Welcome to the 2016-17 cycle!

[Mike_Novick]

13 minutes ago, GradNYC said:

Whats the deal with Columbia? they sent out rejections to some but not others.. ahhhh 

My naïve interpretation is that those of us without any formal answer are in a "B-sided" waitlist... haha. Honestly, they may be just trickling their rejection letters (there are a few ones posted during the weekend, I think).

[mstama123]

4 minutes ago, Mike_Novick said:

My naïve interpretation is that those of us without any formal answer are in a "B-sided" waitlist... haha. Honestly, they may be just trickling their rejection letters (there are a few ones posted during the weekend, I think).

I am hoping the same. exact. thing.  I hate feeling like I'm in limbo.

[ugurcanevci]

1 hour ago, magicdonhuang said:

No interview and no invitation. I have had some contact with the DGA via email about my application which gave me some hope but I'm left to assume the worst since I haven't been invited to the meet at this time.

Well if you've heard from the DGA, that's better than nothing  To be clear with my process, 2 weeks ago I've received an email stating that they were favorable with my admission and wanted to have a chat. The interview was an informal one, and it was mostly on which faculty to work with. They again stated that they were favorable but they don't promise anything. Last Friday, I've received an email as an invitation to the meeting day, but still no official admission offer. 

Edited February 14, 2017 by ugurcanevci

[magicdonhuang]

27 minutes ago, ugurcanevci said:

Well if you've heard from the DGA, that's better than nothing  To be clear with my process, 2 weeks ago I've received an email stating that they were favorable with my admission and wanted to have a chat. The interview was an informal one, and it was mostly on which faculty to work with. They again stated that they were favorable but they don't promise anything. Last Friday, I've received an email as an invitation to the meeting day, but still no official admission offer. 

Thanks for the information. If I don't read into it that I'm already rejected, It appears their process is a bit unscripted. Regardless, I think you are in a very good position. UCI is a rising department in a great area with good job placement prospects. 

[deactivatedaccount]

1 hour ago, magicdonhuang said:

Could you elaborate? Not for any reason other than morbid curiosity.... Did they tell you that your "application" set of a round of continuous laughter in the admissions committee? Did they tell you they threw it in the trash while making jokes with each other about how this person could ever think their credentials qualified them to even apply to the illustrious Brown University?

Hahaha, I wish it was the dramatically mean. The text I found funny in it was:

"Admission decisions are made on a comparative basis and are the result of a careful evaluation of each candidate's application, taking into account academic achievement, preparation for advanced study, and other supporting materials. Most of the applicants to our graduate programs possess very strong qualifications indicating an ability to do advanced academic work. Our graduate programs also receive far more applications from applicants than they can accept at any one time. These programs must select the very best from their applicants pools. Unfortunately, you were not among those selected."

So reading it, when they start to ramp up, I was expecting them to somehow try to spare my feelings (not to say this is what I wanted or feel entitled to somehow, it's just what I'm used to seeing in rejection notifications), but this letter basically just talks up all of their accepted applicants and then is like "but you were not one of those."

[magicdonhuang]

4 minutes ago, hyacinthus said:

Hahaha, I wish it was the dramatically mean. The text I found funny in it was:

"Admission decisions are made on a comparative basis and are the result of a careful evaluation of each candidate's application, taking into account academic achievement, preparation for advanced study, and other supporting materials. Most of the applicants to our graduate programs possess very strong qualifications indicating an ability to do advanced academic work. Our graduate programs also receive far more applications from applicants than they can accept at any one time. These programs must select the very best from their applicants pools. Unfortunately, you were not among those selected."

So reading it, when they start to ramp up, I was expecting them to somehow try to spare my feelings (not to say this is what I wanted or feel entitled to somehow, it's just what I'm used to seeing in rejection notifications), but this letter basically just talks up all of their accepted applicants and then is like "but you were not one of those."

Haha. Well, good on you for all the work you've done. I'm sure it was not a rejection, just a poor decision on their part.

[VMcJ]

19 minutes ago, magicdonhuang said:

Haha. Well, good on you for all the work you've done. I'm sure it was not a rejection, just a poor decision on their part.

Definitely a poor decision, as it was when deciding what to put on that letter. Those last two sentences basically undo everything the rest of the paragraph was apparently trying to achieve.

Brown and UCSD issued their rejections before their acceptances. That's kind of odd, but I think it is more sensible than taking a week or more to send rejections. It is ironic that Brown avoided to take a very long time to reject, but then sent a careless letter.

[changeisgood]

16 minutes ago, VMcJ said:

Definitely a poor decision, as it was when deciding what to put on that letter. Those last two sentences basically undo everything the rest of the paragraph was apparently trying to achieve.

Brown and UCSD issued their rejections before their acceptances. That's kind of odd, but I think it is more sensible than taking a week or more to send rejections. It is ironic that Brown avoided to take a very long time to reject, but then sent a careless letter.

Yeah, someone needs to re-word that letter, it probably didn't come out the way they intended.  Probably written by a jaded tenured full Prof (there's one in my current department who would write one *exactly* like that on purpose :)).

That said, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon that the harshness of the communication seems to be inversely proportional to the ranking of the program.  Totally unscientific, of course.  Someone should write a paper on that.

[advark]

Finally! It looks like UNC is finishing up. 

[territhemayor]

Someone post this brown letter if it's so harsh!

[Bibica]

I thought Brown issued their acceptances as well? At least, I have a friend who got in today.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Bibica

[globetrotter126]

8 hours ago, magicdonhuang said:

What are we to make of the Irvine acceptance? The portal doesn't tell me anything at this point and they haven't sent out any emails?

 

8 hours ago, ugurcanevci said:

Well the portal explicitly states that we'd receive an email in case of admission. So, seems like a troll. 

 

Have you had an interview and an invitation to March 3 meeting day?

The Irvine acceptance is mine. Sorry, I forgot to claim it on the forum. I checked on the portal and found an admission offer letter and a financial aid letter (with funding for 6 years). I received an official email with the same stuff about six hours after checking the portal. This morning I also received two more emails: one from the Graduate Division informing me of how to go about accepting/declining their offer, and another one about the Statement of Legal Residence.

7 hours ago, ugurcanevci said:

Well if you've heard from the DGA, that's better than nothing  To be clear with my process, 2 weeks ago I've received an email stating that they were favorable with my admission and wanted to have a chat. The interview was an informal one, and it was mostly on which faculty to work with. They again stated that they were favorable but they don't promise anything. Last Friday, I've received an email as an invitation to the meeting day, but still no official admission offer. 

I had a Skype chat with a POI which was very positive about 10 days back. I received an email from the DGA soon after, shortly before receiving the official invite for Visiting Day. Since I am an international student staying in my home country, I will not be able to attend. So the DGA, in her email, was very positive and suggested I list the profs I wanted to speak with so that that day could be recreated virtually.

Edited February 14, 2017 by globetrotter126

[LarryLondon]

That NYU one has to be a troll right? Wondering if/hoping that NYU are doing things differently this year as it has been a much longer wait for rejections than previous years. They've typically sent acceptances and then rejections about a week later.

[Monody]

NYU has been out for nearly two weeks. Waitlists as well.

[LarryLondon]

3 minutes ago, Monody said:

NYU has been out for nearly two weeks. Waitlists as well.

Yeah, thats what I'm saying. There is a new acceptance posted for the 13th - seems a bit odd when looking at previous years.

[ugurcanevci]

4 hours ago, globetrotter126 said:

 

The Irvine acceptance is mine. Sorry, I forgot to claim it on the forum. I checked on the portal and found an admission offer letter and a financial aid letter (with funding for 6 years). I received an official email with the same stuff about six hours after checking the portal. This morning I also received two more emails: one from the Graduate Division informing me of how to go about accepting/declining their offer, and another one about the Statement of Legal Residence.

I had a Skype chat with a POI which was very positive about 10 days back. I received an email from the DGA soon after, shortly before receiving the official invite for Visiting Day. Since I am an international student staying in my home country, I will not be able to attend. So the DGA, in her email, was very positive and suggested I list the profs I wanted to speak with so that that day could be recreated virtually.

Oh shoot, now I'm really anxious. 

[nate3869]

10 hours ago, advark said:

Finally! It looks like UNC is finishing up. 

I still haven't gotten anything at all from UNC.

[nate3869]

20 hours ago, Cemmd said:

Has anyone heard back from Washington Uni in St. Louis?

I'm still waiting as well. They said on their website that they were aiming to get decisions back the first week in February, but that clearly hasn't happened.

[advark]

5 minutes ago, nate3869 said:

I still haven't gotten anything at all from UNC.

Neither have I. With 2 waitlists posted, I am going to count this as a rejection now. 

[ugurcanevci]

Claiming an official admission offer from UC Irvine! Oh it's a relief!

[Tumiaeve]

13 hours ago, Mike_Novick said:

My naïve interpretation is that those of us without any formal answer are in a "B-sided" waitlist... haha. Honestly, they may be just trickling their rejection letters (there are a few ones posted during the weekend, I think).

So I emailed the Political Science department chair at Columbia and he gave a very vague answer of "You should be hearing from us shortly." So Columbia isn't being very forthcoming on what to expect at this point.

[dih2]

When should we expect Harvard and Yale? Yale possibly this week judging by some earlier years?

[Mike_Novick]

12 minutes ago, Jazahmia said:

So I emailed the Political Science department chair at Columbia and he gave a very vague answer of "You should be hearing from us shortly." So Columbia isn't being very forthcoming on what to expect at this point.

Thanks for the update, @Jazahmia. I wonder what kinds of obstacles are preventing them from releasing the remaining letters of rejection ...

[Monody]

36 minutes ago, ugurcanevci said:

Claiming an official admission offer from UC Irvine! Oh it's a relief!

Congrats. Feels awesome, doesn't it?

[VMcJ]

38 minutes ago, ugurcanevci said:

Claiming an official admission offer from UC Irvine! Oh it's a relief!

Congratulations!