Decision Dates

Cho'bal · Post by **Cho'bal** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:53 am

Anyone still not hearing anything from UMich Ann Arbor? No waitlistings, no rejections, no nothing..

It's like they forgot that I applied or something

Moontrout · Post by **Moontrout** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 10:54 am

Hey, quick question for all who applied to Penn State - I'm very worried that my application hasn't been considered as one of my references didn't submit an LoR until quite a bit after the application deadline. When you log into the website to check your application status, what does it/has it been saying for you? Mine has been saying "Processing" since January, but someone here said that their's said "Completed" at some stage.

Also a Vanderbilt acceptance was added to GC today so hopefully anyone who is waiting hears back soon

heisenbergh23 · Post by **heisenbergh23** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:06 am

Moontrout wrote:Hey, quick question for all who applied to Penn State - I'm very worried that my application hasn't been considered as one of my references didn't submit an LoR until quite a bit after the application deadline. When you log into the website to check your application status, what does it/has it been saying for you? Mine has been saying "Processing" since January, but someone here said that their's said "Completed" at some stage.

Also a Vanderbilt acceptance was added to GC today so hopefully anyone who is waiting hears back soon

Mine says 'Complete'.

Moontrout · Post by **Moontrout** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:15 am

heisenbergh23 wrote:
Moontrout wrote:Hey, quick question for all who applied to Penn State - I'm very worried that my application hasn't been considered as one of my references didn't submit an LoR until quite a bit after the application deadline. When you log into the website to check your application status, what does it/has it been saying for you? Mine has been saying "Processing" since January, but someone here said that their's said "Completed" at some stage.

Also a Vanderbilt acceptance was added to GC today so hopefully anyone who is waiting hears back soon
Mine says 'Complete'.

Aaaah. That's worrying. Thanks for letting me know!

PathIntegrals92 · Post by **PathIntegrals92** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:05 pm

Moontrout wrote:Hey, quick question for all who applied to Penn State - I'm very worried that my application hasn't been considered as one of my references didn't submit an LoR until quite a bit after the application deadline. When you log into the website to check your application status, what does it/has it been saying for you? Mine has been saying "Processing" since January, but someone here said that their's said "Completed" at some stage.

Mine says complete also and one of my rec letter was also sent much after the deadline. I think you should contact them and ask if anything is missing? If it says complete by each of the rec letters then you know they have that.

Edit: My advisor told me that Penn State rec process was the easiest because all they wanted was for the letter to uploaded, no form stuff or anything. So it should be there if it says complete by that rec letter. Good luck to you!

Moontrout · Post by **Moontrout** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:32 pm

PathIntegrals92 wrote:
Moontrout wrote:Hey, quick question for all who applied to Penn State - I'm very worried that my application hasn't been considered as one of my references didn't submit an LoR until quite a bit after the application deadline. When you log into the website to check your application status, what does it/has it been saying for you? Mine has been saying "Processing" since January, but someone here said that their's said "Completed" at some stage.
Mine says complete also and one of my rec letter was also sent much after the deadline. I think you should contact them and ask if anything is missing? If it says complete by each of the rec letters then you know they have that.

Edit: My advisor told me that Penn State rec process was the easiest because all they wanted was for the letter to uploaded, no form stuff or anything. So it should be there if it says complete by that rec letter. Good luck to you!

Emailed them - hopefully the news is good! Thanks for the info.

slowdweller · Post by **slowdweller** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 4:04 pm

Is UPenn planning on letting us know anytime soon?

And Berkeley, reject me already

Catria · Post by **Catria** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 4:51 pm

slowdweller wrote:Is UPenn planning on letting us know anytime soon?

And Berkeley, reject me already

UPenn have their midterms at present, so that might account for their delays. This year, decision dates have been rather subfield-dependent (HEP-EX during the first week of February, astro during the third week fo February).

My supervisor even speculated that, since there are many cross-applicants to top-20 schools and UPenn for HEP-TH, that there has been a large number of withdrawals (from people who got offers from other top-20 schools, and top-10 schools) they had to re-evaluate the remaining applications carefully.

But UPenn has to send out at least 2 offers for HEP-TH, since Trodden and Khoury both look for one student apiece.

PathIntegrals92 · Post by **PathIntegrals92** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:10 pm

Good luck to you all!

I'm waiting on Penn State, UIUC, USC, and Rutgers for physics, and I think chances are no longer good for me...

On the other hand, I'm happy with the phd physics and masters ( not physics) offers I have. =)

djh101 · Post by **djh101** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:37 pm

Finally received some funding information from Oregon. It's a TF instead of a TA. That seems pretty intense for the first year.

PathIntegrals92 · Post by **PathIntegrals92** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 8:03 pm

djh101 wrote:Finally received some funding information from Oregon. It's a TF instead of a TA. That seems pretty intense for the first year.

tf = teaching fellowship? What's the difference then?

Catria · Post by **Catria** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 8:07 pm

PathIntegrals92 wrote:
djh101 wrote:Finally received some funding information from Oregon. It's a TF instead of a TA. That seems pretty intense for the first year.
tf = teaching fellowship? What's the difference then?

I think a TF has to teach the whole course (lecture + discussion) with the duties that come with it (preparing assignments, tests, etc...)

irezumidragon · Post by **irezumidragon** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:14 pm

Cho'bal wrote:Anyone still not hearing anything from UMich Ann Arbor? No waitlistings, no rejections, no nothing..

It's like they forgot that I applied or something

I'm in the same boat in astro. I applied there last year during my first cycle and heard nothing. I called them and they said I was on a short list, but didn't get any communication from them again until after decision day when I called again. I applied again this year and the same thing has happened, so I'm not particularly optimistic. I called on Monday and they said I should be notified by email this week, but I heard nothing. At this point I'm pretty irritated with how I've been treated by them, so I'm just letting go.

djh101 · Post by **djh101** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:43 pm

PathIntegrals92 wrote:
djh101 wrote:Finally received some funding information from Oregon. It's a TF instead of a TA. That seems pretty intense for the first year.
tf = teaching fellowship? What's the difference then?

According to Wikipedia a TF is the whole course (as Catria said).

In the U.S. a teaching fellow is an advanced graduate student who serves as the primary instructor for an undergraduate course.

Typically, TFs teach courses in their area of research specialty, in which they hold a master's degree or equivalent. Teaching fellows differ from teaching assistants in that they are responsible for all aspects of the course, including lecture, whereas TAs assist the instructor by performing ancillary course-related tasks such as grading and holding discussion section or laboratory.

PathIntegrals92 · Post by **PathIntegrals92** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:48 am

djh101 wrote:
PathIntegrals92 wrote:
djh101 wrote:Finally received some funding information from Oregon. It's a TF instead of a TA. That seems pretty intense for the first year.
tf = teaching fellowship? What's the difference then?
According to Wikipedia a TF is the whole course (as Catria said).

In the U.S. a teaching fellow is an advanced graduate student who serves as the primary instructor for an undergraduate course.

Typically, TFs teach courses in their area of research specialty, in which they hold a master's degree or equivalent. Teaching fellows differ from teaching assistants in that they are responsible for all aspects of the course, including lecture, whereas TAs assist the instructor by performing ancillary course-related tasks such as grading and holding discussion section or laboratory.

wow! I agree, that is a lot of responsibility for a first a year. Do you think you would want that?
.
.
.

Has anyone heard from UIUC? apparently they have sent out rejections. I guess both Penn State and UIUC want to torture me...

djh101 · Post by **djh101** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 3:23 pm

I haven't visited the school yet. I'll be sure to ask about it when I do.

Catria · Post by **Catria** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 2:35 pm

So I wonder how many students are infuriated by UPenn and Columbia because they take too-long-to-be-true to get back to the remaining applicants?

seeyouauntie · Post by **seeyouauntie** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:09 pm

Is anyone else's UT Austin application still "in review"? I know they sent out the first round of acceptances and a fair amount of rejections ( I'm thinking most people don't post their rejections on tgc). I'm guessing that I am on some sort of wait list. Any information would be appreciated.

jagjitsinghsidhu192 · Post by **jagjitsinghsidhu192** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:46 pm

Catria wrote:So I wonder how many students are infuriated by UPenn and Columbia because they take too-long-to-be-true to get back to the remaining applicants?

Not really infuriated by Columbia, because I'm happy with what I have at this point. But not pleased either.

Sanhedrin · Post by **Sanhedrin** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:37 pm

seeyouauntie wrote:Is anyone else's UT Austin application still "in review"? I know they sent out the first round of acceptances and a fair amount of rejections ( I'm thinking most people don't post their rejections on tgc). I'm guessing that I am on some sort of wait list. Any information would be appreciated.

Mine also says "in review." I hope this means I'm on a waitlist. I'm not too hopeful though, as I turned in my UT Austin application a good bit after the deadline, which makes me think my application never received full consideration and that's what "in review" means for my application.

bfollinprm · Post by **bfollinprm** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:39 pm

Austin never got back to me until I called them on the 5th of April or so, when I was making a commitment to come to Davis. They said I was waitlisted when I called.

vagnox92 · Post by **vagnox92** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:44 pm

Has anyone heard from McGill?

vagnox92 · Post by **vagnox92** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:45 pm

And what the heck is taking upenn so long?

Catria · Post by **Catria** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 7:34 pm

vagnox92 wrote:And what the heck is taking upenn so long?

You're a HEP-TH applicant, correct?

Unless there are some other HEP-TH applicants that escaped both TGC and PhysicsGRE.com radars who got offers, UPenn may not even have reviewed HEP-TH applications at all. Yet, since Mark Trodden and Justin Khoury both look for one student apiece, they have to send out at least 2 offers this year. This year's offers from UPenn are seemingly sent out subfield by subfield: HEP-EX on Feb. 6, astro on Feb.19... UPenn's actions are suspect as of late.

Mark Trodden claimed that open house invitations were sent out when I last inquired about my application status at UPenn, but was unable to say whether anyone in HEP-TH got any decision at all (I suspect they weren't even reviewed in the first place). As a result only people in some subfields got to go to their open house. That is, unless some condensed matter guys, biophysics guys or HEP-TH guys who got offers that we don't know about.

I understand the anger of HEP-TH applicants at UPenn. Hopefully some HEP-TH applicants at UPenn with acceptances at other top-20 schools (or even acceptances elsewhere at all) will withdraw in the light of these suspicious actions.

However, since Columbia sent out some offers for HEP-TH, I am losing confidence in Columbia every single day.

TakeruK · Post by **TakeruK** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:23 pm

I'm not sure which UPenn actions are to be considered "suspicious". It's still early March -- I don't think any school is obligated to let you know their decision by any deadline, so in my opinion, there is no reason to be upset that you have not heard anything yet.

heisenbergh23 · Post by **heisenbergh23** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:48 pm

vagnox92 wrote:Has anyone heard from McGill?

Nope. Last month, when I asked them when they will release decision, they said 6-8 weeks from app deadline. Last week, I asked them again, and now they say 'probably' by the end of March. This is too much. I am thinking of withdrawing my application from there.

tsymmetry · Post by **tsymmetry** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 11:38 pm

Penn is a small department, the two professors you mention do not have more than three students at a time and have gone through periods with only one or two. I think since some students have or will graduate this year so I think it will be a much better situation, but before last year Penn barely admitted any HET students for a period of 2-3 years. Each professor may be handed around 50 applications. They will throw out 35-40 of them after the first read.

I would predict that Penn will accept more HET students than the previous years but the number will still be very low. They might have already been accepted.

vagnox92 · Post by **vagnox92** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:19 am

Catria wrote:
vagnox92 wrote:And what the heck is taking upenn so long?
You're a HEP-TH applicant, correct?

Unless there are some other HEP-TH applicants that escaped both TGC and PhysicsGRE.com radars who got offers, UPenn may not even have reviewed HEP-TH applications at all. Yet, since Mark Trodden and Justin Khoury both look for one student apiece, they have to send out at least 2 offers this year. This year's offers from UPenn are seemingly sent out subfield by subfield: HEP-EX on Feb. 6, astro on Feb.19... UPenn's actions are suspect as of late.

Mark Trodden claimed that open house invitations were sent out when I last inquired about my application status at UPenn, but was unable to say whether anyone in HEP-TH got any decision at all (I suspect they weren't even reviewed in the first place). As a result only people in some subfields got to go to their open house. That is, unless some condensed matter guys, biophysics guys or HEP-TH guys who got offers that we don't know about.

I understand the anger of HEP-TH applicants at UPenn. Hopefully some HEP-TH applicants at UPenn with acceptances at other top-20 schools (or even acceptances elsewhere at all) will withdraw in the light of these suspicious actions.

However, since Columbia sent out some offers for HEP-TH, I am losing confidence in Columbia every single day.

Yes I am going for HEP-TH, and going back to my statement of purpose I see I mentioned Troden and Khoury (together with Sheth) quite strongly. Can I ask you how do you know that Trodden and Khoury are looking for a student each? Did Mark tell you so when you emailed him?

vagnox92 · Post by **vagnox92** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:21 am

heisenbergh23 wrote:
vagnox92 wrote:Has anyone heard from McGill?
Nope. Last month, when I asked them when they will release decision, they said 6-8 weeks from app deadline. Last week, I asked them again, and now they say 'probably' by the end of March. This is too much. I am thinking of withdrawing my application from there.

Well, I wrote to them in January and asked when should I hear back, and they told me 6-8 weeks after I submitted my application, which was Christmas Eve, so I gauged that I should have heard back by early to mid February. Late February I emailed them and they told me 6-8 weeks again! This is outrageous! They had all the time they needed, why are they taking so long? Considering withdrawing too, although is there really a point? We paid the application fee, we have the right to know if we would have been taken or not, regardless of whether or not we want to attend.

orion43 · Post by **orion43** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:55 am

I also asked them and they told me by the end of March! Its so late and frustrating!

Catria · Post by **Catria** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:05 am

Trodden has a student who will graduate in the next few months, while Khoury has only 1 student. This is all the information I have at present.

heisenbergh23 · Post by **heisenbergh23** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:58 am

vagnox92 wrote:
heisenbergh23 wrote:
vagnox92 wrote:Has anyone heard from McGill?
Nope. Last month, when I asked them when they will release decision, they said 6-8 weeks from app deadline. Last week, I asked them again, and now they say 'probably' by the end of March. This is too much. I am thinking of withdrawing my application from there.
Well, I wrote to them in January and asked when should I hear back, and they told me 6-8 weeks after I submitted my application, which was Christmas Eve, so I gauged that I should have heard back by early to mid February. Late February I emailed them and they told me 6-8 weeks again! This is outrageous! They had all the time they needed, why are they taking so long? Considering withdrawing too, although is there really a point? We paid the application fee, we have the right to know if we would have been taken or not, regardless of whether or not we want to attend.

I applied early November. They are taking too much of time. I wrote an email to them today saying if they can't make a decision by the end of this week, I would like to withdraw my application. Let's see what they will do.

vagnox92 · Post by **vagnox92** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:27 am

heisenbergh23 wrote:I applied early November. They are taking too much of time. I wrote an email to them today saying if they can't make a decision by the end of this week, I would like to withdraw my application. Let's see what they will do.

Jeez, they sure are taking their time. Just a curiosity, WHY WOULD ONE WITHDRAW THEIR APPLICATION THOUGH? You paid the application fees, and even if you already got other offers, are you not curious of knowing whether or not you would have been admitted? Sure, you save them time in going through your application, but...do they really deserve it? After you paid the fees and all, they are taking their sweet time, I'm going so far as to say they sorta deserve this. Admissionsprof or Astroprof, if you see this post, could you please give your take on it?

If you look at my profile you'll see I withdrew from an interview because I couldn't be bothered actually doing it, and from an application but only because I had a personal relation with the people going through the applications and since I already accepted an offer and they knew it, I didn't want them to go through my application and waste their time. But in the case of McGill, it's really annoying, they had all the time in the world. So did UPenn (and Temple University, from which I haven't heard back yet).

heisenbergh23 · Post by **heisenbergh23** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:48 am

WHY WOULD ONE WITHDRAW THEIR APPLICATION THOUGH?

Because I have an offer from another school (non-US), and I need to respond to their offer early next week. McGill is better than the other school, and I do not want to hear that I have been accepted (just in case) after I accept the other school's offer. I sent email multiple times to multiple people in McGill saying this, but nobody responds. I really don't want to go to a school which is not even slightly considerate. I have a friend who was accepted by McGill a month ago. That means they have already given out some offers. I would be glad to receive a rejection email than to wait.

TakeruK · Post by **TakeruK** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:10 am

heisenbergh23 wrote:
WHY WOULD ONE WITHDRAW THEIR APPLICATION THOUGH?
Because I have an offer from another school (non-US), and I need to respond to their offer early next week. McGill is better than the other school, and I do not want to hear that I have been accepted (just in case) after I accept the other school's offer. I sent email multiple times to multiple people in McGill saying this, but nobody responds. I really don't want to go to a school which is not even slightly considerate. I have a friend who was accepted by McGill a month ago. That means they have already given out some offers. I would be glad to receive a rejection email than to wait.

Unfortunately, this is how the system works. The people who are higher on the list get accepted first. Then, the school waits to see how many say yes, and then make more offers. If you didn't get an offer a month ago but your friend did, this means you might be considered in a second round. I know my experience with McGill was that they do not follow the US April 15 thing, and when you get an offer, you have about 3-4 weeks to decide. This means that most of the early offers should have a decision by now and another decision for later rounds will come soon.

Not hearing anything is common for graduate school applications. Many schools will not formally reject you until they have completely filled their class, which might take until May or June. It's also not unheard of (but very rare) to have offers made in August or even September. I think it's bad form for a school to never inform an applicant of rejection, but I would say an April or May rejection is reasonable.

Finally, if you really do want to attend McGill, sending a "threat" like that is not going to work and will probably decrease your chances of getting in and getting an answer soon. I think it's really weird that no one responded to your earlier emails--what are you writing exactly and to whom? If you are showing the frustration you show here in your emails, I would not be surprised if people just ignored your emails.

heisenbergh23 · Post by **heisenbergh23** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:20 am

TakeruK wrote:
heisenbergh23 wrote:
WHY WOULD ONE WITHDRAW THEIR APPLICATION THOUGH?
Because I have an offer from another school (non-US), and I need to respond to their offer early next week. McGill is better than the other school, and I do not want to hear that I have been accepted (just in case) after I accept the other school's offer. I sent email multiple times to multiple people in McGill saying this, but nobody responds. I really don't want to go to a school which is not even slightly considerate. I have a friend who was accepted by McGill a month ago. That means they have already given out some offers. I would be glad to receive a rejection email than to wait.
Unfortunately, this is how the system works. The people who are higher on the list get accepted first. Then, the school waits to see how many say yes, and then make more offers. If you didn't get an offer a month ago but your friend did, this means you might be considered in a second round. I know my experience with McGill was that they do not follow the US April 15 thing, and when you get an offer, you have about 3-4 weeks to decide. This means that most of the early offers should have a decision by now and another decision for later rounds will come soon.

Not hearing anything is common for graduate school applications. Many schools will not formally reject you until they have completely filled their class, which might take until May or June. It's also not unheard of (but very rare) to have offers made in August or even September. I think it's bad form for a school to never inform an applicant of rejection, but I would say an April or May rejection is reasonable.

Finally, if you really do want to attend McGill, sending a "threat" like that is not going to work and will probably decrease your chances of getting in and getting an answer soon. I think it's really weird that no one responded to your earlier emails--what are you writing exactly and to whom? If you are showing the frustration you show here in your emails, I would not be surprised if people just ignored your emails.

I understand your point, and believe me, I haven't shown any frustration in my emails. Firstly I asked them in early January when they normally release their decision, and officer replied normally by early to 15th of this month. I asked them again in early March again, and now they say 'probably' by the end of this month. I wrote another email explaining my situation, that I have been admitted to another school and need to respond them by this week, and would like to hear from them before deciding. I told them that I am highly interested in their program, but it doesn't seem to work. My whole point is that my email just explains my situation and my interest on McGill, rather than expressing frustration.

deterministic devil · Post by **deterministic devil** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 12:23 pm

heisenbergh23 wrote:I understand your point, and believe me, I haven't shown any frustration in my emails. Firstly I asked them in early January when they normally release their decision, and officer replied normally by early to 15th of this month. I asked them again in early March again, and now they say 'probably' by the end of this month. I wrote another email explaining my situation, that I have been admitted to another school and need to respond them by this week, and would like to hear from them before deciding. I told them that I am highly interested in their program, but it doesn't seem to work. My whole point is that my email just explains my situation and my interest on McGill, rather than expressing frustration.

If I were you I would definitely withdraw my application for McGill, even if I would love it so much. Their nonchalant attitude seems to me highly unprofessional, which reflects the level of discipline at that department.

djh101 · Post by **djh101** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:56 pm

Waitlisted to Washington. It appears today was mass rejection day for them. Just waiting on Boulder now.

djh101 · Post by **djh101** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:10 pm

Wow, Boulder really does take a while. Someone just got an acceptance for fall 2014 today!

gendf · Post by **gendf** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:27 pm

Does anyone has "Submitted" as a status for Berkeley application? Still have not got rejection from them; just wondering, may be my application is incomplete.

wompwomp · Post by **wompwomp** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:24 pm

Anyone else waiting for a response from UIUC? They seem to have sent out a ton of rejections and acceptances over the weekend, but I have yet to hear anything at all.

orion43 · Post by **orion43** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:32 pm

I have not heard anything either!

winten · Post by **winten** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:53 am

Did anybody heard from Perimeter (PSI) or Toronto (Masters) yet?

Cho'bal · Post by **Cho'bal** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:04 am

gendf wrote:Does anyone has "Submitted" as a status for Berkeley application? Still have not got rejection from them; just wondering, may be my application is incomplete.

I do.

Although I'm guessing, I don't think Berkeley's sent out official rejections yet, because there were only two accounts of those on TGC; one was a personal email while the other was unspecified.

heisenbergh23 · Post by **heisenbergh23** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:33 am

I contacted Penn State today, and this is the response I got:

"Thank you for contacting the Graduate Admissions Committee for the
Department of Physics at The Pennsylvania State University.

If you are an applicant, the graduate admissions committee is very eager
to review your application material for Fall 2015. We welcome the
opportunity to help you through this application process.

We will respond to your question soon.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions."

Have they not reviewed application yet? Very strange. I haven't received any notification from them yet.

deterministic devil · Post by **deterministic devil** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:15 am

heisenbergh23 wrote:I contacted Penn State today, and this is the response I got:

"Thank you for contacting the Graduate Admissions Committee for the
Department of Physics at The Pennsylvania State University.

If you are an applicant, the graduate admissions committee is very eager
to review your application material for Fall 2015. We welcome the
opportunity to help you through this application process.

We will respond to your question soon.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions."

Have they not reviewed application yet? Very strange. I haven't received any notification from them yet.

It looks like an automatically generated email.

astroprof · Post by **astroprof** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:26 am

Admissionsprof or Astroprof, if you see this post, could you please give your take on it?

I hesitate to interject into this thread, as I think it is important to have the opportunity to express frustrations about "the system" without faculty commentary. Nonetheless, when asked… Please remember that graduate admissions are under the purview of faculty, and therefore operate on timescales that need to take into consideration their other responsibilities/activities. In general, graduate admissions committees try to make their decisions as early as possible, as we are aware that students need time to consider their options. However, once we have made the first round of offers, there isn't much that we can do until students start to respond (accept or decline). So, a responsible department will send offers in late January/early February and notify students high on the wait list at a similar time. If more students than expected decline our offers quickly, then we might make additional offers (off of the wait list) in mid-March, but we usually do not have a sense of the response rate until early April. At that point, we will contact the wait list again to see if students are still interested in our program. However, if students with offers do not make a decision until the last minute (April 15), then we cannot inform students on the wait list of their status until then either. Because everything is in a holding pattern until the first round offers have been acted upon, there is little point in contacting a department about your status at this time, unless there is a change in circumstances. One good reason to contact a department now is if you have an offer that has an earlier deadline for response (from a non-US institution). However, the reality is that there is either a spot for you (in which case they have contacted you already) or there is not (yet), so this additional information is unlikely to change your status.

Now, the above scenario was for a responsible department. Many of the frustrations I see here are in regard to little/no communication upon inquiry to a department about application status, etc. While there is no excuse for such behavior, I will again remind everyone that ultimately the responsibility to respond to these inquiries falls on some faculty member, even if the inquiries are initially to administrative staff. Specifically, if a decision has not yet been reached, all the front office staff can do is forward that inquiry to the chair of the graduate admissions committee. If, for whatever reason, that faculty member is non-responsive, then the front-office staff have to be non-responsive as well. While I would like to think that all faculty (and, in particular, members of graduate admissions committees) are cognizant of the importance of quick and informative responses regarding graduate admissions, the unfortunate truth is that some stereotypes are well earned. I am certain that no one here has ever witnessed a real-life absentminded professor, correct? So, my plea to all frustrated students who cannot get a response, please do not judge the entire department based on what may be the (in-)actions of one single faculty member.

Finally, for those of you on wait lists (either formal or informal), it may be useful to send an e-mail to the department in early April stating that you are still interested in the program (or, conversely, that you are no longer interested in the program). While such e-mail is unlikely to change your ranking on the wait list, it will make the process of pulling from the wait list more efficient. At the same time, it is important for those students with first round offers to make their decisions in a timely manner. If you know that you will not attend a specific school, even if you have not made your final decision as to where to attend, then you should notify that school immediately. There is not a one-to-one correlation between declinations and offers off of the wait list (most schools admit more students than they expect to enroll), but the earlier we can see a class shape up (or not!), the earlier we can inform students on the wait list of their chances for an acceptance.

Catria · Post by **Catria** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:52 pm

And Columbia seems to release the remaining acceptances at a snail's pace...

Sats · Post by **Sats** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:58 pm

Ah ***, UBC rejected me today. Maybe they're starting to send out their rejections now?

((

PathIntegrals92 · Post by **PathIntegrals92** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:54 pm

astroprof wrote:While I would like to think that all faculty (and, in particular, members of graduate admissions committees) are cognizant of the importance of quick and informative responses regarding graduate admissions, the unfortunate truth is that some stereotypes are well earned. I am certain that no one here has ever witnessed a real-life absentminded professor, correct? So, my plea to all frustrated students who cannot get a response, please do not judge the entire department based on what may be the (in-)actions of one single faculty member.

Thank you for the reply!

I guess your response was more geared towards the other posters who have emailed and not received any responses. Even if I had email and didn't get a response, I would certainly not judge the entire department.
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I'm fine with the waiting game now, in fact, I am happy with the two offers ( for physics) I have. I wish I could make a decision fast, between the two, but I can't without visiting both. I do intend to turn one down as soon as I am confident.

I didn't actually apply to a "safety" school or a "w/e" school if anyone knows what I mean...I don't have a top choice or a bottom choice...