Those of you that hear by phone

[t_ruth]

What's the call like? What time of day? Who makes it?

Just curious...

Congratulations to those who have already gotten in somewhere!

[frankdux]

if you receive a rejection by telephone, usually the person making the call is a big fat poo-poo head.

[Dreams]

if you receive a rejection by telephone, usually the person making the call is a big fat poo-poo head.

Reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Stewie goes on that Cosby television show. The girl said the robber was a "big, stupid doo-doo head!"

Anyway, when I received an acceptance call to an MA program a few years ago. It was from the person who interviewed me over the phone for admission. The Grad student admissions coordinator or something to that effect. He called me around mid dayish and just got to the point. He offered me admission with a half tuition scholarship and told me the package is on the way in the mail. I told him thanks and we hung up.

[rising_star]

I only ever got one by phone. My prospective advisor called me up in the middle of the afternoon. Her number showed up unknown on caller ID and, on a whim, I decided to answer it. It was like 2pm-ish on a weekday in February. I was actually in my office at school and had to run outside so I didn't have to whisper. She congratulated me on getting in and offered me a chance to visit, on their dime, and told me to email her to schedule the visit.

If anything, you need to have a nice, professional sounding voicemail on your phone.

[ismeress]

Actually, I've heard by phone both for a rejection and an acceptance (2 diff schools). The acceptance was a "you are admitted, put on a list for a university fellowship" and the rejection was from the professor I wanted to work with, who called and told me that she had not taken any students that year, bc of her "limited capacity" to handle new students. It was a pretty long (10 minute) conversation and she said she wanted to personally call and let me know, since she said I was a really strong applicant (but just not good enough I guess =) It did make me feel better though..

[rising_star]

Actually, I've heard by phone both for a rejection and an acceptance (2 diff schools). The acceptance was a "you are admitted, put on a list for a university fellowship" and the rejection was from the professor I wanted to work with, who called and told me that she had not taken any students that year, bc of her "limited capacity" to handle new students. It was a pretty long (10 minute) conversation and she said she wanted to personally call and let me know, since she said I was a really strong applicant (but just not good enough I guess =) It did make me feel better though..

I wouldn't say that you weren't good enough, jpark. Sometimes faculty are at their advising max and don't take on new students because then they couldn't work effectively with all of their students. My advisor does this periodically, in part because he has 9 students and doesn't think he can handle any more than that (and wants to get that number back down to 6...).

[IvyHope]

jpark, I just had a long discussion with a few of the faculty in my current department about this. There are many great applicants that they are considering right now, but one of our faculty is on sabbatical, and that reduces the number of slots they have open.

They have to think about how the cookie is going to crumble in a few years; they have to make sure all of their students aren't going to be in dissertation phase at the same time. So in my program, they may have room for someone coming into the doctoral program without a master's, because that student will likely take 2-3 years longer to reach dissertation stage than someone who is admitted with a master's.

And of course, that pesky funding issue.

And for what it's worth, I'm in an Ed Policy school, which is what you seem to be interested in.

[belevitt]

All of the calls I have received thus far have been in the afternoon. They have consisted of a faculty member congratulating me on my interview, telling me that more info will follow by email and offer to answer questions. I had a call on Monday that threw me for a loop. The faculty member didn't tell me which school he was calling from and so at the end of the call, I asked him for his email address and realized from the domain name, that it was one of my top three favorites.

[ismeress]

I know that there are many factors, etc., in how faculty take new students, so I was being slightly facetious =) I am interested in ed policy, and I was responding to an earlier post about how someone thought getting rejection calls would be terrible, but actually, it made me feel pretty good. At least, the professor took time out of her very busy life to let me know why she hadn't taken me..

[ohheygradschool]

I had a call on Monday that threw me for a loop. The faculty member didn't tell me which school he was calling from and so at the end of the call, I asked him for his email address and realized from the domain name, that it was one of my top three favorites.

Clever! But now you've given me an excuse to spend countless hours ogling grad department websites, memorizing everything...

[erudite crudite]

I got a call from a faculty member wanting to set up a phone interview on FRIDAY AT 7:30 PM, from his office phone! I guess they're working overtime on these apps

However, now I'm waiting for him to call again so we can have our little chat. He's supposed to call sometime after 5 and it's 6:54! This is worse than dating...

[socialpsych]

I've had two profs call me to request a phone interview. In one case it was my POI at that school; in the other case it was another prof on the adcom.

One call was around 4:30pm in the school's timezone; one was around 1pm.

I didn't answer the phone either time. Several people have advised me not to answer if it's an unknown or non-local number. They can always leave a message and that way it gives you a chance to think and prepare. A friend of a friend was caught off guard and answered the phone early in the morning before she'd quite woken up; they said "Do you have a few minutes to talk?", she said "Sure," and they proceeded to interview her! She hadn't had any time to prepare and apparently forgot what the school's theoretical orientation was, etc. etc. Was not invited to on-campus interview. Moral of the story: if you DO answer your phone, tell them you need to talk later!

Last year a friend of mine got an acceptance phone call during class and actually ran outside to answer it. That was around 2:30 pm the school's time.