Acceptance deadline = after April 15 => ?

[ukiitm]

Do you know what it means when the deadline stipulated by the university for you to confirm acceptance of your admission is later than April 15 (say, May 5)? Does that mean you were picked off the waitlist (even if they didn't inform you about any waitlist at any time during the whole process)?

[iwantmyPhD]

That would be my guess... but hey, in is in.

[ukiitm]

That's true.

[KingdomForAHorse]

Does every school have that April 15th deadline? Or is it just that they can't force you to decide before April 15th?

[StarvingStudentYeah]

It is not necessarily the case that you have a late deadline because you made it off the waitlist.

Many schools do not waitlist anyone. These schools have $ for x spots, and offer no more than that many people, and if less than that accept then the cohort is smaller that year - therefore it's easy for them to give you extra time since no one else will be offered that slot.

Schools that waitlist generally want a cohort to be a specific size - even if that means taking some people they didn't initially feel were their top choice. These schools need to know by 4.15 so that re-offer declined slots.

[iwantmyPhD]

Does every school have that April 15th deadline? Or is it just that they can't force you to decide before April 15th?

Most schools have signed an agreement stating that they will not require students to reply before 4.15, and they cannot pressure you to reply earlier than 4.15. It is possible that they make you an offer after 4.15- it could even come late in the summer (let's say someone who previously accepted gets hit by a bus and you get their spot)

I think the 4.15 date stems from government funding since it corresponds with tax deadlines (it's the first day of the first quarter).

[studentfromLA]

I was accepted to one school on March 21st -- they gave me 30 days from the date of their acceptance to respond to the offer. My guess is that if they accept you less than 30 days before April 15th, they use a different timeline.

[santana]

Many schools do not waitlist anyone. These schools have $ for x spots, and offer no more than that many people, and if less than that accept then the cohort is smaller that year - therefore it's easy for them to give you extra time since no one else will be offered that slot.

Right on. It is unlikely you would get admitted after April 15 but you might get funding after that date.

This is usual practice:

Say we have 10 admission slots for full funding, our stats show that about 1/3 of admited students actually enroll. This means we shall offer admission to 60 students with financial offer to 10 of them. We expect ~20 of them to enroll. If we get less then 10 of those with funding we'll just give unused funding slots to those admitted without any funding (however this might not happen).

In the unlikely scenario that we have less than 10 enrolling (out of 60) we might offer admission to few applicants outside of that group of 60 after April 15.

[Minnesotan]

Santana, not all schools have the same practices. It's silly to make generalizations about the admissions procedures of all schools.

[santana]

I think this is pretty common, I did not say it is all the same, just usual. This is precisely why you have waiting lists and waiting funding lists. It is not very usual you get admission after April 15 but even if one does do not expect any funding.

[UndraftedFreeAgent]

In the unlikely scenario that we have less than 10 enrolling (out of 60) we might offer admission to few applicants outside of that group of 60 after April 15.

I'd think schools would be more likely to cut their losses and try again next year. Regardless of what many schools say about having "many qualified applicants" and "insufficient resources" to admit everyone they would like to admit, if they really thought there was a chance they might want to admit a student later, they would wait until after April 15 and then make a choice. Rather than telling students that they are on a formal waitlist, it seems to be fairly common that schools will send no decision to borderline applicants until the very end. Completion rates are low enough among "top ranked" students in a given cohort. Why should a department make an investment in a student who wasn't even in their top 60?

But yeah, April 15th is the "earliest" most schools will require a decision. Some list an earlier deadline, but are unlikely to give you a problem if you want more time. Others list a deadline after April 15 in hopes of swooping up a few of the students who applied to top ranked schools and for some reason didn't make it in off of various waitlists.

StudentfromLA: I had a similar situation with one of my offers a few weeks ago (I turned them down). They gave me 15 days from date of receipt to respond to their letter, but told me I could request an extention til April 15 if I wanted.

[santana]

I think there is also a factor of money in the game. This year some state supported schools are cutting back on funds since their state legislatures were enacting cutbacks. This will have the impact on assistanship offers. That might get a lot worse the next year. In the past some more responsible departments were cutting down the size of their enroling class because of a bad job market. I know that happened in mathematics in mid-nineties. This could easily happen the next year.

Economy is going to have a big impact on endowment of private schools as well and this is probably already happening.

So yes, do not expect too many admission offers after April 15, grab what you have if anything.

[rising_star]

santana,

You bring up an interesting point about assistantship cuts. Should one maybe pursue an opportunity at a private univ rather than a state univ because of this?

[santana]

No, I don't believe in that. The fact is that state supported schools depend more on state funds while private schools depend more on endowment. But when economy goes down both of these sources suffer.

I honestly don't know in which order, I think first state supported schools then private but this is just my guess. This will be worse the next year since school budgets for this year were already allocated while for the next year they are just coming. The state revenues are going to be real bad this year, the more developed states, the worse it will be.

[engguy]

The sky is falling!

& all that.

The economy's bad and it's going to get worse, no doubt about it. But big statie schools have been dealing with budget cuts for a long time now, and most have learned how to make do. I spoke with one DGS who told me flat out that he wished the school would go private -- the state has been whittling away at its contribution for probably 20 years, now it only provides a fraction of the school's budget but still wants control.

By and large I actually agree with Santana about one point (gasp!) -- don't expect super funding offers to show up after the 15th. But I also agree with Minnesota -- every school is different and generalizations are useless. And I don't think it has much to do with the economy right now; it's been trending this way a long time.