When you get accepted early, should you take advantage of it

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physicslover
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:15 am

When you get accepted early, should you take advantage of it

Post by physicslover » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:20 am

My question really is: I just got accepted to MIT physics. Some friends of mine are suggesting that I should let some *competitors* know about my result, say for example I can email Princeton telling them about my admission with MIT, and my friends say it would increase my chance of getting into the others? I'm an intl' student so I'm not sure about the process. MIT is great, but I'm wondering if this works at all, if ppl do that usually and if so how?

monomer
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Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:22 pm

Post by monomer » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:15 am

I don't think this is a generally good idea. A school like Princeton accepts students based on its own assessment of you, not MIT's. However, if you are already in communication with someone at a university, it is not bad to mention that you have options you're considering. They might adjust their financial offer to try to attract you. I tried to do this. I have been in communication with a professor at Yale (whom I would work with if I go), and after getting accepted to MIT with a good fellowship, I mentioned it to him as a factor in my deciding between the two universities. Maybe just wishful thinking... I'll just have to see how Yale's financial offer compares.

physicslover
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Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:15 am

Post by physicslover » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:45 pm

monomer thanks for your reply. I think it makes sense. I was just surprised than quite a few of my friends at school suggested that idea, but they all are not familiar with the detail process. I'm not in touch w/ any committee (again I'm intl) and was just thinking maybe telling other schools will help make sure they don't ignore my application or smth.

Anyone has any experience on this?

physicslover
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Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:15 am

Post by physicslover » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:52 pm

Oh what if you are on par w/ someone and the other schools are not sure who to choose... would telling them your admissions with another school help?

shirazu
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:19 am

Post by shirazu » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:34 pm

I actually think this would hurt your chances. If I worked on the admissions comittee at some top school and somebody wasted their time and mine telling me they got into some other top school with the hopes of getting in to mine, I would probably assume they were dumb/a douchebag.
Also, I think schools accept students with the hope that they are likely to go to their school - that makes things easier for them in terms of offering fellowships, etc.

physicslover
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:15 am

Post by physicslover » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:45 pm

What if you tell the admissions office, that although you get accepted to this place and that place, you are really looking fwd to hearing from them as they are your top choice?

dan1234
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:04 pm

Post by dan1234 » Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:23 pm

I don't see how playing a game like that would really help...even if it could, is it a worthwhile risk to take?

I would strongly recommend just to take it easy and see what happens , like 95%+ of the rest of the applicants.

Dan

CPT
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:05 am

Post by CPT » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:30 pm

IMHO, I don't think it's going to make any difference whatsoever to your chances whether or not you tell them anything, though it is likely that it might piss them off a bit to hear about your acceptances from other places.

:oops: If you really are desperate, than you could bluff, by saying that you've gotten into another place which needs you to let them know by 20th Feb (say) if you're to be considered for some X fellowship. You could then ask Princeton to tell you if you are likely to get in or not, as you have to inform MIT of your decision soon. However, I'd strongly advise against any such double-guessing smartassery as it doesn't do you any significant good anyway, and is quite likely to backfire and screw you up badly. Why not leave well enough alone, and just wait a couple more days like the rest of us :roll:

Good Luck !

Daharoni
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Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:49 am

Post by Daharoni » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:35 pm

My friend Jeremy applied to Ph.D. math programs last year. He was accepted to a few schools along with UCSD. He was waiting to hear from UCSB and after a while decided to call them. He asked them when they think his decision will be mailed out. They told him they did not know but wanted to know what other schools accepted him. Jeremy said UCSD accepted him and the person on the phone said that if UCSD wanted him UCSB would probably want him too... The next morning he received an acceptance through email.

dan1234
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Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:04 pm

Post by dan1234 » Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:36 pm

To paraphrase a story, my girlfriend told me about someone who was accepted to Stanford and Caltech (Chemistry) a year ago and directly told the Stanford people that she was offered more money by Caltech and was offered a better package from Stanford.

So I have to half-renege on what I said yesterday - apparently you can use acceptances for leverage in certain cases, provided your are confident enough to overlook potentially hurting your case for admission.

CPT
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:05 am

Post by CPT » Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:11 am

That sounds too sneaky and underhanded for my liking ... I wish this whole process wasmore open and transparent in the way these decisions were made ...



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