What does this "shortlist" mean?

[Gethsemane]

Hello everyone,

I applied to the media and cultural studies Ph.D program at the University of Pittsburgh and recently received an email (with: "YOU ARE SHORTLISTED AT PITT" as the subject line) from the director of the program stating the following:

Dear [Me],

It is my great pleasure to inform you that you have been shortlisted in

position 7 for five years of fully funded admission (stipend + tuition +

benefits, pending making good progress in the program and continuous full

time enrollment), direct into the doctoral program here in the Department

of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh!

What being shortlisted here at Pitt means is that we must await the firm

emergence of a funded line. We have only a fixed number of funded lines

to offer to both continuing and incoming students; we now have a few

students nominated for fellowships who are awaiting an outcome over the

next few weeks, which if successful will result in a line vacancy. I am

confident, but of course not certain, that some fellowship competitions

will break our way and that I will be soon able to recommend to our dean

that you be made a funded offer here.

Of course, he goes on to say how excited he and the rest of the faculty were about my application, and so on...but what exactly does this mean? Am I waitlisted for admission? Or just funding? Or both? Do you think this situation is hopeful, or what? Any advice on this matter would be appreciated .

[LaraAnn85]

Sounds good? I was "shortlisted" at a school, flown out to visit, and unofficially accepted before I even got on the plane to come home. I really didn't know what this whole "shortlist" thing meant, but turns out it was pretty good!

[perkinqq]

shortlist means you're top on their list

[Gethsemane]

Hey thanks, that makes me feel better. I guess I was just thrown by the "position 7" bit.

[crustaceangirl]

Position 7 means that there are 6 people ahead of you to get funding, so apparently you need 7 currently-funded students to win fellowships before the department can afford to fund you.

[Gethsemane]

But that sounds pretty bleak then! However, that would mean that I am actually waitlisted in position 7- so why would he use the term "shortlisted" in place of waitlisted? Just to confuse me? :? Or make it sound nicer?

In the info packet I got for the school, it states that they usually take 6-7 new students each year so that they will be able to provide full funding for each of them. Going by your interpretation, that would mean that there are actually 12-13 people ahead of me (six or seven already admitted for sure), with priority on funding. "Short" list indeed! This makes me think that just maybe I am the number 7 admit ("shortlisted" in position 7, but waitlisted in position 1), but he can't guarantee admission yet until the school can be sure that I'm fully funded. So I have to wait for one of the other six already admitted and offered funding to get a fellowship so that they can take me. I don't know, maybe I'm doing a little wishful thinking...ah well .

Also, he says stuff like:

What being shortlisted here at Pitt means is that we must await the firm

emergence of a [the operative singular article ] funded line.

and

we now have a few

students nominated for fellowships who are awaiting an outcome over the

next few weeks, which if successful will result in a [and here again] line vacancy.

This makes me think that I am only waiting on one "firm" line of funding to open up, and not necessarily six (at least I hope not!).

Anyway, thanks for the response.

[crustaceangirl]

Ah, your theory does make sense now that I know they accept 6-7 applicants. In that case yes, I think it does sound likely that you are the 7th admit and they (for now) just have funding for the first 6. Though I suppose they could have picked 7 alternates in case all 7 admits got funding/decided not to come, that seems a bit less likely, especially if they are saying they're so confident for you.

Good luck! Let us know!

[Gethsemane]

Thanks ! Yeah...I hope my theory is the right one, even though it is definitely possible that they could just have a bunch of people lined up in case those admitted first don't accept the offers. I will update when I get final information.

BTW- do you think it would be appropriate for me to email this professor back to get clarification? Or is that considered a little tactless? At the end of the email, he said to let him know if I had any questions, so...