Wrongly informed that I was admitted and I am still visiting...

[myoranges]

----------- If you read this, please at least consider replying to the message; it would be highly, highly, highly appreciated! ----------------

 

Hey everyone,

 

I am seeking two-cent tips from theGradCafe community -- I am probably in one of the most unique situations that will most likely not happen ever again in my life, and I will try to keep this brief.

 

Long story short -- so last week, I asked the admissions coordinator of my application status, and he unofficially informed me that I was admitted and my application was forwarded to my POI for funding. Then, he even set up a chat/interview time for my POI and me during the Admitted Students' Visit Day to see if I can apply for potential funding for that lab (I applied to master's). Excited and thrilled, I asked him further details about the admissions and the campus visit day.

 

... and then after 72 hours ...

 

With jolly hopping and frolicking, I stepped into my office with a cup of coffee, clicked inbox to check new messages -- then, I realized I have an e-mail from the same admissions coordinator, saying that I was actually wait-listed instead of admitted......   . And then today, I received an official email saying that I am waitlisted, and the admissions committee told me that -- in hopes of being able to offer me a place for the Fall, I am on the waitlist and I will be notified by mid-April.

 

... well, the awesome thing at least is that, during the week when I was told that I was admitted, I immediately booked a non-refundable roundtrip flight from LA to Boston ($300 roundtrip -- not shabby) and told my bosses that I would be out of office. So I am still planning on visiting the campus to at least check out what the program is like and see if I can take this campus visit and perhaps meet & greet with the admissions committee as an opportunity to leverage my chance of being admitted.

 

Advice? Meanwhile, I am seeking different ways to bring my chance up of getting in. I first sent a "thank you" note to the Admissions Committee about the decision notification and asked them if there is anything I can do at this point. Any thoughts? Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Edited February 26, 2014 by myoranges

[jikl]

I don't know what advice to give you but good luck, this is such an awful situation

[Lisa44201]

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to boost your chances. You cannot leverage your way in. When you are wait-listed, the wait is for someone to decline a spot. Thank the Adcomm, sure - that's good manners. I would e-mail your POI and explain that you were given an unofficial acceptance, but based on the Admissions rep saying he'd set you up for interviews on Admitted Students Day, you took the phrase "Admitted Students Day" to mean it was a matter of paperwork, and now you have that flight booked; ask your POI for advice. You might also want to ask your advisor at your current location, as well.

[myoranges]

 

 

Thank you so much for your reply Jach and Lisa44201!

 

I think I need to calm myself down first -- I even thought of handwriting a letter and sending the letter to the admissions coordinator who made a mistake, because he at least spent some time to guide me through the applications last fall semester when I had some questions about the application. I already sent two emails to my POI during past three weeks, so I will wait until I receive a response from him. And yes -- my adviser might be able to guide me throughout as well! As I said, I don't think this is kind of a situation that I would never like to be in ever in my life again.

 

Once again, I really appreciate it, and best of luck to all your endeavors

 

Lisa44201

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Posted Today, 05:37 AM

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to boost your chances. You cannot leverage your way in. When you are wait-listed, the wait is for someone to decline a spot. Thank the Adcomm, sure - that's good manners. I would e-mail your POI and explain that you were given an unofficial acceptance, but based on the Admissions rep saying he'd set you up for interviews on Admitted Students Day, you took the phrase "Admitted Students Day" to mean it was a matter of paperwork, and now you have that flight booked; ask your POI for advice. You might also want to ask your advisor at your current location, as well.

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Psychology PhD student, second application season

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[Raverbear]

Hi there..

 

You are not alone It has happened with me. UT Austin (chemical engineering) sent me an official acceptance letter for the PhD program and my status was "admitted" on the website. I was super happy and I email to confirm my acceptance and boom got the reply that it was a mistake ! Wow! it was like someone just stabbed me and I was unable to breathe ..LOL..I sent emails to everyone in the department from Dean to Adcom but no reply. Finally, the grad advisor emailed to offer me admission in masters program which I politely declined.

 

This is my story ..hope you feel better..i dont know what to advice you.

[TakeruK]

You should not just show up on Admitted Students' Visit day unannounced! I am assuming that you did tell the school you had already booked your flight and you would like to attend the Admitted Students Day anyways, right? I am just checking, just in case!!

 

If you have not, you should definitely ask them to let you visit anyways because you already booked your flight and time off as soon as they told you (wrongly) about your admitted status. Don't say/imply it's their fault but it's totally their fault. They should let you visit even if they don't normally let waitlisted students visit.

 

I am saying this because normally, you can't just expect to show up at admitted students day and be able to see everything. Usually, each student has a personalized schedule filled with meetings and/or classes or seminars to attend. No one will be scheduled to meet with you if you don't let them know you are coming! 

 

Also, if they normally reimburse flights and other travel expenses for admitted students, they should do the same for you too. I don't know what the best way to bring this up would be though. Probably play it by ear to see how willing they were to let you visit on Admitted Students Day in the first place. Maybe wait until you are actually visiting and ask the department head about it and/or the admissions coordinator. Usually, during these visit days, you are scheduled some time with the office staff so they can process your expense forms/receipts. So have them ready. Even if they have not made a decision on whether they will reimburse you yet, you should leave the paperwork with them (make yourself a copy) so that they can process it if they decide to reimburse you.

 

Finally, I do think this is your best chance to gain acceptance to the program. At many places, the number of spots open is a bit flexible and they might be able to accept another person if the candidate is good enough / impressive enough. Or, at least, you might get put at the very top of the waitlist. You wouldn't meet and greet directly with the admissions committee, but you should definitely talk to people you might work for/with and make your best impression on them Good luck!

[B-612]

----------- If you read this, please at least consider replying to the message; it would be highly, highly, highly appreciated! ----------------

 

Hey everyone,

 

I am seeking two-cent tips from theGradCafe community -- I am probably in one of the most unique situations that will most likely not happen ever again in my life, and I will try to keep this brief.

 

Long story short -- so last week, I asked the admissions coordinator of my application status, and he unofficially informed me that I was admitted and my application was forwarded to my POI for funding. Then, he even set up a chat/interview time for my POI and me during the Admitted Students' Visit Day to see if I can apply for potential funding for that lab (I applied to master's). Excited and thrilled, I asked him further details about the admissions and the campus visit day.

 

... and then after 72 hours ...

 

With jolly hopping and frolicking, I stepped into my office with a cup of coffee, clicked inbox to check new messages -- then, I realized I have an e-mail from the same admissions coordinator, saying that I was actually wait-listed instead of admitted......   . And then today, I received an official email saying that I am waitlisted, and the admissions committee told me that -- in hopes of being able to offer me a place for the Fall, I am on the waitlist and I will be notified by mid-April.

 

... well, the awesome thing at least is that, during the week when I was told that I was admitted, I immediately booked a non-refundable roundtrip flight from LA to Boston ($300 roundtrip -- not shabby) and told my bosses that I would be out of office. So I am still planning on visiting the campus to at least check out what the program is like and see if I can take this campus visit and perhaps meet & greet with the admissions committee as an opportunity to leverage my chance of being admitted.

 

Advice? Meanwhile, I am seeking different ways to bring my chance up of getting in. I first sent a "thank you" note to the Admissions Committee about the decision notification and asked them if there is anything I can do at this point. Any thoughts? Any advice would be highly appreciated!

 

I agree with the others that there is no real way to boost your chances. However, I always think visiting is a good thing (if only to make sure you actually want to be there) and affirms the interest you have in the program. I'm terribly sorry that this happened to you. It's unprofessional to botch the delivery of this kind of information to an applicant when you invested time and money in applying. Not to mention that you could have rejected other acceptances for this school only to learn that you were on the wait list. My heart goes out to you and my hope is that whatever is the best for you will happen. Please keep us updated! Best of luck. 

[myoranges]

Everyone,

 

You all SERIOUSLY HAVE NO IDEA HOW THANKFUL I am for ALL of your responses!!! (On a random side note, I do not usually capitalize things so that is how appreciative I am right now ). I am ready to save myself from a viscous swamp of depression and resume back to normal life with utmost confidence and power. Though, I think I found a way to leverage my acceptance rate -- I should film this into a movie and take the Oscars trophy instead, and that should get me into the school, right? 

 

Raverbear -- I am so glad to know that I am not alone! There seriously are way too many overwhelmingly preposterous things happening this year -- my friend who is a material science major that applied to MIT this year told me that EVERY material science applicant somehow all got an admissions letter by mistake, and I think there is a huge public apology stating how the admissions committee was trying out a new software and somehow the software resulted in an error. Your empathy is absolutely sufficient to bring my heart to light; thank you

 

TakeruK -- I am going to take away your golden advice -- I did notify the admissions committee immediately that I already booked a flight unfortunately in my "thank you note", and I even hand-wrote a personal letter to the admissions coordinator who made a mistake that it is totally fine and I appreciate all the guidance and tips that he gave me before I submitted my application (I really think the admissions coordinator should be freaking out right now too that he made the mistake). But it is really, really important to let the admissions committee know that I am coming -- and thank you so much for the advice. As much as I would love to cautiously pull a creative prank, I firmly believe this may not be the best time to do so. And I would love to have $300 back, but if I can really heighten my admissions chance as much as possible (regardless of the results -- I just want to try my best), I am okay with spending that 300 bucks -- catering 20 plates of pasta should sufficiently make up for that money, NO PROBLEM!

 

Besixdouze -- Absolutely! Thank you for your words of encouragement. At this moment, I realized it's probably best for me to immerse myself in a state of emptiness and peace; I think fantasizing myself in puffy hope of getting admitted or stabbing myself in the depression of getting rejected would both seriously only harm me. Thank you so much!

 

Once again, I would like to appreciate deep gratitude for everyone's response -- and if you have any schools left, BEST OF LUCK! And remember, school probably isn't what everything of our lives are about

[myoranges]

Update: 

 

I just arrived in Boston this morning from LA via a red-eye flight. The day before I arrived in Boston, the admissions coordinator (the one with miscommunication) informed me with an extremely brief message that "unfortunately, wait-listed students cannot participate in the Open House Day".

I slightly frowned. Well, the good news was that at least I had an informal interview with the professor of interest -- but there was no funding for my research area. But at least he gave me a very inspiring message -- funding is not important, but sometimes I shouldn't let funding seriously deter if I am serious about my research area (which is supply chain management for disaster management and response). He does pro-bono supply chain for a lot of his clients, and he, of course, seemed to enjoy his career. I also cautiously asked him, "do you think I could have done things differently in my application to this graduate program?" He answers, "no, I see that you're capable, in fact, very capable. You're one of the many capable students that I see, and I don't know why the graduate program you applied to decided to put you on the wait-list -- well, but I am not part of the committee, so I cannot answer that question".

 

As the days pass by, I am suspecting that the reason for my wait-list is 1. my research area proposed in my application was way too specific, and 2. there might not be enough funding available for me -- both from the school and associated research labs.

 

In a desolate hotel room (which was also paid out of my pocket), I look far ahead, where under the clear night sky lie a bubbly crowd of stars, neon sights and building lights. I started to slowly grin -- "I have not lived my life long enough yet, and there is so much to see in this world still"

 

Just wanted to send out an update to everyone. Wanted to thank you all one more time for providing your support

Edited March 15, 2014 by myoranges

[juilletmercredi]

I'm glad you got to visit and talk to your prospective PI.  I wanted to address two things:

 

1. I disagree that there is universally no way to boost your chances of admission off the wait list.  It depends on the program - some programs have a ranking on their wait list, i.e., they have an order in which they offer people admission to the program if any of their admitted students decline.  If you are #6 on the wait list and only 3 decline, then you aren't getting in.  But if you can boost your rank up the wait list, then you may stand a better chance.  Some programs may boost you up the wait list if you demonstrate genuine interest and imply that you will attend if admitted.  Also, letting the program know that you are still available - including after the notification deadline for other schools - can boost you up the wait list, since other wait listed students will be accepting offers elsewhere.

 

2.  I slightly frowned. Well, the good news was that at least I had an informal interview with the professor of interest -- but there was no funding for my research area. But at least he gave me a very inspiring message -- funding is not important, but sometimes I shouldn't let funding seriously deter if I am serious about my research area (which is supply chain management for disaster management and response).

 

I have to strongly, strongly disagree with this professor here, and I honestly don't understand why he would even say such a thing.  Funding is a VERY important thing for a researcher at any stage, but especially in graduate school.  If you have no funding, you can't eat or sleep inside, things that are important to success in a grad program (and, you know, living).  There's lots of research showing that well-funded students finish their programs faster and are less stressed out than students who don't have funding, and you will also have more time to work on projects with advisers and collaborate on new/cutting-edge research topics.  Beyond that, your field needs to be fundable if you have hope of getting a job as a professor, especially at a research university.  Universities and colleges want people who can attract grant monies for their work.

[myoranges]

So the results came in: I was rejected.

 

But the result isn't really the issue here. I am very upset with this school for how it treated me. When I told them of how I booked the flights, I was supposed to hear back from the directors of the Admissions Committee; the directors did not reply. When I told them what I should do based on the erroneous admissions decision, the directors did not reply. And now I get this generic bullshit 70-word e-mail, assuming that my $300 flight ticket + hotel fee + being out of office for the weekend + outrageous amount of time spent ... all of my efforts can be casually neglected.  Yes, it must be because I've got no money for my damn research proposal! (Oh, so you want $tudents who can make it rain?!). Round of applause, ladies and gentlemen!

 

Alas, I still needed to come here and at least say a thank you to everyone who provided much more support than I have ever received from the Admissions Committee. But -- where is the future of our academic pursuits? Our academic pursuits just seem to be a very perplexing faraway beauty. Is it now about comparing which professor rakes in more cash than others? Is it now about becoming famous for simply counting the number of publications? To scribble in one more line, squiggle in one more page of my Curriculum Vitae? So we cannot wonder the beauty of Milky Way if I were damned to eat bread crumbs every night for pursuing a field that I won't have money for? We want to choose a research topic that is popular; we want to choose what is convenient; we want to choose what makes us look charming.

 

Maybe I am one of these unfortunate indentured slaves (or I mean, a en$laved $cholar)

 

Of course, everybody would sneer at my thoughts -- I am just a 'lil whippersnapper who is not even in graduate school yet to begin with! But I thought the graduate schools were looking for students with some thoughts -- well, I have some of them! I was expecting the program to handle my situation at least a little more professionally when I was waiting for the results. Just a little bit.

 

By the way, jullietmercredi, I am not writing this to argue with you. I am blaming the world that has made us this way.

Edited April 18, 2014 by myoranges

[TakeruK]

So the results came in: I was rejected.

 

But the result isn't really the issue here. I am very upset with this school for how it treated me. When I told them of how I booked the flights, I was supposed to hear back from the directors of the Admissions Committee; the directors did not reply. When I told them what I should do based on the erroneous admissions decision, the directors did not reply. And now I get this generic bullshit 70-word e-mail, assuming that my $300 flight ticket + hotel fee + being out of office for the weekend + outrageous amount of time spent ... all of my efforts can be casually neglected.  Yes, it must be because I've got no money for my damn research proposal! (Oh, so you want $tudents who can make it rain?!). Round of applause, ladies and gentlemen!

 

Sorry to hear this! This sounds really crappy of the school too, to misinform you and then ignore you! But there is not much else you can do really, unfortunately Perhaps you can inform others you may know about this experience, if you feel that won't hurt you in some way. Be careful about bashing programs online, it's generally not professional, but I think stating some basic objective facts is usually safe (depends on how you do it of course!)

 

Alas, I still needed to come here and at least say a thank you to everyone who provided much more support than I have ever received from the Admissions Committee. But -- where is the future of our academic pursuits? Our academic pursuits just seem to be a very perplexing faraway beauty. Is it now about comparing which professor rakes in more cash than others? Is it now about becoming famous for simply counting the number of publications? To scribble in one more line, squiggle in one more page of my Curriculum Vitae? So we cannot wonder the beauty of Milky Way if I were damned to eat bread crumbs every night for pursuing a field that I won't have money for? We want to choose a research topic that is popular; we want to choose what is convenient; we want to choose what makes us look charming.

 

Maybe I am one of these unfortunate indentured slaves (or I mean, a en$laved $cholar)

 

Of course, everybody would sneer at my thoughts -- I am just a 'lil whippersnapper who is not even in graduate school yet to begin with! But I thought the graduate schools were looking for students with some thoughts -- well, I have some of them! I was expecting the program to handle my situation at least a little more professionally when I was waiting for the results. Just a little bit.

 

By the way, jullietmercredi, I am not writing this to argue with you. I am blaming the world that has made us this way.

I don't think your thoughts are invalid because you are not a graduate student. But I do think that the idea that graduate school and academia is all about the academic pursuit is naive and can hurt you in the long run. Unfortunately, resources (both money and efforts/time of faculty) are limited so graduate programs and research institutions everywhere have to make decisions based on the best allocation of resources.

 

I would say that in many cases, a rejection is not really because the school did not think the student was smart enough or hard working enough to succeed at a PhD in their field. Instead, they can only spend the time and money (in some places, time is more scarce than money!) on a select few out of the qualified candidates. The schools will attempt to pick the best ones out of the qualified pool! So I would not say that a rejection is necessarily a reflection on your own ability to succeed!

 

I think that bringing in research money is part of the job description when you are a researcher. As researchers, we also have to answer to and be accountable for our expenses to our funders (generally taxpayers!). So, we do have to have tangible things like publications and CV lines to justify their financial support of our work. And, when schools hire professors, they need to justify their decision (to the public and/or private donors) that they picked the best person and a person that has been able to secure grant money in the past is a way to demonstrate that they are picking a good person.

 

Of course, it would be a mistake for academia to only care about metrics like publication count, grants awarded, CV items etc. There is definitely value in research just for the sake of knowledge too, and it's definitely possible to get funding for projects that have no direct benefit! However, it's also a mistake, in my opinion, to expect that the academic world thrives completely on the search of knowledge and is immune to scarcity of resources!

 

I don't think the current state of academia is bad at all. It might not be ideal but I can't really think of a more efficient way to distribute limited resources.

 

I do agree with your last thought though--the program should have been a lot more professional with you!! It is terrible that they treat students in this way (especially since if they know they can take advantage/exploit of young scholars in this way!)

Edited April 19, 2014 by TakeruK

[jikl]

Very sorry about this, I hope you end up doing something you like soon. 

[greenlover45]

I'm so sorry to here that as well. Would you mind me asking which school that was? 

Edited September 12, 2014 by greenlover45