Waitlist Etiquette

[billlabov]

Wondering if people who have been on the admin/admissions side of things have any insight on what the general etiquette is for people placed on waitlists? After thoroughly researching Canadian schools, locations and the direction of graduate students, I'm at 2a/1w/0r (out of three applications), which is wonderful, but it just so happens that - of course - the 1w is my top choice school, and the place I feel I would be challenged the most. I have less than two weeks to respond to one of the acceptances, and I'm wondering how much "pushing" is acceptable. Is calling/emailing and discussing the other offer frowned upon? Will emphasizing my deadline be viewed as too pushy?

[TakeruK]

I think one good course of action is to contact the waitlist school, thank them for their consideration and say that another school (you can name it if you wish) has made you an offer and gave you until March X to decide. Since you are interested in (waitlist school), you want to ask (the other school) for an extension on the decision and you would like to know if the school has an approximate timeline on their waitlist decisions so you can ask for an appropriate extension at the other school.

Then, when the school responds, you should contact the other school and ask for an extension. They will likely grant it to you---it's much easier to offer an extension than it is to make an earlier decision (because this requires forcing their current offers to make decisions faster).

Also, I think it's much easier/better to ask a school that waitlisted you about the expected decision timeline instead of saying "can you make a decision on me within 2 weeks?". Of course, this also provides the school with the useful information that you have this deadline so they might also choose to push your application through faster, but it's better that they choose to do this instead of you asking.

Finally, I think one last piece of good etiquette that you can practice is to make a decision between the two acceptances you do have. If you don't get into your top choice, which one of the two would you accept? If you already know the answer to this, then decline the other school now so that they can move onto their waitlist (and maybe someone who is waitlisted there is in the same situation as you!)

[billlabov]

Thank you for your response! I have already declined one of the schools, which wasn't too difficult as they made it clear they were not able to provide much funding. Hopefully that helped someone out of waitlist limbo -- it's no fun!

I'm curious to hear what other people think as well, or what they have done and whether it went well for them!

Edited March 11, 2016 by billlabov

[PizzaCat93]

Different field, but is it a good idea to let the DGS and others know that I am still very interested in the school I'm waitlisted at? Would it help/hurt any? I got the notification about a month ago, and they said they'd likely not be making decisions until early April. I have other offers, and the deadline for all of them is April 15, so it's a different situation than the OP. 

[TakeruK]

On 3/12/2016 at 5:55 PM, PizzaCat93 said:

Different field, but is it a good idea to let the DGS and others know that I am still very interested in the school I'm waitlisted at? Would it help/hurt any? I got the notification about a month ago, and they said they'd likely not be making decisions until early April. I have other offers, and the deadline for all of them is April 15, so it's a different situation than the OP. 

Since they gave a timeline of early April, wait until early April to contact them, in my opinion. Your other deadlines are April 15 so contacting them now is not necessary.