Why do rejections take so much longer than acceptances

[NiTi_Wizard]

So it seems the two schools I am waiting on have sent out acceptances already. At this point I think I am waiting for the rejection notices. I applied to grad school last year and found out on April 8th I got rejected from a school. Why do these darn schools take so much longer to tell you no versus telling you yes!

[oldwolf]

I'm in the same boat as you for a couple schools. It certainly feels some schools keep us around as a backup plan in case they can't get a date with the super-popular kid. boom. metaphor. that just happened.

[lewin]

So it seems the two schools I am waiting on have sent out acceptances already. At this point I think I am waiting for the rejection notices. I applied to grad school last year and found out on April 8th I got rejected from a school. Why do these darn schools take so much longer to tell you no versus telling you yes!

You might be on a waiting list.

Or, the want to get all the acceptances nailed down before they send the reject letters. Some places only have one staff person to do all this...

[jmacnomad]

You might be on a waiting list.

Or, the want to get all the acceptances nailed down before they send the reject letters. Some places only have one staff person to do all this...

I agree with this statement. I'm on a wait list and didn't know this until I wrote the school. I doubt they would have told me and would have waited till they knew for sure they a) wanted me or didn't want me.

[ringo-ring]

There are definitely some other reasons apart from "backup plan" - they have an official waiting list to do this!

I'm currently trying to pull out answer from MIT BCS and all I'm getting, is that, "you'll get an answer in mid-April"!

no word on waitlist though, and some faculty members insist that if I didn't get an interview invite, then it means "I wasn't accepted or waitlisted" - neither first nor second, then what? and why the waiting until 15 april is mandatory before I'm notified on the decision that was made back in January (when all interview invites have been sent out)???

[ringo-ring]

Sorry, but for that applications fee I would like to be notified ASAP regardless of the decision. Thanks

[Amalia222]

my guess? they try to get the acceptances out fast so they know sooner who is actually enrolling. The sooner they notify acceptees, the sooner they make a decision, and the sooner they can nab the people on the wait list. I think they are just trying to sort out who is coming to their school, which is why the rejects come last. Notifying rejects is probably not as important to them. IMHO.

[eklavya]

i compare adcomms with hoarders. professional hoarders. they acquire things too fast, too many and hold onto those for too long. or forever. i've seen numerous people here on gradcafe say that some schools accepted/rejected them during the summer! wtf, right?

[harikagirl]

I also agree that they wait a long time to send out rejections. I think like many of you: they just work first with the students that were accepted and wait if they reply agreeing to be in the program. I think that being on the waitlist could justify, sometimes, why it takes longer to a person to hear from a university, but I don't believe that's always the case. They already have the hundred bucks (or more) of the application fee, so they are not in a hurry to send the rejection letters. C'est domage.

[moralresearcher]

I asked my advisor this and he said that when he was on an adcom, they had this giant stack of paperwork to fill out for people they were rejecting. He wanted to do it after the first round of cuts, but that would mean having to do the giant stack of paperwork again for the next several rounds of cuts. If they wait until after pretty much everyone on the waitlist has either been accepted or cut, they only have to do the paperwork once, maybe twice. I don't know if that's how it works at other schools, but that's the way it is at my undergrad institution.

[wtncffts]

The whole problem with the apparent lackadaisical attitude towards rejects is that it is actually counterproductive, is it not? What exactly is involved in the whole 'wooing' process of admitted applicants? If this forum is any indication, many applicants are not going to make final decisions until they receive all, or most, of their notifications. The very fact of not sending rejections impedes the ability of admitted students to make decisions.

[csKid]

I would rather want to be waitlisted than to be kept guessing. If there was a waitlist number, it would be great to know of my chances after April 15. For waitlist no.> 1/4 accepted, reject me. 1/4 is a magical number, the school will have the statistic for the program. But things can go wrong for them too. For good schools, i guess 1/4 accepted will be more than enough for a waitlist.

Edited March 14, 2011 by rejectMeNot

[lorelei2011]

I would guess that a lot of it has to do with their computer systems. University computers (the kind the staff use, not the kind in the computer lab) are often really outdated. It's also down to numbers: it takes longer to enter in all the many rejections than the few acceptances.

[Silent_Bobina]

I applied for communications and have seen little to nothing about my programs on the results board which makes it difficult to know if this rule is true or not for my program. For programs that take longer it is pretty terrible because you're not so sure if it's a rejection or not...

[Silent_Bobina]

I applied for communications and have seen little to nothing about my programs on the results board which makes it difficult to know if this rule is true or not for my program. For programs that take longer it is pretty terrible because you're not so sure if it's a rejection or not...

and now there was a USC post stating they got a mail acceptance.... one of the few I've seen from the school and not in my department. Not sure if it's worth holding my breath when I've got a perfectly good admit option.

[mostlygoo]

Because rejections are heavier. Denser. They plod, while acceptances soar. Everything is explainable by metaphor.

[NiTi_Wizard]

Berkeley: "Applicants offered admission who have also been awarded one of the fellowships will be sent a letter of admission and award by March 1. Applicants offered admission only, or admission with financial support administered by the department, will be notified as the department makes its recommendations, usually by the end of April for the fall semester.

Applicants who are not offered admission will be notified by the departments as they make their decisions.

If you applied for financial aid or a University fellowship, you will be notified separately of your status in each. Contact the department or appropriate office to find out more about the status of your application if you have not heard by the end of April. In addition, some departments provide financial assistance for which there is no formal application."

Somehow you read my mind smuglife... I applied to the mech department at Berkeley this year and last year. Last year's rejection was expected. I lacked focus, credentials, basically the whole application package was bad. This year however I thought I did things right. I worked for a year in industry. Used my industry connections to talk to a professor at Berkeley, put that name on the application, and got two people from my work to write me letters of rec. Working for a year narrowed my focus tremendously and what I want to get out/ study in grad school. Its frustrating because I'm only a contractor and the longer a school doesn't get back to me the higher chance I can't become a permanent employee at my job because they might hire someone else. At this point I really just want a decision good or bad so I can stop living in a constant state of anxiety.

Edited March 16, 2011 by NiTi_Wizard

[everygirl]

The whole problem with the apparent lackadaisical attitude towards rejects is that it is actually counterproductive, is it not? What exactly is involved in the whole 'wooing' process of admitted applicants? If this forum is any indication, many applicants are not going to make final decisions until they receive all, or most, of their notifications. The very fact of not sending rejections impedes the ability of admitted students to make decisions.

Hear, hear!

I just saw on the results board that one of my programs has started contacting. The lone result on the board is a rejection. I haven't heard anything yet. I suppose I should be grateful that I haven't gotten a rejection, but I haven't gotten an acceptance either. I've got nothing. What does this mean? I emailed the program administrator a full week ago, and nothing yet. Is it overly optimistic to think waitlist at this point, or do they stagger rejections?

[psi456]

Still waiting on three of my four. Is it that hard to write rejected on a piece of stationary and either email or mail it to me. I'd be okay with that, just in big black marker, so that its done.

[MoJingly]

It certainly feels some schools keep us around as a backup plan in case they can't get a date with the super-popular kid. boom. metaphor. that just happened.

Freaking perfect.

At least I was the popular kid for my other school. But I still want to call up the school going MIA and say, "but, but, I thought we had something SPECIAL."