"Pleaseeeee decline your offer!! I'm waitlisted! :( "

[firstsight]

I agree completely with Joey: I understood the OP's point. "Not good enough" is as subjective as the admissions process itself, after all. If you've been waitlisted, chances are another candidate was vetted "better" than you - if in no other metric, the metric of fit. And we all know how important fit is.

Also: from all of my experiences, academia is not friendly to those with thin skin. Nothing in this day and age is, really.

[gilbertrollins]

This thread is seven months old.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

This thread is seven months old.

Somebody re-upped it yesterday, and, unless school's have done away with the wait-list procedure, it's still relevant.

[Ladril]

Somebody re-upped it yesterday, and, unless school's have done away with the wait-list procedure, it's still relevant.

All of that is true.

That being said, I still think it is poor practice. Gradcafe sees quite a bit of user turnover every year. This is why I think participating in such an old thread by arguing directly with a poster or group of posters who are most likely not forum participants anymore does not do any favours either to the old participants nor to the new ones. It might be a better idea to start a new thread on the same topic saying: "I know previous discussions in this forum have arrived at conclusions X and Y, but *still* I would like to make point Z", then carrying on discussion from there.

Of course, feel free to ignore my suggestion if it contradicts any forum policies.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Ladril

[gilbertrollins]

Yeah, I suppose I don't care about people bumping old threads if I find them useful. I think PMing, public posting, or otherwise telling people to hurry up and make decisions because you have been wait-listed is unprofessional and will probably on balance do nothing to get you a slot at a program.

[myrrh]

i'm not a big fan to people's urging others to decline offers just because they are waitlisted. however, for those who already got some offers, here's something i'd like to say. when you have secured some offers which are more appealing to you, declining those you are less interested in would be a good thing to do. this is not really for those who are on wait list. it's for the sack of being nice to those departments. they may need time to send a couple more offers, rearrange the funding packages and so forth. sometimes you might be nominated for a university fellowship, and if you don't want to attend their program, declining before the university fellowship deadline will allow the department to nominate someone else, and it's a big help for their recruitment.

and unless you don't like any faculty member in that department, or you will never work together with any of them, or you will never try to find a job there, it's always nice to be nice.

and yes i know now it's too early to talk about this...

[Ladril]

Yeah, I suppose I don't care about people bumping old threads if I find them useful. I think PMing, public posting, or otherwise telling people to hurry up and make decisions because you have been wait-listed is unprofessional and will probably on balance do nothing to get you a slot at a program.

I think putting people who post messages to an Internet board and people who turn to more invasive tactics (such as emailing accepted candidates) under the same measure is probably being a little too harsh. I also don't mean to say that making these kind of posts to Internet boards is a very sensible thing to do. That being said, however, I think some of the people who are so strongly against it may understand it better once they go through the stress of being on a waitlist. It really isn't easy on the waitlisted people, either.

For the record, I'm not blaming universities for this. Waitlists are a necessary evil.