Post
by astroprof » Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:08 pm
Just to clarify, April 15 is the deadline for students to reply to
offers of financial assistance for graduate school. We cannot require
you to respond before this (although, as we've discussed on other
threads, earlier responses are beneficial to everyone, and you do not
need to have made your final decision before contacting schools that
you know you will not attend). For our part, we try to make all offers
before April 15, since we know that our top applicants will have offers
from other schools as well, and thus will not be available after April 15.
However, many programs will continue to admit off their waitlist until
they've reached their target enrollment numbers. Some programs continue
to admit students until the day before school starts. Thus, while the
bulk of the graduate admissions process will wrap up this week, there
will be a handful of offers extended during the next few months as well.
For those of you waiting to hear from other schools, it is now appropriate
to contact the department to let them know that you are still interested (if
you are). We cannot make offers off the waitlist until we have heard from
the majority of students to which we have already made offers, but we
often can let you know whether or not we think it is likely that we will
be using the waitlist. While that is not as helpful as an actual offer
(or rejection), it should help you make your decision. [It is also helpful
to withdraw your application if you know that you will not accept a
last minute offer, as that will help us make offers to those that are
still interested in a more timely manner; however, only do this if you
know absolutely that you are no longer interested in the program.]