2020 Applicants

[Wimsey]

In the midst of all this chaos, I learned that Chicago MAPH accepted my referred app. At least I can enjoy a bit of certainty in the knowledge that I will NOT be attending.

[gooniesneversaydie]

Well, I sent an email to BU's Eng grad admissions director and the graduate school asking for an update. The waiting finally got to me. Hoping for any sort of response! 

[onerepublic96]

I noticed there is a new BU acceptance on the board that lists the date of notification as March 10. Not sure if this is someone who got notified a week ago along with the rest of the acceptances and just chose the wrong date or if BU is sending out notifications with this weird timing...

Edited March 12, 2020 by onerepublic96

[meghan_sparkle]

Does anyone know if there are whispers of moving the April 15 decision date given coronavirus? I'm not sure whether it would even be possible but it seems insane to me that it isn't being considered given the state of things right now.

[SolusRex]

Pushing back the decision date would unfortunately make things even harder for the people dealing with the uncertainty of waitlists.

Edited March 12, 2020 by SolusRex

[Warelin]

1 hour ago, meghan_sparkle said:

Does anyone know if there are whispers of moving the April 15 decision date given coronavirus? I'm not sure whether it would even be possible but it seems insane to me that it isn't being considered given the state of things right now.

According to https://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution:

Several CGS members have asked whether the April 15 Resolution will be changed to account for the impact of the coronavirus disruption on educational testing and student mobility issues. CGS’s position is that the April 15 deadline should continue to remain in effect for 2020. Because signatory institutions and programs may be affected differently by COVID-19, and may adjust their admissions and funding decision timelines accordingly, we believe that it is not feasible for the community to agree to a different deadline this year.

 We provide a few additional points of clarification based on questions we have received:

• If an offer of financial support is made prior to April 15, applicants have until April 15 to accept it and the program should honor that commitment through April 15. Extension of this deadline beyond April 15 is up to the individual program or institution.
• Programs and/or institutions are free to make offers of admission and of financial support after April 15 if they choose to do so. They may set any deadline for acceptance of the offer, as long as the deadline is after April 15. 
• Programs and/or institutions may choose to offer conditional admission and offers of financial support to students with incomplete applications (e.g. lacking test scores) or to wait until all requirements can be satisfied.

[Cryss]

Also, does it even make sense for some schools to push the deadline while others do not? Surely this would not make things easier for people who have multiple offers if some schools require them to make a decision by the original deadline and others extend the deadline. 

Even if schools do push back the deadline, with the scale of what we're dealing with, when would the new deadline be and how would this be determined? It would be chaos unless there's some standard across the board. Then as @SolusRex mentioned, what would happen to waitlist students, especially those who also have April 15 deadlines to abide by for some offers?  

So many variables. A tough situation for everyone for sure. 

 

[gooniesneversaydie]

@Emailchecker@onerepublic96 @GoldHippie and any others waiting on BU.

This is the response from the graduate school. I did also email the grad admissions director but haven't heard back from them yet. So, maybe they really aren't done making offers? I'm not holding my breath but also 1000% holding my breath. Maybe I'll pass out from lack of oxygen and wake up to a new email.

Decisions for the doctoral program are made at a department level.  Applications are currently being reviewed by faculty members of the program and they have started to make offers.  If you would like to know the exact timeline of the decisions, status of your application, and a possible offer, please reach out to the program directly.  You can reach them at english@bu.edu. 

Additionally, Boston University is part of the Council of Graduate Schools and, therefore, cannot ask applicants to respond prior to April 15.

 

[Emailchecker]

2 hours ago, gooniesneversaydie said:

@Emailchecker@onerepublic96 @GoldHippie and any others waiting on BU.

This is the response from the graduate school. I did also email the grad admissions director but haven't heard back from them yet. So, maybe they really aren't done making offers? I'm not holding my breath but also 1000% holding my breath. Maybe I'll pass out from lack of oxygen and wake up to a new email.

Decisions for the doctoral program are made at a department level.  Applications are currently being reviewed by faculty members of the program and they have started to make offers.  If you would like to know the exact timeline of the decisions, status of your application, and a possible offer, please reach out to the program directly.  You can reach them at english@bu.edu. 

Additionally, Boston University is part of the Council of Graduate Schools and, therefore, cannot ask applicants to respond prior to April 15.

 

Many many thanks for reaching out to them. I didn't have the guts to do it. Unfortunately this seems awfully similar to what we were hearing from Chicago, even as they were interviewing people. The 'they won't let you know even though they know until they know' tactic is tasteless, imo, but it's a choice they are making. 

[meghan_sparkle]

1 hour ago, SolusRex said:

Pushing back the decision date would unfortunately make things even harder for the people dealing with the uncertainty of waitlists.

I think everyone is in a tough position at the moment and I'm not sure that keeping the date as is for this reason actually helps those on waitlists. Every admitted student I've spoken to has said that visit cancellations and the uncertainty generated by world health epidemic will lengthen the process of their decision making, with many totally unsure how they'll reach a conclusion with half or all their visits cancelled; to me this says that almost all waitlist movement will occur at the very last second or even after April 15, rather than trickling movement April 1st-15th. 

I had hoped to be able to decline spots as soon as possible post-visits to open things up for people on waitlists (and have declined one school already). But without being able to meet anyone in person or see the schools—plus, at current levels of havoc, with faculty slower than usual to respond to emails and set up calls—deciding will be incredibly difficult. And it's ominous to me that the worse this crisis gets, the less faculty have been receptive to my contact. A huge difference between 72 hours ago and today for instance. That'll only get worse I'm sure.

Sorry to be so pessimistic, but I'm just really freaked out. Not saying that people on waitlists aren't biting their nails even harder than those with offers—god no—but I think everyone is fucked by this situation, and by the current deadline. Just my two cents.

[meghan_sparkle]

Sigh, I'm going to drop the April 15th stuff actually. Just heard from Princeton's DGS that even if they wanted to, the decision to extend would lie with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, not the English department, and unless there's some kind of tidal sea change between now and the start of April, I'm pretty sure it'll stay the same. 

[snorkles]

Faculty everywhere are panicking trying to get online classes up and running. It's likely to be far more difficult to get in contact with them in the next few weeks. Also, friends and family have taken on a different level of priority for everyone, so that factors into how quickly they may respond to emails. 

[tinymica]

Just spoke with a POI! One of the nicest and friendliest conversations I've had in a while

[kolyagogolova]

6 hours ago, meghan_sparkle said:

Every admitted student I've spoken to has said that visit cancellations and the uncertainty generated by world health epidemic will lengthen the process of their decision making, with many totally unsure how they'll reach a conclusion with half or all their visits cancelled; to me this says that almost all waitlist movement will occur at the very last second or even after April 15, rather than trickling movement April 1st-15th. 

I had hoped to be able to decline spots as soon as possible post-visits to open things up for people on waitlists (and have declined one school already). But without being able to meet anyone in person or see the schools—plus, at current levels of havoc, with faculty slower than usual to respond to emails and set up calls—deciding will be incredibly difficult. And it's ominous to me that the worse this crisis gets, the less faculty have been receptive to my contact. A huge difference between 72 hours ago and today for instance. That'll only get worse I'm sure.

Sure, but in order for a changed deadline to help significantly, it would need to allow for visits, right? And right now, no one really knows when that would be. At some point, any students admitted off the waitlist need to know before the summer for strictly practical reasons: to find housing, partners who need to apply for jobs, etc. I'm sure it feels extremely unfair and stressful to have to make a decision right now (and it totally is!)--but imagine coming out of whatever's about to happen and being told in July that you should drop everything and move across the country.

Also, this is just a guess, but I'd say professors will be largely quiet for the next week or so. At least at the institution where I'm a graduate student, classes are paused for the next week while undergraduates are (non-optionally) moving out of university housing, and many professors are scrambling to move their courses online in the interim. This isn't to say that everything has dissolved into total chaos, but keep in mind that the most prominent members of many departments are probably the least equipped to teach online courses (they probably learned to teach without many of these tools, and they probably haven't taught or tutored online before). Many of them, at least at my institution, are also volunteering their time and homes to move and house students who aren't able to leave university housing with three/four days of notice (yes, really: they were told after five pm yesterday, and are required to leave before Sunday evening). I agree that it'll get worse before it gets better, but I don't think the slow responses mean you're not a priority. Most likely there's some panic at play, and professors will be more on top of things by next week or the week after. Obviously this is all influenced by the department I'm familiar with, but this process seems to be happening at many of the schools in our region, at least.

[meghan_sparkle]

15 hours ago, kolyagogolova said:

Sure, but in order for a changed deadline to help significantly, it would need to allow for visits, right? And right now, no one really knows when that would be. At some point, any students admitted off the waitlist need to know before the summer for strictly practical reasons: to find housing, partners who need to apply for jobs, etc. I'm sure it feels extremely unfair and stressful to have to make a decision right now (and it totally is!)--but imagine coming out of whatever's about to happen and being told in July that you should drop everything and move across the country.

Yeah fair, I didn't think about how moving to say April or May would really impact waitlist movement that comes through in, say, June or July as you said. I think the combination of lack of communication/recruitment from schools after cancelled visits + the rigidity of the April 15 date just really panicked me so I thought it worth asking the question. Dropping the idea now! The VP of the Council for Graduate Schools said this morning the decision @Warelin linked to is final very unlikely to move, so I'd say the chances of it happening are about zero. So those on waitlists can rest easy (or easier, at least).

[tinymica]

Reached out to BU yesterday looking for answers, but no reply yet. I know they must be going through it right now, but so is every other university, and it feels...kind of like they're ghosting me a little bit? Like, I don't expect anyone to roll out a red carpet for me, but I want to feel...wanted? Their silence is making UW look even better than it already does to me, but I feel like I can't turn my back on BU because they have more resources. Urg, decisions are hard. I know I need to wait until I have all the information possible, but it's tough not to feel swayed right now.

And I don't even want to talk about UVA lol. Being on the waitlist has made something in my brain just decide I'm not getting out of purgatory, even though logically I know there is a slight chance. I just haven't done enough research on that yet and I don't want to put in that effort if I'm not getting in, but at the same time I need to know as much as I can just in case I have to make a snap decision. My brain feels fried.

[gooniesneversaydie]

24 minutes ago, tinymica said:

Reached out to BU yesterday looking for answers, but no reply yet. I know they must be going through it right now, but so is every other university, and it feels...kind of like they're ghosting me a little bit? Like, I don't expect anyone to roll out a red carpet for me, but I want to feel...wanted? Their silence is making UW look even better than it already does to me, but I feel like I can't turn my back on BU because they have more resources. Urg, decisions are hard. I know I need to wait until I have all the information possible, but it's tough not to feel swayed right now.

And I don't even want to talk about UVA lol. Being on the waitlist has made something in my brain just decide I'm not getting out of purgatory, even though logically I know there is a slight chance. I just haven't done enough research on that yet and I don't want to put in that effort if I'm not getting in, but at the same time I need to know as much as I can just in case I have to make a snap decision. My brain feels fried.

I did want to let you (and those of us still waiting) know the few things I learned about BU while I visited my school. It seems the two (plus BC and Brandies) work together a lot. I found out that they held a fairly large conference-type thing recently (the fall, maybe?) about alt-ac careers. They, as a group, combined resources to learn about alternative paths to make those choices available. These multi-school gatherings seem to be a thing, so it's a good opportunity to network. Also, several of the grad students mentioned that they loved being in the Boston area because so many schools were in close proximity and they're able to attend various academic/creative activities happening at other schools. One student also mentioned the Eng courses at BU are laid-back. I know this doesn't help much in the grand-scheme, but I did hear all good things!

[tinymica]

26 minutes ago, gooniesneversaydie said:

I did want to let you (and those of us still waiting) know the few things I learned about BU while I visited my school. It seems the two (plus BC and Brandies) work together a lot. I found out that they held a fairly large conference-type thing recently (the fall, maybe?) about alt-ac careers. They, as a group, combined resources to learn about alternative paths to make those choices available. These multi-school gatherings seem to be a thing, so it's a good opportunity to network. Also, several of the grad students mentioned that they loved being in the Boston area because so many schools were in close proximity and they're able to attend various academic/creative activities happening at other schools. One student also mentioned the Eng courses at BU are laid-back. I know this doesn't help much in the grand-scheme, but I did hear all good things!

Thank you!! This really does help and I appreciate it!

[meghan_sparkle]

FYI got this forwarded by to me by an administrator re: Harvard — wouldn’t usually share this on a public forum but I think right now it’s probably helpful to make people aware of what’s happening at particular institutions because a lot of programs are probably each operating independently and in the dark.

[WildeThing]

I honestly cannot think of a worse move than individual schools allowing for extensions. This is going to really mess with waitlists and force students to make decisions they might not otherwise make.

[hamnet in tights]

Well, in any case, for my timezone, it seems as if our week is done... although granted all I'm waiting at this point is waitlists, and I sincerely doubt Monday will bring a whole lot of movement... 

[okonivek]

Does anyone know if University of Iowa is sending out rejections to its waitlist? I got a rejection email today from them, but I had formerly been told I was on the highest tier of the waitlist. I emailed them to clear up the confusion. I didn't think I'd hear anything until closer to the 4/15 deadline. 

[Rrandle101]

Committed just now to Cornell's Medieval Studies PhD program, good luck to everyone else!

[timespentreading]

On 3/13/2020 at 8:12 PM, okonivek said:

Does anyone know if University of Iowa is sending out rejections to its waitlist? I got a rejection email today from them, but I had formerly been told I was on the highest tier of the waitlist. I emailed them to clear up the confusion. I didn't think I'd hear anything until closer to the 4/15 deadline. 

I got a rejection after being on the waitlist as well. I just assumed it meant the other candidate(s) in my period accepted their offers.

[gooniesneversaydie]

Tufts has been great at communicating with their admits. I've received several emails from the DGS and Dean of the Grad School apologizing and reassuring me the chaos won't affect the Fall semester. The power went out while I was visiting campus, so they had to deal with that along with the virus issues - bless them. The constant communication has been a nice surprise. All the POI's I've reached out to before and after my visit (I did have to reach out on my own - I didn't get any welcome emails) have emailed me back within a couple of hours. I didn't initially have the best conversation with my primary POI, which made my heart drop in my butt, as this is my only Ph.D. option, but my correspondence since has been much clearer and positive. Still waiting on BU..... But if my options come down to applying again next year (No. Just no. I'm so tired) or going to Tufts, I'll most likely choose Tufts. They're a plucky little department and seem to use the smallness to their advantage.