University not handing out admission package until after visitation weekend

[ucdude]

What exactly does this imply? None of my friends or grad students who I have asked, have heard about this.

[rising_star]

Do you mean they aren't letting you know that you're in or that they aren't letting you know about funding?

[jujubea]

Hm... It sounded to me like that was standard fare.... they invite you to check you out, just as much as you're checking them out.... And then they decide whether and what to offer you..

[Eigen]

Our department used to do admits and funding before visits, then transitioned to admits before visits and funding decisions after, and then after a really bad year with that moved to admits and funding decisions after visits. 

 

For us, if you visit they want to admit you, pending something major going wrong during your visit. 

[Vene]

We have both admission and funding after the interview. But, admission also means you get x funding package, which is described on the website.

[ucdude]

They said:

Formal notifications of admission will be sent directly from the admissions office after your visitation weekend.

[ucdude]

I'm guessing that's an informal admission. What I want to know, is what could happen over visitation weekend that can possibly make me not get a formal admission?

[TakeruK]

I'm guessing that's an informal admission. What I want to know, is what could happen over visitation weekend that can possibly make me not get a formal admission?

 

Something that clearly shows that you're not what you seem to be on paper and/or clearly show that you do not fit in the department (e.g. inappropriate behaviour).

[rising_star]

What TakeruK said. The other major red flag would be an inability to answer basic questions about your research (e.g., your discussions leave them with the impression that someone else came up with your research project).

[ucdude]

The only inappropriate behavior I can think of is having too much to drink, but thats not even a concern at all. 

 

And I haven't really had any of my OWN research projects, but if someone asks I can tell them what I have been doing pretty easily..

 

I just hope I have nothing to worry about. I applied to 9, got into 1 so far...

[TakeruK]

I don't think you have to worry. If you were honest in your application and if you are not a terrible person, then you will be fine.

 

It's not like you have to watch every little thing you say or do because one wrong step would result in rejection. Inappropriate behaviour could be things like harassing other people, so it's not like you can "accidentally" get yourself rejected.

[BeatrizBear]

Did they say that formal interviews were going to be a part of the weekend? Maybe it's just that they want to interview you before making a final decision?

[Vene]

I don't think you have to worry. If you were honest in your application and if you are not a terrible person, then you will be fine.

 

It's not like you have to watch every little thing you say or do because one wrong step would result in rejection. Inappropriate behaviour could be things like harassing other people, so it's not like you can "accidentally" get yourself rejected.

A really good way to get yourself rejected is to start making as many racist and sexist jokes as possible and generally just acting like a creep.

[grad_wannabe]

A really good way to get yourself rejected is to start making as many racist and sexist jokes as possible and generally just acting like a creep.

 

There was a guy in the anthropology forum who posted that part of the reason he wanted to do field work in far-off locations was to woo exotic women. 

 

I'd imagine a comment of that sort during a visit weekend would get one tossed right off. 

[BeatrizBear]

There was a guy in the anthropology forum who posted that part of the reason he wanted to do field work in far-off locations was to woo exotic women. 

 

I'd imagine a comment of that sort during a visit weekend would get one tossed right off.

I saw that post. It sounded super racist and I was disturbed. I'm not surprised though. There's always people like that. I had a course where we were reading works by an author who was reacting against the colonization of his country. I had a classmate say, "I don't think this author is grateful enough to his colonizers." His reasoning was that the author had a better life under British rule because he got to go to a British school and get a European education. This guy also argued that the Europeans cilivzed the people that they conquered so the conquered people weren't getting a bad deal out of it. It was such an an ignorant thing to say. He topped it off by basically saying that these people were whiners for blaming the British for their current political problems. I believe we were reading a Nigerian author but the name eludes me.

[jujubea]

There was a guy in the anthropology forum who posted that part of the reason he wanted to do field work in far-off locations was to woo exotic women. 

 

I'd imagine a comment of that sort during a visit weekend would get one tossed right off. 

 

Omg I remember those posts...! And as they went on, they just got worse and worse.

[ucdude]

Yikes. Okay, well I dont think I have to worry about that. All I would worry about is coming off too stiff in interviews (as in shy, nervous, etc.) I'm not sexist, racist, or a creep, and I am obviously who I say I am on my application....so I dont really have anything to worry about?

 

 

They didn't say anything about formal interviews, but I believe that I will meet with professors that are of my interest. Realizing this now, my friends said that they think that the admissions package isnt much, and thats why they won't tell you what you are getting for aid until you visit.

[TakeruK]

No, you don't have anything to worry about. Just be yourself!

[ucdude]

My friends thought this isnt so much about making sure I am a good fit, but that there is a possibility that the financial aid package is bad, or sub-par, and thats why they are waiting till I go to visitation weekend before I get an official acceptance. Does this make more sense to you guys? It does for me. Unfortunately it also made me realize that the 1 school I did get into (out o the 9 I applied to), has a decent chance to not have a good package. 

[SN090]

I am an international student, so I have got nothing to do with recruitment weekend or anything. But still I get this mail

 

"Thank you so much again for meeting with the Admissions Committee via Skype. It was a pleasure to speak with you today. Our recruitment weekend where we would interview US candidates occurs in February and we would not be able to make offers until late February at the earliest.  The committee remains very interested in your application to the program and we would ask you, if you receive offers from other programs please let us know, so we could respond.  Please let me know if you have any questions."

 

Can anybody please explain what this means???? Thanks.

[TakeruK]

I am an international student, so I have got nothing to do with recruitment weekend or anything. But still I get this mail

 

"Thank you so much again for meeting with the Admissions Committee via Skype. It was a pleasure to speak with you today. Our recruitment weekend where we would interview US candidates occurs in February and we would not be able to make offers until late February at the earliest.  The committee remains very interested in your application to the program and we would ask you, if you receive offers from other programs please let us know, so we could respond.  Please let me know if you have any questions."

 

Can anybody please explain what this means???? Thanks.

 

To me, this means what the email says -- the school is interested in your application but they won't be able to confirm a decision with you until late February. This might be for many reasons, such as: they need to confirm the extra funding needed for graduate students, or they need to interview everyone and the process takes awhile, or the department needs to make some other financial decisions before they know how many graduate students they can take next year etc.

 

In the second part of the email, they ask you to keep them up to date on any other offers you might have. This is a normal request in my field. This just means that they want to keep the option of admitting you and they are worried that if they do not respond until late February, you might have accepted an offer elsewhere. For example, if another school admitted you next week, you should tell them that you got an offer from University X with funding for $Y/year. Then, the school can decide if this is a big enough "threat" that they need to respond right away. If they really really wanted you and they knew that you had a good offer elsewhere, they might try to expedite other decisions/processes in their own program in order to get an offer to you sooner.

 

In addition, not all schools (especially non-US schools) follow the "April 15 convention" so they wrote this email in case another school says "Here is the offer, please respond in 3 weeks". In this case, they would probably try to make the decision sooner (if they wanted you) because they would not want you to reject them simply because another school gave you a strict deadline. 

 

So, overall, the email is a good one to get (they even say "the committee remains very interested in your application"), but nothing is certain. All you have to do now is wait and follow their request to keep them updated.

[SN090]

To me, this means what the email says -- the school is interested in your application but they won't be able to confirm a decision with you until late February. This might be for many reasons, such as: they need to confirm the extra funding needed for graduate students, or they need to interview everyone and the process takes awhile, or the department needs to make some other financial decisions before they know how many graduate students they can take next year etc.

 

In the second part of the email, they ask you to keep them up to date on any other offers you might have. This is a normal request in my field. This just means that they want to keep the option of admitting you and they are worried that if they do not respond until late February, you might have accepted an offer elsewhere. For example, if another school admitted you next week, you should tell them that you got an offer from University X with funding for $Y/year. Then, the school can decide if this is a big enough "threat" that they need to respond right away. If they really really wanted you and they knew that you had a good offer elsewhere, they might try to expedite other decisions/processes in their own program in order to get an offer to you sooner.

 

In addition, not all schools (especially non-US schools) follow the "April 15 convention" so they wrote this email in case another school says "Here is the offer, please respond in 3 weeks". In this case, they would probably try to make the decision sooner (if they wanted you) because they would not want you to reject them simply because another school gave you a strict deadline. 

 

So, overall, the email is a good one to get (they even say "the committee remains very interested in your application"), but nothing is certain. All you have to do now is wait and follow their request to keep them updated.

 

 

Thanks a lot for the explanation!!!..

[Eigen]

My friends thought this isnt so much about making sure I am a good fit, but that there is a possibility that the financial aid package is bad, or sub-par, and thats why they are waiting till I go to visitation weekend before I get an official acceptance. Does this make more sense to you guys? It does for me. Unfortunately it also made me realize that the 1 school I did get into (out o the 9 I applied to), has a decent chance to not have a good package. 

 

I doubt this has anything to do with it. We can fully fund more people than we end up accepting in a year, and we still do things this year. 

 

Don't grope the grad students, don't get drunk and throw up in someone's car, don't be overtly racist, don't tell the graduate students or faculty that their research is stupid or subpar, or that you're waaaay smarter than they are and just coming to the visit weekend for a free trip to X city. 

 

These visits are generally about making sure that you are in person what you seem to be on paper. 

[ElDudeBrothers14111]

My friends thought this isnt so much about making sure I am a good fit, but that there is a possibility that the financial aid package is bad, or sub-par, and thats why they are waiting till I go to visitation weekend before I get an official acceptance. Does this make more sense to you guys? It does for me. Unfortunately it also made me realize that the 1 school I did get into (out o the 9 I applied to), has a decent chance to not have a good package.

Oh. Fancy seeing you here Edited January 25, 2015 by ElDudeBrothers14111