MOVING TO FRONT, SINCE RELEVANT AGAIN (originally posted Mar. 2, 2011)
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Keith DeRose (Yale) writes:
Since prospective graduate students read your blog for information and advice on applying to graduate programs, I was wondering whether it might be a good idea for you to run a short post on an important way that applicants can help one another.
Every year, many applicants get into better programs than they otherwise would have by eventually being accepted by a program that initially put them on a waiting list. (I myself got into the program I attended off their waiting list. In fact, I think I was quite a ways down UCLA's waiting list.) Often, though, the management of waiting lists gets extremely messy, especially right before and on April 15, and the consequences of this messiness are often results that are far from optimal for the students involved.
I don't think there's any feasible way to completely solve these problems, but the applicants themselves can make things much better for one another by declining offers as soon as they're in a position to, so the programs involved can then go to their waiting lists.
Sometimes this can be done simply by making one's decision earlier. Once they have all the relevant information, given it a little chance to sink in, mulled it over a bit, and talked things over with their advisers, students can often do everyone -- including themselves!-- a favor by making a decision significantly in advance of April 15.
However, I realize that for various reasons, some will delay making their decision until the bitter end. In addition to reasons of personal psychology, sometimes this is done because students are hoping themselves to get into a better program than they've so far been accepted at off of a waiting list.
That's why it can also be extremely helpful not to wait until one has decided where one will accept before starting to decline some offers. If a student has been accepted by more than two programs, then even before they decide which offer to accept, they should decline all the offers of the programs they are in a position to rule out. And if they know which of the programs that have already accepted them that they most prefer, but are still hoping to get into a better program off a waiting list, then they should decline all the other offers they have.
Sometimes students delay declining offers because they fear it will be an unpleasant communication to make and/or because they think departments will feel insulted if they're turned down quickly. In fact, I'm pretty confident that almost every program will appreciate being told as early as possible that a student is declining an offer, once they're in a position to make a settled determination that that's what they are going to do.
I think this is sensible advice, though it bears emphasizing that departments may not require admitted students to decide before April 15. But applicants can help each other by making timely decisions, and making them before April 15 if at all possible.
ADDENDUM: Tim O'Keefe (Georgia State) writes:
I appreciate your printing Keith DeRose's suggestion, which is spot on. I'd like to add that the same considerations apply to withdrawing oneself from consideration by schools where one is on the waitlist when you know you wouldn't accept an offer if it were forthcoming. Although it's not as crucial as declining an offer in hand, doing so is still quite helpful to graduate programs and to fellow applicants. Especially during the crunch time immediately before April 15, being able to move down your waitlist expeditiously can make the difference between being able to make an offer to somebody (who would be overjoyed to receive it) in time for them to be able to accept it and its being too late.
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