Accepted and Offered an Assistantship by Department but Rejected by the Graduate School.

[Monday Monkey]

Hey guys, so I got all my apps in and whatnot and a few weeks later, I got a response from my department at my first choice school with a letter offering me a position.  I accepted their offer but now, I have a response from their graduate school saying I didn't make the cut because of my GPA (which is .1 below their minimum).  Upon further inquiries, I found out the department wasn't aware of this decision.  Do you guys think I still have a chance of going to school there?

Share your thoughts or maybe some past experiences so I can have an idea of what's going on.  Thank you all!

[brightorangesocks]

Can you appeal to the graduate school, especially considering you were admitted to the department?

Is the department willing to go to bat for you in appealing to the graduate school?

Being off .1 in GPA seems like it should be a minor thing, but I don't know the school's policy.

 

FWIW in the corporate world, when a company says they have a GPA minimum for a given job (say 2.5), and they actually reject applications based on that minimum - if they make one exception they would have to go back and re-justify all of those rejections that came before.  So for that company making an exception might not be an option... although this often is only applicable to entry level positions, so they could try to get you in a different role where it wasn't a requirement.  In the end it's really just a liability thing because it opens up grounds for them to be sued, and it does help cut down on the stacks of applications to review.  (Source: helped out in university recruiting for a company for a couple of years).

Best of luck, that's an awful situation to be in.  Hopefully you're still able to attend!!

Edited March 13, 2019 by brightorangesocks

[Monday Monkey]

1 hour ago, brightorangesocks said:

Can you appeal to the graduate school, especially considering you were admitted to the department?

Is the department willing to go to bat for you in appealing to the graduate school?

Being off .1 in GPA seems like it should be a minor thing, but I don't know the school's policy.

 

FWIW in the corporate world, when a company says they have a GPA minimum for a given job (say 2.5), and they actually reject applications based on that minimum - if they make one exception they would have to go back and re-justify all of those rejections that came before.  So for that company making an exception might not be an option... although this often is only applicable to entry level positions, so they could try to get you in a different role where it wasn't a requirement.  In the end it's really just a liability thing because it opens up grounds for them to be sued, and it does help cut down on the stacks of applications to review.  (Source: helped out in university recruiting for a company for a couple of years).

Best of luck, that's an awful situation to be in.  Hopefully you're still able to attend!!

It doesn't seem like they want me to appeal, but, I am going to try.  I've talked to a couple professors and one of them actually seems like he really wants to work with me.

 

The department is in the middle of contacting them about it now because they hadn't heard of the decision until I brought it up to them.  From what I can guess, the department wants me there and it's not necessarily a big school so I'm sure as it is, they don't get many grad students going through.

It seems like the grad school wants me to either apply for a MS program instead of a PhD or take a semester as an undergrad to be on academic probation.  My GPA isn't necessarily bad but it's not what they state their minimum requirements are.  

To add on to this, I have research experience, I'm an officer in multiple clubs, and I work 30 hours a week.  I'm hoping if they do let me appeal it, I can bring those points up to help justify it.

Fingers crossed!

[Ternwild]

24 minutes ago, Monday Monkey said:

To add on to this, I have research experience, I'm an officer in multiple clubs, and I work 30 hours a week.  I'm hoping if they do let me appeal it, I can bring those points up to help justify it. 

Appeal.  Get on the phone with people (never underestimate the power of verbal, non-digital conversation) and appeal the decision and see if they will at least consider you for conditional admission.  Most graduate schools have conditional admission programs.  It may slow you down a year or semester, but at least you'll get into your 1st-pick program.

[Monday Monkey]

2 minutes ago, Ternwild said:

Appeal.  Get on the phone with people (never underestimate the power of verbal, non-digital conversation) and appeal the decision and see if they will at least consider you for conditional admission.

It's actually pretty close to home and I've been going and talking to professors this week since I'm on spring break.  I'll probably make a stop in tomorrow and give a couple calls later on this week for follow-ups.    Here's hoping it works.  

[Ternwild]

Just now, Monday Monkey said:

It's actually pretty close to home and I've been going and talking to professors this week since I'm on spring break.  I'll probably make a stop in tomorrow and give a couple calls later on this week for follow-ups.    Here's hoping it works.  

Good luck.  Often errors like this can be worked out because the department will probably fight to save face.