Does this mean I am in?

[NOLAmath]

I have applied somewhere for a spring admission. It has been 5 weeks since I received a call from them telling me they had all my materials and I would hear form them within 2 to 3 weeks. Needless to say, I have be growing restless. I had tired logging into their student portal a few times and nothing. Tonight, I put in my email adress and they emailed me my login info. Does that mean I am in?

 

 

[fuzzylogician]

Not necessarily. You need to follow up on your status with the department and not assume you've been accepted until someone explicitly tells you so. 

[NOLAmath]

A call this morning did not reveal much. I talked to the person in admissions and he told me on his computer my application was "decision pending." The last time I talked to him it was "under departmental review." I don't know if that is a change or if he was saying 2 different things to mean the same thing.

[IWing]

A call this morning did not reveal much. I talked to the person in admissions and he told me on his computer my application was "decision pending." The last time I talked to him it was "under departmental review." I don't know if that is a change or if he was saying 2 different things to mean the same thing.

 

"Decision pending" sounds a little closer than the previous status, but to me they're both just under review. I'm waiting on Spring 2015 as well, and this wait definitely makes me very unproductive and almost anxious. But there's nothing else we can do - just try to keep patient and fingers crossed.

[NOLAmath]

I know, I am just pretty useless right now while I wait on this decision.

[NOLAmath]

I talked to admissions today. They told me my application had been reviewed by the department and forwarded to the Dean. That is a good thing isn't it?

[TakeruK]

I talked to admissions today. They told me my application had been reviewed by the department and forwarded to the Dean. That is a good thing isn't it?

 

The usual order of events is:

 

1. Grad School receives your application.

2. Grad school processes it (e.g. attaches transcript, GRE scores etc.) and makes sure it's complete.

3. Grad school sends it to department

4. Department reviews it and makes accept/reject decisions

5. Department sends its decision to Grad school 

6. Grad School approves department's decision (mostly to make sure department doesn't admit someone below university-wide standard without a good reason)

7. Grad school notifies you of the final decision; you get an official letter.

 

So it sounds like you are in Step 5/6. Usually, the department will also notify the student of their decision in Step 5 while saying that the decision is subject to final approval from the Graduate School, but not always. It's not common for the grad school to not approve the department's decisions. 

 

It does sound good if the department's decision was to accept you. Maybe this department does not like to informally give the decision and will wait until Step 7. Or, the prof assigned to give you the informal decision in Step 5 is away/busy/forgot to do it so you end up not hearing until way later than expected. This happened to me at one school!

[NOLAmath]

It turns out it did mean I was in, some people had to sign off to make it official.

[fuzzylogician]

It turns out it did mean I was in, some people had to sign off to make it official.

 

Congrats!

[jujubea]

Congratulations NOLAmath