Weird "Acceptance" Letter Phrasing...

[spacezeppelin]

Hello, I got a call from my program (MPP) director saying that I was a strong applicant and that they would like to offer admission. Honestly, after that its kind of all a blur because I was overly exicted. I obviously got the understanding that I was admitted on the condition I finish on pre-rec course. I finally got some written notification. It said "Congratulations! We are reccomending to the Graduate Dean that you be admitted to the program." This came from the department. It was a PDF of a letter and was sent by one of the adminstrative people I corresponded with about transcripts. That is absolutely for sure an accpetance letter right? Like, there is no way the graduate dean is going to reject me? I assume its a full acceptance, but for some reason it made me nervous. My undergraduate admission letters were never phrased like that. Sorry if this is a silly question, but I had to ask.

[jem6dd]

There's an expression I love: "don't look for zebras in New York."  Because there are no zebras.  And as Freud says, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

 

I think it's safe to say that there are no zebras in those notifications, and that you should take them at face value: acceptance.

 

Congrats

[fuzzylogician]

It means the department has decided to accept you. Now your acceptance has to be approved by the graduate school at the university; they almost always approve the departments' decisions. The only way you could run into trouble is if you don't meet the general university minimum requirements for acceptance (e.g. very low TOEFL or GPA), in which case the graduate school may object and your program may have to fight for you. I can think of maybe one or two such cases that ended up in an offer being rescinded since I started posting on the gradcafe. 

 

So, congrats, you're in! 

[lifesgood]

Congratulations on your acceptance!