To email or not to email? Still waiting on one school

[ZoSo 4]

Hi everyone. I'm struggling with a situation that I'm hoping others might be able to provide some guidance on. I haven't seen anything in the forums about this, so apologies if a similar post exists in another thread.

I have applied for PhD positions at 4 schools for a course of study in the Humanities. School "A" is my top choice. Thus far, I have received (very) early acceptance calls from graduate supervisors at schools B, C and D, which have all been very encouraging; my application was highly regarded, and I have been nominated for a few entrance prizes, and informed of my standing before the decision-making process is complete at these schools. However, I have yet to hear anything from school A, and I'm wondering whether it would be at all beneficial to email school A to let them know the position I'm in. My motivation for this would be twofold: (1) trying to get some information as to when they plan to make decisions, as I am now "on the clock" so to speak at schools B, C an D; and (2) perhaps to let the AdCom at school A know that I am being pursued by other programs, which could potentially help my case for admission (maybe?).

This email would, of course, be tactfully written -- i.e. not boastful, and not implying that I am trying to put "pressure" on school A. I would simply be trying to let them know that I'm extremely interested in their program, but that I have already received some great offers from other highly-ranked programs that will become time-sensitive, and am curious about when I might expect to hear from them. For reference, the department indicated in its letter confirming the receipt of my application that decisions would be made "before April", although this is similar to the other programs I applied to, which I've heard back from already.

Would this email be worthwhile/boost my standing at school A? Or could it rub the program the wrong way, so to speak.

If anybody out there has had a similar experience, or is in the same boat and can offer some advice, I would be greatly appreciative of your opinion!

Best of luck to all who are waiting for responses and trying to make decisions.

[svh]

I had a similar situation, where I just asked other schools I was waiting for about when I could expect to hear from them because I might have scheduling conflicts with them regarding interviews and visits. I don't know if it helped my case, but it gave me information. I phrased it like this:

This is xxx from the xxx. I just had a quick question regarding the status of admissions at xxx. When can applicants expect to hear back? I'm just wondering because xxx is one of my more preferred programs, but I've been contacted my multiple places and am having a difficult time scheduling interviews and visits. If am lucky enough to obtain an interview from xxx, I wouldn't want to miss the visiting weekend simply because I've already booked a different trip for that date.

[ZoSo 4]

Thanks for the advice, svh. Were the responses you received informative? Or did you feel as though they may have prompted a quicker response from the schools? Or were they fairly standard responses you feel they probably gave to all the other applicants who were emailing them.