Rejection thread

[Monadology]

RE: UCLA, once I've made a my final decision regarding programs other than UCLA, I plan on calling to ask about my status. I suggest others do the same. It should leverage some pressure to change their policy and I think it's pretty reasonable to want to be able to finalize one's decision rather than wait for a program that won't reject you until the last possible minute (especially because it will just contribute to the chaos of April 15th). 

[philstudent1991]

RE: UCLA, once I've made a my final decision regarding programs other than UCLA, I plan on calling to ask about my status. I suggest others do the same. It should leverage some pressure to change their policy and I think it's pretty reasonable to want to be able to finalize one's decision rather than wait for a program that won't reject you until the last possible minute (especially because it will just contribute to the chaos of April 15th). 

I said like exactly this a month ago and everyone were jerks about it lol

[Monadology]

I said like exactly this a month ago and everyone were jerks about it lol

 

The difference, as I see it, is that you suggested a generalized campaign of calling up programs that had not yet rejected people, in mid-February. That's rather different than suggesting that people who had made their final decisions but were still waiting to hear from UCLA in the final week or so call to ask about their status. For one thing, it's nearly two months further into the process and during the absolute final stage. For another, UCLA has a history of rejecting people at the last possible minute which is far more unreasonable than failing to notify people two months before the deadline. 

[ianfaircloud]

RE: UCLA, once I've made a my final decision regarding programs other than UCLA, I plan on calling to ask about my status. I suggest others do the same. It should leverage some pressure to change their policy and I think it's pretty reasonable to want to be able to finalize one's decision rather than wait for a program that won't reject you until the last possible minute (especially because it will just contribute to the chaos of April 15th). 

 

I'd love to hear why UCLA does this. Is it pure laziness? or a way to protect the department's interests? or just total bullshit? (or some good reason that escapes my imagination?)

 

No other T-25 department does this. See my notifications page.

 

I could imagine a department doing it in this case: Suppose a department simply can't predict how many people it will need from the wait-list. Suppose every applicant has a real chance of being admitted up to April 15. Perhaps an unranked department or a department that receives few applications would need to do this. Is there such a department? Even the unranked departments attract a lot of applications. Programs with niches of excellence (University of Oklahoma, with Linda Zagzebski; Saint Louis University, with Eleanor Stump) attract many serious applicants.

 

I gotta admit, I'm one of those people who favors the approaches of philstudent1991 and Monadology, i.e. complaints en masse. Maybe that's old fashioned. And maybe sometimes it's unnecessary or counter-productive. But at some point, frustration boils over. The department should expect frequent complaints with this sort of policy, even if the policy is sound.

 

Note, by the way, that UCLA's director of admissions in philosophy is a vacant position (last I checked).

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

I'd love to hear why UCLA does this. Is it pure laziness? or a way to protect the department's interests? or just total bullshit? (or some good reason that escapes my imagination?)

 

No other T-25 department does this. See my notifications page.

 

I could imagine a department doing it in this case: Suppose a department simply can't predict how many people it will need from the wait-list. Suppose every applicant has a real chance of being admitted up to April 15. Perhaps an unranked department or a department that receives few applications would need to do this. Is there such a department? Even the unranked departments attract a lot of applications. Programs with niches of excellence (University of Oklahoma, with Linda Zagzebski; Saint Louis University, with Eleanor Stump) attract many serious applicants.

 

I gotta admit, I'm one of those people who favors the approaches of philstudent1991 and Monadology, i.e. complaints en masse. Maybe that's old fashioned. And maybe sometimes it's unnecessary or counter-productive. But at some point, frustration boils over. The department should expect frequent complaints with this sort of policy, even if the policy is sound.

 

Note, by the way, that UCLA's director of admissions in philosophy is a vacant position (last I checked).

Purdue keeps ENG folks waiting till the last minute too. This is the email they send:

"

Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis--meaning we make offers of admission over the course of several months beginning in early February and ending in mid-April, and candidates may receive admission or rejection notices at any time during that period.  Last year, for example, we were able to notify a few candidates as early as the first week of February, but most of our offers were not finalized until mid-March (and one offer was made in the afternoon on the April 15th national deadline).  To put all this another way: we can't predict when we'll be able to contact you, but you can be sure that we'll do so as soon as circumstances allow. 

 We also want to emphasize that the English Department does not rely on a formal waiting list to make admissions decisions.  We use an on-going evaluation/re-evaluation process that takes into account our changing areas of need and available funding opportunities, and we choose candidates from our pool of qualified applicants based on these factors. 

 Finally, we recognize and understand the anxiety associated with the admissions process, especially given the proliferation and popularity of websites and wikis where individuals post information about their acceptances and rejections. Waiting to hear from schools is extremely difficult, and we know people worry about the status of their applications and their chances for receiving an offer.  We want to emphasize the fact that, unless you receive a rejection notice from us, you most definitely remain a competitive applicant in our pool of potential candidates (even if other people are posting online that they have received offers from Purdue).  "

 

[ianfaircloud]

Finally, we recognize and understand the anxiety associated with the admissions process, especially given the proliferation and popularity of websites and wikis where individuals post information about their acceptances and rejections. Waiting to hear from schools is extremely difficult, and we know people worry about the status of their applications and their chances for receiving an offer.  We want to emphasize the fact that, unless you receive a rejection notice from us, you most definitely remain a competitive applicant in our pool of potential candidates (even if other people are posting online that they have received offers from Purdue).  "

 

Thanks for this! It's helpful. I think the problem in the case of UCLA philosophy is that the department hasn't sent any rejections. Now surely there were at least a few applicants who could be turned down after a quick glance at their applications! At first glance, it seems at least insensitive to let those people wait extra weeks, perhaps in agony, for a decision.

[ianfaircloud]

Different subject. Just saw this on the results survey:

 

Memphis. Philosophy, PhD. Stats: 169-165-6.0. "MA GPA: 4.0, with several high profile conference presentations, and a publication pending. Not sure what Memphis is looking for."

 

This post gave me a good chuckle. This process is crazy.

[hopefulpessimiste]

How soon were any of you planning to call UCLA? I loathe the idea of contacting them again (since I already sent them an email). But I also refuse to wait until April 15th to make a decision. I would not do that to Penn or to Madison--that would be awful to the people on the waitlist at both programs.

 

Their whole way of doing things has been so dreadfully insensitive and uniquely bizarre that I wonder if that bodes ill for attending the program. On the other hand, it could be that those who are not on the adcom are still wonderful people with whom to work. But, at the very least this does raise serious questions for me about the responsiveness of the department.

[Monadology]

I probably won't be making my final decision until early next week. So I'll probably call them around April 9th or 10th.  

Edited April 3, 2014 by Monadology

[TheVineyard]

Different subject. Just saw this on the results survey:

 

Memphis. Philosophy, PhD. Stats: 169-165-6.0. "MA GPA: 4.0, with several high profile conference presentations, and a publication pending. Not sure what Memphis is looking for."

 

This post gave me a good chuckle. This process is crazy.

 

I think in that case, the person was viewed as overqualified and entirely unlikely to accept an offer at Memphis.

[ianfaircloud]

I think in that case, the person was viewed as overqualified and entirely unlikely to accept an offer at Memphis.

 

My thoughts, too.

[Edit_Undo]

I think in that case, the person was viewed as overqualified and entirely unlikely to accept an offer at Memphis.

On another note, that makes so much sense about my situation. I was probably viewed as overqualified at every school I applied to. I am pretty sure they viewed my application and said that this person should already apply to a tenure-track position. I am not sh*t after all . 

[SamStone]

I have yet to hear back from Brandeis, Western Michigan, Cal State LA, SFState, and University of Victoria (all MA programs)—which is almost half of the applications I sent out. Its pretty late in the game by now, is it safe to assume that these are all unofficial rejections? If so, is it normal for so many MA program not to respond at all?

[Platonist]

Oh, yeah. I thought I was underqualified at every school I applied to. But now I am no longer so sure about this. Will apply to the HFU (if you still remember it) next round in case I am viewed as overqualified at all other schools.  

Edited April 4, 2014 by Platonist

[TheVineyard]

I just got an email from my school's transcript delivery service reminding myself and the recipient (a school) that only 3 days were left to download my official PDF transcript (this is @ a school that explicitly states that they accept official e-transcripts). What does this mean? They never even bothered looked at my transcript, but rejected me.

Edited April 5, 2014 by TheVineyard

[ianfaircloud]

On another note, that makes so much sense about my situation. I was probably viewed as overqualified at every school I applied to. I am pretty sure they viewed my application and said that this person should already apply to a tenure-track position. I am not sh*t after all . 

 

I appreciate the humor here. Just want to say this, particularly to the person who down-voted my reply in agreement with Vineyard:

 

There is a such thing as yield-protecting in admissions. And there are other reasons not to accept "overqualified" applicants. It's pretty silly, but some institutions have odd and counter-intuitive rules related to how grants are distributed. At my university, for example, it's in the interests of the department not to extend fully-funded offers to overqualified applicants. I won't explain the process here, but it's a real thing.

 

Departments also want to recruit good fits. I could imagine sitting on an admissions committee and thinking of an applicant, "This person is literally overqualified for our program."

 

So just in defense of Vineyard's thought, I wanted to throw out these possibilities.

 

In reality, maybe Memphis just didn't like this applicant or didn't think this applicant was qualified, despite the profile that we see. It's so, so difficult to evaluate an applicant out of context, without reading the applicant's sample, without looking at the applicant's competition, etc.

 

Sorry to make something serious out of something funny. Just wanted to mention this stuff.

[logos0516]

You know I see a lot of people on here fretting about UCLA, and in another thread there was talk of sending an anonymous letter voicing complaints. I didn't apply to UCLA this time around, and will never apply to UCLA in the future, so I could call/write/email UCLA voicing my contempt for their ineptitude and inefficiency up front, i.e. non-anonymously. I have no problem with that. They should be ashamed at how they are treating applicants, and if there's one thing I don't like, it's people mistreating other people. So just let me know. 

[objectivityofcontradiction]

You know I see a lot of people on here fretting about UCLA, and in another thread there was talk of sending an anonymous letter voicing complaints. I didn't apply to UCLA this time around, and will never apply to UCLA in the future, so I could call/write/email UCLA voicing my contempt for their ineptitude and inefficiency up front, i.e. non-anonymously. I have no problem with that. They should be ashamed at how they are treating applicants, and if there's one thing I don't like, it's people mistreating other people. So just let me know. 

 Do it. 

[Gnothi_Seauton]

Rejected by Tufts.  I got an email a few days ago saying that my decision would be available shortly.  If anyone else is similarly placed, your decision might be available now.

[dgswaim]

Rejected by Tufts.  I got an email a few days ago saying that my decision would be available shortly.  If anyone else is similarly placed, your decision might be available now.

That's a little surprising considering your success with some pretty high-profile PhD programs...

[stressedout]

That's a little surprising considering your success with some pretty high-profile PhD programs...

 

More confirmation (as if we needed more) that this whole process is absurd.

[TheVineyard]

Rejected off of the Wisconsin waitlist.

[ta_pros_to_telos]

The results page seems to be down, but claiming a UCLA rejection. Finally, on April 15th... 

 

I accepted Cornell last night! Good luck to those of you still on wait lists; I'm rooting so hard for all of you!

 

 

[philosopheme]

Rejected by Tufts.  I got an email a few days ago saying that my decision would be available shortly.  If anyone else is similarly placed, your decision might be available now.

PM me if you have any questions about living in Chapel Hill, and congrats!

[philstudent1991]

UCLA rejection. Not upset, just relieved to finally hear lol