Jump to content

Getting Sick and Tired of Waiting :(


Zahid Hossain

Recommended Posts

I have applied in 10 universities in total and so far only heard from 2 (today is 27th March,2008) :(((. Sometimes I just wonder what is happening out there. Canadian universities take a little longer I know but what about the 7 other US universities I have applied.

1. University of Utah ( God knows what is happening; nobody replies to my e-mail, no updates in website (ApplyYourself), no emails, nothing. )

2. University of Southern California ( Same as Utah and, even worse, the status in the USC website says that my application is incomplete whereas all the necessary materials were marked "received". I heard several people are having similar problem and I have been assuaged that it's not an issue. But when am I getting results ??? )

3. Georgia Institute of Tech. ( I am literally getting sick of seeing that dreaded line "No decision has been made" in the status page. Something tells me that it will stay like that for eternity ). Also seeing so many people already got decisions makes me even sicker :(.

4. University of Texas Ausin ( things are all stand-still from this end too. I saw several people got rejected last week but my one still says "We are reviewing." If you want to reject me, please reject me now !! ).

5. University of California - Davis (this almost looks like a haunted university to me. What's wrong with these guys? I have never been able to get into any kind of touch with any of Davis personal since I applied here).

6. Brown ( Yes!! Got rejected .. yahoooo! Atleast I heard something )

7. Arizona State University ( Yes!! Got Accepted but no mention of funding was there. Anyway, got accepted atleast in one place )

8. University of Calgary ( The prof said that he would take me and an official offer letter (email) would be issued very soon but 3 weeks have passed by since then :( ).

9. Simon Fraser University ( Similar thing happened like that of Calgary ).

10. University of Alberta ( Got Rejected :) yeeeehhhhh :P )

Oh, maybe I forgot to mention; I actually applied for PhD in Computer Graphics and Visualization.

Anyone having a kind of similar miserable life like mine out there? Anyone ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in the same boat too. I have not heard from Maryland College Park, U of Virginia, U of Minnesota, U of Rochester, UC Davis, U of Pittsburgh, U of Florida, U of Waterloo and U of Alberta. I am not too much freaked out because I got acceptance from UMass Amherst and UC Irvine. I am almost sure that I shall go to one of these two (except Maryland says yes by this time). But since I have spent a lot of money in application purpose, I definitely want to know results from them, be it yes or no.

By the way, I have applied for PhD in theory and AI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of schools generally will wait-list you and not let you know about it unless you ask. This is because they know you are less likely to accept an offer from elsewhere if you are still waiting to hear from them. By now it is late enough in the process that there is no risk to ask them, but ask a secretary instead of a faculty because faculty can reject you if they want to do so. If they ignore your email, then I don't know what to say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm still waiting for ASU. It's driving me nuts, especially since my deadline at my top choice is coming soon - I'm just waiting to hear from ASU on the off chance that they decide to give me complete funding or something else spectacular. Although I think the odds of that are slim right now, so I'll probably just accept my other offer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is so hard, isn't it, not to take this all personally. THEY have HUNDREDS of applications, but YOU did not send out hundreds of applications! In fact, I said exactly that to one place when I e-mailed to see what was my status. I suggested looking through a telescope the other way, for perspective. I thought today--well, I haven't been rejected by Columbia, so I could e-mail and ask--but why? If they were eager to accept me, I would know by now. ON THE OTHER HAND. (There is always an other hand!) You see on the list of acceptances etc. that people are still getting accepted, a few every day. I read that there is tremendous activity in April because the people with multiple acceptances have to finally pick one and give up the others they were holding and considering.

So just remember, it is NOT PERSONAL. It is NOT JUST YOU. It is everyone on every wait list everywhere. I am on the wait list of a school, and I e-mailed to see if I'd moved up, and they e-mailed back to say that their accepted students had not replied either way, so my wait list status had not changed. I am on the wait list of a second school that said they expected to offer funding "by the end of the month" which is now, and the same thing there. So I think there are a lot of people sitting on their acceptances, but at some point they will have to take one and decline the rest, and those of us who want those other spots will get another chance. But it is not personal, meaning, it's not just you--there are so many in the same situation, and although it is not a desired situation, it is what it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've declined at 2 schools for just that reason -- knew I wasn't going to go there and wanted to free up their waitlists. One of the other three is a real longshot, but I don't feel bad about it because they've told me they don't have a waitlist; they accept X number of students, fund all of them, and whoever doesn't go, doesn't go. So it's really down to 2 programs that DO have waitlists, and I'm hoping to make a decision sooner than later.

I understand the phenomenon -- let's call it "Waitlist syndrome" -- and I can't describe the psychological relief of just having definitively heard from all my programs, even though some of them were rejections. My best friend is going through this process, and it's really feast or famine for him. Either he gets in to a top program with oodles of support, or he gets nothing. I think at this point, I want it for him more badly than he does himself. He's pretty worn out with the waiting.

Really -- good luck...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's what I keep telling myself that those guys out there are processing 1000s of applications. Anyway, I think the Native Americans or applicants with American Undergrads are naturally notified earlier than Internationals (my case). Somebody told me that UT Austin's CS Graduate Meeting hasn't taken place yet and it's due on 2nd -9th April. However, I can see a lot of students have already been rejected prior to this meeting. Does this mean "Pre Filtering or Cutoff filtering" ? But still, for UT-Austin, where do you actually go to check your status; is it ?

https://utdirect.utexas.edu/admissions/status_check.WBX

My status still shows "We've received your application and are currently reviewing it." Does this mean that I survived the initial cutoff filtering :P ( just trying to feel better with fingers crossed :P ).

Also I find many people still waiting on GaTech.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in the same boat too. I have not heard from Maryland College Park, U of Virginia, U of Minnesota, U of Rochester, UC Davis, U of Pittsburgh, U of Florida, U of Waterloo and U of Alberta. I am not too much freaked out because I got acceptance from UMass Amherst and UC Irvine. I am almost sure that I shall go to one of these two (except Maryland says yes by this time). But since I have spent a lot of money in application purpose, I definitely want to know results from them, be it yes or no.

By the way, I have applied for PhD in theory and AI.

Hmm interesting. I got rejected for a MS in CS from UMD weeks ago, and still haven't heard from UMass Amherst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My status still shows "We've received your application and are currently reviewing it." Does this mean that I survived the initial cutoff filtering ( just trying to feel better with fingers crossed ).

I was wondering that myself, regarding ASU. I haven't seen anyone update on the results search from the ASU Anthro Masters program, so I'm figuring that since my application is still "under review" that it means I'm on the maybe list. I survived the initial nos, but I wasn't an overwhelming yes either.

Which further supports my decision to accept from the school who wanted me weeks ago!

I think I'm going to go ahead and accept that offer tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use