Admissions Blog 2017: Taking Over

[Sam Anscombe]

On 2/13/2017 at 4:25 PM, shayhenckel said:

Are you only doing PhD programs? Otherwise, I'm not sure why Tufts and Brandeis (both terminal MA's) aren't on there since they're top-ranked by The Philosophical Gourmet. I applied to both so I'd like to see them on there if possible!

 

 

Hi there,

In the past, we have only done PhD programs. It's a little late this season, but I will pass on the suggestion to whoever takes over the blog next year. You are more than welcome to calculate predictions based on the TGC Survey Results, though!

- S

Edited February 16, 2017 by Sam Anscombe

[Sam Anscombe]

I received a very considerate email from Dr. Eric Watkins on Feb 2 letting me know that, in the interests of transparency, no decisions would have been made about UCSD until February 13th at the earliest. This information serves no functional purpose now that decisions are out, but I thought this was thoughtful and I wanted to give due credit. 

(By the way, my sincere apologies for falling behind the last week or so—I had the flu for about a week and a half and I wasn't able to do much of anything). 

Edited February 16, 2017 by Sam Anscombe

[Sam Anscombe]

An anonymous graduate student contacted me to let me know that the committee at Princeton is meeting next week or the week after to finalize decisions, but does not know how soon after that they will send emails. So, the initial notifications might be sent earlier than expected. 

Edited February 20, 2017 by Sam Anscombe

[goss]

Any ideas as to what is taking U. of Illinois at Chicago so long? It's nearly a month after the predicted date.

[Duns Eith]

16 minutes ago, goss said:

Any ideas as to what is taking U. of Illinois at Chicago so long? It's nearly a month after the predicted date.

There's two dates: the earlier date is if nominated for fellowship, Feb 23rd if you're not nominated for fellowship. This corresponds to the two deadlines on their app page (Jan 7 for consideration of fellowship, and Feb 1st for consideration of TA-ship or no funding)

Edited February 20, 2017 by Turretin

[goss]

1 hour ago, Turretin said:

There's two dates: the earlier date is if nominated for fellowship, Feb 23rd if you're not nominated for fellowship. This corresponds to the two deadlines on their app page (Jan 7 for consideration of fellowship, and Feb 1st for consideration of TA-ship or no funding)

I haven't seen any results on the results page for UIC at all. I guess no one using GradCafe got a fellowship. So the expected date is February 23rd then for non-fellowships?

[Duns Eith]

7 minutes ago, goss said:

I haven't seen any results on the results page for UIC at all. I guess no one using GradCafe got a fellowship. So the expected date is February 23rd then for non-fellowships?

Yeah, that's how I'm reading the tea leaves.

[ApplyingToGradSchools]

I've been in contact with U Mich and they will be releasing provisional offers by mid-March. I hope this helps relieve some of the stress and anxiety.

[Duns Eith]

14 hours ago, ApplyingToGradSchools said:

I've been in contact with U Mich and they will be releasing provisional offers by mid-March. I hope this helps relieve some of the stress and anxiety.

Ballsy ask, IMO.

[Sam Anscombe]

14 hours ago, ApplyingToGradSchools said:

I've been in contact with U Mich and they will be releasing provisional offers by mid-March. I hope this helps relieve some of the stress and anxiety.

 

 

 

When graduate programs are asked about decision release dates, mid-March is the standard (and safe) response. For what it's worth, Mich released their initial decisions on March 5 in 2015 and March 7 in 2016.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Sam Anscombe

[Sam Anscombe]

I received an anonymous tip that my prediction is likely to be accurate for Stanford, and at the very least, that decisions are unlikely to be released before March 5.

[753982]

Brown, Notre Dame, UCSD, and Rutgers should all release some decisions next week, although UCSD will probably just send out rejections that should've been sent almost two weeks ago. SLU, UMass Amherst, and UT Austin are also likely to release decisions soon.

[eigenname]

34 minutes ago, 753982 said:

Brown, Notre Dame, UCSD, and Rutgers should all release some decisions next week, although UCSD will probably just send out rejections that should've been sent almost two weeks ago. SLU, UMass Amherst, and UT Austin are also likely to release decisions soon.

Finally, the long-awaited UCSD rejection!  

[akraticfanatic]

Has anyone else heard from BC? There's only that one result up from February 7th. Is it too early to bug them about it?

Also interested in BU results. 

[mano]

5 minutes ago, shayhenckel said:

Has anyone else heard from BC? There's only that one result up from February 7th. Is it too early to bug them about it?

Also interested in BU results. 

not sure about BC, but I guess it might be a good idea (that's what I am told) to wait few more days before bugging them.

[sleepingsusurrus]

21 hours ago, shayhenckel said:

Has anyone else heard from BC? There's only that one result up from February 7th. Is it too early to bug them about it?

Also interested in BU results. 

 

 

If you look at the past years, a lot of them come in the next few weeks! Also, snail mail

[akraticfanatic]

5 hours ago, sleepingsusurrus said:

If you look at the past years, a lot of them come in the next few weeks! Also, snail mail

Ugh, I know, I'm just sick of waiting! And I'm in Boston so I should get mail from them within a day. 

[Tecumseh Valley]

In the interest of crowd-sourcing information, I wonder if we could pool together what we have learned from this year's admissions cycle about acceptance rates. Many times, our acceptance letters, rejection letters, or conversations with DGSs will disclose how many people applied for how many funded spots. So, it might be interesting to pool this information together. 

I started a spreadsheet here, and included samples with two schools that have been mentioned in our forums recently - Oregon and New Mexico. 

It's an openly editable document, meaning anyone with the link can edit. 

[Ibycus]

7 minutes ago, Tecumseh Valley said:

In the interest of crowd-sourcing information, I wonder if we could pool together what we have learned from this year's admissions cycle about acceptance rates. Many times, our acceptance letters, rejection letters, or conversations with DGSs will disclose how many people applied for how many funded spots. So, it might be interesting to pool this information together. 

I started a spreadsheet here, and included samples with two schools that have been mentioned in our forums recently - Oregon and New Mexico. 

It's an openly editable document, meaning anyone with the link can edit. 

Oh, 7 and 2 were the number of admitted students, not the ultimate number of attendees desired? Wow, that's harsh! 

[Tecumseh Valley]

11 minutes ago, Ibycus said:

Oh, 7 and 2 were the number of admitted students, not the ultimate number of attendees desired? Wow, that's harsh! 

Good question. From Oregon - "we received 177 applicants for 7 PhD positions this year" It's unclear from this whether they admitted only 7 or admitted more than 7, hoping that 7 will accept their offer. 

We're not always in a position to know which the department means, so our estimate of the admissions rate will be just that, an estimate. Still, might be useful for future applicants. 

[Ibycus]

13 minutes ago, Tecumseh Valley said:

Good question. From Oregon - "we received 177 applicants for 7 PhD positions this year" It's unclear from this whether they admitted only 7 or admitted more than 7, hoping that 7 will accept their offer. 

We're not always in a position to know which the department means, so our estimate of the admissions rate will be just that, an estimate. Still, might be useful for future applicants. 

Oh, uh, I am pretty certain that means they have 7 spots to fill, and I believe every department accepts more students than they will ultimately take. Chicago is kinda close -- IIRC they accept 10 and try to land about 7. But most places cast a slightly wider net, is my sense -- maybe they accept about 15-20 and get about 6 new attendees per year. 

[upsilonolispu]

Does anyone have any information w/r/t how close Rutgers and NYU are to releasing decisions?

[eigenname]

25 minutes ago, upsilonolispu said:

Does anyone have any information w/r/t how close Rutgers and NYU are to releasing decisions?

Well, there's a Rutgers acceptance on the survey now. /sigh

[akraticfanatic]

On 3/1/2017 at 3:25 PM, shayhenckel said:

Has anyone else heard from BC? There's only that one result up from February 7th. Is it too early to bug them about it?

Also interested in BU results. 

FYI for other folks waiting on Boston College, I emailed RoseMarie DeLeo today and was told that all decisions will be sent by mail "around mid-March." 

[sleepingsusurrus]

16 minutes ago, shayhenckel said:

FYI for other folks waiting on Boston College, I emailed RoseMarie DeLeo today and was told that all decisions will be sent by mail "around mid-March." 

Oi that's a long time to wait.