dontpanic

So, my season is now over... I got a waiting list from a top 15 school, a waiting list from a top 30 school, and an admit from a top 60 school. And rejections all the way between top 10 and top 50. I guess I have a very noisy profile.

Kind of off-topic, but I am getting tired of reading all these "Rejected from top30 school, but admitted by a top5 school...LOL, losers!" posts on GC. I mean, what's the purpose?

Well, you know, 15 years ago Pixar came up with this movie called Monsters, Inc. in which they show monsters need little children's screams and fear to use as sources of power... I heard they are now working on a movie called Economics, in which they will show how top econ departments feed on the despair and crushed dreams of applicants... I sincerely don't see any other reason, specially if that GC post saying they had 900 applications and only 18 spots is true. Just put everyone not admitted out of their misery already.

That does make sense for Northwestern... But didn't NYU already send out waitlists as well? I mean, what's the point of not rejecting everybody else if you already have a batch of students to choose from in case some of the admitted students don't accept the offers?

Agreed. I mean, as per GC, there are a few people who haven't received anything yet... which could lead one to believe that he or she might be on "pending" status, or "unofficial waitlist", whatever you want to call it. But it would be just outright mean if that is not the case.

Does anybody here have an informed guess/opinion on Northwestern's modus operandi? I mean, they seem to have sent all the acceptances already (since at least 3 or 4 weeks ago), and they even started sending out some rejections... why not send all of them at once? it seems unnecessarily cruel...

What do you mean "good" waitlist? and how do you know whether or not you were on it?

LOL; same here... woke up briefly to use the toilet, saw the rejection. Hard to have sweet dreams after that.

From the GC posts of all the admitted people who are apparently declining, that seems like a reasonable assumption. Although, it's tough to know for certain without inside information.

I certainly hope not, but that seems to be the case...

Since NYU did send waitlists, I'd say it's most likely a rejection. UCLA seems to have send only a handful of admits, so there still could be some chance there.

I mean, if it's true, then it is quite likely that the acceptances are done, given that they take about 4-6 students per year... If any at all. So, if they admitted 3 or 4 students, it could be the case that only one of them decided to post to GC. But I cannot say for sure, to be honest.

Yeah, it's hard to come up with a pattern. I guess it depends on the perception of you each school had. If your reach school thinks they are among the highest-ranked programs that will make you an offer, then they are trying to "lure you in" with the funded offer. Conversely, if the safety school knows you'll get better offers, then they don't want to waste a funded place on you, but would probably fund you if you decide to go there. Who knows. It could also be a matter of fit, or a thousand different factors. It's weird, I have seen people with stellar credentials get rejected and people with ok credentials admitted at top departments.

I know CUNY started giving out interviews. However, if you haven't heard anything, you shouldn't read too much into this, as I've heard they interview all the candidates.

I'm also on the same no-news-from-Princeton boat... implicit rejections suck big time, it would be better if schools notified everyone at the same time... or gave rejections first. I bet an implicit acceptance sucks less than an implicit rejection. Oh well...

So, if we take into account UMinn's historical behaviour, they reject people who are definitely a "no" and accept those applicants who they really want early on (as in, the first two weeks of february). And then they start going through the pool of remaining applicants and notify them by the end of March/early April. So they carry out their acceptance process in at least two stages... which really sucks, because it means not knowing for another month... this is nerve-racking!

You're still alive. My decision says they won't be able to offer me admission for the Fall 2016 term.

I think the general advice seems to be that applied masters programs are useless (that is, if you do not intend to move into industry). If I recall correctly, Columbia now offers a masters program aimed at preparing students for PhD programs later on. Also, have you considered European masters?

I'm in a similar position to you. Good recommendation letters from well-known people, but I absolutely suck at GRE. Addressing pch's post, in my case I don't think it is due to not knowing my math (have taken two Real Analysis courses and done fairly well at them), nor because I didn't prepare enough. I think I just suck at not making dumb mistakes. Regardless of the reason, it is definitely the weak point of my profile and I am just hoping for the best as well. Also, I was told by some of my recommenders that they would be willing to make send some emails, as pch suggests, to try to keep my application from being desk-rejected. I think this is sound advice.

Unless the program explicitly states that an application is not complete until all the supporting materials including LoR are submitted, which is the case for UC Berkeley, for example.

Little question about re-applying: I know the general consensus seems to be that re-applying only makes sense if one did something that significantly improved their own profile. Otherwise it's just repeating the same outcome. Assuming I did improve my profile. Should I include in my statement of purpose that I am a re-applicant? would that signal perseverance or would that count against me? If I decide not to include it, would universities know that I am re-applicant? Thanks a lot for any help you could provide on the matter.

It is a high-risk option. In general, you could just put the scores into their system, and they can wait a bit to receive the official scores from ETS. The scores normally take about 2 weeks to be published. But assuming you don't have them by the time the deadline comes, you might feel tempted to report an estimate of the scores. You do get the raw scores at the end of your GRE,but in principle, they could change. Plus, you certainly won't have your AWA score. To summarize: it is possible, but it's a highly risky option.

Hello chateauheart, As terrible as I am with this, you're right. I need him to define wheter or not he's going to write it ASAP. Thank you very much for your response. Cheers.

Hello, I'm in a bit of a trouble as of now because I haven't gotten any answer from one of my letter writers. Long story made short; I did an MSc in Econ at a top European department, I didn't excel in everything, but I managed to get some really good grades in a few classes. Because of this, three professors agreed to write LoRs for me for the PhD application process. I talked to them in April, and then tried re-confirm and set up the details in August. Two of them already said yes, however one of them hasn't answered any of my e-mails (I'm not in Europe anymore, which obviously complicates things). Now, this last professor is fairly famous and therefore really busy, so it might very well be that he hasn't had time to read any of my e-mails. However, since I didn't get any answer back, I contacted his assistant, who in turn forwarded my e-mail to him. So I can almost be 100% certain that he read it and actively decided to ignore it. His assistant also told me to call him at one particular time, because he would be at his office, but I couldn't reach him via phone either. Now naturally, given that he is the most famous one of my recommenders, I really need his letter. What baffles me is that he was super nice when we spoke in April and said he'd gladly write the letter. And, while I understand that he is insanely busy, an answer of the type: "I've read your e-mail, I'm pretty busy atm, we'll arrange the details later" would be enough. I would like to know if anybody has been in a similiar situation or if anybody has some suggestions about what course of action to follow. I don't want to pester him with e-mails and calls, in case that makes him say he won't write the letter anymore. But I also don't want a lot of time to pass and then two weeks before deadlines, have him say he doesn't have time to do it, or he'll simply won't do it. Any advice/comment is welcome. Thanks a lot! Cheers!