How long after committee meets do they notify applicants?

[Jocko]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone happened to know how long it takes committees to notify those accepted after their final meeting. I know that UCI is meeting today--any ideas?

[thegirldetective]

I don't know about the process for your field, but in mine you can expect interview requests to go out one day to one week after the meeting. Shorter if it's one person (like the program director) sending the calls/emails, longer if it's a faculty member of the adcom. If they are bringing people in for interviews it's in their best interest to schedule them asap, so they can work through any logistical challenges. I don't about fields that accept people without interviews - seems like they might let it linger until it's convenient for someone to send the calls/emails. On the other hand, the faster they send out decisions the faster people will stop bugging them about it...

[starofdawn]

UC Irvine is meeting today?! MEEP!

 

 

Edit: Noticed earlier today that my application status changed from "under review" to "being reviewed". Wasn't sure if that meant something...

Edited January 21, 2014 by starofdawn

[TakeruK]

I think as soon as possible too. I know it's definitely true for my program, since I know when I got the notification in 2012 and for the last two years, we've all known when the professors are meeting. In addition to logistical issues with planning visits etc, I think that getting your offer out early increases the chance that the student will accept. At the very least, it will keep the student thinking about your offer for a longer period of time, and any future offers will be compared to your early offer, instead of the other way around. 

 

Unless the department needs some kind of approval from a higher authority, I don't think there is any advantage into delaying notification of acceptances.

[Loric]

Well, it was mentioned in my conversation with admissions that they were concerned about the amount of time my app was taking to get through committee. To the point where they went and started asking the various members what the hold up was.

 

And that's when I got the notice to submit some additional work for my portfolio because I didn't show a specific skill in my original submission. As "one person" on the committee was curious about it. Ok, ok, it was "Mr. Loric needs to show more of.." and then admissions calls me and asks if I can show more of that. But I digress.

 

The timeline: I was told 3-4 weeks for the whole committee process, plus added time thanks to the Christmas/New Years holidays. That's at a rolling admission school - so there's no "deadline" and my app isn't being considered within a group so to speak. The Adcomm is members of the faculty/staff pertinent to the program and they give their ratings and feedback (I have no idea if they ever actually "meet" to discuss me.)

 

I finished my app and all file submissions at the end of November. In late december I was told the winter holidays would slow things down and I'd be reviewed shortly after everyone got back. Week before this was the trauma with admissions questioning what the review committee was doing and why they hadn't heard anything. I was told that the head of admissions knew about my file because it was taking so long and was keeping an eye on it.

 

So.. yeah.. it's complicated. The people who work in admissions are generally trying to push things forward efficiently and quickly. When it's out for review, who knows. It's professors. It's like herding cats.

 

I don't know if you've seen the Tina Fey film Admission - i don't blame you for not seeing it, it's not very good - but the big admissions process take away is that it's a majority vote of the committee members. Someone can decide to advocate for you, but the majority rules. I'm assuming once the admissions office gets all the votes back (or a majority in either direction, regardless of all the votes being collected) then they'll do their best to let you know.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Loric

[Jocko]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I was kind of thinking if I don't hear anything in the next few days that is a bad sign. Plus I know my application was incomplete--although after a discussion with the admission chair he told me there had been interest so they were going to review it in its incomplete state. But I'm not overly optimistic right now. 

[starofdawn]

Jocko, did you reach out to the admission chair or did they contact you? I haven't spoken to a single administrator/PI since I started the grad app process... am I doing this wrong?

[Jocko]

I emailed him at the advice of the grad office. For some reason Irvine did not receive my transvripts. The graf coordinator told me it was too late, I shouldn't bother, they would NEVER review my app. So I emailed the admission chair, asking if he would consider my app. anyway. He wrote that he had seen my application and several membets of the committee were interested and disapointef my app. was not complete. He said he would review it even without the official transcripts, but he did add that "he had no ID if I will be accepted." So, the interest was good, but that last comment threw me. I'm going crazy, and I emailed him again today to see if the transcripts actually did arrive. But so far, no word. I guess CA is 2 hours behind. But this is the English Dept., so it doesn't reflect all of UCI, at all.

[Jocko]

Sorry, I just got a new tablet, and typing is difficult-- so please ignore all the typos.

[starofdawn]

That's so bizarre - I'd sent my GRE scores and transcripts to UC Irvine back in November, and about a week ago UCI said they hadn't received either - and so I re-submitted my GRE scores via the ETS website and my transcripts via mail. The very next day, the "missing items" list went away and said my application was under review. They must have received my GRE scores and assumed they could move along with reviewing my app before the official transcripts came in?

 

Either way... I find it terribly bizarre that they would be so strict for materials coming in on-time when it's not completely in our control. An administrator from UCSD admitted UCSD had trouble receiving scores from ETS(and I assume other schools have had trouble as well). My official transcripts for 3 different schools were lost in the mail and I had to re-order and re-mail them. It's been the most expensive part about applying!

[SocGirl2013]

UC Irvine is meeting today?! MEEP!

 

 

Edit: Noticed earlier today that my application status changed from "under review" to "being reviewed". Wasn't sure if that meant something...

Where did you check your status? Mine doesn't allow me too. :/

 

I wonder if they're meeting today for ALL programs ugh.

[Jocko]

I doubt all departments are meeting. The committee schedule is quite specific to the department. Yeah-- the grad coordinator for English was not helpful. He continually discouraged me from even trying to complete my application. But when I went over his head to the actual admission chair, the chair was totally willing to look at my application, even expressed interest in me. I mean, I specifically wrote that if they were not interested to ignore my request. So the fact that he overruled the grad coordinator and bothered to email me seems good, but I'm still afraid they will not consider me as seriously as others because of missing aspects of my app.

Anyway, as the grad coordinator originally told me: it is MY respondibility to get stuff in and that's why I should have applied earlier!! ( This is after they send out an email warning applicants not to call the department until Feb. 1st about missing materials). Every other place I

applied sent me emails about the completeness of my app.

The application link for UCI is gateway.humanities.uci.edu/tracker.

[starofdawn]

Where did you check your status? Mine doesn't allow me too. :/

 

I wonder if they're meeting today for ALL programs ugh.

 

The graduate coordinator for my program sent me an email with a link + password on January 14th to check the status of my application. I believe the link is specific for engineering applicants only. The email wasn't personalized and I didn't contact anyone to ask for the link.