not have been asserted. Let's look at some other claims....

 

"I just checked again with a source on this. I'm 100%, absolutely positive that mightymike11 is mistaken" and "I know from a personal connection (and have now seen with my own eyes) that Brandeis only asks that admitted students give them an idea, in some number of weeks, of whether they remain interested in the offer. The request is *not* to commit. No legitimate department asks students to commit early. And frankly, it's extremely irresponsible to offer up such a claim in a forum like this. If anyone is under the impression that Brandeis has made this kind of demand, that person should ask the department to clarify. Because I'm 100%, absolutely, positively sure that the department makes no such demand."

 

These are all bold statements with no evidence backing them up (remember: at this point his only evidence was still the letter). It could have been the case that their policy changed since then, and, in fact, this is the case. Based on all of this, it is actually Ian who is spreading misinformation. He states that I am wrong about what I am saying, I misread the letter, and that this is not at all Brandeis policy. These are incorrect statements, and if Ian wants to perpetuate conscientiousness in these forums, he should be more careful.

 

5. I want to make a final point about respect. Ian seems to want forums such as this to perform at their highest level, which is to be informative, as authoritative as possible, and respectful. However, Ian was very disrespectful and dismissive throughout the discussion. He asserted that I was 100% wrong, that I had misread my letter, that I was spreading false information about departments, etc. This could have been handled in a much more tactful and respectful manner.  

 

I think all of this teaches us to beware statements that are yelled with both great passion and objective certainty.

[MA Thread]

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA...

 

This cannot be right. There's no way this is accurate. Sorry to call into question your authority here, mightymike11. But I'm absolutely positive that you misread your letter of admission. The letter says that the school would like to hear whether you are still interested. They are not asking you to commit. Please, please re-read your letter.

 

Whoa whoa whoa yourself, BubbaGump. Call my authority into question all you want, but that is and always has been Brandeis policy. You must decide within two weeks of receiving your official acceptance letter. Ask anyone else who was admitted.

[MA Thread]

For everyone else admitted into brandeis: what are you planning to do about the whole decide within two weeks thing? Are you going to try and push that back to the April 15th deadline? It's annoying that brandeis doesn't seem to observe it.

[Acceptance Thread]

Thanks, MattDest, for the advice. What you have suggested I suspect is true, but some anecdotal confirmation is nice.

 

My next question would be the following: given the benefits of an assistantship, should an assistantship from one MA program outweigh the offer from a higher ranked program with better placement, w/o an assistantship (in this case: WMU and NIU respectively)?

 

Would you pick NIU over Virginia Tech if you went with an unfunded offer? Just curious; I am in a similar boat with NIU and VT.