Schools contacting you for missing information..? Good or bad?

[skgarcia]

One of my hopeful schools' graduate coordinator e-mailed me personally yesterday and told me my statement of purpose was missing (I know, so fail) and asked if I was still going to submit it.  I don't know how I missed that, but I immediately uploaded it and thanked him.  The application deadline has long since passed.

 

Is this a good sign?  I know it wasn't an automated e-mail.  What do you guys think?

[BeakerBreaker]

It means they're still considering your application, which is much better than the alternative (hear nothing back, it gets thrown in the discard pile).

[skgarcia]

Thanks for your reply.

 

I guess I got excited thinking perhaps they liked the rest of my application enough to reach out to me for an opportunity to submit my statement of purpose.  I didn't think such generosity happened very often in graduate school admissions

[Crucial BBQ]

Perhaps it was your LORs that kept them interested.  Or perhaps they are just getting a late start.  There is an entire thread some where in these forums about the same subject.  I'll try and dig it up. 

[TakeruK]

I would think that this might mean they finally just started to review the applications and they noticed your SOP was missing. It's nice that they asked to you (re)submit it. But it's also a "cover their butt" type of move because they don't want to make a decision without a complete profile. If they accept you without a SOP, they may get audited later on and questions will be raised if someone was admitted without a complete application. If they decide to reject you, then you might later complain that your application didn't get a full review since it was incomplete. Of course, they can still argue that since your application was incomplete, they did not review it, but what if you claimed that you did submit your SOP and the Graduate School somehow lost the file? So, it makes the most sense to get missing files from applicants whenever possible. 

[skgarcia]

Perhaps it was your LORs that kept them interested.  Or perhaps they are just getting a late start.  There is an entire thread some where in these forums about the same subject.  I'll try and dig it up. 

 

Please do, I'd greatly appreciate it.  I'll try to find it myself.

 

Thanks, both of you, for your time.

[skgarcia]

Bump.  Anymore opinions?

[Bunsen Honeydew]

When I applied to American University, the graduate coordinator was responsible for putting together complete packages to present to the admissions committee.  He would contact me to check the status on missing documents.  It was a very small program.  On the other hand, applying to the bigger programs, I did receive some 'automated'-like emails when they were waiting for the official transcripts to arrive.  There was a snafu on their end with application payment so I had to call their offices.  After I spoke to them on the phone, I got a personal email from them saying everything was good to go.  

 

If I had to guess, I would say that whoever is responsible for making sure the adcom gets completed applications is doing his/her job.  Thats the pragmatic view.

 

The optimist view would be that the adcom has already seen your package, noticed it missing, and liked what they saw enough to request it.  

 

Its all speculatory. 

[skgarcia]

Thank you

[Kleene]

Oh dear, now you got me started! I had an grad office question the completeness of my transcripts the evening of the start of the Christmas holidays. I answered the question instantly, got a response on Jan 7 saying that I had to provide proof at Jan 8 the latest to be considered for admittance. Which I managed to do thanks to some very awesome people at my uni, but seriously I was so done with that school. Mind you that this was before my application was even considered, and there was nothing wrong with my application in the first place!

 

In your case, I think that they are at least interested. Obviously, you have survived the GRE/GPA cut.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Kleene

[the_sheath]

When I applied to UCSB, they sent an email a few days later telling me that I had a bunch of stuff missing (course list, letters of recommendation, gre scores; the latter two were kinda out of my control). A month after everything was received, I was accepted into the program. So I'd say pragmatic or no, you've still got a shot

[scottdickson86]

This happened to me as well, twice (one week apart), because I haven't read the first notification. This means you passed the initial screening - your other qualifications (GRE, GPA, etc.) are above the minimum required. I think at this point it means that they need your SOP so you can officially be included in the pool of applicants to be considered for admission. The next phase would be comparing your application package against the rest of the applicants. Good luck!