No decision/contact at all?

[talkcherty2me]

Just curious, did anyone else not hear anything from anywhere they applied to? I'm already really happy with the program I chose to attend, but I find it a little odd that I paid over $50 in an application fee to not even get a rejection. Do you think they lost my application somehow?

[melissaam]

It happens, unfortunately. I have probably a 10 minute rant on the subject, because it think its a terribly abhorrent practice. For these sake of EVERYONE involved, I'll keep quiet.

[ballwera]

Happened for me. Applied to school. Was contacted by a professor for an interview. Interviewed with his lab, then lost contact. Finally here back from him (after the 4/15 deadline) at which point I tell him I'd already accepted an offer at my #1 program. Haven't heard anything back since, not even a courtesy email from the professor. The online portal still says under review fwiw. But like Melissaam said it's a ridiculous policy. If you have to pay to have your application reviewed, you at least deserve to get some feedback. 

[talkcherty2me]

It's particularly weird though because I didn't have any contact with anyone admissions-related (POI, professor on adcom, whatever) after I submitted my app. I only had a short exchange with the secretary about whether or not some of my documents were received since the portal wasn't working correctly. It's also possible that my decision was somewhere on that portal but I couldn't find it (and I looked quite a few times).

[scarvesandcardigans]

I didn't hear a single thing back from one of the programs to which I applied. By mid-March I had made my decision and was hearing back about late rejections (oh, the courtesy...), so I sent an email to withdraw my application. No response to that email, no follow-up rejection, absolutely nothing!

[rising_star]

While I realize it's aggravating to never hear back, it's also something you will get totally accustomed to if you ever go on the academic job market. In fact, for many jobs the only reason you'll know it's been filled is because either one of your friends posted about accepting the position on social media or because you checked the academic jobs wiki for your field.

[ballwera]

While I realize it's aggravating to never hear back, it's also something you will get totally accustomed to if you ever go on the academic job market. In fact, for many jobs the only reason you'll know it's been filled is because either one of your friends posted about accepting the position on social media or because you checked the academic jobs wiki for your field.

 

If I'm paying to submit my application, I think that I deserve a rejection letter at the very least. 

[TakeruK]

If I'm paying to submit my application, I think that I deserve a rejection letter at the very least. 

 

Sometimes the rejection letter will be automatically generated by the system when the Fall 2015 season officially closes. This might happen a few months to a year after Fall 2015 starts (some schools will hold onto your application for future years). I don't think the school is technically obligated to ever give a response, but I think it would be good practice for a school to do so. In my opinion, while a school "should" make timely decisions (i.e. send a rejection once they are certain the Fall 2015 class is full), I don't think they are in the wrong if they decide to continue to hold onto application materials from previous years and not send a rejection until they remove/delete your application information.

[talkcherty2me]

Looking at the results page, it seems like very few people applying to the program actually received their rejections (there were 2 rejections and 2 acceptances, and it's a very selective school). At least that means they probably didn't lose my application. It's also comforting to see that other people also didn't receive rejections from other schools. I think this is pretty ridiculous, but if it's not out of the norm, I guess I can't complain too much.

[TakeruK]

Looking at the results page, it seems like very few people applying to the program actually received their rejections (there were 2 rejections and 2 acceptances, and it's a very selective school). At least that means they probably didn't lose my application. It's also comforting to see that other people also didn't receive rejections from other schools. I think this is pretty ridiculous, but if it's not out of the norm, I guess I can't complain too much.

 

Well, this is a distorted figure because I would guess that the majority of applicants do not post their results to their results page. And, people receiving rejections might be less likely to post their result. So, just seeing 2 rejections posted does not tell you much about the actual number of rejections sent out.

[talkcherty2me]

Well, this is a distorted figure because I would guess that the majority of applicants do not post their results to their results page. And, people receiving rejections might be less likely to post their result. So, just seeing 2 rejections posted does not tell you much about the actual number of rejections sent out.

You're probably right. I was just looking for some justification as to why my rejection was never sent. It seems weird to not send out all or none of the rejections, unless those few officially rejected only got their decision because they had to bug the crap out of the graduation admissions secretary until they got it.

[Chai_latte]

Yeah, this happened to me when I applied to my first grad program.  

I had applied for spring admission and had heard from every school, except for one of my top choices.  After an email to one professor and a call to another, there was still no response.  Two days prior to winter break, I contacted the head of grad studies.  She forced them to email me a decision lol.  A rejection was sent forthwith... accompanied by a mealy-mouthed preamble as to why I had been ignored.  (It amounted to: You're so fantastic.  We were trying to make room for you.  But, alas, we couldn't.  Rejected!)  

Now that I've been in the grad school "game" for some time, I get that this can be par for the course.  I still think it's rotten, though.

I'm glad that you have a program you're happy with.