cellbiogal

Thanks! I'm still in November land for now

Did you also have a November update or is this your first one?

I'm still at 11/12. I'm curious if anyone else has an update?

I’m still at 11/12. I’m guessing they’ll do a round of cuts in December, which may or may not be reflected in a change of dates on the portal. But again, all speculation.

Mine is the same. I noticed a week or two ago. I’m guessing it could’ve happened on their end while verifying apps, but who knows. Everything is so cryptic.

Oof, I wish they would at least validate applications this year. Oh well.

We got emails last year stating our application was validated and would continue to be considered, but theres been no word about if they’ll do that again this year or not. My personal speculation is that they’re still validating the applications in piecemeal and all November updates mean the same thing, even if they come on slightly different days.

It is a mess, especially since people contacted them last year about the dates and they swore it meant nothing and then did not fix their system. No email yet, last year I got an email 10 days after submission. I think we'll probably get emails about validation early this week.

Welcome! You definitely missed out on some (neurotic) fun last year! It appears that the update reflects NDSEG administrators updating the status of your application on that date, but it doesn’t actually say what that status change was. If you check out last years thread, we noticed the dates back in April while we were waiting for award results. At the time, some people had a december update and some people had an april update. Then as the days passed, the april people kept getting another update here and there. When awards were released, all of #decembergang was rejected. Some of the April people were awardees, some were waitlisted, and some were rejected. We concluded that if you didn’t have an april update, you were cut back in December. BUT, Since we only started looking for this in April, its unclear what updates happen in November through April. (Ie. Did everyone get an update on in december? Were there February updates? Its unclear.) I think a natural hypothesis for now is that a November update means your application was marked as complete and will be evaluated, but it’s impossible to know with certainty. Also, we made a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1HHwP8Zyh8W24HRUh5WnObRExb24JhN5ZLTa7p5Q8CkI/htmlview#gid=0

Now I have an 11/12/20 update! This is fun ?

Also, I love how they made no effort to change this glitch in their system even though several people contacted them last application round asking about the dates and what they mean.

Ah shit, I didn't think we'd have to play this game until April. Mine was last updated on the day I applied. I wonder if we'll get emails soon about applications being verified as complete like we did last year? @Jack Princeton Does yours have an update? I know we had the same issue with not including PhD transcripts. P.S. Time for another google doc?

#DecemberGang last year, hopes still high this year. RIP. See y'all again in April for the dates debacle ✌️

I made that terrifying mistake last night. I logged out and back in and my reference said 'Complete' again but I was horrified for a second. Hang in there!! Clearly none of us are alone with our technical troubles.

I have no clue, I asked Rob outright so we'll see if he responds. I wouldn't be surprised though after the issues this company has had.

They seem quite happy to eliminate students from consideration based on small technical errors.

For the love of god why would they not just make the directions clear and state what to submit if you're a first year student.

Absolutely no changes allowed. I'm following up to see if this makes an application incomplete.

That seems to be what the FAQ is suggesting, but the application portal itself had no mention of this. I think this is likely a common mistake so I would hope they don't hold it against us. I'll let you know if I hear back from the PMO email address about this.

Fuck I missed that too. I guess I'll email them. What a shitty place to bury that information that probably applies to at least 25% of applicants. I genuinely believe we shouldn't be held at fault for that. Hopefully they can append our materials. It's also possible we could be flagged during the check for application completeness and asked to submit more materials.

From the website: FY2021 APPLICATION PERIOD IS OPEN FROM 12:01 AM EASTERN TIME ON 3 AUG 2020 TO 11:59PM EASTERN TIME ON 2 NOV 2020 Maybe that's just what they told the recommenders so that we as applicants can actually submit on time? Wouldn't hurt to submit everything by midnight tonight though, just to be sure.

I thought about this more. Not only did they deny the dates meaning anything, but we made them aware of a major flaw in their system and they chose to do nothing about it.

Also, turns out the dates definitely meant something! What a ridiculous flaw in their system.

Not selected. At least we know and can finally have a peaceful weekend! It’s been fun gang ?