Anxiety-induced question

[citizencities]

Hi all,

 

Applied to the Harvard GSD. Financial aid documents were due on Feb 6. Got a personal (def not a cc) e-mail from the fin aid office saying that they "will let me know if they need anything else."

 

I'm almost certain this was just sent out of courtesy, but of course I start overthinking it. 

 

Is it usual for fin aid to personally (again NOT cc'd) email hundreds of applicants just to confirm financial aid documents are submitted? If so, why put in the time to reply to those who applied for financial aid who have not been admitted? (Not 100% positive, but admissions decisions are mostly decided in January, and they use Feb to process fin aid). Is there ANYTHING I can read into this? (i.e. can I even be plausibly optimistic from a seemingly mundane e-mail?)

 

Applications were due Jan 5. Fin aid due Feb 6. Expecting decisions to be released the first week of March (has been this way historically).

 

Please help my sanity.

[sofiefatale]

I mean, obviously stay positive and optimistic—but I'm not sure I'd read TOO much into this. They may have an auto-generated message that personally addresses each applicant with a friendly message, or the fin aid office may just actually respond to everyone because they know if they don't they'll get a bunch of panicked emails from us

[citizencities]

Yeah I'm probably reading too much into it. Lol though I find it hard ro believe that they would reply to so many emails personally. I assure you it wasnt an automated email. Theres ways to tell.

[grad_wannabe]

Yeah I'm probably reading too much into it. Lol though I find it hard ro believe that they would reply to so many emails personally. I assure you it wasnt an automated email. Theres ways to tell.

 

How so?

[citizencities]

How so?

 

After discussing this with a few people before, there are two reasons:

 

1. The email was a direct response to an email I sent them personally to submit a doc (everyone was instructed to email the fin aid office for required docs for scholarships). It couldn't have been a cc/bcc if the reply I got was a direct response to the email I sent i.e. it was part of the same thread. Which still brings me to the question: presumably if hundreds if not a few thousand people submitted documents, why reply to each of personally? Sounds really inefficient.

 

2. The heading of emails should specify whether your email was part of a cc/bcc. 

[Soconfusedandnervous]

Hi citizencities,

My friend who also submitted her financial aid docs for Harvard on feb 6 also got a personal email thanking her and letting her know they would contact her if they needed anything else. She was also surprised. So I wouldn't read much into it.

It sounds like it is the exact same email with just your name changed at the top, and probably big schools/websites have ways of sending out mass emails with same body and different greeting I guess?

Goodluck anyway!!

[citizencities]

Hi citizencities,

My friend who also submitted her financial aid docs for Harvard on feb 6 also got a personal email thanking her and letting her know they would contact her if they needed anything else. She was also surprised. So I wouldn't read much into it.

It sounds like it is the exact same email with just your name changed at the top, and probably big schools/websites have ways of sending out mass emails with same body and different greeting I guess?

Goodluck anyway!!

 

Maybe we both implicitly got good news Good luck to your friend! Now I wonder if anyone else who submitted documents got a different message or none at all?