PhD Applications Fall '18 Season

[Averroes MD]

2 hours ago, Cioaba said:

Can anyone claim the Harvard acceptance?

I just logged mine. Very ecstatic and grateful. It was an especially tough year for me: I was accepted to Oxford last year, obtained outside funding, and then realized that the funding came with too many strings to accept. 

In any case, my intended supervisor emailed and called me with the results. The official email is still pending. I'll hold tight until I get that, before withdrawing my other applications, since Harvard is my number one choice by a landslide. 

It seems like I've spent two years of my life sending out applications and waiting, waiting, waiting... Refreshing email and Grad Forum compulsively... It's great that it's all over now and the next stage of my career begins iA. AH

Edited February 13, 2018 by Averroes MD

[Almaqah Thwn]

3 hours ago, KA.DINGER.RA said:

Congrats man. those are both amazing departments. Let me know what you decide. I'm hoping to catch a waitlist invite off the back of whatever you choose not to do. 

If you don't mind me asking, were you shortlisted at Johns Hopkins?

Thanks! I accepted Johns Hopkins and withdrew from UCLA. It's an awful feeling rejecting an offer. People so generously choose to give you money and free tuition for five years over dozens of other candidates and then you reject it. It's horrible. 

 

But yeah, I was the one that posted the shortlist notification earlier. I should note that it was an individual email from a professor, not a standardized short list email as they've sent out in the past. 

3 hours ago, Averroes MD said:

It seems like I've spent two years of my life sending out applications and waiting, waiting, waiting... Refreshing email and Grad Forum compulsively... It's great that it's all over now and the next stage of my career begins iA. AH

I know the feeling. After three years, it's finally done. I'm in a program. It's the next phase of life. 

 

My only wish this application season is that Chicago would have sent their rejection a week later, so I could have withdrawn before they officially rejected me. Oh well. 

Edited February 14, 2018 by Almaqah Thwn

[EarlyXianity]

I missed that SMU/Perkins acceptance from last week. Has anyone claimed that?  

Has anyone else heard from SMU?  

[ugh2017]

4 hours ago, JDD said:

Wow - good to know. Would this affect me as an M.Div applicant? As far as I've been told, Duke is on the up and up. It would be good to know if you think these problems will have an impact on short/long-term reputation or if they are nothing more than a nuisance. 

No I don't think it would make as big of a difference for an M Div applicant. They're going to make several new hires in the next two years, and then things will be good again (hopefully). But, for a PhD student it's a big deal to have this much turnover at the beginning of a program. 

[ShewantsthePhD101]

...why do some schools take so long to notify rejections? If a school didn't want a student, wouldn't telling them that right away be the kind/sensible/easy thing to do? Why notify rejections eons after acceptances?

[Shmandy]

6 minutes ago, ShewantsthePhD101 said:

...why do some schools take so long to notify rejections? If a school didn't want a student, wouldn't telling them that right away be the kind/sensible/easy thing to do? Why notify rejections eons after acceptances?

You'd think, wouldn't you? It would certainly ease my mind a bit to at least know I don't need to bother thinking about some of the programs I'm hopeful about.

[jmarvin_]

2 hours ago, ShewantsthePhD101 said:

...why do some schools take so long to notify rejections? If a school didn't want a student, wouldn't telling them that right away be the kind/sensible/easy thing to do? Why notify rejections eons after acceptances?

My only thought is that they're hedging their bets just in case, by some freak incident, they go through their entire waitlist and need to scramble for someone to accept.  It'd be much worse if they ended up in that situation and had to call up a nominally rejected person saying 'nevermind!' than the contrary possibility - even as it feels much worse to us!

[ShewantsthePhD101]

31 minutes ago, jmarvin_ said:

My only thought is that they're hedging their bets just in case, by some freak incident, they go through their entire waitlist and need to scramble for someone to accept.  It'd be much worse if they ended up in that situation and had to call up a nominally rejected person saying 'nevermind!' than the contrary possibility - even as it feels much worse to us!

...I think they'd take no one over someone they initially wanted to reject. Plenty of programs don't accept students every year.

[thiscalltoarms]

7 hours ago, jmarvin_ said:

My only thought is that they're hedging their bets just in case, by some freak incident, they go through their entire waitlist and need to scramble for someone to accept.  It'd be much worse if they ended up in that situation and had to call up a nominally rejected person saying 'nevermind!' than the contrary possibility - even as it feels much worse to us!

 

Wait- did you get a Harvard rejection email? Your signature lists it as a rejection?

[Kuriakos]

8 hours ago, jmarvin_ said:

My only thought is that they're hedging their bets just in case, by some freak incident, they go through their entire waitlist and need to scramble for someone to accept.  It'd be much worse if they ended up in that situation and had to call up a nominally rejected person saying 'nevermind!' than the contrary possibility - even as it feels much worse to us!

I know for a fact this is the case for some schools. When I applied to UT, they did not send me a rejection when all the others rejections went out but they did not send me a waitlist email either. Only after emailing the chair did I find out I was waitlisted, but they went four deep on the waitlist and never got to me. I suspect they had basically three tiers: first choice, genuine waitlist, and safety candidates. 

[jmarvin_]

1 hour ago, thiscalltoarms said:

Wait- did you get a Harvard rejection email? Your signature lists it as a rejection?

Yes, all the way back in the end of January I got one.  However, I believe I am a special case; since I don't have a master's I'm pretty sure they threw out my application as quickly as possible so that they could tell me to apply to the HDS MTS degree. 

[thiscalltoarms]

20 hours ago, Averroes MD said:

I just logged mine. Very ecstatic and grateful. It was an especially tough year for me: I was accepted to Oxford last year, obtained outside funding, and then realized that the funding came with too many strings to accept. 

In any case, my intended supervisor emailed and called me with the results. The official email is still pending. I'll hold tight until I get that, before withdrawing my other applications, since Harvard is my number one choice by a landslide. 

It seems like I've spent two years of my life sending out applications and waiting, waiting, waiting... Refreshing email and Grad Forum compulsively... It's great that it's all over now and the next stage of my career begins iA. AH

I realize this is an ask- but could you log into your app and see if they’ve updated your status? Thanks!

[Epaphroditus]

Just got into Baylor (NT)! Also, Yale decisions are out. I was waitlisted - did anyone get accepted into Yale for NT?

[Shmandy]

5 minutes ago, Hopeless_Academic said:

Just got into Baylor (NT)! Also, Yale decisions are out. I was waitlisted - did anyone get accepted into Yale for NT?

Congrats! Was it an email from a POI or official? Because they seemed to say next week for official acceptance at Baylor, right? Maybe I misheard.

[Epaphroditus]

6 minutes ago, Shmandy said:

Congrats! Was it an email from a POI or official? Because they seemed to say next week for official acceptance at Baylor, right? Maybe I misheard.

It was an email from the director of graduate studies. No funding details yet.

[jmarvin_]

Just got a no from Brown on the RCT Track. 

[sd_waco]

Just got the expected good wishes on my future endeavors from Yale for the Ethics track.

[Averroes MD]

2 hours ago, thiscalltoarms said:

I realize this is an ask- but could you log into your app and see if they’ve updated your status? Thanks!

Just checked for you. The answer is no, so maybe you're still in the game. It was only my POI who notified me.

[Averroes MD]

Is it just me or admission committees need to learn how to write rejection letters? Some/many of them are heartless and callous. 

[xypathos]

I agree, many of them come across as quite cold and distanced. I also realize that in order to be meaningful that they've have to write a rejection letter catered for each person and that's asking too much

That said, Department and/or Program Chairs will *sometimes* pull your app and let you know 1-2 things you can improve on if you're looking to apply again next cycle. Butter them up, give them a boost to their ego, and ask them to do it once the application cycle has died down.

[Averroes MD]

20 minutes ago, xypathos said:

I agree, many of them come across as quite cold and distanced. I also realize that in order to be meaningful that they've have to write a rejection letter catered for each person and that's asking too much

That said, Department and/or Program Chairs will *sometimes* pull your app and let you know 1-2 things you can improve on if you're looking to apply again next cycle. Butter them up, give them a boost to their ego, and ask them to do it once the application cycle has died down.

I don't think you necessarily need to cater each letter. Here is how the current letters sounds:

 

Dear Loser:

Your application to the PhD program at In-n-Out University was unsuccessful. This was determined after a thorough review of your application materials, and a comparison with the applicant cohort. Thank you very much for your interest in the program.

Sincerely,
Jerk Face

BUT, they could just say something like this:

 

Dear [Applicant],

Thank you for your interest in the PhD program at Shake Shack University. We appreciate the time and effort you took in applying, as well as the work you must have done to prepare yourself for graduate level work. Unfortunately, there are far too many applicants compared to available seats. This means that we are not able to offer seats to otherwise excellent applicants. Many of these unsuccessful applicants are accepted to our peer institutions, and others are successful in subsequent years. Therefore, we encourage you even in this time of disheartening news, and wish you well in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Not Jerk Face

Edited February 15, 2018 by Averroes MD

[tankis9]

45 minutes ago, Averroes MD said:

I don't think you necessarily need to cater each letter. Here is how the current letters sounds:

 

Dear Loser:

Your application to the PhD program at In-n-Out University was unsuccessful. This was determined after a thorough review of your application materials, and a comparison with the applicant cohort. Thank you very much for your interest in the program.

Sincerely,
Jerk Face

BUT, they could just say something like this:

 

Dear [Applicant],

Thank you for your interest in the PhD program at Shake Shack University. We appreciate the time and effort you took in applying, as well as the work you must have done to prepare yourself for graduate level work. Unfortunately, there are far too many applicants compared to available seats. This means that we are not able to offer seats to otherwise excellent applicants. Many of these unsuccessful applicants are accepted to our peer institutions, and others are successful in subsequent years. Therefore, we encourage you even in this time of disheartening news, and wish you well in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Not Jerk Face

Alternatively, we would encourage you to apply to our fully funded MSC program. At Shake Shack we take Sympathy and Condolence seriously. Please note, writing samples are limited to 1,000 characters and should represent your best work (and by best we mean empty, meaningless, and condescending, yet tender hearted).

[ugh2017]

8 hours ago, Averroes MD said:

I don't think you necessarily need to cater each letter. Here is how the current letters sounds:

 

This particular line in the Yale rejection letter really made me laugh. "As you know, the very high number of extraordinary candidates among our more than 11,000 applicants far exceeds the number of places we have in each program, and we are not able to admit many excellent candidates." 

[thiscalltoarms]

Man, I'm really obsessed with the Harvard rejection potential. Let's get this over with already... 

[ugh2017]

20 minutes ago, thiscalltoarms said:

Man, I'm really obsessed with the Harvard rejection potential. Let's get this over with already... 

Yeah I really had my hopes up for that one. When that acceptance dropped on the results page, my heart sank.