TableForOne

Just putting this out there for other people's future reference. 1) Applied in 2020. Spent a lot for the application fee and English proficiency test. 2) Got notification on March 2021 that UBC's Asian Studies Department did not accept any new students this year. No apologies. No refund either. UBC just got away with applicants' hard-earned money (See Fall 2021 Results for reference). Also, this: 3) Today I learned that UBC's Asian Studies department did accept one PhD student for Fall 2021, it seems. I'm not sure. It seems like it. At any rate, I feel cheated for the second time (first instance was when they won't issue refunds despite knowing that they won't be accepting new PhD students). See: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/about-us/news/public-scholars-initiative-welcomes-38-scholars-202122-academic-year Wow, just wow.

Just adding this here for the record: This is something I found out just today. It seems that UBC's Asian Studies Department did accept one PhD student according to this link - https://www.grad.ubc.ca/about-us/news/public-scholars-initiative-welcomes-38-scholars-202122-academic-year The person belongs to the 2021/22 cohort. We applied in 2020, assuming we'd start in 2021 if accepted. So I'm not sure if this person applied along with us. But still, I'm confused and I feel bad.

That's bad. Asian Studies Department of University of British Columbia (UBC) seems to be in bad shape, even refusing to refund prospective students like us. The very idea that they got our application fee for short-term gain instead of letting us continue to think highly of their institution for the long-term is just unsettling. =(

Hi! Did the Graduate School ever reply?

Thanks for the update. I still feel that they should refund us since they didn't actually reject us because we didn't meet PhD requirements. We were rejected because of what appears to be internal departmental problems. =(

Hello! Nice to meet you. I'm on the same boat. I will sort out my thoughts after work. Thank you!