Rescinsion of Acceptance - Does it Happen?

[HisRoyalHighness]

As I recently discovered I'm probably suffering from Imposter Syndrome (these sites are so helpful). I'm sure the schools to which I've already been accepted are going to withdraw their acceptance offers. Of course rationally I know this isn't going to happen (but like I said, rational thinking seems to have gone out the window lately) but I was reading on another site about a woman who worked in a "hyper-competitive" environment who was scared one of her co-workers would find out where she was accepted, call the admissions office and try and get her offer withdrawn. Does this actually happen? It would seem to me the only way it could happen is if the school discovered after the fact that the applicant lied or otherwise committed fraud on their application. What do you think, has anyone heard of this happening and is it possible some random person could call your school's admission's office and try and get your acceptance rescinded?

[MDLee]

As I recently discovered I'm probably suffering from Imposter Syndrome (these sites are so helpful). I'm sure the schools to which I've already been accepted are going to withdraw their acceptance offers. Of course rationally I know this isn't going to happen but I was reading on another site about a woman who worked in a "hyper-competitive" environment who was scared one of her co-workers would find out where she was accepted, call the admissions office and try and get her offer withdrawn. Does this actually happen? It would seem to me the only way it could happen is if the school discovered after the fact that the applicant lied or otherwise committed fraud on their application. What do you think, has anyone heard of this happening and is it possible some random person could call your school's admission's office and try and get your acceptance rescinded?

I've never heard of anything like that unless you knowlingly committed fraud. In which case, you should be expecting it.

Calm down. For a minute take a breath and realize you're worth even more than they think you are...and they are just scratching the surface of what you deserve for being academically gifted.

[HisRoyalHighness]

Thanks MDLee - like I said I'm not rationally nervous but reading these sites creates a "hall of mirrors" effect where you begin considering possibilities you never before thought about - like random people calling your grad school's office and trying to get your offer rescinded. Sounds crazy - right? That's because it probably is!!

BTW - Your program sounds way cool

[belowthree]

So on the UIC website it said I was conditionally admitted. I didn't know what that meant until today, but given my low GPA I just assumed it was going to be something dumb like a GPA requirement I'd have to meet and maybe something I wouldn't be able to meet and it would be horrible and I'd have to fight for an exception to get in and....

No, I got the official letter from the graduate college finally today, it turns out the reason for the conditional acceptance is just that I haven't graduated yet and they want another copy of my transcripts if I go there to make sure I actually have a degree by the time I enroll.

So that worked out rather nicely.

No one is going to rescind your acceptance unless you don't graduate, lied on your app or maybe commit enough felonies between now and then that it becomes awkward or something.

[msphdhopeful]

You deserve all the glory, bask in it. You have worked hard to get where you want to be and now that you are in, don't rain on your own parade. Like the others said, unless you completely lied on your app, YOU'RE IN BABY!

[MDLee]

Thanks MDLee - like I said I'm not rationally nervous but reading these sites creates a "hall of mirrors" effect where you begin considering possibilities you never before thought about - like random people calling your grad school's office and trying to get your offer rescinded. Sounds crazy - right? That's because it probably is!!

BTW - Your program sounds way cool

I know...its all normal and natural, hun. You're not doing anything the rest of us haven't done a million times over. Once the sticker shock of the whole situation wears off you'll be able to go out and celebrate. Have a blast for me. I'm still waiting to see which train I'm getting on :wink:

BTW: Gratze It is a very cool program. Very, very small and very, very new...but the idea is out there at least. And it has me fascinated. I hope that I end up with something good--if only for that purpose

[Comfect]

I had a horrible experience last year; I visited as an admitted student to a school and did whatever the exact opposite of hitting it off is with one of the tenured professors in my field. He wrote me an email the next day telling me he believed I should never attend that school and that he would strongly advise me to reconsider my life choices. He was extremely brusque and rude and clearly thought me completely unqualified to come to their school.

And despite that, they still didn't rescind my offer of admission. I think you're safe unless you fail to graduate your undergrad institution or kill someone.

[bowdoinstudent]

Wow...intense. What happened that you didn't hit if off with the professor? Geez, how unprofessional. :shock:

[feisty]

This reminds me that I had a terrible and very realistic dream the day after I was accepted to my top choice that they had to rescind 10 acceptances because of the financial crisis. In the dream I was walking down my street to the subway, telling my roommate that I was one of the unlucky 10.

I also had a less realistic dream that Bernie Madoff shut down the University of California system, which he apparently owned.

[coho]

I had a horrible experience last year; I visited as an admitted student to a school and did whatever the exact opposite of hitting it off is with one of the tenured professors in my field. He wrote me an email the next day telling me he believed I should never attend that school and that he would strongly advise me to reconsider my life choices

.

oh, man . . . that's crazy. and makes me really nervous about admit visits. :shock:

[Comfect]

To those who are worried about my story - don't be. I talked to my department and my advisor about it, and none of them had ever heard of it happening before and were completely shocked (and my advisor has had tenure since the 70s, while my department has been around since 1906, so we're talking a long while here). It's not going to happen to you. Seriously.

To satisfy curiosity, a) he strongly disliked my approach to interpretation (he was very opinionated about that, despite the fact that I wasn't there to work with him, but with one of his colleagues whose approach I shared), I got in on a redeye flight and he took my tiredness for boredom while sitting in on his class, despite the fact that I actually participated when permitted, and c) I think he just didn't like me personally, although I tend to hope I'm not such a horrible person to meet :shock:. Anyway, it was a perfect storm, and as I just said, it will not happen to you. It should be the least of your worries.

Back on topic, I stand by my statement that they just don't rescind offers, pretty much without exception.

And Bernie Madoff practically owned Brandeis, I don't see how he couldn't own the UCs too.

[MDLee]

I had a horrible experience last year; I visited as an admitted student to a school and did whatever the exact opposite of hitting it off is with one of the tenured professors in my field. He wrote me an email the next day telling me he believed I should never attend that school and that he would strongly advise me to reconsider my life choices. He was extremely brusque and rude and clearly thought me completely unqualified to come to their school.

I had a prof sit me down and tell me that I was ill suited for their program (two semesters in). Gave me a nervous breakdown.

I got better

[was1984]

To those who are worried about my story - don't be. I talked to my department and my advisor about it, and none of them had ever heard of it happening before and were completely shocked (and my advisor has had tenure since the 70s, while my department has been around since 1906, so we're talking a long while here). It's not going to happen to you. Seriously.

To satisfy curiosity, a) he strongly disliked my approach to interpretation (he was very opinionated about that, despite the fact that I wasn't there to work with him, but with one of his colleagues whose approach I shared), I got in on a redeye flight and he took my tiredness for boredom while sitting in on his class, despite the fact that I actually participated when permitted, and c) I think he just didn't like me personally, although I tend to hope I'm not such a horrible person to meet :shock:. Anyway, it was a perfect storm, and as I just said, it will not happen to you. It should be the least of your worries.

Back on topic, I stand by my statement that they just don't rescind offers, pretty much without exception.

And Bernie Madoff practically owned Brandeis, I don't see how he couldn't own the UCs too.

I sure hope if I make it as an academic I don't turn out to be as much of a diva as this prof.

[poiuyt]

It's not going to happen to you. Seriously.

Not to give anyone a heart attack, but it happened to me a few years ago. The prof. offered 4 acceptances, but only wanted 2 people, and I was the 3rd to accept. She then made it very clear in a not nice email that she would pretty much make my life a living hell if I didn't rescind my acceptance of the offer. And, yeah, that is in fact completely unethical. But they did not rescind the acceptance on their end - so I potentially could have still gone (straight into the maw of the beast).

Of course all of that happened after I turned down my other offers... Luckily for me, I avoided all kinds of hell by not going there and my prospects in life and academia are rosy at this point. Seriously, I dodged about 7 different bullets. I still feel bad for the other people who accepted. Imagine having to work with someone like that...

On the bright side - if you make a bad match with a professor, you don't want to have to spend 5 years of your life working with them anyway. But no, the school will not rescind unless you do something really really bad.