SIPA email to reapply

[CaptainCrunk]

hi, i'm wondering if anyone else got an email from SIPA recommending that you re-apply to SIPA, completely out of the blue? what does it mean?

[greendiplomat]

hi, i'm wondering if anyone else got an email from SIPA recommending that you re-apply to SIPA, completely out of the blue? what does it mean?

More context, please. So as not to scare any current applicants, I'm taking it that you applied in a previous cycle and didn't get in?

[greendiplomat]

Of course, otherwise why would i be re-applying? didn't mean to scare anybody, thought that was obvious...

Context is i applied straight out of undergrad, got rejected, then a few days ago got a totally random and unsolicited e-mail encouraging me to re-apply. what does it mean? i'm doing something else at the moment so obviously i am not going to drop everything i've built just to apply to SIPA, but if i can be guaranteed admission (or something close), i might do it. otherwise, if the result is going to be the exact same, i'm not going to cancel everything i was going to do NEXT year just to wait for the same verdict from them once again.

what do you think it means?

Given that glitches are possible (the Cornell undergraduate rejects accidentally being sent acceptance letters comes to mind), I don't think anything's "obvious". Getting an email encouraging you to reapply doesn't necessarily mean, at least given the limited context of your first post, that you're considering to reapply, as you elaborate in the second.

I think it depends on the nature of the email, which is more of what I was asking for. Assuming it was a generic email (from "admissions") asking you to reapply, I'd imagine that maybe there aren't as many registrants on SIPA's online application portal as they hope for roughly a month before the deadline, and that they're emailing previously unsuccessful candidates to get those numbers up. In this case, I'd say that, yes, you have more of a shot than you probably did the first time you applied due to your increased work experience, but not necessarily more than anyone else they're emailing (again, if they're just sending emails to all previously unsuccessful applicants, say, in the past year). If, on the other hand, it was a personalized email from a particular admissions officer's email account, then it could be that you were a borderline case when you applied and that they actually wanted to encourage you in particular to reapply. I'm imagining it's somewhere in between, though: a mass email sent to previously unsuccessful candidates that had limited work experience, since they're the most likely to have improved their candidacy.

In general, though, I think whether you reapply should be determined by how much you'd rather go to SIPA than what you were "going to do NEXT year" (is this a graduate program? a job?), as opposed to whether you're "guaranteed" to get in.

[WhateverHappens]

i received the same email...:/

[Grad_Nov]

I dont think it means that you're guaranteed admission if you reapply. Its naive to even think that. If I would hazard a guess, its just a remainder to apply this time around. Unless you received some kind of email in the last admissions cycle indicating that with more work experience you'll get in, I would hold off on the bottle of champagne.

[Grad_Nov]

wrong, it was a targeted e-mail to a specific individual concerning his specific case, and that impression was confirmed by my phone conversation with them today. however, it still isn't a guarantee of admission, so i refer you to my post above. no one's popping any champagne.

and as a matter of fact, since the e-mail was completely unsolicited on my part, it's not naive to think what i thought.

That is what I wrote on the rest of my post, that if you perhaps got an email or indication that next year you may have better luck but otherwise its just marketing. Sorry if I sounded condescending.

[lyjsbb]

got one too...

[WhateverHappens]

*final edit and i won't talk about this any more...

if anyone else does get one of these letters and is wondering what they mean (looking at italianstudent here), the admissions office said they send them to the top few candidates who missed the cut last time around. they are not "a reminder to re-apply", which is not exactly a custom practiced by any school, as far as i am aware; in fact i believe there is no such thing.

so - italianstudent - your odds are probably very good, though not 100% certain.

thank you for the info