FALL 2015 APPLICATONS

[Garyon]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing! 

And nothing from yale either, am I right?

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Well I didn't apply to Yale, but yeah nothing on the website about it.

 

Also being invited to open house doesn't really mean much since they only invite people who they can afford to bring (I was told so by Maryland). Well, maybe Yale is rich and they can afford to bring everyone, but..

[wuglife427]

It looks like someone else got an interview on the 19th--it's a pain to search bc some people list it as NYU, some as New York University without the acronym in parentheses. Have you heard from them? I have not, and I'm wondering if it's too early to count that as a loss.

[rainbowpink]

Freaking about a bit because I noticed that two people got interview emails from Cornell...

 

Feel free to share what the emails say if you got one

[Garyon]

It looks like someone else got an interview on the 19th--it's a pain to search bc some people list it as NYU, some as New York University without the acronym in parentheses. Have you heard from them? I have not, and I'm wondering if it's too early to count that as a loss.

 

Yeah same here.

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

It looks like someone else got an interview on the 19th--it's a pain to search bc some people list it as NYU, some as New York University without the acronym in parentheses. Have you heard from them? I have not, and I'm wondering if it's too early to count that as a loss.

 

I always mix up my 9s and 6s.

 

I haven't heard from them. I think I would have, but oh well, whatever.

[Garyon]

It is not knowing that kills me.

 

If the whole process was like "Ok, you have to wait until April 10 to know" I'll be way more relaxed.

[onzeheures30]

NYU is still conducting interviews (a friend of mine had one yesterday).

[Laniel]

It seems like everyone did their interviews with Maryland last week and last weekend.  Is it safe to assume that if I haven't heard from a POI there that they aren't interested? At this point, just being able to cross it off the list of things to worry about would be such a relief

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

It seems like everyone did their interviews with Maryland last week and last weekend.  Is it safe to assume that if I haven't heard from a POI there that they aren't interested? At this point, just being able to cross it off the list of things to worry about would be such a relief

 

I think so.

[Laniel]

I think so.

 

Bummer.  Oh well.  Life goes on, right?

[bubblespinky]

Should I give up all hope for UPenn, then? Not that I had much hope to begin with, mind you... 

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Should I give up all hope for UPenn, then? Not that I had much hope to begin with, mind you... 

 

They told me that they're going to make their decisions very soon, so I think so. I'm not 100% sure on either of these though.

[wuglife427]

It seems like everyone did their interviews with Maryland last week and last weekend.  Is it safe to assume that if I haven't heard from a POI there that they aren't interested? At this point, just being able to cross it off the list of things to worry about would be such a relief

 

During my interview, my POI said the faculty were meeting to make "most but not all" of the decisions either this Tuesday (today) or next...I can't say for sure that there's not hope if you haven't been contacted (not all the decisions), but odds probably aren't great

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

During my interview, my POI said the faculty were meeting to make "most but not all" of the decisions either this Tuesday (today) or next...I can't say for sure that there's not hope if you haven't been contacted (not all the decisions), but odds probably aren't great

 

That's strange! I was told that they'd make their open house decisions, not their admission decisions (I was told that would be mid March).

 

And being invited to the open house doesn't guarantee admission.

[wuglife427]

That's strange! I was told that they'd make their open house decisions, not their admission decisions (I was told that would be mid March).

 

And being invited to the open house doesn't guarantee admission.

He was pretty vague about it, so maybe he meant that? It could also be that they're getting a good idea of who's getting admitted, but some people are still kind of in a grey area, so they invite people to the Open House, decide on those last few spots, and then release all the acceptances? I don't know, I'm just going off what he said.

[goldheartmountaintop]

He was pretty vague about it, so maybe he meant that? It could also be that they're getting a good idea of who's getting admitted, but some people are still kind of in a grey area, so they invite people to the Open House, decide on those last few spots, and then release all the acceptances? I don't know, I'm just going off what he said.

 

Typically they invite a "shortlist" of students to their open house in March and admit a subset of these students. I'm under the impression that they do this every year (someone correct me if I'm wrong), so, unless they totally changed things around this year, I think your POI was talking about the open house decisions. I guess you'll see soon enough, in any case!

[gubidal092]

So I'm going to the Univ. at Buffalo (SUNY) open house on Feb 13-14 (they already did interviews and let the first round(?) of unofficial acceptances in), and I still haven't heard anything from any other schools (freak out!). I'm weighing the merits of emailing the departments in Yale and CUNY to see if I could "stop by and see the department"/email some POIs directly (haven't contacted them before now, so possibly a bad idea?) asking if I could meet them, since I'll "be in the area" (Buffalo = ~5 hrs from New York/New Haven, but who's counting?). Thought I'd run it by you guys to see what you think. I know in some disciplines this is acceptable behavior to some degree (at least, that is the sense I get), but what about in Linguistics? 

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

He was pretty vague about it, so maybe he meant that? It could also be that they're getting a good idea of who's getting admitted, but some people are still kind of in a grey area, so they invite people to the Open House, decide on those last few spots, and then release all the acceptances? I don't know, I'm just going off what he said.

 

They just invite people to the Open House based on their locations. People far away in Europe and stuff don't get invited as often because they're expensive to bring, but they're not denied admission. Nothing is certain yet.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Chiki

[onzeheures30]

Typically they invite a "shortlist" of students to their open house in March and admit a subset of these students. I'm under the impression that they do this every year (someone correct me if I'm wrong), so, unless they totally changed things around this year, I think your POI was talking about the open house decisions. I guess you'll see soon enough, in any case!

 

I am pretty sure this is exactly the case.

 

They just invite people to the Open House based on their locations. People far away in Europe and stuff don't get invited as often because they're expensive to bring, but they're not denied admission. Nothing is certain yet.

 

This might be a consideration, but unless things have changed this year, they (like many other departments) are ready to reimburse travel expenses up to a certain fixed amount, regardless of the candidate's location. I was invited last year, although I was in Russia (and eventually I didn't go). Or are they fully covering the costs this year?

[fuzzylogician]

This might be a consideration, but unless things have changed this year, they (like many other departments) are ready to reimburse travel expenses up to a certain fixed amount, regardless of the candidate's location. I was invited last year, although I was in Russia (and eventually I didn't go). Or are they fully covering the costs this year?

 

Unless things have changed recently, there is some amount they cover for domestic students and some (sometimes larger) amount they cover for international students, but it's not actually enough to cover an international flight. However, you can combine funding from several schools, if you are lucky enough to have several acceptances, to cover the cost of the trip to the US and travel in the US. Of course, this is only possible after acceptance. They won't offer reimbursement if you're visiting on your own initiative pre-acceptance. On the other hand, contacting schools to try and arrange visits while you're in the area seems legitimate to me, and at the very least they might be able to tell you (roughly) when to expect a decision so that you can better plan your travels. Once you have one acceptance/open house and are starting to make travel arrangements, I think it's fair to contact schools to ask about their process and expected timeline so that you can plan accordingly.

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

Well, my interviewer is serving on the committee, so they may have changed things.

 

He didn't really give me a complete and full explanation though. I'm likely to get invited since I live relatively nearby.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Chiki

[funchaku]

That would be kind of an odd thing for them to extend invitations based on proximity. When I went to the open house at Maryland two years ago, there were a number of international people present (including someone from New Zealand!). Unless their budget situation has significantly changed since then (and I am willing to bet it hasn't), I don't see why they would change their policy. 

[wuglife427]

Even if location became a consideration for budgetary reasons, there has to be some degree of shortlisting happening. It just wouldn't make sense to do it purely based on location. I live in DC and could take the metro to UMD for maybe $5. However, if my POI walked away from our conversation thinking "Not impressed, there are plenty of other applicants in the US alone who we would be better off accepting*," they would not invite me, no matter how cheap it was for them. They wouldn't want to pay for any meals or spend time on interviews or make people host me if they're not interested.

 

Also, international students on the shortlist don't get left out completely--onzeheures, when you were unable to attend the open house, you skyped with more people in the department, right? So sort of an e-Open House. I think they're building a shortlist so that they can invite people to the Open House, and anyone who can't go to that (perhaps due to location) will get some other kind of thing so the department can get more info for their final decision. So basically you're correct that they're not making final admit decisions now, and that going to the Open House does not guarantee admittance/not going does not guarantee rejection, but that doesn't mean they aren't moving toward decisions now.

 

*It's killing me to type these words. I think the interview went well...

[aojfifjoaisjaiosdj]

That would be kind of an odd thing for them to extend invitations based on proximity. When I went to the open house at Maryland two years ago, there were a number of international people present (including someone from New Zealand!). Unless their budget situation has significantly changed since then (and I am willing to bet it hasn't), I don't see why they would change their policy. 

 

I'm just telling you exactly what my interviewer told me. He's on the committee, and he said people get invited depending on who they can afford to bring.