Notifications

[beckalex]

Does anyone know how application notifications work? I've heard from a little over half of the schools I've applied to and I'm still waiting on the rest (obviously). I'm a little confused and anxious because someone I know was accepted to a school a few weeks ago that I also applied to. I still haven't heard a single thing from said school and

Comments

[coaldustcanary]

There's no consistent answer to this. It varies from school to school. Options I can think of:

1. The program is sending out acceptances for different foci within the department at different times.

2. You're on the wait list, so they're waiting to see who doesn't accept their offer before contacting you.

3. You've been rejected, and they haven't sent out their rejection letters yet. (Honestly, the fact that it's been a few weeks makes me feel this is probably most likely, I'm afraid.)

There is really, truly, no way of knowing. There's no one way every program does this.

[everyoneiknow]

When I applied last year, the schools seemed to follow this pattern: First, send acceptances to top candidates. Second, send rejections to all candidates that definitely won't be accepted. Then, wait and see how many top candidates accept your offer, and how many decline. Offer the spots of those who decline to top candidates on your waiting list. Repeat as necessary, sending out more rejection letters to the lowest level of those waiting as spots fill up.

So, if you haven't heard anything yet, you're probably somewhere in the waiting list area. They're waiting for their top choices to confirm whether or not they're attending, so they can't send out more offers yet. If you were in the first round to be rejected, you probably would have heard from them by now.

You can also check on grad cafe and see what has been posted there. It'll at least give you an idea of whether the first round of rejections has gone out.

[shaydlip]

I'm not sure what you mean by different field, but same subject. Did you apply to the same program? By field, do you mean subfield within the program? If so, then the above commenters are correct.

[anonymous]

My current department is meeting literally right now to decide on who to admit and no offers have been extended yet.

[poisoninside]

I'm in a similar boat - I just haven't heard anything from about five schools...but I don't know of anyone else who has applied.

I'd say that the school is just trying to sort through all of the applications, and you'll hear back soon.