Brown?

[irishcoffee]

Okay, break it to me gently.

I'm being pushed to make a decision fast (by many people for many reasons), but there's just one program that I simply have to hear from first: Brown. I know a couple acceptances were posted a few weeks ago, but is that it? I called today and was only told that decisions are in the process of being finalized and notifications will be mailed in the next week or so...a very ambiguous and unsatisfying answer. Does anyone have any legit info on whether these "notifications" will simply be rejections? Is there hope for a waiting list?

Thanks!

[Yellow#5]

You need to tell your other programs to hold their...hats for a sec.

You waited 2 months on them, it's not to much for them to wait one more week. You can't help it if you're a hot commodity.

If you wanted to be a super nice guy, you would tell all your programs except your second choice "no thank you" but really, you should take the time to visit or at least talk to their profs before you really turn them down once and for all.

I suggest you leave town for an extended weekend and don't come back until Wed, at the latest. Heck, may as well visit a school -- in a warm climate, that is.

[joeygiraldo]

Brown is all done notifying acceptances, and there's no waitlist. If you haven't heard from now you rejected.

My sources: Multiple people

[Spritely]

Brown is all done notifying acceptances, and there's no waitlist. If you haven't heard from now you rejected.

My sources: Multiple people

This doesn't seem right. If you called and they didn't tell you this, then how would "multiple people" somehow be privy to that information? Seems like they would just tell you as much if there was no waitlist and they had already accepted who they were going to. I wouldn't give up yet.

BUT I do agree that it makes sense to narrow down your current list and notify those programs you are not going to choose. That will only leave your top current choice and Brown to choose from. Those programs and people on their waitlists will be appreciative to know sooner rather than later.

[joeygiraldo]

Hi Spritely. Sorry for the vague, terse, response above.

I heard from fellow applicants in another grad community. Brown called all the acceptances already (19 of them) over a span of two days, and they've always done this.

[Yellow#5]

19 sure seems like alot of offers, but how many of these guys are also in at UPenn, Columbia, Harvard, etc? For those of us who can't seem to get in to any of the Ivy's, Brown is an automatic choice, but the trend seems to be on this board, that if you get into one Ivy, you get in to just about all of them, so the ivy's all caninbalize each other's applicants.

Maybe Brown will squeeze out a couple more for round 2, one never knows.

[Spritely]

Even if it is almost certainly a rejection, if it's your top choice, you should hold out until that rejection is your possession. But you can narrow down your other schools to a top choice in the meantime. That will give you something active and productive to do.

[Yellow#5]

I made this same point elsewhere.

They are not as important as the cable guy. Why should we wait for an unspecified window of time?

[catherinian2]

To confirm:

Brown IS done accepting students. They made 19 offers for 7-9 spots, without a wait list. They made calls over two days last year, but I think all the calls went out on a single Saturday this year. Information on the visit (which is next week) has already gone out, so if you haven't received a call, I'm afraid that it doesn't bode well. Irishcoffee--good luck making decisions! I'm glad that you have other offers, and I hope this makes it a little easier to choose.

As a general rule, the Ivy's unfortunately do not accept in rounds, though some (Cornell, at least...perhaps UPenn as well?) do have a wait list.

Yellow: I actually disagree. The Ivy's actually quite different from each other, and are not necessarily gunning for the same type of candidate. Most of the candidates that I know of who has been accepted into an Ivy were accepted into *only* one, perhaps two at the most. I'm sure that there's a small handful of candidates who are so stellar that they'd get in anywhere they applied...but most of us manage to be strong candidates and a good fit only for a few schools.

[irishcoffee]

Yeah, I really didn't understand why I couldn't be told my rejected status over the phone...

I appreciate everyone's responses, though. Deep down, I was already pretty certain I was rejected, but until it's officially communicated to me it doesn't seem real. But we've all experienced this, yes? Whether in the guise of boundless optimism or outright denial, I think most of us have this "it ain't over 'til it's over" mentality.

Sigh. :cry:

[Yellow#5]

They made 19 offers for 7-9 spots, without a wait list.

Yellow: I actually disagree. The Ivy's actually quite different from each other, and are not necessarily gunning for the same type of candidate. Most of the candidates that I know of who has been accepted into an Ivy were accepted into *only* one, perhaps two at the most.

Catherinian,

I have to think that if 19 offers were made and more than 1/2 of those offers are expected to turn Brown down, it's because they got into AT LEAST one other ivy league, or top 20 school. I'm also guessing that at least some of the 7-9 who accept Brown got in to another very good program too.

That's life, I understand that there are very few well prepared candidates and the rest of us are only struggling to figure out what well prepared means and how we can become it, but I'm not going into this thing blindly optimistic next year, thinking top schools pick all different people just because they seem interesting.

As a general rule, the Ivy's unfortunately do not accept in rounds, though some (Cornell, at least...perhaps UPenn as well?) do have a wait list.

I agree with you here, but since this year is a little wierd, I'd wait for the rejection in hand before I crossed them off the list. You don't know if funding will pop up based on initial overly conservative estimates.

Is Irish probably rejected? Yeah, probably, but it's his perogative to wait to make his decision.

[kfed2020]

Yeah.. the adcom should be shot in the face for being such lazy pricks they can't tell anybody yet they're been rejected even after they've made all the acceptances they'll make.

This kind of stuff just boils my blood it's so dumb. If there's an ap deadline, there should be a deadline to receive notice, and not some deadline so ridiculous distant that it effectively is the same damn thing.

I don't know if I'd blame this on adcoms, or even departments themselves. Keep in mind all these decisions are filtered through the Graduate school; it's very possible that the adcoms have made their decisions and shipped them off to the higher powers, where they're being mailed out along with all of the other departments' decisions.

And shooting people in the face is kind of a brutal image... I don't know that anyone deserves to die for rejecting someone, not even in a joke.

[catherinian2]

Yellow,

I absolutely agree with you that many (though by no means all) candidates who get into the top programs will have multiple offers. My original comment was specifically in regard to the Ivy's. I might have read too much into your remark that if you can get one ivy, you can get into all of them, and was simply trying to point out the neither the Ivy's nor strong candidates are generically alike. I think that's a good thing.

And I should add, perhaps implicit in the shift that occurs in your response: the Ivy's are not the end all and be all of strong graduate programs, and many candidates have turned them down for other strong programs that might be a better fit.

[Yellow#5]

I think top 20 is more what I was trying to say, cath. (ranked, in my mind, in order of job placement).

I'm not trying to say that they set out to be homogenius, but both the students who have strong goals and strong applications are drawn to "top" programs and apply to several, while top programs also seem to respond favorably to them.

You don't pass on Brown because you changed your mind and don't want to study english after all, you pass because you're in a comparable program.

It's just figuring out what makes this same small group stand out to so many top school ad coms, that's the mystery we are all trying to unravel a bit.

[mentalyoga]

Just received the expected email rejection from Brown. At least no more of this anxious waiting for it...

[irishcoffee]

To quote Liz Lemon: Blergh.