Coronavirus and Applications

[UndergradDad]

Anyone think coronavirus is slowing down the application results process or is it on pace with last year? Seems slower this year.

[Jewggernaut]

36 minutes ago, UndergradDad said:

Anyone think coronavirus is slowing down the application results process or is it on pace with last year? Seems slower this year.

Yes. If a majority of faculty have to move all their classes online, especially the 400+ level philosophy courses, it can be a bit distracting.

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

1 hour ago, UndergradDad said:

Anyone think coronavirus is slowing down the application results process or is it on pace with last year? Seems slower this year.

I'd think so. It's also been difficult to talk to students/faculty at current programs, since all are really busy right now. Some places have extended spring breaks, etc. I'd imagine it's a very shitty time.

[Flossifer]

23 minutes ago, you'll_never_get_to_heaven said:

I'd think so. It's also been difficult to talk to students/faculty at current programs, since all are really busy right now. Some places have extended spring breaks, etc. I'd imagine it's a very shitty time.

This still seems like no excuse for schools not sending rejection letters to students they've already made decisions on. It's so inconsiderate that people have to solicit at this point...

[Olórin]

I also think philosophy people have moved away from gradcafe. I think the initial move was in solidarity with old mods who resigned (or were fired? I cant remember) en masse. The idea of moving to facebook as an act of solidarity has always seemed a little off to me, but I understand why it happened and why people went there.

I haven't looked at past years' results, but this time of the season always has a lull. Offers are out, waitlisters are stuck in endless limbo, and there will be little movement until the week of April 15. I think what mostly holds it up at this point are people who have offers and are also waitlisted somewhere else. The pandemic will probably prolong that lull. It might also be more difficult for university offices to process new offers once old offers are declined. But we just don't know.

[711fanatic]

Do you think the April 15th deadline will be extended due to corona?

[Olórin]

12 minutes ago, 711fanatic said:

Do you think the April 15th deadline will be extended due to corona?

I think that would be extraordinary and unlikely. Most campuses are finishing the semester online, and I feel like extending the deadline would primarily be useful if that meant late campus visits could be accommodated. But if everyone is finishing online anyway, extending the deadline won’t help accomplish that goal. 

I think the only other reasons for extending the deadline would be administrative in most cases and primarily not for the benefit of accepted applicants. Also, there are governing bodies that would have to meet and agree on an extension, I don’t think individual programs can just extend the deadline on a whim.

Also, people need to know where they’re going to live come August. Delaying the deadline prolongs that uncertainty.

Then again, no one knows anything. So uh, maybe they’ll extend it.

Someone could start a thread asking whether accepted people are delaying decisions because of this, that might clear things up a little bit.

12 minutes ago, 711fanatic said:

[The_Last_Thylacine]

I hope that the April 15th deadline remains intact. I would also implore prospective students not to ask for an extension beyond the 15th to make a decision. If even one school grants an extension, it has the potential to complicate the entire application season for so many other applicants. Ultimately, I'm incredibly saddened that so many people have been/will be unable to visit campuses this season. Prospective students (and so many others) have forgone much in an effort to mitigate the potential consequences of this virus, but I think that sticking to the April 15th deadline is one (seemingly small but incredibly meaningful) thing that we can do to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19. 

[Kantattheairport]

7 hours ago, UndergradDad said:

Anyone think coronavirus is slowing down the application results process or is it on pace with last year? Seems slower this year.

Probably, but it seemed a little slower even before the outbreak hit the US, so... not sure! Probably didn't make things any smoother though.

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

15 hours ago, Flossifer said:

This still seems like no excuse for schools not sending rejection letters to students they've already made decisions on. It's so inconsiderate that people have to solicit at this point...

I dunno, I think it's really a minor problem that isn't unusual, people have been griping about it for years, and I'm sure admissions committees have plenty of complaints about applications that will also never be resolved. Students wait til the last minute to decide, etc. Hell, I wish I could make a decision before April 15th, but I doubt I'll be able to! On top of that, M.A.s I applied to don't even have deadlines until the Summer - so if I got a good offer from one of those programs, I very well might reneg on an offer I accepted previously. Shitty? Yes. Understandable? Yes.

[energeia11235]

(I'm going to treat this thread as a coronavirus-in-relation-to-apps thread, if that's all right.) Is anyone thinking about waiting another year (either re-applying next year or trying to defer acceptance for a year) specifically because of the coronavirus situation? It seems as if virtual school will be the name of the game for the rest of the year...and I could see that negatively impacting the grad school experience. I'm just wondering if anyone has been having thoughts about any of this. (Hope everyone's doing okay!)

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

29 minutes ago, energeia11235 said:

(I'm going to treat this thread as a coronavirus-in-relation-to-apps thread, if that's all right.) Is anyone thinking about waiting another year (either re-applying next year or trying to defer acceptance for a year) specifically because of the coronavirus situation? It seems as if virtual school will be the name of the game for the rest of the year...and I could see that negatively impacting the grad school experience. I'm just wondering if anyone has been having thoughts about any of this. (Hope everyone's doing okay!)

Man, I'd be really pissed if this happened, but deferring admission until the second quarter or second semester wouldn't be an awful idea. I'm sure as hell not doing a grad program over Zoom. That's ludicrous.

[711fanatic]

3 hours ago, you'll_never_get_to_heaven said:

Man, I'd be really pissed if this happened, but deferring admission until the second quarter or second semester wouldn't be an awful idea. I'm sure as hell not doing a grad program over Zoom. That's ludicrous.

Yeah, like hopefully school won't need to be virtual come september??

[maxhgns]

On 3/19/2020 at 2:19 PM, Flossifer said:

This still seems like no excuse for schools not sending rejection letters to students they've already made decisions on. It's so inconsiderate that people have to solicit at this point...

While you're not wrong, you need to realize that this is absolutely commonplace throughout the discipline, and not enough people care to make a difference. For instance, I'm still waiting to get 500+ rejections for job applications I sent up to five years ago, including rejections for jobs for which I was interviewed.

 

On 3/19/2020 at 2:26 PM, 711fanatic said:

Do you think the April 15th deadline will be extended due to corona?

I rather suspect not. But remember, too, that the April 15 deadline is a deadline for American schools to extend first-round offers, nothing more.

[lifeofpipi]

do you all think that the fall semester can physically start on time (in August/September)...? I'm worried but hope I'm overthinking this

[Flossifer]

2 hours ago, lifeofpipi said:

do you all think that the fall semester can physically start on time (in August/September)...? I'm worried but hope I'm overthinking this

I find it hard to imagine, just because so many faculty are so old. I wonder if a significant amount of classes, at the very least, will be online until there is vaccination.

[711fanatic]

1 minute ago, Flossifer said:

I find it hard to imagine, just because so many faculty are so old. I wonder if a significant amount of classes, at the very least, will be online until there is vaccination.

I have been thinking about how old most distinguished profs are...... yikes? 

[Flossifer]

I find this particularly distressing as a future MA student, as those are the professors one hopes to work with for letters of rec.

Edited March 31, 2020 by Flossifer
sp

[Flossifer]

19 hours ago, lifeofpipi said:

do you all think that the fall semester can physically start on time (in August/September)...? I'm worried but hope I'm overthinking this

I was just speaking to a UT Austin professor, and i'm not sure if it's official but he said that all their summer courses will be online, and he's almost entirely sure that it will be the same for the fall...what a bummer. I'm not going to be attending there, but it doesn't bode well for anywhere else.

[The_Last_Thylacine]

45 minutes ago, Flossifer said:

I was just speaking to a UT Austin professor, and i'm not sure if it's official but he said that all their summer courses will be online, and he's almost entirely sure that it will be the same for the fall...what a bummer. I'm not going to be attending there, but it doesn't bode well for anywhere else.

? Are you an undergrad there now?

[Flossifer]

No, I'm not. Just a family friend who is a professor.

[711fanatic]

1 hour ago, Flossifer said:

I was just speaking to a UT Austin professor, and i'm not sure if it's official but he said that all their summer courses will be online, and he's almost entirely sure that it will be the same for the fall...what a bummer. I'm not going to be attending there, but it doesn't bode well for anywhere else.

Wow! That would be A Lot. On the bright side, maybe one of the people who I'm waiting for on a PhD waitlist, who is waiting on another person on another waitlist, will defer their admission ?

[ShadyCarnot]

Hopefully testing will be more widely available by the time Fall quarter/semester rolls around - in theory that would make some sort of on-campus operations more feasible.

[lifeofpipi]

On 4/1/2020 at 11:56 AM, Flossifer said:

I was just speaking to a UT Austin professor, and i'm not sure if it's official but he said that all their summer courses will be online, and he's almost entirely sure that it will be the same for the fall...what a bummer. I'm not going to be attending there, but it doesn't bode well for anywhere else.

It would be so unfortunate if fall is still online - that means that the virus is still not contained by then. I'm also concerned that another online semester would mean another pass/fail only semester (my undergrad school and several others switched to P/F only this semester, which is the right thing to do in the current situation). Another issue is how international students could possibly maintain their status if classes are online and they take those classes in their home countries (and they also have to stay up late in order to attend classes)... all in all online classes just don't work

[killerbunny]

I was poking around on Reddit last night and came across this post from a philosophy professor who is also an interim DGS. Based on the user history of the OP, it seems legitimate. I hope it is helpful to applicants of the current cycle.