notthatkindofpsychology

I don't know if this has already been asked on this thread, but I was curious if schools/POIs tend to let you know if you are on the waitlist or not? I still haven't heard from my top choice and I am getting SO NERVOUS I have an acceptance with full funding from my second, but I was wondering about others' experiences with waitlist notifications

I use this rule of thumb: whenever someone gives of their time in service to me or my goals, I always send a thank-you email. This goes for small things, like emailing the grad assistant who squeezed me in to see a school administrator when he would be otherwise unavailable to the administrator himself after the meeting. Every favor, recommendation, meeting, interview, offer, and bit of consideration gets a (sometimes very quick!) email of thanks. I have NEVER irritated people with this practice, in fact, I believe it has helped make me some pretty strong allies over the years. I highly recommend everyone take up this practice! So many in higher ed are not thanked enough, those emails seem to mean a lot.

I had two interviews fall on the same weekend and the POI for one school said explicitly in the invite email that they would reschedule with me if the timing was inconvenient. I think schools are realistic about the fact that attractive applicants often have multiple schools they applied to, so it won't be a big deal to shift the weekend if necessary. That having been said, I'd imagine that this becomes less and less possible as the selectivity of a program increases and if you haven't been in contact with a POI prior to submitting your application (I've been talking to the POI for the rescheduled school for awhile, plus the other program is ranked in the Top 15 and I don't think they would have been so willing to reschedule given the phrasing of their emailed invite), so take your programs/relationships with POIs into consideration with this as well.