I'm Losing My Mind

[mnf4453]

Okay, so, I sent in my application to the MS in Educational Psychology program at Oklahoma State University at the end of January. The program coordinator said that admissions decisions should occur sometime between March 15-22. Back in November, I asked him some questions about the program, including how competitive it is, and his response was that enrollment is low and as long as you meet the requirements and have pertinent research interests, you were in. Well, it's March 21 and I still haven't heard anything. I've been obsessively refreshing my e-mails and the application website and losing my sanity. The program is so obscure, I've only found one post on the admissions results page- an acceptance on March 15, 2014. Since it's been this long, I guess I can expect to get a rejection tomorrow, but that makes me feel awful. They'd rather have an empty seat in their program than fill it with me. The program even offers provisional admission if you don't meet the minimum requirements...maybe I can be hopeful for that even though I met all of the requirements. Either way, I just want to find out. Waiting is torture.

[Kayce]

You could always write and ask for an update if you don't hear anything tomorrow. I did an REU at OSU and everyone in the psych department was super nice! Good luck!

[mnf4453]

Ya, I might consider doing that! I really want to get in there.

[ThousandsHardships]

First of all, not all schools actually make the decisions when they say they will. I would still give them a week or two if I were you.

But most importantly, you said yourself that the main reason most students get accepted is because "enrollment is low" and not because they do a blanket acceptance. Translated, that means that in all likelihood, this could very well be a small program where very few students tend to get in at a given time, but because accepted students tend to decline, the end result is that most of their applicants get accepted. To put it another way, you might be waiting on someone else to decline and that's why you haven't heard back.

Edited March 22, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[AnniKatt]

I don't think you have anything to lose by calling or sending an email as long as you do it politely and professionally! As long as you don't pester them, I personally believe it says a lot about your desire to join the program.

[mnf4453]

Well, that makes the situation seem less bleak. There's a priority deadline and a final deadline, and the priority applications are accepted/rejected before the final deadline, so I'll at least find out before July 15. Yay, more waiting. ?

[Drunkydropout]

They never could make the deadline, I applied 6 programs this year and I'm still waiting for 5 of them. Basically all of them said the results will be out by mid-March on their website. The waiting is total agony. 

[mnf4453]

I can't wait to no longer have to refresh my e-mails and then refresh the application status page every 30 minutes! Maybe we'll hear back by the end of the month!

[lfguzman]

Same boat here, I've been able to keep my email/application-status checking to once a day.  However, I've been like this since early February when I started finding results for my programs on the result page.  The wait is absolutely brutal, at this point I just wish I got ANY response just to end the suffering.

[Drunkydropout]

3 hours ago, lfguzman said:

Same boat here, I've been able to keep my email/application-status checking to once a day.  However, I've been like this since early February when I started finding results for my programs on the result page.  The wait is absolutely brutal, at this point I just wish I got ANY response just to end the suffering.

Totally, especially when I saw other people post admission in the results, all hopes are lost

[mnf4453]

On 3/22/2017 at 3:24 PM, AnniKatt said:

I don't think you have anything to lose by calling or sending an email as long as you do it politely and professionally! As long as you don't pester them, I personally believe it says a lot about your desire to join the program.

How do you think I should phrase such an e-mail without sounding super annoying and impatient?