anthromf

Welp, I emailed the University of Washington one last time to ask if I would be hearing from them prior to the Council of Graduate Schools' April 15th deadline. I also asked them if I would have any chance of receiving funding if they were to decide to admit me following the deadline (which seems like a toss up at this point anyways). Fingers crossed the graduate coordinator actually responds this time, but we shall see...

Hi there! From what I understand, you should wait until the fall to contact them specifically about the next application cycle. Otherwise, they may not have you as fresh in their mind when they go to review applications. They also may not know if they'll be able to accept students the next application cycle or not this far out from the admissions cycle. But if the person you want to work with has similar research interests, I would definitely reach out to the same person again! I also think it's totally fine to mention that you have previously applied to work under them; if anything, that shows commitment and continued interest in their research. If you do contact potential POIs this spring, I would do so only to ask for feedback about this years application in order to improve next year's application. Some professors seem to be perfectly willing to give this kind of feedback when you ask. You could also tell them that you plan to reach out again in the fall for the next application cycle, but I would definitely follow up with them closer to the application deadline to ensure they are actually taking students the year you apply. As for your second question, I think you can ask the graduate coordinator if there was a particular faculty member who was interested in your research if you want to. Worst they can tell you is that they can't reveal confidential details about their admissions committee's decision 🤷‍♂️ But I feel you; I am still on a waitlist for F23 and I have no idea why/what's going on at that university. When I emailed my POI about it, they never responded, so I'm still in this dark for this cycle. I am definitely planning to apply to the same POIs at the same universities next year if this cycle doesn't work out (which I'm expecting at this point).

Thank you, I appreciate it. I haven't noticed any other staff roles that seem appropriate to email (although they do have someone whose role is just called "administrator"), so I think my only option would be to move up the ladder and email the chair or more faculty members who may have been on the admissions committee? I assume those folks would be even busier, but at least they might have more information--assuming they email back. I have not had great success with anyone from the department emailing me back when I have reached out (current graduate students, faculty, and staff all seem slow), but you'd think they'd at least have the decency to let students know if/when the department has made a decision about an application. But yes, I have been checking the portal and regularly looking in my spam folder. I'm just getting super frustrated that they won't even email me back to let me know what happened with my application. Thank you for responding!

Today I learned from another student at my current university that they received an official rejection from the University of Washington a few weeks ago--around the same time other students posted about acceptances here on GradCafe. I still haven't heard anything from the department even after emailing the graduate coordinator two separate times (a few weeks apart because I didn't want to come across as a dick) and the person I am interested in working with (no response there either). So far I'm rocking three other rejections, so I just really want to know if I will have any options this year. I'm already on my second graduate application cycle, this time with a nearly complete M.A., so I'm really at a loss for what these PhD programs are looking for. Do y'all think that I am waitlisted? Does anyone know another reason why they'd send different applicants letters at different times?

I applied for the archaeology track at U of Oregon. No interviews happened for that subfield as far as I know. But I can say that I was rejected via email from the director of graduate studies on February 15th. I imagine the cultural subfield wouldn't be that far behind even if they do their admissions completely separately by subfield (and I don't know of any other anthro depts that do that). My application portal does not say anything about my rejection status, so they must only notify applicants via email. This may sound super shitty, but it's entirely possible that they missed emailing you if/when they made a decision. If you haven't already, I would just email the DGS and ask about the status of your specific application. Hopefully they will have some good news for you! And I feel you. I'm rejections all around and still haven't heard back from one last school (the University of Washington) even though a few people have posted about their acceptances on the main admissions feed.

*insert Bernie voice here* I am once again asking for your support as I seek information about the University of Washington. Does anyone know what subfield the students who were accepted were from? I am also curious if they received official notifications or emails from their points of contact. It's the last school I'm waiting to hear from, and I'm currently sitting on a big ole stack of rejections, so any information about these UW acceptances will be greatly appreciated!

Hello! Does anyone happen to know what subfield the person who was accepted to the University of Washington is? And does anyone know if it was a message from their advisor of interest? I ask because I emailed the director of graduate studies earlier this week to ask about a timeline for decisions, and according to their automatic email response, they were out of the office yesterday when that acceptance went out. I haven't seen anything change on my portal or in my email since I applied, so I'm just curious how this person found out about their acceptance!

Awesome, thank you so much! I'm really glad to have a timeline about the decision now that the portal says pending. Tbh today is the first time I've actually checked the portal (since I saw you and the biological anth's posts), so I didn't actually realize that it previously said "under review" lol I appreciate you looking into those posts from previous years! This is not my first cycle applying, but I didn't know about gradcafe the first time I applied and haven't done that much digging into previous years.

Ugh, that's so frustrating! I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case lol I'm wondering if UMass is just doing a silent waitlist kind of thing. I have heard that some departments will release admissions decisions a few at a time and then move onto the waitlist if the top choice of prospective students have already accepted elsewhere (without ever telling the next round of students they accept that they were ever waitlisted).

Congratulations! Thank you for letting me know; that is really interesting. I'm definitely not getting that message in the portal, so maybe it is over for me, hah. I wish they would just email everyone with a decision notification if they have already finalized everything.

Does anyone know what subfield the UMass, Amherst person who was accepted is from? I applied there as well (archaeology track) but my application status still says "pending" on the portal! Now I'm wondering if they send out their admissions/rejections in batches, potentially broken down by subfield. For more context, I did not receive an interview request, but I wouldn't be surprised if archaeology doesn't conduct interviews at all.

Another update is that apparently they had 56 total applications across 3 subfields for only 3 spots! So definitely tight competition this year. The DGS didn't specify how many spots were for each subfield. (I apologize for the duplicate; when I posted this under my own post, I thought it would keep your original question attached to it, but it didn't).

Another update is that apparently they had 56 total applications across 3 subfields for only 3 spots. The DGS didn't specify how many spots were for each subfield.

I'm not comfortable using their name on here, but it was a new faculty member! So this would have been their first ever application cycle to admit students. According to them, all of the more senior faculty members had the final say.

Okay, thank you. I figure there's no harm in just asking the DGS if I am really polite about it. I would never have applied to the program (at the University of Oregon) if I knew that the person I wanted to work with wasn't accepting students!