Why is it taking too long???

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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guguma
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Why is it taking too long???

Post by guguma » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:43 pm

I have been following the Admissions 2008 Profiles/Results thread for a while now and I am completely puzzled about the inner-workings of the admissions committees.

It is clearly seen that top Ivy's and MIT have decided much sooner than any other universities. Some universities that gets a considerable number of applicants per year have also started announcing results. But some of them are still waiting.

At first I thought that it had to do with the application deadlines. But some universities with a later application deadline than others are announcing before the ones which have an application deadline much earlier.

I am especially waiting results from Boston University, SUNY at Buffalo, Northeastern University, Umass at Amherst, University of Cincinnati, Tufts (which had an application deadline at 1st of December :!: :!: :!: ) and none of it seems to have sent even their first round decisions. (I am assuming that they fill their grad student pool with about three rounds of offers starting from the best applicants).

On top of that I am an international student and this fact renders me further ignorant about how these admissions processes work.

So Discuss...

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dlenmn
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by dlenmn » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:50 pm

I have a friend (he's not on this forum) who got in to BU today.

No one really knows how the process works, in part because schools do it differently. I'd say the time it takes is probably a function of a lot of things including the number of applicants, the number of people they want and the acceptance rate, the size of the admission commite (more members means more people to divide up the work), and how thouroughly they review each candidate. The variables differ a lot between schools.

ler1
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Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:55 pm

Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by ler1 » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:57 pm

I am new to the forum but may I ask about the BU admit was it by e-mail or phone or mail?

sirjetpackbob
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by sirjetpackbob » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:42 pm

Also, if you know any information about BU's open house, I would really appreciate it. I tried emailing them earlier this week and no response.

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dlenmn
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by dlenmn » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:45 pm

He heard by email. He mentioned that he was going to the open house, but I forget when it was. If I remember, I'll ask him.

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grae313
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by grae313 » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:07 am

Also, schools also have to figure out the funding issues, and who gets which fellowships and which offers. This could be more difficult for some schools that for others.

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dlenmn
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by dlenmn » Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:33 pm

I asked my friend and he doesn't have info about BU's open house yet (might be coming in the mail?) He wrote:

"the info I got just talked about having me come down in vague terms. (i.e. we would like you to come visit. and would love to talk to you. nothing about a visiting weekend)"

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guguma
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by guguma » Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:39 am

@dlenmn

If your friend would not mind privacy issues, would you provide us with the field of study your friend is accepted?
Because it seems that your friend is the only one who is accepted to BU.
Last edited by guguma on Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

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dlenmn
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by dlenmn » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:43 am

Ok, this gets a my bad.

He's a physics major, so I figured when he said that he got in, that it was Physics. However, it turns out the stuff he wanted to do (space plasma physics) is done in their astronomy dept, and that's what he got in to. Just found this out.

Sorry for the false alarm.

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guguma
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Re: Why is it taking too long???

Post by guguma » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:18 am

no problem :)

it is just that I am especially anticipating BU's answer. From the gradcafe I found out that they have made an offer on 7 Feb in 2006 and no data is available about 2007. 7 Feb - 29 Feb (maybe even longer) gap seems weird and only helps build up my excitement.



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