Acceptance Thread

[bar_scene_gambler]

Hey, I've also been offered a conditional offer to Warwick (Social and Political Thought) only that my requirement is a 3.5. My current GPA is 3.2 and I don't think it's possible to meet it in time.. Could anyone suggest what I should do now? 

That's rough. If you honestly can't boost your GPA in time, then there really isn't much you can do. You could always talk to the department about your situation, but I think these conditions are a result of bureaucracy more than anything else, and I'm not sure if the department has much control over it. I'd say your best bet is to concentrate your efforts elsewhere if you can't meet the condition.

Edited January 25, 2014 by bar_scene_gambler

[axiomness]

Hey, I've also been offered a conditional offer to Warwick (Social and Political Thought) only that my requirement is a 3.5. My current GPA is 3.2 and I don't think it's possible to meet it in time.. Could anyone suggest what I should do now? 

You can always start dealing drugs and thus have some bribe money for your academic adviser.

 

Just saying.

 

 

... in all seriousness though, I second this ^^^^^^. 

Edited January 25, 2014 by axiomness

[gradcoffee]

Isn't Warwick's MA Social and Political Thought course offered by the Sociology department?

[bar_scene_gambler]

Isn't Warwick's MA Social and Political Thought course offered by the Sociology department?

Yes it is. That's probably why the conditional admissions requirement is different.

[Table]

That's rough. If you honestly can't boost your GPA in time, then there really isn't much you can do. You could always talk to the department about your situation, but I think these conditions are a result of bureaucracy more than anything else, and I'm not sure if the department has much control over it. I'd say your best bet is to concentrate your efforts elsewhere if you can't meet the condition.

 

This seems unnecessarily pessimistic. (And axiomness, that was, uh, totally inappropriate. This is obviously a stressful situation for someone. If all you have is a snarky comment, it would probably be best to keep it to yourself.)

DEFINITELY talk to them. If you're a second semester senior, it's just going to be mathematically impossible for you to boost your grades that much in a single term. (Likely the same if you're a 4th term grad student) Even if you got all As. This isn't a matter of you not being able to the grades needed, it's just an impossible task. They obviously don't realize that. They accepted you for a reason. Try to work with them. Ask if there's any other way you can demonstrate an upward trend, etc. If you think you could get all As this term, tell them that. There is no reason to give up. 

I would be pretty surprised if this is a strict university-wide requirement that departments have no leeway with. (Especially unsure why you think that, BSG, when you had a different requirement…) Seriously, talk to them! 

A little encouragement: the first post here is someone who received a conditional offer to a different school with conditions they couldn't meet and convinced them to lower the conditions. 

Edited January 25, 2014 by Table

[bar_scene_gambler]

This seems unnecessarily pessimistic. (And axiomness, that was, uh, totally inappropriate. This is obviously a stressful situation for someone. If all you have is a snarky comment, it would probably be best to keep it to yourself.)

DEFINITELY talk to them. If you're a second semester senior, it's just going to be mathematically impossible for you to boost your grades that much in a single term. (Likely the same if you're a 4th term grad student) Even if you got all As. This isn't a matter of you not being able to the grades needed, it's just an impossible task. They obviously don't realize that. They accepted you for a reason. Try to work with them. Ask if there's any other way you can demonstrate an upward trend, etc. If you think you could get all As this term, tell them that. There is no reason to give up. 

I would be pretty surprised if this is a strict university-wide requirement that departments have no leeway with. (Especially unsure why you think that, BSG, when you had a different requirement…) Seriously, talk to them! 

A little encouragement: the first post here is someone who received a conditional offer to a different school with conditions they couldn't meet and convinced them to lower the conditions. 

I don't know why you think I'm being unnecessarily pessimistic. It's a tough break. I didn't discourage him/her from contacting the department or anything, and I didn't imply that it was university-wide or absolutely iron-fisted in design. You're cranking my statement up too much. I wasn't being nearly as extreme as you seem to be portraying me, and I certainly didn't encourage a defeated attitude. Chill out with the strawmen. Of course he/she should talk to the department. I'm sure it's possible to reason with them and get something accomplished. It's just a tough break.

As for your post, it's not exactly compelling evidence. All it proves is that a different University in the UK made an exception for someone with similar circumstances. Which, again, just to make myself absolutely clear, is not an indication of a personal belief that OP should give up, just that he/she should be realistic and not put all of his/her eggs in the one basket, hence why I said concentrate to concentrate his/her efforts elsewhere, because at this point things are totally in the hands of the department/graduate school and their sense of reason and charity. 

EDIT: Just to be clear, I posted this in hopes of clarifying my statement. I'm not going to engage with you in some fruitless debate. I'm adamant that this particular thread will remain positive in its nature, and debate-free if I can help it. 

Edited January 25, 2014 by bar_scene_gambler

[MatintaP]

SL12, follow Table's advice. In fact, I was going to mention the UCL case on the results list, but Table beat me to it. Even though it may not be a "compelling evidence" to buttress a cold argument, it still serves as encouragement and proof that such cases are not entirely unprecedented in the UK. And that's what matters.

Again, they accepted you for a reason. What is the point of offering an acceptance with an impossible condition? They are likely familiar with GPA calculations and they still admitted you. My guess is that the announcement of the condition is merely bureaucratic and obligatory. In fact, it usually comes in the form of "on the condition that you MAINTAIN your GPA above." So, if you make them aware that your GPA will never be above the required minimum, surely they will be able to work something out with you.

[Table]

 (putting this in a smaller font so it takes up less space in the thread!)

 

I don't know why you think I'm being unnecessarily pessimistic. It's a tough break. I didn't discourage him/her from contacting the department or anything, and I didn't imply that it was university-wide or absolutely iron-fisted in design. You're cranking my statement up too much. I wasn't being nearly as extreme as you seem to be portraying me, and I certainly didn't encourage a defeated attitude. Chill out with the strawmen. Of course he/she should talk to the department. I'm sure it's possible to reason with them and get something accomplished. It's just a tough break. 

 

I don't know where you think I misportrayed you. All I said was that your advice was more pessimistic than I thought was warranted, and that you didn't think departments had discretion over the conditions. 

 

If you honestly can't boost your GPA in time, then there really isn't much you can do. You could always talk to the department about your situation, but I think these conditions are a result of bureaucracy more than anything else, and I'm not sure if the department has much control over it. I'd say your best bet is to concentrate your efforts elsewhere if you can't meet the condition.

 

"If you honestly can't boost your GPA in time, then there really isn't much you can do. … I'd say your best bet is to concentrate your efforts elsewhere if you can't meet the condition," seems, to me, to be very clearly pessimistic about his/her ability to get the department to change the condition. You didn't seem to have any obvious reason to think there really isn't much he/she can do, and so I thought this pessimism was unwarranted. 

 

"You could always talk to the department about your situation, but I think these conditions are a result of bureaucracy more than anything else, and I'm not sure if the department has much control over it," does not exactly encourage contacting the department, and seems, to me, to say that you thought the department would likely not have leeway to change the requirement. If you're sure it's possible to reason with the department and get something accomplished, you did a good job hiding it. 

 

I'm really surprised you don't think your first post was pessimistic about the possibility of working with the department to change the condition. I'm hoping you now see why it came off that way. I was not trying to "engage in fruitless debate." I'm trying to give advice to someone who's had a tough break. I think the applicant has reason to be more optimistic than your post suggested, and I tried to make that clear.

 

I'm glad you've now clarified that you think he/she should definitely contact the department and are sure it will be possible to reason with them. That is, obviously, not what I got from your first post, and I imagine that is not what SL12 would have taken away from it either.
 

As for your post, it's not exactly compelling evidence. All it proves is that a different University in the UK made an exception for someone with similar circumstances. 

 

Note that I introduced the link with "A little encouragement:", not "Compelling evidence they will change the condition:". (and you're the one talking about straw men?) I was clear that it was a different school.

 

As far as I can tell, you have no experience with trying to get the conditions on a conditional acceptance modified. I've gotten a university to relax entry requirements I did not meet, but have no experience with trying to change conditional acceptances to graduate programs. We don't really know what's possible here. I definitely think it's relevant that a department at another school modified conditions once it was made clear that the candidate cannot meet them. It shows it is at least something that does sometimes happen, and I think that's a reason for SL12 to feel a little encouraged. 

 

(I want to be clear as well: I'm posting this in hopes of clarifying what I said. I have no idea what in my post you thought required a response like "I'm not going to engage with you in some fruitless debate. I'm adamant that this particular thread will remain positive in its nature, and debate-free if I can help it." But a good way to avoid fruitless debate: when someone (apparently) misreads you, go back and look at your post and think about why that might have happened instead of going straight for condescension.) 

Edited January 25, 2014 by Table

[Table]

 But yeah, I guess the only logical thing at this point is to contact the department. I mean seriously, if they aren't reasonable enough to see that they offered me admission with a condition that I cannot possibly meet, even with perfect grades now, then there is something terribly wrong with the University.  

 

This is a good attitude. I obviously don't have the experience to say this with any authority, but I really do think it's likely you'll be able to work something out.

 

Again, they accepted you for a reason. What is the point of offering an acceptance with an impossible condition? They are likely familiar with GPA calculations and they still admitted you. My guess is that the announcement of the condition is merely bureaucratic and obligatory. In fact, it usually comes in the form of "on the condition that you MAINTAIN your GPA above." So, if you make them aware that your GPA will never be above the required minimum, surely they will be able to work something out with you.

 

This is a good point. They obviously didn't realize that they were making an impossible request. Like Matinta said, they plausibly just include the condition automatically and didn't even realize they were asking you to get your grades up at all. 

 

I should have said that getting my university to drop one of the entry requirements for transferring in (a GPA requirement I was far from meeting) involved me telling them I didn't meet it, and them being like "oh, ok, whatever. we just wrote that." It's of course a pretty different situation, but things like this can sometimes resolve quite easily!

Edited January 25, 2014 by Table

[Cottagecheeseman]

I love how on the internet, especially with philosophers, everything becomes an argument.

[MattDest]

I love how on the internet, especially with philosophers, everything becomes an argument.

 

I disagree.

[Table]

Sorry. I probably shouldn't have really responded. 

[MattDest]

Sorry. I probably shouldn't have really responded. 

 

Nah, it was warranted. I probably would have been discouraged from bar_scene's post and I think that the poster should definitely contact the department. 

[Cottagecheeseman]

I disagree.

It was sarcasm, it's just hard to tell in writing.

[MattDest]

It was sarcasm, it's just hard to tell in writing.

*woosh*  

[shelbyelisha]

I don't know if everyone else noticed this and I'm just late to the party, but...Dfindley is gone. As in, no account gone.  O frabjous day! Callooh!  Callay!

[Cottagecheeseman]

I don't know if everyone else noticed this and I'm just late to the party, but...Dfindley is gone. As in, no account gone.  O frabjous day! Callooh!  Callay!

He's been banned for a bit now. I'm kinda sad actually, this place is a bit calmer but slightly less interesting. Poor guy, I wonder what he's doing with his time now.

[greencoloredpencil]

He's been banned for a bit now. I'm kinda sad actually, this place is a bit calmer but slightly less interesting. Poor guy, I wonder what he's doing with his time now.

 

I think this attitude is probably pretty common but especially since I lurk more than I post here I'll voice it. At first the guy was hilarious. I'd like to read his posts for fun until he started cursing at others, being misogynistic, and displaying all sorts of other unacceptable behavior. He was entertaining at for a while but I do enjoy reading the topics even more since he's been gone. 

[Edit_Undo]

I have been lurking here for months now. I decided to make an account if you welcome analytic folks! How do you change the signature (So that I could add some of my stats)?

[MattDest]

I have been lurking here for months now. I decided to make an account if you welcome analytic folks! How do you change the signature (So that I could add some of my stats)?

 

We definitely welcome analytic folks. You can update your profile by going to your username top right, Edit Profile, and then Edit Signature. 

 

By the way - thanks for sharing your stats. It helps satiate my never-ending curiosity. 

Edited January 26, 2014 by MattDest

[greencoloredpencil]

I have been lurking here for months now. I decided to make an account if you welcome analytic folks! How do you change the signature (So that I could add some of my stats)?

 

What are your interests? I'm also interested in highly analytic fields, mostly philosophy of language but also I'm especially interested in the history of early analytic philosophy, especially Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein. 

[Edit_Undo]

We definitely welcome analytic folks. You can update your profile by going to your username top right, Edit Profile, and then Edit Signature. 

Thank you MattDest!

 

 

What are your interests? I'm also interested in highly analytic fields, mostly philosophy of language but also I'm especially interested in the history of early analytic philosophy, especially Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein. 

I have just saved my interests in the signature section. I'm a big fan of Russell's work and Frege's. As for Wittgenstein, I have been exposed very little on his work but I like his argument against private language. 

[TheVineyard]

I have been lurking here for months now. I decided to make an account if you welcome analytic folks! How do you change the signature (So that I could add some of my stats)?

 

Welcome. I only accept analytic folks.

[Edit_Undo]

Welcome. I only accept analytic folks.

Hahaha! Thank you!

[DHumeDominates]

He's been banned for a bit now. I'm kinda sad actually, this place is a bit calmer but slightly less interesting. Poor guy, I wonder what he's doing with his time now.

 

He's probably busy at work on his second book!