adaptations Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Clearly I have too much time on my hands (not actually true, but I am procrastinating like it's my job). I just went through the notification results of all 15 programs I am applying to. I compiled the results to see what days of the week most notices are given, and when in the process. I know - it's essentially useless info, and I should stop caring and just wait. Instead, I'm sharing it with you. For the methods people. There are 199 data points dispersed over 10 weeks. Weeks with less than 3 days were rolled into the following or preceding week of the same month. All results are from the Political Science 2008 application cycle (lost 0.5% due to rounding). Days of the week students were notified: Mon: 14% Tue: 29.5% Wed: 22.5% Thur: 19% Fri: 12.5% Sat: 2% Sun: 0% Notification results by week: Last week of Jan: 2% Feb WK 1: 9.5% WK 2: 11.5% WK 3: 22.5% Wk 4: 13% Mar WK 1: 23% WK 2: 10.5% WK 3: 3% WK 4: 0.5% April WK 1: 4% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gadhelyn Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I'd expect that from someone in math, not a poli sci! Heh So we shouldn't expect anything until the third week in February? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 you rock. totally makes sense in my mind that Tuesday would be the best day of the week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ec86 Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 haha, wow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astaroth Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Now THAT'S obsession. Care to do one for biology? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 hmmm...question: was there a difference in the timing of acceptances vs. rejections? Anecdotally, it seems that acceptances come earlier than rejections... If there were more entries for my program, I would be doing the same thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I literally laughed out loud. That's great. Now I have to go look up your 15 schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Maybe I should go do this for my 14 schools...we can all compare stats...heh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adaptations Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 Anecdotaly there isn't much I would read into it - with one exception. If you get a phone call from a mysterious number on a Saturday - answer it! All, or nearly all, saturday notifications were phone calls admitting people to Stanford Each school seems to differ in how they space out acceptances and rejections. If I felt like running the numbers, I am sure I could come up with a probability model of what the result will be based on the date and day of the week, but even I am not that crazy (yet). Plus, the model would probably be as accurate as if I based it on a correlation of what the weather was the day the notice arrived. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I don't have the patience to go through all my schools...plus it wouldn't tell me too much bc some programs I'm applying to have 2 or 3 posted results (WHICH KILLS ME bc I have NO idea what to think and apply corner doesn't have anything either!) -- but at quick glance it does seem to me that a lot of people found out on Tuesdays... So beware of Tuesdays!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 What are the schools (poli sci programs) that hear back the earliest? to everyone applying to these programs - what's the earliest date posted for one of your programs? I think mine is either UC Davis or UCB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridgey Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I would actually be tempted to do this for my programmes, except there is no way there will be 200 data points. Maybe 10 if I'm lucky. Easier to summarise, (even more) meaningless results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpsych Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Hahah, wow.. hopefully I will hear back before I am tempted to do this If you want to compile for social psych programs though, please feel free to do so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I just looked at the *very* limited data for my programs and schools (aside from two I already can assume I didn't get) and they all pretty much notify first week of March. Thank goodness February is a short month! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 BTW how long did this take you to do? (don't be ashamed to admit it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabana15 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Yeah, after a VERY informal assessment of my schools, I think the week after Valentine's day is when i'll start realistically expecting to hear back (of course i can hope to hear back sooner ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohheygradschool Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 lol I put the last 3 years' acceptances and rejections from my programs in iCal. They each seem to have their own distinct weeks. 1 comes at the end of this month, then the other 4 have their own weeks in February. Data is fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miratrix Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Of the seven programs I applied to, I only found 3 on the 2008 results list. One apparently sent out all its acceptances and rejections to arrive February 22-23, one accepts via email between March 1 and 20 (!), and one accepts via email in late February/early March. With a total of seven data points, this doesn't mean much, but it looks like I may have a long wait.... Searching through all of those took me five or ten minutes. I can only imagine how long the original breakdown took! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miratrix Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Also, the vast majority of the results posted in my field are from really big name research schools (Ivy leagues, Michigan, UChicago, etc.). That surprised me. Do people who post here just not apply for ones that aren't top 10-20? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinyboss Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 This thread inspired me to search out my first choice's results from 2008. Although their website says decisions are made in February, in 2008 all but one came in March. I wonder if they said February last year, too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adaptations Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 In total, this took me about 2 to 3 hours to compile. I like numbers and modeling and was just curious if anything interesting would come out of my work. In the end, I think the "day of the week" trends are notable. Hopefully others have found the results interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Great job!! I agree with one of the other posters that you should sort the results into rejections versus acceptances. I'm sure that the majority of the acceptances come early on...and perhaps they are more likely to happen on a Monday??! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40404 Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I actually scheduled a vacation just around the time decisions are supposed to come out... hahaha... I'd be in a secluded beach without wifi or any internet access for that matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demondeac Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 From the more consistent programs to which I am applying, I am actually starting to predict the highest probability dates based on this analysis. I love it; next Tuesday is make or break, baby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adaptations Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 It's funny, although I am still not likely to hear this coming week - the 2% chance that I will, actually has me excited to wake up tomorrow morning and check my email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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