April 15 Deadline with COVID?

[blitner]

Hi all, has anyone had luck with asking for a deferred deadline to decide with COVID? I'm waiting on information from my partner to make a decision and their deadlines have been pushed which makes it near impossible for me to have info by April 15....

 

How are you all deciding with COVID? I wasn't able to visit one of my top choices. 

[AP]

I'm not aware of any adjustments being made for decisions mainly because the COVID19 situation only affects campus visits, which is itself both a privilege and something that only some schools and some applicants can do. 

Departments are more concerned right now with adjusting campus visits for job applicants, interviews for postdocs/VAPs, graduating seniors/doctoral students, semester/summer abroad programs being cut in half and students suddenly needing summer courses, tenure clocks being moved (and how that impacts leaves), making sure there is a budget for the fall (all things considered), underpaid staff that suddenly has a lot on their plate, etc. I'm sorry, but the graduate program deadlines is not an urgent matter to be moved. Man, not even the calendar is being moved in my school!

I didn't quite get that your partner's deadlines were moved... Are you saying they are going to find out about their situation at a later date? If you already have offers in hand, I would contact the programs about the possibility of accepting at a later date. My guess is that they will tell you that you can, but it is not guaranteed. However, me guessing here is not an answer, I would just contact them already. 

[TMP]

It doesn't hurt to ask programs directly.  Last I heard from my department, it's still holding into the April 15 deadline.  We're just hoping that our Zoom visitation day helped people to make a decision.

[historyofsloths]

A program offered me an extension on the deadline if I felt I needed more time, but that was the only one. The others have the deadline written in the acceptance letter and they seem to be sticking with it.