JUST SEND THE REJECTION LETTER ALREADY FFS

[gls2814]

Why do schools wait like this? I wish it was the opposite way around where they send out rejections first and acceptances after (this is probably not logistical; I am just venting). For example, UVA Religion has sent out at least 5 acceptances based on Grad Cafe. I haven't gotten the damn rejection yet and I would really like to have some closure. They're really out here keeping us in suspense for no reason. 

Fade me y'all

[LadyWolfshadow]

I TOTALLY feel you on this.  I still have so many applications out there that I just want the ones where I stand absolutely zero chance to cut me loose now.  Actual status updates would be nice too, but that's like asking for the moon.  Some say that they're under departmental review, but some of them just say "Status: Submitted" and it's like "Well that's a little vague, isn't it?"  Submitting the applications was SUPER stressful, but nobody warned me that the waiting would be SO much worse. 

It doesn't help that one of the programs historically made all of their decisions during the last week of January but it looks like it's been radio silence for everyone. 

At least a rejection we can process and move on.

[anthgrad10]

Same. I saw acceptances posted on Friday, Jan 24 for a program I applied to, and originally the graduate coordinator said they would let applicants know by the end of January. I reached out to them last Thursday to see if there's been any update on my application and they said they are still in the final stages of the review process...interesting since other people have been admitted. No rejections have been posted, so at this point, I'm just assuming I've been rejected. It makes no sense why they don't just send them out already. I need closure too, ugh ?

[anthgrad10]

2 hours ago, anthgrad10 said:

Same. I saw acceptances posted on Friday, Jan 24 for a program I applied to, and originally the graduate coordinator said they would let applicants know by the end of January. I reached out to them last Thursday to see if there's been any update on my application and they said they are still in the final stages of the review process...interesting since other people have been admitted. No rejections have been posted, so at this point, I'm just assuming I've been rejected. It makes no sense why they don't just send them out already. I need closure too, ugh ?

UPDATE: Just checked my portal and I was rejected. Second rejection in less than 3 days and only two programs left to hear from ?

[gls2814]

32 minutes ago, anthgrad10 said:

UPDATE: Just checked my portal and I was rejected. Second rejection in less than 3 days and only two programs left to hear from ?

I'm sorry man. What subfield are you in for anthro? I'm in linguistic.

[anthgrad10]

1 hour ago, gls2814 said:

I'm sorry man. What subfield are you in for anthro? I'm in linguistic.

I’m in sociocultural. I applied to two anthropology programs and both rejected me. The other two programs are outside of anthropology but still related to my dissertation idea. Idk I’m starting to lose hope and don’t think I’ll be admitted to either. And if by some miracle I am, I won’t get any funding. 

[gls2814]

14 hours ago, anthgrad10 said:

I’m in sociocultural. I applied to two anthropology programs and both rejected me. The other two programs are outside of anthropology but still related to my dissertation idea. Idk I’m starting to lose hope and don’t think I’ll be admitted to either. And if by some miracle I am, I won’t get any funding. 

I did something similar. I applied mostly to anthro programs but I also applied to 2 religious studies programs because I work in the anthropology of religion. Don't lose hope! You still have two more to go! Did you have your heart set on an Anthropology PhD specifically, or would you be okay with the other two?

18 hours ago, LadyWolfshadow said:

I TOTALLY feel you on this.  I still have so many applications out there that I just want the ones where I stand absolutely zero chance to cut me loose now.  Actual status updates would be nice too, but that's like asking for the moon.  Some say that they're under departmental review, but some of them just say "Status: Submitted" and it's like "Well that's a little vague, isn't it?"  Submitting the applications was SUPER stressful, but nobody warned me that the waiting would be SO much worse. 

It doesn't help that one of the programs historically made all of their decisions during the last week of January but it looks like it's been radio silence for everyone. 

At least a rejection we can process and move on.

Exactly. I wish we at least had status updates; just tell me if it's in review at least. 

[anthgrad10]

3 hours ago, gls2814 said:

I did something similar. I applied mostly to anthro programs but I also applied to 2 religious studies programs because I work in the anthropology of religion. Don't lose hope! You still have two more to go! Did you have your heart set on an Anthropology PhD specifically, or would you be okay with the other two?

Exactly. I wish we at least had status updates; just tell me if it's in review at least. 

No, I’d be fine with either of the programs. One is Science and Technology Studies and the other is Mexican American Studies. Both are related to my dissertation idea and I’d be elated to just be admitted to one. I originally got my BA in psychology so I’m not deadset on anthropology. 

[JBeezWriter]

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.

So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.

From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.

In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?

Still, it sucks to wait.

[gls2814]

51 minutes ago, JBeezWriter said:

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.

So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.

From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.

In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?

Still, it sucks to wait.

Hope is a dangerous thing, my friend.

But in all seriousness, thank you for this response! Do you have any insight into how interviews would work in a scenario like this? Like if you are waitlisted and they want to "call you up" (to use a baseball term), will they interview you or just accept you? 

[LadyWolfshadow]

1 hour ago, JBeezWriter said:

In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?

Still, it sucks to wait.

Thanks SO much for giving the insider view of this.  I don't know how it is for applicants from bigger institutions, but my college is entirely undergrad so there's not a lot of information about the process here.   It feels like we put our credentials and money into a giant black box and hope for interview invites.  (I honestly didn't know acceptances in my field could HAPPEN without interviews if that tells you anything.)   The different amount of information the programs offer is a little disconcerting too...under departmental review makes sense, but one just saying "submitted" really does make me go "Uh oh, did I break something?"

Knowing that I haven't gotten outright rejected and that there's still possibly a shot makes me feel better, but what happens with any of those decisions that theoretically come in closer to that April deadline?  Would they still even try to offer a visit day?

[JBeezWriter]

23 hours ago, LadyWolfshadow said:

Thanks SO much for giving the insider view of this.  I don't know how it is for applicants from bigger institutions, but my college is entirely undergrad so there's not a lot of information about the process here.   It feels like we put our credentials and money into a giant black box and hope for interview invites.  (I honestly didn't know acceptances in my field could HAPPEN without interviews if that tells you anything.)   The different amount of information the programs offer is a little disconcerting too...under departmental review makes sense, but one just saying "submitted" really does make me go "Uh oh, did I break something?"

Knowing that I haven't gotten outright rejected and that there's still possibly a shot makes me feel better, but what happens with any of those decisions that theoretically come in closer to that April deadline?  Would they still even try to offer a visit day?

Yes, at least my U was always open to having Admits do a campus visit, regardless of when. And yes, you could get an offer of admission--with funding--close to April 15th, depending on how it goes. One year, someone had accepted early, then changed their mind, and an offer to one on the list was made after April 15th. It's rare, but it happens. Remember--this does not in any way mean you're not good enough. It means there was a very large pool of well-qualified candidates, and the committee had some hard decisions to make, and it just shook out the way that it did because the ones in the initial pool opted to go elsewhere.

Some of our best grad students were wait-listers... some have gone on to do very noteworthy things, award-winning things, bestseller things. So, wait-listers don't suck. Even if you're rejected from somewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean you suck, it just means that you and the program were determined to not be a good fit for each other. Sometimes you're rejected one year, reapply the next year, and get in via the initial round of offers.

It's a total crapshoot, in some ways. Some years, a popular program gets 200 applicants. Other years, that same program for some odd reason gets only 75 applicants. And even if it gets 75 applicants (if you're one, that's 74 competitors for, say, five spots), maybe the majority of them accept elsewhere. It's inexplicable. It's unpredictable and bizarre.

So, if a graduate degree is what you really want, don't let anything get you down. Keep the faith on up through April 15th. Hang in there, keep trying, if you don't make it this year, finesse your application materials and try again next year. It ain't over til it's over.

[JBeezWriter]

On 2/6/2020 at 3:06 PM, gls2814 said:

Hope is a dangerous thing, my friend.

But in all seriousness, thank you for this response! Do you have any insight into how interviews would work in a scenario like this? Like if you are waitlisted and they want to "call you up" (to use a baseball term), will they interview you or just accept you? 

Our department didn't use interviews as a basis of admission. Ours called applicants after sending out initial funding and admission offers, to touch base and answer questions to help the applicant make a decision. Applicants tend to think the process is all one-sided, that the institutions just sit back and let the applicants roll in. Because nearly every applicant is also applying to multiple other universities, the universities are also competing against each other. The institutions are just as concerned about being able to assemble a full cohort as the applicants are concerned about getting in. So in our case, the email with the offer comes, then the phone call is a friendly follow-up; the university is already committed to you, now it's your turn. It's more like a tennis match than a baseball game.

And yes, if you happened to be on the wait list... example, say the deadline is December 1st. First two weeks, applications are being read and discussed and often argued over. Decisions are made. Initial offers are made. Say it takes a month for one to get back to the university--declines the offer. Program goes back to the list, calls the one next in line to gauge whether they're still available and interested. If the applicant says "oh my goodness YES", then an offer is sent out right away. There's always a chance that in that month's time, #6 on the list has accepted elsewhere and has no interest in undoing that. So then they move to #7 and repeat. Sometimes the program has to wait for a return call if they get voice mail. Sometimes the applicant sits on their decision for a week or two, which is understandable as it's a big decision, but also irritating, LOL because the Program wants commitments and answers just as much as the applicant does.

So if it's like end of March and you haven't heard anything at all or you've heard that initial offers went out but you're still under consideration, and then you get a phone call, you're likely getting that call because the program wants to offer admission. I can't speak for programs like those at Iowa, for example, but at the mid-sized state universities with well-established programs, that's how it works in general.

[fauna876]

On 2/6/2020 at 2:13 PM, JBeezWriter said:

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool.

 

Oof - that's what I suspected when I got a rejection pretty quickly from my top choice. I figured I was a first round elimination - and that stung. They take 4/40 applicants though, and I got into a pretty great program, so I've gotta *chin up* and move on, but I really regret my writing sample choice and wish I took the time to just write something completely new. 

On that note though - really annoyed with having one acceptance, and two pending. I'm doing a campus visit and attending a symposium, and I'm pretty impressed by the program so far but it feels like I'm marrying the first person I met at speed dating without checking out the other folks ?

[Slothy42]

RELATABLE. I fully expect rejections from most of my programs, just hit me with it already, the waiting game gives me anxiety.?

Edited February 14, 2020 by Slothy42

[jberma01]

On 2/6/2020 at 2:13 PM, JBeezWriter said:

I can tell you why they do this. (Insider info.) They only send rejection letters right away to those they flat-out would never accept. If you didn't get rejected yet, it means you're still in the pool. After the committees rank the candidates, they send offers to the top however many (say five). Then they wait to see who accepts and who rejects them. It's a two-way street, both applicants and programs are playing the waiting game and both get accepted and rejected.

So say offers go out to the top five. Of those one is still waiting for their #1 to accept them, so they hold off on committing to #2's offer. Two of them reject the offer because their #1's already accepted them. Now there are two open slots for the cohort and one tentative and two who haven't bothered to respond either way. The committee moves down the list and sends out two more offers. Then waits to see if those two accept or decline.

From having worked on the programs side of things for awhile, I've seen years where programs got their top five right away and didn't go deep into the list, and years where they had to go so deep into the list that they considered reopening applications to allow more people to apply late, so they'd have enough to choose from because they'd made offers to 22 people who declined for various reasons, only had 30 in the pool to begin with, and if the "current" top five assembled after making all those offers didn't all commit, they'd be "short" for the cohort.

In other words, the TL:DNR version is, if you haven't gotten rejected right away, you have a chance up until April 15th. Even if you aren't in the top five first-round, you ARE still of the quality necessary to be considered for admission. Does it really matter if you were on their list at #30, if you got IN?

Still, it sucks to wait.

Ok this is great information!! I applied in Canada and it seems like it could be a similar process... I've seen a few acceptances for a specific program I've been waiting to hear back from and I haven't received an answer yet. I assumed that meant rejection or waitlist but now maybe not!! Having to wait for others to decline to move up on the list will take so long though- all the other Canadian programs won't be sending out offers for minimum another 2 weeks! I just might explode from the anxiety by then!!!