Wafflotron

Thanks to everyone who weighed in! I received the offer today. Big ups to Catalystica for the explanation for the 15th, it did wonders in helping me to understand my actual position with McGill and was a big help in sorting out my options.
The one on April 7th was me. No funding, so I declined.

I'm so glad that helped! This is my second cycle and yet it's the first time I ever heard anyone explain what the 15th is and why it's so porous as a deadline. 

Thanks to everyone who weighed in! I received the offer today. Big ups to Catalystica for the explanation for the 15th, it did wonders in helping me to understand my actual position with McGill and was a big help in sorting out my options.
The one on April 7th was me. No funding, so I declined.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in! I received the offer today. Big ups to Catalystica for the explanation for the 15th, it did wonders in helping me to understand my actual position with McGill and was a big help in sorting out my options.
The one on April 7th was me. No funding, so I declined.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in! I received the offer today. Big ups to Catalystica for the explanation for the 15th, it did wonders in helping me to understand my actual position with McGill and was a big help in sorting out my options.
The one on April 7th was me. No funding, so I declined.

Just as a note, I read this post on reddit explaining what exactly the 15th is. I think that it's important information that not enough people know:
"
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk on this sub about April 15th approaching and the anxiety that it is causing. I wanted to share the link to to the official April 15th Resolution to clarify what this date means and who it applies to.
The bottom line is that this resolution tells signatory universities that they cannot require students to accept OFFERS OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT before April 15th and students have the right to withdrawal from commitments of financial support (e.g. assistantships) until this date if they accepted early. Each university has the right to set this date whenever they want, as long as it is AFTER April 15th.
So what does this mean for you? You are only impacted if you are being offered financial support. If the university that has given you the offer is a signatory to this Resolution and tried to force you to make a decision before this they are in violation.
Everyone should ask their department about deadlines if they haven’t already been communicated clearly. April 15th is sometimes touted on this sub as being “dooms day” when in reality it has very little to do with students and only applies to certain applicants.
Yes, many schools have began using this date as a “universal” deadline for all admits, regardless of funding status. So it may apply to you. But it is also very likely that it may not. A lot of people are getting irritated with their programs because they are still waiting for admissions decisions even though the date is approaching, but it reality these programs likely have a later decision date and/or you are not a funded student and this doesn’t apply to you.
Check in with your department (especially in unfunded cases) and save yourselves a lot of panic and confusion in the coming weeks so you can make the most informed decision without the pressure of an arbitrary deadline.
Here is the text of the official Resolution for anyone in need of more clarification:
”Acceptance of an offer of financial support* (such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) for the next academic year by a prospective or enrolled graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In that context, the conditions affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties. Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution. In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15, and sub- sequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15.
However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student to first inform the program that they are withdrawing or resigning from the offer of financial support that they previously had accepted. Starting in Fall 2020, applicants are no longer required to obtain a formal release from the program whose offer they accepted, either before or after the April 15 deadline. It is further agreed by the institutions and organizations subscribing to the above Resolution that a copy of this Resolution or a link to the URL should accompany every scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, and assistantship offer. "
That said, I'm also really unhappy with schools holding us without information until after the 15th. It's incredibly difficult and really shows a lack of compassion. I had a school do that to me my first cycle too. I think the funded MA's always get short shrift next to the PhD programs and are prone to giving late acceptances.

I wish Tulane hadn't emailed me just to tell me that I was at the top of their waitlist, but if they do extend an offer for full funding to me that means as much as $40,000 that I would have spent going to McGill, not to mention the value of 2 years of Tulane tuition.

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.
 
Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

Wafflotron, totally fair, that's really frustrating... I think a lot of it depends on how likely the program thinks they are to accept folks off the waitlist. Programs that rarely accept off the waitlist have, from their perspective, little incentive to invest time in interacting with WLed folks. 

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.
 
Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.
 
Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.
 
Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

My two cents about applying to or accepting offers from Columbia:
I am a current 2nd year PhD student at Columbia. The majority of grad students are currently on strike for a living wage, better healthcare, and protection from harassment and discrimination. I have been watching the process of our new graduate union try to bargain for our first contract for over two years. In these sessions, I have seen admin (and their sleazy lawyer, who charges $1,500/hr) do everything possible to stall negotiations, belittle us, and play down heartfelt testimonials that make clear why our demands are reasonable and necessary. Every time we've gotten a raise in the past, our Columbia rent magically goes up by a higher percentage. Our wages are not enough to live in NYC. There is no dental or vision coverage, and they recently removed the better health insurance plan option. The school has a terrible history with harassment and discrimination cases brought by both undergrads and grads (Google it), and at the moment they are doing everything possible to avoid meeting our contract demand about changing the investigation process to give more rights to the complainant (see link below).
We're entering the 3rd week of the strike, and Columbia has made very clear that they plan to not only doc our bi-weekly pay (which we receive for TA/RA work), but our academic stipends--yep, they are going to debit our student accounts, thereby jeopardizing course registration, degree progress, visas, and health insurance. We have a legal right to strike, but this later action constitutes illegal academic retaliation.
Long story short: I'm sure a lot of schools are as corrupt as Columbia, but I've just seen first hand how rotten this place is to the core. They only care about profit (their endowment grew $300 million during the pandemic alone), squeezing as much our of grad workers and adjuncts for as little pay as possible, sweeping bad press under the rug, and gentrifying Harlem with multi-million dollar campus expansions.
I encourage folks thinking about attending/applying to Columbia to express concerns to department chairs and administrators, and ask them why they insist on denying grad workers a fair contract: 
President Lee Bollinger officeofthepresident@columbia.edu, Phone: (212) 854-9970 Provost Ira Katznelson provost@columbia.edu,  +1 212 854 2404 GSAS Grad Admissions: gsas-admissions@columbia.edu  
https://gothamist.com/news/columbia-grad-students-strike-over-wages-and-harassment-policies-nyu-counterparts-vote-similar-actions

Thank you, I was a bit hesitant about reaching out to them but I'll definitely do that now! I'm trying to plan, so knowing sooner rather than later either way is ideal. 
I agree, it feels quite rude to me to not have communicated anything at all essentially two weeks before the deadline. I understand programs are very busy and get many applications, but to me it really reflects on the school itself in some ways if they don't say anything at all! Especially since these decisions involve committing ourselves to a school for 2-7 years and applications are very expensive and time consuming to complete. I can't imagine a general 'we are working on decisions still, please be patient' email to everyone on a 'waitlist' would be that difficult to send? Or just any kind of acknowledgement that they are working on the apps? Idk. It's been extremely frustrating, so I completely agree! 

Don't worry about that! We are here to support each other. It is kind of a common practice for graduate schools not to send out notifications on waitlist now. I know this is bad, but we just have to deal with it. The department does get our money and they probably have so many applicants this year. They just do not have enough time to send out emails to everyone on the waitlist. Usually acceptance letter sends out earlier than rejection letters. So the best way to find out is to check if others get accepted. The only way for me to deal with the no information is to believe I am rejected already. Then it would be a surprise if I get in, and I would not be so disappointed if I get rejected in the end. I hope this helps!?

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.
 
Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it really quite rude that programs will just ignore you if you've been waitlisted? I've had three now that were just dead silence until I reached out. I worked very hard these past years and I even paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to look at my application, and they can't even give a status update after sending out acceptances. I feel like if I hadn't reached out, I wouldn't even know they'd looked at my application until I got a either a 'congrats you've been admitted with no funding!' or a 'heh sorry no dice, we regret to inform you that...' email at 11:59 pm on April 15.
 
Edit: Sorry for ranting, I know everyone here is dealing with the same kind of events right now.

I reached out a week or two ago and got a response basically saying, 'We're a small program. You've been waitlisted, thanks for your application.' I'll submit a response- I forgot that we could do that for waitlists.

So, while it's a bummer I didn't get into any of the PhD programs I applied to, I did have one other thing I was waiting on: I officially got the acceptance offer for the UPenn Post-Bacc! This year they're also offering a Fellowship, so I'll be waiting to hear back about that later in the month. But, this means I'll be able to strengthen my languages (usually it's 1 Greek, 1 Latin class per semester for the Post-Bacc, but I'm going to ask if I can do 2 Greek, 1 Latin per semester) while I do my next round of applications. Here's to hoping it helps on my next go. ?

Thank you so much! I wish everyone the best of luck with this year too and I sincerely hope it's been than the last one!

Well, a mentor of mine encouraged me to reach out and see if some of the schools I hadn't heard back from had a timeline for when decisions would be released. Toronto was nice enough to just tell me I wasn't on the list of students getting offers so... mission success? Side note UBC said they won't be sending anything out until mid-march at earliest.

Well, a mentor of mine encouraged me to reach out and see if some of the schools I hadn't heard back from had a timeline for when decisions would be released. Toronto was nice enough to just tell me I wasn't on the list of students getting offers so... mission success? Side note UBC said they won't be sending anything out until mid-march at earliest.

No problem, @Wafflotron! Iirc, Rutgers has a preference date of February 15th but will take applications until the beginning of March for the MA, so early/mid-March might be your timeline, too!

Sounds like it should be relaxing, doesn't it? But then you jump every time you get an email or a phone call. I'm going to throw my phone in a river.

To be fair, that's quite a fast turnaround for them to do after having a February 15th deadline! I have had some of my applications in since September (all of mine essentially, except for a couple, had a December 15th deadline, and still won't get back around the same time).
 I'm really sorry that one school won't tell you about the funding until you accept! Honestly that feels really manipulative and that would make me so anxious, I hope you're doing okay with it.