stsgrad

americanist, thank you so much for sharing your experience and advice. i did as you advised and got an answer immediately--unfortunately not a good one. but at least now i know. better than waiting till may or june and getting denied. so now i'm moving on to making new plans. anyway, thanks again. and congrats on getting your offer!!!

I was just wondering if there is something I can do to increase my chances for getting in from the wait list. For example, should I let the program know that I'm still waiting to hear from them and that they are my first choice? Otherwise, wouldn't they assume I accepted another offer? When they go down their wait list after April 15th, do they actually expect people to renege on an offer they accepted by April 15th? I actually don't have any offers, so it wouldn't be an issue for me, but do they know that? I remember with college apps, when people were wait listed, our school counselor advised them to write to the admissions office stating how much they really really wanted to attend the school, how it was their no. 1 choice, and emphasize again how brilliant they were. I know it must be somewhat different for grad schools, but I can't shake the feeling that I should do something about being on the wait list instead of just waiting passively. Otherwise, how do they know that I'm still waiting to hear from them? Any thoughts on this would be helpful. Thanks.