(Untitled)

[rockit_girl]

I am unsure of what to make of my current situation and feedback would be lovely.

I have applied to the doctor of physical therapy programs to five schools around the USA back in mid-November, but have yet to hear any reply about a potential interview. Calling admissions is useless considering the most they can tell me is that I'm in the "review

Comments

[anonymous]

i am in the same situation. applied to 10 programs, but have n't heard ne thing from any univ. some ppl have got admits from the univs i apped to. does that mean, i have been rejected, but not informed ?

[rockit_girl]

Ditto. A couple people I met during the Columbia interview have applied to some of the other schools I did and have heard back already. And every person I met at the interview had already been on a couple interviews.

I doubt it means you were rejected and not informed. I would suggest contacting the universities, or an admissions counselor more specifically to make sure all materials have been received and your application complete. Beyond that, I don't know what to tell you, because then you and I are in the same boat.

[omgitskatharine]

It's interesting but I wouldn't worry too much because I know that a lot of the health professions programs have been swamped this year. (I'm applying to Masters programs in speech-language pathology so hello there fellow rehab buddy!) Several schools have admitted that they're seeing record numbers of applicants which doesn't surprise me given our current economic climate. So I'd say don't fret, sit tight and I'm sure they're trying to process things as quickly as they can.

I'm also not surprised Columbia has gotten back to you quickly. I've been noticing that the more expensive schools seem to be getting back to applicants quicker and I'm wondering if that's also in response to the economy and perhaps trends that suggest people are choosing value schools that are more affordable. Of course I'm purely speculating here.

Congrats on Columbia! I hope their DPT program has been sorted out because I've heard horror stories but that might have been due to the changeover from MS to DPT that you guys recently underwent.

[rockit_girl]

I too thought about the possibility of the economy being the reason, but am not entirely certain. I did hear from one university stating that the number of applications this year has doubled, easily, so it doesn't entirely surprising that I haven't heard back. It doesn't make me any less anxious or any less convinced that I'm not good enough for some of the schools I applied to.

I've also hear the horror stories, and I'm fairly certain that's due to the changeover. After all, it only happened 6 years ago (or less, I can't remember), so I would expect a lot of problems. They are still adjusting the curriculum so I would still expect problems even if I do get accepted and choose to go there.

Off-topic

[hailmerry]

Hey I'm also applying to masters programs in SLP. It feels like we have to wait fooorever! But then again, we applied later. I hope SLP people use the grad cafe website, for nerds like me to obsess over. It's too bad that this will be a really competitive year in applications. I hope it doesn't sound arrogant but I do have a strong application and I was hoping it would get me funding somewhere, and I'm not sure that will happen now. Best of luck to you in your applications:)

Re: Off-topic

[omgitskatharine]

Hey! I love seeing fellow SLP students on the internets lol :D

[quellers]

not to freak you out even more, but - did the 5 schools you applied to receive all of your materials?
also, are you sure that they all do interviews? i'm not familiar with physical therapy at all though...

[rockit_girl]

I'm sure they've received everything. I must have called 4 or 5 times to check... just in case. And all but one school requires an interview.

[ladylucretia]

If they've done interviews and you didn't get one, you are likely either wait listed or rejected. Until you get an official rejection there's still hope. But in my experience, some programs send out rejections really late (i.e. way after April 15th) but some schools send out wait list notifications as late as March as well.

[rockit_girl]

This is the problem. Another school I applied to said I would hear from them with a final decision by Jan. 15th at the latest. I haven't heard anything yet. I called an admissions counselor last Monday and they said they were about 2-3 weeks behind because of the sheer volume of applications this year and that I would hear back sometime this week.

I'm assuming the volume of applications has dramatically increased everywhere and am hoping this is the case for the school that said they would send out invites for interviews between mid-December and mid-January considering this is the school I really want to go to. Plus, a person within the admissions office said I was still in the "review" process. If I was wait listed, or possibly rejected (lord forbid...), wouldn't they say so? Or wouldn't they forward me to an admissions counselor who would tell me that?

The situation is so odd that I don't know how to respond of what to even think.

[ladylucretia]

Well, there's your answer - they said they were behind. "In review" could mean "we haven't even gotten around to rejecting everyone so you're still being considered" or "we've made x number of cuts and you're still in."

There's not much to gain from obsessing over this sort of thing. Personally I'm keeping as busy and mentally occupied as possible because I've been through applying before, and afterwards I regretting letting myself become so obsessive and stressed out.

[ladylucretia]

They might also keep your application open and never let you know. I had one school that had the "we'll let you know by X date regardless of the decision", I never heard from them and decided to comit to a different program. One week before classes started in August, no joke, a faculty member called my cell phone and asked if I was still interested. Turns out none of the faculty that I was interested in working with were accepting students and instead of rejecting me they held my application open 4 months past the deadline. Even after declining the offer, they chose to defer my acceptance a year, so I never officially declined the offer. Also I had a similar circumstance at another school, the lab I wanted in didn't have funding for another student, so they rejected me. About 2 months later, they called me up asking if I wanted in (again I had already committed to another program).

But I say this because you never know what's going on, you just have to be patient and let the process happen. They'll let you know either way.