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Posted

Claiming a GWU admit! My first admittance. Thought for sure I was going to get shut out. On the wait list for funding. Very excited

 

Major congrats! I wanted one of those so badly! 

Posted

Thanks! GWU is a great fit for me and I'm not surprised that I was more competitive at DC schools compared to elsewhere because of my background and interests. I also work a block from GW and my boss wants to keep me on if I end up at GW so not being funded as of yet is easier to swallow. 

Posted

Claiming a GWU admit! My first admittance. Thought for sure I was going to get shut out. On the wait list for funding. Very excited

 

Congratulations!

Posted

Claiming a GWU admit! My first admittance. Thought for sure I was going to get shut out. On the wait list for funding. Very excited

 

Congratulations!

Posted

Out at NYU, not a surprise at this point.

 

Sorry to hear that- seems like its been a rough week.  At least you have UCSD!

Posted

Sorry to hear that- seems like its been a rough week.  At least you have UCSD!

 

Yes! And thankfully they notified early, otherwise I would be a wreck after 12 straight rejections...

 

Still holding out hope for UCLA, but they may be waiting to see how many people decline their offers before making final decisions. 

Posted

Think about your end game: what kind of job can you/will you get when you finish (or do life circumstance making completing the program at one school a higher probability than completing it at another - i've talked to a few people dealing with this, it usually relates to family, relationships, etc.).  Can the "so-so program" reliably place you (assuming that's your goal)?  Will you get sufficient support from the faculty who share your interest at the "better choice?"  If you have one "better" option and one "so-so" option, visit both if you can, talk to faculty, current students, etc. - and then at least you have a frame of comparison.  But only if I had just two choices.  If I got accepted to several "better" options, I would probably choose from among those.  If it were just two,  personally, I would be inclined to lean toward the better option because, sadly, pedigree often also means a higher caliber of classmate (which corresponds to quality of seminars, coauthoring opportunities etc.)  I chose my schools based on fit (where I could put together a committee) from across the rankings with the intention of taking the best ranked among whatever offers, but I know others chose based on where they thought they were likely to be accepted and are selecting the best fit from among their offers, and others who used some other method.  But here we go into that fit v. pedigree debate again... ;)  A page or two ago BFB (whom as we've been discussing is a DGS) responded to someone else's comment in this debate, it is certainly relevant to your dilemma.  

 

Although something to be said about fit, make sure it is more than just that one scholarly crush you dream of working with.  From my MA program I know that choosing based on one advisor and an alternate can be torturous if they both move or take leave the year you are writing your thesis.  

Thanks, eponine997! 

Posted

Has anyone claimed the lone Georgetown rejection? Seems odd...

Posted

Out at NYU, not a surprise at this point.

As long as you have one admit (as you do), it makes all the rejections so much less depressing! You know that you have a place to go no matter what else happens.

Posted

Congrats to Princeton admits! Will they have an official visiting time or something? I haven't heard anything from them on this issue. 

Just got an email about this. 1st-2nd April. 

Posted

As long as you have one admit (as you do), it makes all the rejections so much less depressing! You know that you have a place to go no matter what else happens.

 

Exactly! And really excited about UCSD.

Posted

The short answer is that, in a lot of Universities, the DGS has less control over outcomes than you might think. Some Departments get a pot of money from their Graduate Schools and can decide on admission and allocation simultaneously. Others, like ours, can make decisions about admissions but only have a limited ability to control funding allocations. In our case, we enter every one of our applicants to an internal, Graduate School-wide fellowship competition, and we have precisely zero control over who wins how much. We have a bit of funding to even out the gaps, but surprisingly little. When we allocate the funding that we have, we have to make sure that we haven't overlooked one of the Graduate School's rules for how it can be allocated and to whom.

 

The finer points are really, really tedious. But the upshot is that what you see as an intentional decision to notify some people at one time and other people at another time may or may not be intentional. In my experience, it's more likely to be the result of a tangled bureaucracy, or of overworked people who can only devote sporadic attention to finalizing admissions decisions, or both.

 

Unfortunately, that cuts both ways: I can't really take credit for being humane, since the Graduate School sends out the admissions letters and the funding letters in two simultaneous waves. 

So I have a question, if you choose to admit someone without funding, does that mean that you don't really care if they attend or not? Or does the department literally not have the resources to fund the student?

Posted

So I have a question, if you choose to admit someone without funding, does that mean that you don't really care if they attend or not? Or does the department literally not have the resources to fund the student?

 

And on that sentiment.....here to claim a GWU admit, but seems there isn't any funding right now.  Happy to get the admit, sad for no funding. 

Posted (edited)

First, congrats again to all the recent GW admits!

 

If you have been admitted without funding or wait listed for funding, be sure to check out http://www.gwu.edu/~fellows/ ... you may be eligible for additional fellowships from Columbian College that will either reduce or eliminate your tuition.

 

Additionally, if you have any questions about the program, feel free to PM me or ask them here.

Edited by GWStudent
Posted

So I have a question, if you choose to admit someone without funding, does that mean that you don't really care if they attend or not? Or does the department literally not have the resources to fund the student?

 

I don't think it means that they don't *care* about whether you attend, but it certainly means that they are less invested in you as a candidate than those to whom they did offer funding.  Of course, it also depends on the resources of the department.  Not being offered funding from a large department with big resources is a bad sign, but the same offer from a small department with limited resources might not be as meaningful.

Posted

Just heard from Northwestern that I am put on the alternate list, so I assume that as soon as someone rejects the offer, I should be in. This sounds like a wait-list. So, if someone is not going to Northwestern or knows about what "alternate" really means, it would be great if you could PM me.

Posted

Congrats!

 

Thanks! I feel super lucky after so many rejections!

Posted

In at Georgetown with assistantship (though not sure how much, no details in letter)!

 

Congratulations!!!

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