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Posted
On 3/28/2026 at 9:39 PM, arandomtree1 said:

Waitlists move a TON the day or so leading into the April 15th deadline, though unsure how much that will occur this year with smaller cohorts.

i believe if you accept an offer elsewhere, it is normally seen as courteous to go ahead and withdraw from other waitlists you are currently on. Helps programs know who they can still give offers to, and helps them communicate to others on the waitlist with accurate information. I think reneging on an offer is typically not viewed kindly at all, but I’ve heard of it happening. Grand scheme of things it probably doesn’t matter a ton, but be aware of who you might be pissing off later for later in your career.

Guys, I know this might be a dumb question, but is the deadline at the beginning of April 15? Or is it at the end of the day?

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Posted
47 minutes ago, startz said:

According to the Graduate School Council it is end of day April 15, https://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution-faq. But read carefully what your acceptance letter says and do remember about time zones.

In my case, the offer is not clear at all about the time... I was wondering if anyone got a specific time

 

Also, I believe sending an email to the department asking about this is a bad idea, right?

Posted
Just now, mitski said:

In my case, the offer is not clear at all about the time... I was wondering if anyone got a specific time

 

Also, I believe sending an email to the department asking about this is a bad idea, right?

Why would it be a bad idea? They would appreciate that you are diligent about the process.

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Posted
1 hour ago, mitski said:

In my case, the offer is not clear at all about the time... I was wondering if anyone got a specific time

 

Also, I believe sending an email to the department asking about this is a bad idea, right?

"What time on April 15 is the deadline?
The deadline should be 11:59 pm of April 15 in the time zone of the school offering financial support."

From https://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution-faq

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Posted
2 hours ago, dedekind said:

"What time on April 15 is the deadline?
The deadline should be 11:59 pm of April 15 in the time zone of the school offering financial support."

From https://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution-faq

Adding onto this, people should carefully read their offer letter. For example, mine clearly states the deadline being 8 am in the morning of April 15 (Eastern time zone). 

Posted

I don't think the resolution means much this year. I wouldn't be surprised if some schools (e.g., UCSD) sent out massive rejections after April 15.

Posted

Did anyone hear back from PSE APE? Decisions were supposed to be released by late April but it seems many people in PPD and a few in APE got emails.

Posted
17 hours ago, SPQR_X said:

Did anyone hear back from PSE APE? Decisions were supposed to be released by late April but it seems many people in PPD and a few in APE got emails.

Still haven't heard anything from them 

Posted
2 hours ago, Crazy_Rich_Economist said:

I have a question. So, what happens on Apr. 15. and later?

Departments look at their yield and decide whether to go to their wait list.

(1) If you are a waitlist that you prefer to your best current offer, accept the offer you have by the deadline.

(2) If you are on the waitlist for a place you would definitely go to, tell them. Even if you have already told them, tell 'em again. (No fibbing though--people have long memories.)

(3) A fairly small number of offers do go out after April 15, usually quite soon after April 15, as departments find they didn't get as many acceptances as they wanted by the deadline or that someone who has accepted has then withdrawn their acceptance.

(3) If you get a preferred offer after April 15 and you have already accepted another offer you need to inform the department where you had accepted that you are withdrawing. Do so VERY politely. But it is okay to do.

 

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Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, MarginalThinker said:

Has anyone heard any updates from NYU, UCLA, and UCSD in last few days? Does no news until this point means a rejection?

Haven't heard anything from these and assuming implied rejection. Also haven't heard from UW-Madison.

Edited by dedekind
Posted

I realized there is kind of an interesting paradox with waitlist at weakly dominating / indifference schools. Like if A is waitlisted at Harvard and has offer from stanford but weakly prefers harvard cuz of personal preference, and B is waitlisted at Stanford and has offer from Harvard but weakly prefers Stanford. Then they are waiting on each other's response, especially if they are in the same subfield. Then the most likely outcome is the (less preferred) offer will be accepted by both of them at a time very close to the decision deadline, even if they know about each other (since who would reject an offer from stanford before having confirmed acceptance from Harvard?). Unless coordination involving the admission committee and students can happen (which is extremely unlikely), the outcome can only be that offer being accepted super late, and both go to less preferred school.

Anyways, is there anyone here who is going to decline a U Chicago offer? 

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Posted
17 hours ago, startz said:

Departments look at their yield and decide whether to go to their wait list.

(1) If you are a waitlist that you prefer to your best current offer, accept the offer you have by the deadline.

(2) If you are on the waitlist for a place you would definitely go to, tell them. Even if you have already told them, tell 'em again. (No fibbing though--people have long memories.)

(3) A fairly small number of offers do go out after April 15, usually quite soon after April 15, as departments find they didn't get as many acceptances as they wanted by the deadline or that someone who has accepted has then withdrawn their acceptance.

(3) If you get a preferred offer after April 15 and you have already accepted another offer you need to inform the department where you had accepted that you are withdrawing. Do so VERY politely. But it is okay to do.

 

Correct me if I am understanding it wrong, but for the third bullet point, does it imply the resolution day means nothing? For instance, I can accept an offer on 4/14, but if I receive a dominant offer on 4/17, I can turn down the previous one and accept the latter one. If that is feasible, then why do we still abide by the 4/15 final decision rule? 

Posted
2 hours ago, jack sparrow said:

I realized there is kind of an interesting paradox with waitlist at weakly dominating / indifference schools. Like if A is waitlisted at Harvard and has offer from stanford but weakly prefers harvard cuz of personal preference, and B is waitlisted at Stanford and has offer from Harvard but weakly prefers Stanford. Then they are waiting on each other's response, especially if they are in the same subfield. Then the most likely outcome is the (less preferred) offer will be accepted by both of them at a time very close to the decision deadline, even if they know about each other (since who would reject an offer from stanford before having confirmed acceptance from Harvard?). Unless coordination involving the admission committee and students can happen (which is extremely unlikely), the outcome can only be that offer being accepted super late, and both go to less preferred school.

Anyways, is there anyone here who is going to decline a U Chicago offer? 

Yes, just did.

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Posted
On 4/13/2026 at 7:09 PM, MarginalThinker said:

Has anyone heard any updates from NYU, UCLA, and UCSD in last few days? Does no news until this point means a rejection?

Just randomly checked my UCSD portal and found a rejection. Didn't receive an email.

Posted
10 hours ago, SPQR_X said:

Just randomly checked my UCSD portal and found a rejection. Didn't receive an email.

Just received email from UCSD informing me to check my portal, which was a rejection

Posted
19 hours ago, applicationf26 said:

Correct me if I am understanding it wrong, but for the third bullet point, does it imply the resolution day means nothing? For instance, I can accept an offer on 4/14, but if I receive a dominant offer on 4/17, I can turn down the previous one and accept the latter one. If that is feasible, then why do we still abide by the 4/15 final decision rule? 

To a large extent you are right: Applicants may start to pay less attention to the “rule.” There are a few things to think about though.

1. My impression is that higher ranked schools admit fewer people from their wait list. So realistically, this doesn’t come up a whole lot.

2. Schools often require a nonrefundable deposit. Probably not important because the deposits aren’t very large and aren’t due at the deadline.

But there’s actually an economics lesson in this. Policymakers often act as if the presence of a rule settles things. In fact, people often act as if norms and customs matter. For example, the “rule” used to be that to switch schools you had to ask for a release from the first school. In practice, releases were always given so nothing really prevented anyone from switching. The current version is really just a weaker norm. It will probably continue to be largely observed.

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