Is it normal to get a rejection before the submission deadline for masters?

[Dumbyguppy]

My third recommender, my undergraduate advisor, has not sent her letter yet......

[theologist]

Wait, so you got rejected, but you hadn't submitted your application yet? When is the deadline?

[Dumbyguppy]

1 hour ago, theologist said:

Wait, so you got rejected, but you hadn't submitted your application yet? When is the deadline?

It's Columbia. The deadline is March 21, but they said we could submit the application earlier without all the recommendation letters, and they receive letters no later than two weeks after the deadline. The program needs three letters and at least two of them have to be academic. The two letters had been uploaded, one of them probably could not be academic because I asked it from my film major art faculty.

It seems like now they are on a rolling basis. I submitted early because I checked their website and my advisor prefers to submit letters late at night. I was worried I would miss that.

The school has a tiny note of some free-stranding masters that may be on a rolling basis but does not mention which ones, nor their religion program does. Geese.

But if I knew that's how it works, I would not pay my $120 for this😂

Edited March 1 by Dumbyguppy

[theologist]

19 hours ago, Dumbyguppy said:

It's Columbia. The deadline is March 21, but they said we could submit the application earlier without all the recommendation letters, and they receive letters no later than two weeks after the deadline. The program needs three letters and at least two of them have to be academic. The two letters had been uploaded, one of them probably could not be academic because I asked it from my film major art faculty.

It seems like now they are on a rolling basis. I submitted early because I checked their website and my advisor prefers to submit letters late at night. I was worried I would miss that.

The school has a tiny note of some free-stranding masters that may be on a rolling basis but does not mention which ones, nor their religion program does. Geese.

But if I knew that's how it works, I would not pay my $120 for this😂

Yeah, I think you should reach out to the program director. Worst case scenario: They say they won't look again, in which case you're in the same spot as you are now. But if they're understanding and give you another shot once the 3rd recommender is in, you never know—maybe you'll be off to Columbia in the fall! Best of luck.

[שמע אלוהים]

You might perhaps consider this a grace - Columbia University's MA program is a cash cow ($$$$$ ~$68,000/year - not to mention current living prices in New York) and from my experience I have not seen many MA students from Columbia in top-tier PhD programs. You would do equally well at Harvard/Duke/Yale/Princeton with much better financial support. 

[Dumbyguppy]

7 minutes ago, שמע אלוהים said:

You might perhaps consider this a grace - Columbia University's MA program is a cash cow ($$$$$ ~$68,000/year - not to mention current living prices in New York) and from my experience I have not seen many MA students from Columbia in top-tier PhD programs. You would do equally well at Harvard/Duke/Yale/Princeton with much better financial support. 

 

42 minutes ago, theologist said:

Yeah, I think you should reach out to the program director. Worst case scenario: They say they won't look again, in which case you're in the same spot as you are now. But if they're understanding and give you another shot once the 3rd recommender is in, you never know—maybe you'll be off to Columbia in the fall! Best of luck.

Thank you all very much for your suggestions!!

Now after a while, I feel I was shocked by the way they deal with applications (they didn't do the service they promised...), rather than the rejection itself.

It is a grace. The program is way too expensive for a master's, I applied to them because they have a faculty in another department that touches my subject deeply and I submitted early merely because I was too lazy to urge my mentor. I decided to let it go,  and pay attention never turn in my application too early next time 😭 

For anyone who may see this in the future, I hope it can save some pocket money.