2021-2022 Application Thread

[luvita]

guys I have been waitlisted by NYU a couple of weeks ago. They told me that final decisions will be communicated ''very shortly before or on April 15'', so maybe they will send also rejections that day.

[uncle_socks]

2 hours ago, luvita said:

guys I have been waitlisted by NYU a couple of weeks ago. They told me that final decisions will be communicated ''very shortly before or on April 15'', so maybe they will send also rejections that day.

I have no skin in this game but this is super freaking rude and abusive. There's no reason to keep someone in long waitlist-or-rejected purgatory when they literally have this information. 

[Theory007]

9 hours ago, uncle_socks said:

I have no skin in this game but this is super freaking rude and abusive. There's no reason to keep someone in long waitlist-or-rejected purgatory when they literally have this information. 

I think NYU is itself waiting to hear the decisions from admitted students who themselves may be waitlisted elsewhere. So I don't get the impression that they are prolonging it intentionally. 

[uncle_socks]

2 hours ago, Theory007 said:

I think NYU is itself waiting to hear the decisions from admitted students who themselves may be waitlisted elsewhere. So I don't get the impression that they are prolonging it intentionally. 

They could simply tell people who they currently haven't contacted "you're waitlisted, it's a long waitlist, and you might have to wait until around 4/15 to hear back" or "you're rejected"...not very hard to do. No other top school strings so many people along to the 4/15 deadline without at least saying "you're on an unofficial waitlist" when a prospective student reaches out, and there's absolutely no reason NYU has to be like this. 

[Theory007]

15 minutes ago, uncle_socks said:

They could simply tell people who they currently haven't contacted "you're waitlisted, it's a long waitlist, and you might have to wait until around 4/15 to hear back" or "you're rejected"...not very hard to do. No other top school strings so many people along to the 4/15 deadline without at least saying "you're on an unofficial waitlist" when a prospective student reaches out, and there's absolutely no reason NYU has to be like this. 

I'm not sure I understand. It sounds like NYU 1. did tell the original poster that they were waitlisted and 2. that they probably would have to wait until 4/15. I don't know at all what's going on with NYU, but they will clearly admit people off their waitlist when other people give up their spots, who are probably themselves waitlisted somewhere waiting for those waitlists to be resolved. It's nerve wracking to be waitlisted and it sucks but NYU is waiting for admitted applicants to decide if they will attend or not and only then can they resolve their own waitlist. Am I getting something wrong?

[uncle_socks]

2 hours ago, Theory007 said:

I'm not sure I understand. It sounds like NYU 1. did tell the original poster that they were waitlisted and 2. that they probably would have to wait until 4/15. I don't know at all what's going on with NYU, but they will clearly admit people off their waitlist when other people give up their spots, who are probably themselves waitlisted somewhere waiting for those waitlists to be resolved. It's nerve wracking to be waitlisted and it sucks but NYU is waiting for admitted applicants to decide if they will attend or not and only then can they resolve their own waitlist. Am I getting something wrong?

Unless I'm illiterate and reading things totally wrong, it seems like posters in the previous page have heard absolutely nothing from NYU. They reached out and got "generic responses."

[uncle_socks]

On 3/25/2022 at 2:53 PM, modesteffect said:

NYU is the last school i havent heard back anything. but whatsoever...

For example nothing within this posters' history suggests any useful communication from the school. No one is complaining about being waitlisted at NYU, they're complaining about not hearing anything whatsoever. 

[PoliticalScience_Msta]

16 hours ago, uncle_socks said:

For example nothing within this posters' history suggests any useful communication from the school. No one is complaining about being waitlisted at NYU, they're complaining about not hearing anything whatsoever. 

This is largely out of the school's hand. If anything, the issue is students declining offers they know they will not accept. 

I'm not sure how much more "useful" schools can be in communicating this. In the case of NYU, they already communicated what you suggested they should. 

Edited March 30, 2022 by PoliticalScience_Msta

[PoliticalScience_Msta]

20 hours ago, uncle_socks said:

For example nothing within this posters' history suggests any useful communication from the school. No one is complaining about being waitlisted at NYU, they're complaining about not hearing anything whatsoever. 

More importantly, we're all feeling the pressure. Be sure you understand the situation correctly, and communicate in a manner that does not come across as a rant.  For starters, you read the NYU communication incorrectly.  What do you have to offer people in our situation, other than an emotional rant? Are you truly trying to help people?

As an older PhD applicant who has served as a senior leader in large organizations, I will tell you that these traits matter. Quite frankly, your posts are kind of annoying....and they will come across that way to people who may one day serve on hiring panels in the organizations you hope to join.

Edited March 30, 2022 by PoliticalScience_Msta

[uncle_socks]

5 hours ago, PoliticalScience_Msta said:

This is largely out of the school's hand. If anything, the issue is students declining offers they know they will not accept. 

I'm not sure how much more "useful" schools can be in communicating this. In the case of NYU, they already communicated what you suggested they should. 

 

3 hours ago, PoliticalScience_Msta said:

More importantly, we're all feeling the pressure. Be sure you understand the situation correctly, and communicate in a manner that does not come across as a rant.  For starters, you read the NYU communication incorrectly.  What do you have to offer people in our situation, other than an emotional rant? Are you truly trying to help people?

As an older PhD applicant who has served as a senior leader in large organizations, I will tell you that these traits matter. Quite frankly, your posts are kind of annoying....and they will come across that way to people who may one day serve on hiring panels in the organizations you hope to join.

Can you please guide me to any one instance in which the people complaining about NYU are talking about waitlisted as opposed to ghosted? Seriously, I read this forum on mobile so maybe I'm missing something, but I don't recall a single instance in which people are complaining about needing to wait til April 15 because they're on a long waitlist or something. 

They're annoyed, and I'm calling it somewhat abusive, because as far as I can tell, NYU is withholding information way beyond normal, in a way that no peer schools do.  Most schools waitlist and tell you that you're waitlisted and will probably hear back around April 15. In fact NYU has done that for some people. That's normal. My read of the situation is that this is different. To be completely clear, my read of the situation is the following: 

Admits have gone out a long time ago. Rejections went out earlier this month. So have PhD rejects + MA offers. Some people got an explicit waitlist a couple weeks ago. Some people still have heard nothing, and this is not an unsubstantial amount of there are multiple people on this forum posting about it. If they reach out to NYU, NYU says "we'll let you know by April 15," with no explicit message about there being a waitlist. I don't see any reason why NYU can't at least say "you're on the waitlist" to people who reach out. They've obviously told others that they're on a waitlist, and did this before people complained on this forum about waiting forever on NYU. 

Again, I'm happy to be wrong here. I'd love to be shown that I'm wrong. My perception of NYU would certainly increase. 

I'll skip on commenting on the personal attack. This is an anonymous internet forum. We should be allowed to call out institutions here even if it's ultimately useless. 

Edited March 30, 2022 by uncle_socks

[uncle_socks]

On 3/25/2022 at 2:53 PM, modesteffect said:

NYU is the last school i havent heard back anything. but whatsoever...

@modesteffect if you're online anytime soon could you please clear up what the situation is with respect to NYU? My presumption is that "likely waitlist" in your sig = not being told officially that you're on a waitlist, but obviously not accept or reject. 

[PoliticalScience_Msta]

1 hour ago, uncle_socks said:

 

Can you please guide me to any one instance in which the people complaining about NYU are talking about waitlisted as opposed to ghosted?

You directly quoted somebody who SPECIFICALLY STATED he/she was waitlisted.  By definition, that means that person was told they were wait listed.  

If you truly have no "skin in the game" (your words), then why are you reacting so emotionally without any apparent purpose?  If you just want to vent, then please spare us.

Edited March 30, 2022 by PoliticalScience_Msta

[modesteffect]

9 hours ago, uncle_socks said:

@modesteffect if you're online anytime soon could you please clear up what the situation is with respect to NYU? My presumption is that "likely waitlist" in your sig = not being told officially that you're on a waitlist, but obviously not accept or reject. 

Yeah just got their response yesterday. They put me on MA admission...

[uncle_socks]

9 hours ago, PoliticalScience_Msta said:

You directly quoted somebody who SPECIFICALLY STATED he/she was waitlisted.  By definition, that means that person was told they were wait listed.  

If you truly have no "skin in the game" (your words), then why are you reacting so emotionally without any apparent purpose?  If you just want to vent, then please spare us.

I think you misunderstand. Some people being waitlisted doesn't negate the fact that others were simultaneously not notified and dragged along for another couple of weeks. That was the problem. 

I'm in grad school already man. It's nothing personal against NYU, I don't go there, but I know the faculty is top notch and I wouldn't not be proud to go there if I did. I just hate seeing institutions being needlessly rude to people, and I want to call it out because it both is possibly indicative of how the department treats you once you're in it, or at least it establishes trends in how a department does admissions. Certain departments show certain behavior every year during the admissions process that causes a lot of false hope and grief for prospectives. These are times where they simultaneously have admits and possibly waitlists and rejections put, but hold everyone else on for a ride for weeks or months with no communication. I think it's important to outline this behavior clearly (as clearly two people upthread misread an extended no contact period as waitlisting) so that future prospectives who read these threads know what to expect. More personally, I love admissions, I love seeing people get into schools they want to be in, and I'm annoyed when institutions provide false hope to very vulnerable people. I read past threads religiously when I was applying and I know others do too. 

 

Anyway there's a lot of "institutions being needlessly rude and unhelpful" in this profession. Waiting half a year to hear back on paper reviews. Reviewer #2. Getting rejected from grants with no opportunity to see what you "did wrong." Unfortunately it's a matter of life. It's still annoying, though. 

Edited March 30, 2022 by uncle_socks

[PhD_Soul]

Students are putting their lives on hold until they receive an admission decision. I'm in the same boat. But I don't envy the admissions committees, either. PhD departments have hundreds of applicants to sort through. I agree that the process is frustrating. Some departments are more efficient and timely than others, though. I'll give you that. 

[PhD_Soul]

In fact, I'm surprised that some PhD committees released decisions as early as January! Wouldn't it be nice if all committees did that!

[PhD_Soul]

Going forward, I'd be interested in hearing if anybody (in any program) got off the waitlist. Or if they receive any updates from faculty members on how things are progressing. There doesn't appear to be a lot of historical data on this site regarding wait lists and applicants successfully getting admitted off wait lists.

[AnxiousGradStudent01]

18 hours ago, PhD_Soul said:

Going forward, I'd be interested in hearing if anybody (in any program) got off the waitlist. Or if they receive any updates from faculty members on how things are progressing. There doesn't appear to be a lot of historical data on this site regarding wait lists and applicants successfully getting admitted off wait lists.

Yeah I'm also curious about this. Waitlists are my last chance of getting in/being able to go w/ funding and I really want to know how likely it is that I will.

[LatinAmericanFootball]

You might find some info about this browsing the old application threads, particularly their last pages. I think last year someone got off the waitlist at UT Austin pretty late in the cycle, for instance. It's quite common, and programs set up waitlists because they assume they might have to use them. But of course it's hard to predict the odds for any specific case.

[hanginthereJoan]

Did anyone on the waitlist get invited to the virtual visits?

 

Also did anyone reach out to the university after getting waitlisted? 

[Anton1996]

3 hours ago, hanginthereJoan said:

Did anyone on the waitlist get invited to the virtual visits?

 

Also did anyone reach out to the university after getting waitlisted? 

I got invited to the UVa virtual visit. They reached out saying there's a "reasonable chance" I get an offer from them. I'm also in touch with another university where i've been waitlisted, and they've been super helpful with updates. I highly recommend you reach out, it usually helps one way or another (in my experience of 2 schools). 

[polyglotaspiring]

Just wanted to let people know that I've declined UCLA's offer, as well as all of my remaining offers besides USC. Best of luck to those on the waitlist!

[PhD_Soul]

I've noticed a stark difference between schools on how they approach wait listed candidates. I literally had one professor (who happens to sit on the admissions committee) who told me: "I'm too busy to talk to you" (not necessarily in those words but in that same terse tone).  As a working professional, I'm just as busy as he is, if not more so. There's no reason to take that tone with me. I've talked to other professors who were far more welcoming and enthusiastic.

I've learned that the culture and impressions that programs give off are important. The programs that are enthusiastic and proactive in dealing with their applicants - both admitted and wait listed students - are more likely to give you the type of experience you deserve. 

Evaluate these programs appropriately. And good luck to all of you!

Edited April 2, 2022 by PhD_Soul

[Anton1996]

Claiming a UVa acceptance, off the waitlist. Political Theory. 

[PhD_Soul]

6 hours ago, Anton1996 said:

Claiming a UVa acceptance, off the waitlist. Political Theory. 

Congrats!