Mal83

Here Here!! This is what I'm doing before I go to work in the morning and after I get home at night. When I've gotten nothing in the mail yet again except my Amex bill my gut reaction is "grad cafe, stat." You know, quick, before it registers that I'm going to go through another 24 hour period of decision purgatory before I get to check the mail again.

I think what makes this process so hard is not knowing, most of us have absolutely no idea how the admissions committee does things. For example, someone in the Government Affairs forum informed us that American University makes decisions in batches and sends them out accordingly. They also mentioned that the admissions person said that the batches have no relation to acceptance or rejection. Now once I learned that only a few days ago I was like "Ok, that makes sense, now that just because a lot of people here have heard and I haven't doesn't mean I'm in the reject batch." The deadline was Jan 15. Plus the admissions person let them know that they just started the second batch. So again, that bit of insight makes the whole thing less mysterious. Why does it have to be some big secret mystery? I mean I guess we could all call and just plain ask what their process is like, but could you imagine if the school just clued you in like this right from the get go? Like put that in the email that comes with "thank you for submitting." They don't have to provide some play by play but just a brief description of the process, that's all. "We make decisions in batches and they don't correlate to rejection/acceptance." Bam...there, I now know how they do it and don't have to be devastated every time someone posts their acceptance and I haven't heard anything. It would also be good to know how the batches are put together, i.e. by date of submission, program...or whatever. You know? That way I can have some vague idea that since one of my recommenders didn't submit my LOR until 7 hours before the deadline than that means I'm most likely in the last batch will be one of the last to be notified. Just a simple and quick description of their process would be so insightful. Plus they'd probably get fewer phone calls.

Hmm, that's strangely worded, I mean if they're "willing to offer you a place" just without funding why would you have to ask to be "considered for an unfunded place?" Doesn't that mean you've already been considered and offered a place? I don't know much about it but I looked into studying in the UK very briefly a while ago and when I discovered that you have to prove your ability to pay tuition in it's entirety without the need for employment I just stopped thinking about it. I would email them for clarification and just put it plainly..."Is this an acceptance or not?"

I think what makes this process so hard is not knowing, most of us have absolutely no idea how the admissions committee does things. For example, someone in the Government Affairs forum informed us that American University makes decisions in batches and sends them out accordingly. They also mentioned that the admissions person said that the batches have no relation to acceptance or rejection. Now once I learned that only a few days ago I was like "Ok, that makes sense, now that just because a lot of people here have heard and I haven't doesn't mean I'm in the reject batch." The deadline was Jan 15. Plus the admissions person let them know that they just started the second batch. So again, that bit of insight makes the whole thing less mysterious. Why does it have to be some big secret mystery? I mean I guess we could all call and just plain ask what their process is like, but could you imagine if the school just clued you in like this right from the get go? Like put that in the email that comes with "thank you for submitting." They don't have to provide some play by play but just a brief description of the process, that's all. "We make decisions in batches and they don't correlate to rejection/acceptance." Bam...there, I now know how they do it and don't have to be devastated every time someone posts their acceptance and I haven't heard anything. It would also be good to know how the batches are put together, i.e. by date of submission, program...or whatever. You know? That way I can have some vague idea that since one of my recommenders didn't submit my LOR until 7 hours before the deadline than that means I'm most likely in the last batch will be one of the last to be notified. Just a simple and quick description of their process would be so insightful. Plus they'd probably get fewer phone calls.