April 15th on a Sunday?

[Applicant4788]

I was wondering if April 15th falling on a Sunday this year changes the deadline to respond to offers at all? 

[TakeruK]

If the offer letter says the deadline is April 15 then the deadline is still April 15.

[Applicant4788]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I'm on the waitlist for my top choice and I'm not sure if I should expect to hear an update on my status on a Sunday or if I may have to wait until the 16th to know for sure. 

[TakeruK]

2 hours ago, Applicant4788 said:

Sorry, I should have clarified. I'm on the waitlist for my top choice and I'm not sure if I should expect to hear an update on my status on a Sunday or if I may have to wait until the 16th to know for sure. 

Oh okay, sorry for misunderstanding! I would have to say this really does depend on how each program does their post-April 15 shakedown. The short answer is if you're going to be hearing from your POI or a prof in charge of these things about a last minute offer, then you may hear from them over the weekend, but if you're going to be learning about the offer from a department administrator, then you may not hear until Monday the 16th. 

I know of some programs in my field where they basically have a plan to quickly notify waitlisted applicants as soon as their original offers are declined. So, the faculty there may have emails ready to go as soon as they get confirmation that someone else is not attending. I know people who get phone calls or emails from faculty over the weekend or during typically off-hours. Usually an offer like this has a pretty short decision timeline (e.g 24-48 hours) although they should include at least one business day. From people I know who have been in this situation, they are notified of this possibility ahead of time, usually by their POI. The POI might even have contacted the top waitlist candidates in the days leading up to the April 15 deadline to gauge the likelihood that the waitlisted applicant will accept a last minute offer. This is a critical time for departments too, because if they wiat 3-4 days for their top waitlist applicant who decides to go elsewhere, they might have already lost their 2nd waitlisted applicant by then. So, departments like this often meet to discuss and agree on various backup plans during the week leading up to April 15, once they know if they will have room to accept anyone off their waitlists or not.

There are also other programs that take a different approach. They might schedule a committee meeting on the morning of April 16 to assess what happened for the April 15 deadline and whether they want to make additional offers. 

Sorry it's not just one clear answer. Some advice specific to your situation: Stay in touch with your top choice school(s) and make sure you know what the top choices for you are. Often what separates the best choice from your other top choices may be the details of the offer letter (e.g. funding level, TA/RA commitment etc.) So, I'd personally advise you to try to decide ahead of time what things in an offer letter from a waitlisted school would make/break their status as top choice.

Also, in the days leading up to April 15, let your top choice school know that they are your top choice. Depending on how your interactions with them have been going, you can ask questions about their process of admitting from the waitlist (e.g. when would they plan on making waitlist offers etc.) This will also open up a line of communication so that if they did want to tell you more things, they have the chance to do so! 

[Applicant4788]

Thank you so much for your response! In this case, the research fit is so perfect that I cannot see myself accepting another offer if this spot becomes available. I will reach out to them tomorrow to check on my status and to let them know that I am definitely still interested. 

Being stuck in the waiting game for so long has been tough. I really appreciate your help!

[soontobeslp2018]

On 4/1/2018 at 6:27 PM, Applicant4788 said:

Sorry, I should have clarified. I'm on the waitlist for my top choice and I'm not sure if I should expect to hear an update on my status on a Sunday or if I may have to wait until the 16th to know for sure. 

I was wondering the same thing! Current students from my department who were accepted from the waitlist said they heard back within 24-48 hours after the April 15th deadline. And I’ve been told that I’m “very high” on the waitlist which makes me more confident that I’ll get in, especially since I haven’t been accepted anywhere yet

[hopefulSLP2be7]

I am a second-year applicant and this is what happened to me last year. I got my rejection email from the waitlist of:

-Indiana State on May 3rd (sent out an email on April 29 with update)

-Duquesne on June 2 (sent out an email on April 19th saying they are keeping their waitlist open)

-Cleveland State University June 20th (no contact before then)

 

[Charlie Moon]

I was given until the 16th of April to accept my offer so I guess it depends on the university, best of luck !

[LP12]

I am freaking out. Good offer from one school. Waiting for another 2 schools (one wait listed and one that has just been impossibly late this year). They both say I will be notified by April 13th, and I have until the 15th to accept my first offer. So... deciding the next 5-6 years of my life basically in a day. Awesome.

[Cassifrassidy]

What do we think the odds are of universities giving an extension on the acceptance deadline? My first choice program has accepted me, but I'm waitlisted for funding, and I want to wait them out to see. But I have another funded offer that I will definitely attend if I don't get funding here. Thoughts?

[MacDev27]

On 2.4.2018 at 2:41 AM, TakeruK said:

Oh okay, sorry for misunderstanding! I would have to say this really does depend on how each program does their post-April 15 shakedown. The short answer is if you're going to be hearing from your POI or a prof in charge of these things about a last minute offer, then you may hear from them over the weekend, but if you're going to be learning about the offer from a department administrator, then you may not hear until Monday the 16th...

Fantastic answer and incredibly helpful indeed, thank you so much!

If you don't mind, could I ask the following: how do Canadian universities deal with the April 15 resolution? Do you know anything about the way in which they send out offers after April 15? Any help would be much appreciated.

[TakeruK]

2 hours ago, MacDev27 said:

Fantastic answer and incredibly helpful indeed, thank you so much!

If you don't mind, could I ask the following: how do Canadian universities deal with the April 15 resolution? Do you know anything about the way in which they send out offers after April 15? Any help would be much appreciated.

Sure! Many Canadian schools do not follow the April 15 resolution (the Council of Graduate Studies, the organization that wrote the resolution is a US organization and only US schools are signatories).

However, some of the large Canadian schools will also set a deadline of April 15 because they know that students also applying to American schools will have April 15 deadlines. The one school in Canada that operates the most like a US school (in my field anyways), including both the April 15 deadline and admitting from undergrad direct to PhD is the University of Toronto. Most other schools do their own thing.

Although I don't know for sure for your fields/programs/schools, most Canadian grad programs operate more like Europe and the UK, where you're admitted directly to work with a POI and it's more like a job offer than the US admission system. For example, for all of my Canadian grad school offers (except Toronto), I was originally given 2-4 weeks to make my decision rather than April 15. And I know that other students hear back later on, in May or June after profs know what kind of funding they will have for next year. 

So, if you are waiting to hear back from a Canadian school (i.e. the top choice waitlisted school you mentioned earlier), I would not assume that you'll hear anything directly after April 15 (although that date may still be significant if others are going to be making decisions on that day). In this case, I would definitely check in with the Canadian school this week to get an update on their timelines. If you are in touch with a professor directly, talk to them too. Like I said above, Canadian admissions do work a bit differently in some cases, where the admissions committee may just approve/deny applicants based on some lower level/generic criteria and then profs "hire"/"pick" candidates from the approved pool (i.e. the final decision is up to the person that's going to be paying you).

[S-Kyo]

On 4/9/2018 at 12:35 AM, Charlie Moon said:

I was given until the 16th of April to accept my offer so I guess it depends on the university, best of luck !

But can they give extra time even if the official scholarship letter states as deadline for April 15th?

[S-Kyo]

On 4/9/2018 at 5:30 PM, Cassifrassidy said:

What do we think the odds are of universities giving an extension on the acceptance deadline? My first choice program has accepted me, but I'm waitlisted for funding, and I want to wait them out to see. But I have another funded offer that I will definitely attend if I don't get funding here. Thoughts?

Hi my situation is also exactly this.

[miesvanderrohe]

When schools say decisions are due on the 15th does that mean by the end of the day of the 15th? 

Edited April 14, 2018 by miesvanderrohe

[Oklash]

Many of my apps gave me till April 17th!