No news from professor after interview

[Negeen]

I had an interview with a professor about a month ago and he seemed interested. The interview took so long (about an hour) and he had to go somewhere so he told me he would contact me later, but I haven't heard from him since. Should I email him and ask about his decision? And if so, what should I write exactly? I don't want to sound rude or clingy

[I am not sure yet]

I am in a similar situation, my interview was one month ago and the professor had told me he would get back to me in 3 weeks... Nothing so far! In my particular situation, I will just wait. We spoke a few times after the interview and I guess they haven't made any decisions yet, that's probabily why I'm still in the dark.

 

Do you know if the program already started sending the acceptance letters? If so, I would email the professor, really politely, something like "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering if you have any news on the decisions for the program". If they haven't sent any acceptance, maybe you should wait. I'm sure the professor still remembers you! =) 

[AmandaLemon]

I'm in the same boat. It's been more than a month since my interview at UCF. Trying to keep calm.....

[EEpa]

Same for me. I interviewed with a professor at USF and I thought it went well, he even asked when I was thinking I'd like to start if accepted. But its been a month or more since he's said I could expect to hear a decision. In my experience if a dead

[EEpa]

Same for me. I interviewed with a professor at USF and I thought it went well, he even asked when I was thinking I'd like to start if accepted. But its been a month or more since he's said I could expect to hear a decision. In my experience if a deadline is way past and you haven't gotten news, its a bad sign. But I can't figure out why they just haven't rejected me already! And I don't want to email my POI and put him in a position where he has to tell me I'm out when I think it's kind of obvious already. This is just my case, the deadline to hear back is so far past, for others who are just a week or so past or weren't given a date to hear a decision I wouldn't worry as much.

Edited March 10, 2014 by EEpa

[thegirldetective]

It's ok to email if it's been ~1 month OR longer than they said they would take to get back to you. Just keep it short and polite.

 

"Dear _____,

 

Thank you for interviewing me last month. I enjoyed our meeting. I wanted to check in and see if you had any information on the status of my application.

 

Thanks,

_____"

 

Or something like that.

[zipykido]

It shows initiative if you follow up. Generally, professors are busy people so unless you're an extremely desirable candidate, you're probably only in the back of their minds. Remember that they're dealing with running a lab, writing grants, presentations, classes, and personal issues. If it is over the time frame that they quoted then send them a quick email, remind them that you spoke and ask for a brief response.

[Negeen]

Just wanted to let you know about the result. I emailed the professor and asked him if he had any news on my application.

 

He replied: "Your interview went well and I forwarded your information on to the program manager for the project I mentioned.  I asked him a couple times, but have not received interest from him.  I am still waiting to hear, but I am concerned that we may not be able to get support from him.  If we don’t I won’t be able to offer you support."

 

In the interview, he had said that we might need to have a conference with the project group. After receiving this email, I thanked him for his support, and told him I would be willing to do the conference if he thinks it would be helpful.

 

An hour later, I got rejected!! What do you think went wrong? Did I crossed some sort of line with this last email? Or did the prof called the program manager, was said that they couldn't support me, and then told the department to reject me?

 

I am so confused and so sad

[Munashi]

I don't think the rejection is a result of anything that you did wrong - emailing or not.  It sounds like your POI was not able to get support for you and was unable to offer an acceptance, even though he was interested in working with you.

 

I'm sorry this was the outcome!  But again, I don't think you did anything wrong.  This kind of situation is not uncommon.  Please don't blame yourself!