2020 Fall Committee on Social Thought at Chicago

[sirens + warnings]

47 minutes ago, diodotus said:

Although I applied for a joint degree—which was reflected in my portal—now my portal only reads "PhD, Social Thought," instead of "PhD, Social Thought and ___________."

The same is true of my applications in prior years—none of my applications to Division of Social Sciences are listed as joint degrees.

This changed within the last hour.

I don't know whether this means anything.

Absolutely nothing has changed on my portal. No idea what any of this means and I'm just tired now. I want this process to be over so I can move on with my life and start making arrangements necessary to pack up my entire life and move. 

[Popeyyyessz]

2 hours ago, sirens + warnings said:

Absolutely nothing has changed on my portal. No idea what any of this means and I'm just tired now. I want this process to be over so I can move on with my life and start making arrangements necessary to pack up my entire life and move. 

Same. I’m assuming if I don’t get anything by the end of this week, it means rejection. But it just won’t be over until the letter arrives. 

[diodotus]

Today, I had to contact someone in the department in connection to something that has nothing to do with admissions.

I have nothing to report, and I began to contact someone in the department only after my portal had changed, so that the one has nothing to do with the other.

Since the last business hour of the month has passed, is @alkiviades or @Popeyyyessz able to share anything else about the correspondence that is quoted below?

On 2/10/2020 at 1:57 PM, alkiviades said:

Emailed the department and the reply was, "Decision letters will be going out at the end of this month."   It seems like in years past acceptances were notified a couple weeks before rejections?

 

On 2/25/2020 at 11:47 AM, Popeyyyessz said:

Emailed yesterday and “applications are in final review”...

 

On 2/26/2020 at 2:24 PM, Popeyyyessz said:

I got the impression from the email that they have not sent the decision on Tuesday but are going to this week, and the whole process will be done by mid March.

For instance, what in the email caused you to get this impression?

[alkiviades]

I just noticed that some rejections have been posted today.  Has anyone else not heard anything at all?

[fffbon]

I haven't heard anything at all. 

[alkiviades]

I went ahead and emailed them.  Will hopefully know something by tomorrow morning!

[alkiviades]

Welp, heard back and I was "not admitted and should be receiving official notification shortly".  I wonder why they would stagger rejections like this.  I have a feeling that a second round of rejections may have been shunted off to MAPH or MAPSS programs.  But who knows.  Not the best way to conduct admissions, in my opinion. 

Best of luck to the rest of you still waiting to hear back. 

[mcoa1996]

On 3/4/2020 at 11:49 AM, alkiviades said:

Welp, heard back and I was "not admitted and should be receiving official notification shortly".  I wonder why they would stagger rejections like this.  I have a feeling that a second round of rejections may have been shunted off to MAPH or MAPSS programs.  But who knows.  Not the best way to conduct admissions, in my opinion. 

Best of luck to the rest of you still waiting to hear back. 

In my experience from applying to UChicago last year, the MAPH rejections take time to reach. The programme receives some insane number of applicants, as in more than 500-600 applications, so it takes a million years to receive rejections letters. However, I was accepted back then with a 50% scholarship offer and I was not as immediately notified. I remember logging in here obsessively to see any updates because some people were already getting their acceptance letters. I didn't take the offer because despite having being awarded the biggest scholarship available that year for the MAPH, it was still ridiculously expensive, so I waited for a year and applied to different programmes.

I don't particularly know if this is the case this year. Anyhow, I wish you all patience and lots of good luck. May you all get into a good programme!

[alkiviades]

I *still* have not received a formal rejection.  

What bothers me is that I never applied for any Master's program. I applied specifically to this PhD.  UChicago should have a box on their application form stating: "If you are not admitted to this program, would you like to be considered for a Master's degree in ______"?  I bet the vast majority of students would check no.   Honestly, transferring PhD applicants over to MA programs just seems like a blatant ploy for tuition dollars, even with the scholarships they give out.  

It's kind of gross to keep students waiting this long for formal notification of rejection.  The least they could do is have the PhD programs send out rejection letters that say, "Sorry you weren't admitted to our PhD program, but we have forwarded your application to the MA".  

I'm getting off my soapbox now.  I'll be fine, I was admitted into a PhD program I will happily attend. But in general I think programs and universities should endeavor to treat their applicants with respect for the amount of energy, time, and money that goes into these applications.  I do hope this thread is useful for future applicants.