Waiting for Guffman (the waitlist thread)

[practical cat]

ETA: Oh, yes, now that I'm viewing this on a computer I can see that they are all from last year. Also, how do you respond to a wait-list e-mail?

OK, now that I'm on a real person computer, I can actually respond to this question. I have been basically thanking them for the good news and expressing my continued interest in the program. All of my response emails so far have been very short. As yet I haven't really asked any questions as I'm sort of waiting to be sure about my Buffalo rejection before actively trying to come up with a plan for possible acceptance. I think, though, that it's totally valid to respond with questions especially in cases where the person emailing (usually the committee chair in my case, not the DGS) explicitly states that. I would consider first, though, the types of questions that person might be best suited to answer and whether or not they'd be better directed elsewhere.

ETA: None of this is to say that I have found the process easy at all and it has even gotten more difficult with each passing wait list notification. Writing back to Brandeis yesterday was painful and it took me about an hour to write a couple sentences.

Also, not sure how this could possibly hurt:

Edited March 1, 2013 by girl who wears glasses

[ErnestPWorrell]

Ugh, guys. Today I'm not feeling good about this. Ugh. 

 

I'M ON ROLLER-COASTER OF EMOTIONS!  I AM AN EMOTIONAL ROLLER-COASTER! 

 

[NowMoreSerious]

I've just been notified that I am on the waitlist for University of Southern California. This complicates life a bit for me.

[gwarner13]

The waiting game is really its own special kind of hell.

[Taco Superior]

Also waitlisted at USC (ca). I'd rather live in CA than St Louis but USC only guarantees 5 years funding instead of 6....hm.

[TripWillis]

I've just been notified that I am on the waitlist for University of Southern California. This complicates life a bit for me.

Whoever you are, you are destroying it this year. Jeez.

[Fishbucket]

the waitlist seems like a special kind of hell. My instinct is to decline any waitlist spots I'm offered, but we'll see...

[ghijklmn]

the waitlist seems like a special kind of hell. My instinct is to decline any waitlist spots I'm offered, but we'll see...

 

Yeah, what about that? I was reading in an earlier thread that you should always turn down a 2nd choice waitlist-turned-offer for a 3rd choice straight acceptance because it means the program really wanted you. Thoughts on this?

[bluecheese]

Seriously, being waitlisted doesn't matter. You'll find people to work with--it just means that the 5 people on the committee ordered your application slightly outside of the one's they accepted (likely for very arbitrary reasons).

[ghijklmn]

Seriously, being waitlisted doesn't matter. You'll find people to work with--it just means that the 5 people on the committee ordered your application slightly outside of the one's they accepted (likely for very arbitrary reasons).

 

Yeah, I know that's true. It's just that two of my acceptances seem to really want me there (lots of personal, kind e-mails from DGS and POIs, subtle hints, etc.), and my wait list school never replied to my e-mail with questions and didn't invite me to visiting days. So I definitely get different vibes from the schools.

[NowMoreSerious]

Whoever you are, you are destroying it this year. Jeez.

I know, and I am very thankful to have been this fortunate. I thought I would get in nowhere this year. But it is kind of bittersweet in that I got rejected from my top choices this year: Berkeley, Princeton, and my first choice, Duke Lit.

[Taco Superior]

I've just been notified that I am on the waitlist for University of Southern California. This complicates life a bit for me.

 

I emailed them with some questions: I'll let you know if they tell me anything interesting, please do the same if you would!

[Two Espressos]

Whoever you are, you are destroying it this year. Jeez.

 

Yes, this!  ImWantHazPhD, bluecheese, and a few other people whose usernames I cannot remember really annihilated the application season this year.  Nice work, everyone! 

[NowMoreSerious]

I emailed them with some questions: I'll let you know if they tell me anything interesting, please do the same if you would!

I'll keep you posted from my end here as well. I do have a friend in the program right now so maybe she has some inside information, though I doubt it. I'm really curious about the funding because that can lead me one way or another.

[nada.am]

Yeah, I know that's true. It's just that two of my acceptances seem to really want me there (lots of personal, kind e-mails from DGS and POIs, subtle hints, etc.), and my wait list school never replied to my e-mail with questions and didn't invite me to visiting days. So I definitely get different vibes from the schools.

 I'm having a similar dilemma. Having such positive feedback and personal attention from certain schools is definitely pushing me in their direction, but I wonder if I'm placing too much weight on how well they're selling themselves and it's distracting me from other more important factors at other universities... I don't know.  I have no idea how I'm going to make my decision and the wait lists have just made it even worse!

[practical cat]

Yeah, I know that's true. It's just that two of my acceptances seem to really want me there (lots of personal, kind e-mails from DGS and POIs, subtle hints, etc.), and my wait list school never replied to my e-mail with questions and didn't invite me to visiting days. So I definitely get different vibes from the schools.

I have had some very open, communicative, and helpful email communications already so I wouldn't say that's a typical pattern for the wait list in general. I also wouldn't say that a wait list means they don't want you, though more open communication usually feels/seems better in either scenario. I still wouldn't place too much emphasis on that -- I don't think it actually says anything tangible.

[cougarstigers!]

if this helps anyone, for program-specific waitlist admissions -- i have an offer from austin (i do american studies & sound studies, 19th-into-20thc., and history of reading, reading theory) that i'm fairly sure i am going to decline, as well as offers at michigan, stanford, and cornell. not sure how those other ones work, but hopefully this might help somebody anybody? hoping to notify fairly soon, but i think i will visit cornell first, since i am still very interested ... i definitely will let michigan, austin & stanford know before the visit days, if i choose to decline, so that some other person can go in my stead!

 

best of luck to everybody! <3!

[Fishbucket]

I also wouldn't say that a wait list means they don't want you

 

But isn't that kind of exactly what a wait list means? They didn't want you that much, not enough to accept you, but they'll take you if their first choice of applicants decline. You won't quibble with the idea that a rejection means they don't want you, right? 

[Gustav]

But isn't that kind of exactly what a wait list means? They didn't want you that much, not enough to accept you, but they'll take you if their first choice of applicants decline. You won't quibble with the idea that a rejection means they don't want you, right?

I don't think a paper, a statement, a copy of transcripts, and three rec letters tell the whole story of You. I would certainly like to get in off the waitlist to prove how wrong they were in not accepting me directly.

Of course, sometimes lukewarm responses may indicate unhealthy atmosphere, but I think it is another matter.

Edited March 3, 2013 by Gustav

[Fishbucket]

I guess it just depends on what kind of story you want to tell yourself

[NowMoreSerious]

But isn't that kind of exactly what a wait list means? They didn't want you that much, not enough to accept you, but they'll take you if their first choice of applicants decline. You won't quibble with the idea that a rejection means they don't want you, right? 

No it just means they wanted somebody else slightly more. If I can't decide between two movies I really want to see, but I end up picking movie A, that doesn't mean that I didn't really want to see movie, B, too.

[bfat]

I think it really depends--the waitlist letter I got said "We really wanted to admit you, but we were restricted by funding" or something along those lines. It seemed very genuine, and made me feel kinda good. That being said, however, from the actual offer I received, the DGS seemed to indicate that they'd rather not have to pull from the waitlist--of course, that might just be a "recruitment technique" or something like that. But I think opinions on waitlists probably vary greatly between schools.

 

As many have already said, the admissions process is something of a crapshoot in a lot of ways. When a committee is looking at two nearly identical files and trying to decide which is an admit and which is a wait-list (or rejection), it may come down to some relatively arbitrary factors.

[sebastiansteddy]

No it just means they wanted somebody else slightly more. If I can't decide between two movies I really want to see, but I end up picking movie A, that doesn't mean that I didn't really want to see movie, B, too.

 

This is how I feel about my wait list. I am not taking it personally at all. I don't think they would wait list you if they didn't want you.

[Gustav]

I guess it just depends on what kind of story you want to tell yourself

Sure! Are we not just exchanging stories after all?

[practical cat]

But isn't that kind of exactly what a wait list means? They didn't want you that much, not enough to accept you, but they'll take you if their first choice of applicants decline. You won't quibble with the idea that a rejection means they don't want you, right? 

There's a difference between not being first choice and not being wanted. For example, I want to go to School X the most but if School Y or School Z is the only one to accept me, I wouldn't even hesitate to go there because I really, really want to go to those places as well, just slightly less and I do have a limit on the number of schools I can attend. I didn't want to go to Stanford (despite it being a phenomenal school) so I didn't apply. In this case, School X is the accepted applicant, Schools Y and Z are the wait list, and Stanford is the one with the rejection. Three I do want to differing degrees, one I don't/didn't.

You're mistaking "a wait list doesn't mean they don't want you" for "a wait list obviously means you're their first choice" which is ridiculous and not at all what I said.