In light of the unfortunate turn of events regarding admissions at Arizona, a couple of readers suggested it might be useful to have an open thread for departments to post any relevant updates, perhaps along the lines of this statement that philosopher Mike Titelbaum, Chair of the Department at Wisconsin/Madison, shared with me.
The Philosophy Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has informed our applicants that we will not be admitting anyone from our waitlist. To be clear—and to avoid inspiring further anxiety—this was a decision we made within our department, not because of any administrative edict or budgetary constraints. We had an unusually high acceptance rate this year, and so have already reached the target size for our incoming class. We couldn’t see ourselves admitting anyone further off our waitlist next week, so we decided to announce that now, in hopes that it allows the people on our waitlist to make other acceptance decisions as soon as possible. In these times of uncertainty, we figured it was better to give people information as early as possible so they could move decisively.
We still have a few admissions offers outstanding, and are dearly hoping those folks will join our program. All of the offers we made—both accepted and as yet unaccepted—are still good, along with their guarantees of financial support.
If any other departments find themselves in a similar fortunate position with respect to their acceptances, I would encourage them to consider a similar course.Mike Titelbaum, Chair, Department of Philosophy, UW-Madison
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