PhD program notifying 2 days after interview, but no word from MA yet from same school

[meep95]

So I applied to a school's MA program, and interviewed on the 24th of January. As far as I can tell, no one has heard from this program yet.  However, my friend applied for the same school's PhD program, interviewed Friday, and found out today that she got in.  It is the same department evaluating interviews.  Why has no one heard from MA yet?? I just want to know if i got in anywhere!!!  Does anyone if it typically takes longer for MA to be notified or something?  The school is University of Northern Colorado btw

[summavanlaude]

Just call them up and ask if the results for MA are out yet. In most cases, the schools hold the reject decisions till the end so that they are absolutely sure they are going to reject you. They first wait for students whom they send out acceptances to accept/reject it, offer the rejected spots to waitlist candidates and then see if the spots are filled (especially in MA) and then see if any of the candidates far down in the waitlist can be moved up the list.  My best guess is that you are somewhere in the waitlist- probably not on top of the list, but somewhere in the list. Just call and ask them. 

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by summavanlaude

[meep95]

23 minutes ago, summavanlaude said:

Just call them up and ask if the results for MA are out yet. In most cases, the schools hold the reject decisions till the end so that they are absolutely sure they are going to reject you. They first wait for students whom they send out acceptances to accept/reject it, offer the rejected spots to waitlist candidates and then see if the spots are filled (especially in MA) and then see if any of the candidates far down in the waitlist can be moved up the list.  My best guess is that you are somewhere in the waitlist- probably not on top of the list, but somewhere in the list. Just call and ask them. 

 

I may do that. Its extra confusing though, because they said they would start to notify people on February 24th, but that the notification would be by snail mail.  So its possible it is still in the mail. But they notified their PhD students via email. I'm not sure why they use different methods

[OhSoSolipsistic]

In many departments, the first round of PhD acceptance notifications typically gets sent before MAs for various reasons. I believe most have to do with priority, like some PhD applicants may get bumped to MA offers if PhD slots are full but the department still wants to make an offer, or if funding's an issue, or they lack some requirements but are still a strong applicant, etc.