SublimeDelusions

More news. Another program rejected me, taking the total to 3 of the 6 I applied to. I found out from another that my application is still under consideration. I still have no word from my last school. So as of now: 3 rejects, 2 waitlists, 1 who-knows-what. Good news: My top two schools are my waitlists, and I expected two of the three rejections. Bad news: The school I don't know anything about is my last ditch school and my backup.

This is the truth. I found out from one of my schools that the admissions committee for the department sent word not to send out any rejections as at least half of the offers they made were declined, causing them to do major re-reviews of applications. I still recommend calling and finding out from the departments though. While this was the case at one school, the case at two others was that my application had been rejected long ago, and they just didn't see fit to send a letter. Hopefully you wind up with more cases of the former instead of the latter!

Well, I finally heard back from more of my programs. This time, it was another rejection. After sending me one email rejecting me (informally, I wasn't good enough to get a letter once again), they sent a second to explain to me (without me asking) that it wasn't that my application wasn't competitive, but that the department only took 3 students this year in total. Aside from that, more word that my application may still be considered in the second round of admissions decisions at more schools. However, my last school hasn't told me anything and isn't responding to any kind of contact. So while three schools are down, I've still got three more to hear from.

I'm debating sending out emails to the programs. I tried calling three of them. One gave me the run around, the other went straight to voicemail, and the other just rang over and over without ever going to a voicemail. So there's what's happening with three of the four I'm waiting on. The other one pretty much intimated that I'm wait-listed without actually saying those words.

Easily? Mainly because they just see me as a "casualty" of what happened to my advisor with no real reason for them to be concerned about my career.

I covered that one months back. I had a thread about it in the "officially grads" section. Lawyering up is a bad idea in that 1) it may screw me over in getting into other potential schools, and 2) it's a state school so no lawyer will consider going against them. So it's basically a "close your eyes and think of England" situation. Not hearing anything positive back from schools yet doesn't help the matter. If I'm lucky, somewhere takes me. This late in the game, I'm not so sure. If I don't hear back, then I'm going to be in a bit of trouble and I'll need to start looking for another career. Frankly, I'm really just upset that being pulled into this situation may have ended my professional career, especially since there's not really a way for me to apply again after this year. Hooray for last-ditch efforts!

Sorry to double post, but the forum won't let me edit my previous post. Just got information today from one of the graduate programs I had applied to. They apparently selected their students months ago, and just didn't think it was important enough to send me a letter saying I was rejected. So now I'm starting to think that's the case for all of the schools that I haven't heard back from yet.

I've dealt with worse. Try being admitted to a school, being strung along for a year and lied to by the department. Then try having your advisor fired, followed by everyone on campus swearing up and down that he was the ONLY person to see your application and admit you to the school. Meanwhile you're told constantly that you really shouldn't have been admitted to the program. To top it off, you pay $30,000 for two years of schooling only to find out that you may be kicked out at the end of this year with no hope of finishing your degree due to what happened there that was out of your control. In addition, gaining admission elsewhere means that you have to start over, and gaining admission nowhere means that you are pretty much through in graduate studies. Forgetting an application like you've said you were told isn't a giant deal. Yes, you paid $80 for the application, however any rejections you also get also cost that much. All in all, it's par for the course at some points and you always have next year to try again with them and/or any other program. I would say that it is in your best interest to say nothing to them.

What are the chances of being waitlisted at a school and them just not informing you of that?

Well, I've been waiting to hear back since Dec. 1 and still have no idea what's going on at 5 of the 6 schools I applied to. With it being late in the game, I'm trying to keep myself positive, but I can't say for certain if that's a good idea or not.

So..... One of my schools had a Dec. 1 deadline, and still no word. The last I heard was that they were getting decisions out the first week of March. The next school had a Dec. 15 deadline, and still no word from them at all. The third school had a Jan. 1 deadline along with rolling admissions. Still no word from them either. The fourth school had a deadline of Jan. 5. I heard back from them with a "no" back in Feb. The fifth school had a deadline of Jan. 15 and I still haven't heard anything from them either. My sixth, and backup, school had a deadline of Feb. 1, and lost all of my materials only to inform me that my application was complete 20 minutes before the final deadline. As it stands, I'm guessing I should have heard back from schools 1-5 by now. As I haven't heard anything positive or negative, which in previous years I'd already heard back negative, I'm going to guess that I may be waitlisted at most of these schools, but I have no way of knowing for sure.. School 6 told me to not expect any kind of decision until between March and May. Considering that my application was only completed that late, I don't think that I'll be at the top of any lists there. If I don't hear anything good back from any of the schools, I'm most likely going to have to leave graduate studies as my current institution does not seem to be willing to keep me on. As it stands, I'm pretty nervous right now and not so sure what to do. Edit: I forgot to mention that none of these schools has a feature to check the status of your application online either.

Quoting this one for truth. I was offered two interviews after April 15 last year. Most schools seem to have a rule that they won't require a formal acceptance / rejection of any admission offers until April 15. If you're on a waitlist, there's a good chance that you won't hear anything until after all of their previous offers have gone out, which could be anywhere from now until probably June (just a guess on the June part).

Look on the bright side, at least you have an acceptance this year. That's usually good news. If you want to relieve some of the stress on your mind, just start throwing things together to prepare for the event that you go to the one place that accepted you.

I'm in this boat. After all of the headaches and troubles I've dealt with over the past year, this round of applications hasn't been easy, and it seems that my search for a new Ph.D. program may be over. Amazingly, this doesn't upset me about prospective programs, as much as it does my current program and former advisor. I applied to 6 schools this time. Two of which I had interviewed at previously, one was way out of my league, one was a long shot, one was a 50/50 chance, and the other was a backup plan. I thought I'd be able to expect quick rejections from the long shot and the one out of my league and only really be waiting on the other four. Sadly, I got a very rapid rejection from one of the previous interviews (possibly due to limiting new students to only new faculty members), so that wasn't the greatest of news. I'm surprised that I haven't heard anything back from any of the other schools though, except my backup as they didn't begin their review process until this month. I'm going to assume that this puts me squarely in the "waitlisted" column. Right now, I guess that I can be hopeful in terms of possible admissions, but I'm just trying to focus on a "plan b" if I can't get into another Ph.D. program. Hopefully there's some kind of good news in the mail soon! I'm just getting concerned as to when I should begin to inquire about these other programs.

At least being told that you're waitlisted is being told something. There's a chance if the professor told you that, then they're interested in having you in their lab. Over all, it isn't bad news. It's a lot better than hearing nothing and having everyone that you've spoken to for advice say "hey, if you haven't gotten in by now, you're doing something wrong and you should probably just come to terms with the fact you aren't cut out to be a grad student." Like everyone else said, just relax and see how it turns out. You may still have a shot at being surprised.