Surprise Acceptance, Hidden Disaster

[Wullbluomen]

Hello, everyone,

 

I've been browsing this forum for about a year now, and I got a lot of help and inspiration from the members during the application process this past fall -- so thank you all for sharing your experiences! I ended up applying to eight History PhD programs. Earlier this month, I received some enthusiastic emails from a POI with whom I had been hoping to work for a long time, and the admissions committee from her university has just contacted me to let me know that I've been recommended for admission. The POI told me that there are a lot of different faculty members who are interested in my proposed research, and they've even nominated me for a big fellowship. It goes without saying that I'm excited and overwhelmed, especially since I didn't expect to hear anything at all until late February.

 

The problem is, I just found out that I'm not going to be able to make the February degree conferral date at my university, and will need to wait until May. Either way, I would be entering the PhD program with an MA, but I specified my graduation date as February 2015 in all of my applications. Do you think this will sink my chances of acceptance to the other programs? Should I notify the admissions committees of each school, and if so, how should I go about doing it?

[Josh J.]

Honestly, I doubt anyone will care.  As long as you have your MA in hand when you matriculate, I don't see any programs having a big fit over this.  This is especially true, I think, since it sounds like you have professors fighting over you and your work...which is awesome, congratulations.

 

They are looking at the whole picture, a masters upon entrance, GPA, GRE, letters, SOP, writing sample, proposed project, etc.  The fact that you thought you were going to graduate three months early probably wasn't even on their radar, honestly, and I doubt it was a factor in decision making at all....

 

Where are you applying, generally speaking, if you don't mind me asking?

[Wullbluomen]

Thanks for your response, Josh. The graduation issue is also embarrassing because I'm in my third year of the MA program, which is unusual (I had to take an extra semester of language courses to meet the degree requirements). But my advisor told me not to worry about that when I was applying, and at least one program has accepted me despite being clearly aware of it, so -- like you said -- it doesn't seem to be a big issue.

 

I applied to UC Berkeley, UCSB, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, Georgetown, Harvard, and U. Penn.

[Josh J.]

That is an excellent speed of schools.  With your situation above with your acceptance, I'd say you are in a great position. 

[rising_star]

They're not going to care at all. I changed my MA graduation date from May to August and no one batted an eye.

[Between Fields]

As long as it's in hand before you walk in the door, it won't matter. 

[BeatrizBear]

Same. I thought I would have my degree conferred in December 2014 but it'll probably be May 2015. As long as you finish the degree and send in a final transcript, I doubt they'll care when it gets done. Provided it's done before the Fall semester, of course.

[TakeruK]

They won't care. 

 

Also, you do not generally need to have your degree conferred in order for it to count. Schools generally just care whether or not you have completed all of the requirements, and most schools will issue you a letter stating so when you get this far. For example, I defended my MSc thesis in late August 2012 and I started my grad program in late September 2012. However, my MSc degree was not conferred until November 2012. My PhD program didn't care (they just wanted to see the degree or the transcript stating degree completion by the end of 2012 calendar year).

 

For another example, my current school only confers degrees once per year, in June. So if you graduate in July 2013, say, your degree is not conferred until June 2014. However, in the meantime, newly defended PhDs need to get jobs that would start in Fall 2013! It's pretty common for post-PhD jobs to accept a letter from the school stating that you've completed all of your degree requirements until you actually get your degree conferred.