Final stages
I hope you all took my advice and gave your GAMS-refresh finger a rest over the weekend. I certainly took a break from admissions work, and my admissions pals and I have traded our weekend stories of movies, restaurants, and visits to the Somerville Winter Farmers’ Market.
But with blinders refitted and focus renewed, it’s back to the final stages of the process. So we’ve taken steps to reduce interruptions:
And we’re benefiting from a little quiet. Before I go on, a quick note about which decisions will/won’t be released this week. Almost all applications fall into the “will” category, including:
— All MALD, MA, and PhD applications;
— MIB applications that were complete by March 1. Kristen tells me that the people whose applications weren’t complete have heard from her, so I trust you know who you are;
— Most LLM applications, except for applications that arrived for the March 1 deadline, and a few that were completed late;
— And…scholarship decisions for Early Notification admits, as well as last year’s admitted students who deferred their enrollment, and last year’s “delay admits.”
By the end of the day Friday, we had finished putting together the admission packets, and now they’re all ready to go to the mail room, both the domestic:
And the international:
And we’ve alphabetized and reboxed all the application folders, which were strewn throughout the office last week:
The current tasks don’t involve me directly, so I am using my time today to catch up a bit (email, long-neglected projects), while remaining available to help with anything that needs doing. I’m also taking time to consider what’s ahead in the next few weeks. One busy phase will soon end, clearing the way for the next one to begin.
Thank you, Paige. I hope the waitlist offer will turn into a place in the class for you. Please keep in touch, and feel free to update your application so that we know what you have been doing since January.
I just got my decision, I am on the WAITLIST! Omg! I am so honored!
I just graduated a year ago,from Thailand. Thought I was hopeless, but I’m on the waitlist at the best international affairs school in the US, among those experienced professional people!
I don’t even know wether I will be admitted or not..but this, this is such an honor!
Thank you Jessica for ur hard work and answer, hopefully Ill meet u at fletcher in May! 😉
Hello Mitch (and other people who will eventually be in the same situation),
Last year, we found that the problem wasn’t “crashing” exactly, but just too many people trying to use the system at the same time. If you check a little later, you may be more successful. If you’re still unable to access the decision by tomorrow morning, let us know and we’ll make sure the system is working properly. For now, I’m afraid that’s all I can offer.
Sorry 🙁
Jessica
Hello lovely admissions people,
I got my notification email about 30 min ago but cannot get on GAMS now. I am assuming that the server has probably crashed.
Anything I can do except wait patiently?
Thanks,
Mitch
VERY happy for you, Subhash. You’re doing great things. I’ll be in touch by email. Enjoy.
OMG..I got in..thank you Jessica for everything!
Hello all — At this point, all decisions should be available on GAMS. We all wish there were a magic button that would post decisions and send emails at the same time, but I’m afraid our otherwise user-friendly-ish system doesn’t enable that. The office decision-posting team hoped to have everything up at 3, but there was a delay with some decisions. Emails will follow,and some have already gone. In other words, while the decision release is not literally simultaneous, it’s still the case that nearly everything will go out at roughly the same time.
As for the competition this year, I would say it was fairly typical for all programs. Neither more nor less competitive than last year, in my opinion, though I don’t have statistical information in front of me to back that up.
Thanks to all of you, and good luck!
Dear all,
GAMS has some decisions available even though emails haven’t been sent out–sorry Admissions! But it’s true; my decision was posted online.
are the students with aid receving their decision first?
Is this cadre more or less competitive than last year?
Apparently some people have already heard back. Although they didn’t get the email, the decision was on the webpage.
I don’t think this will calm anyone down, but thought it would be worth sharing anyway 🙂
Hi Sam — as I’ve said, you’ll receive an email when the decision is released. You don’t need to check GAMS at all (until you receive the email, that is). As for when…nothing has changed since my reply to N, below.
It would be so much easier if we are informed of the date and time of the expected release of decisions in our GAMS.
Is it really being released today?
I’m sorry, J Sen, that the word about feedback didn’t reach you. Still — try not to bite your nails too much!
Yes thanks so much for the updates though my nail-biting phase is on. 🙁
On another note a tad unrelated loud thinking (read rant) regarding the ifs and buts. I was waitlisted last year for the MALD program; but hadn’t given up hope, which explains why I applied this year again. In the meantime, I started (and am about to finish) a degree in another US law school. A couple of days (weeks actually) back, I learnt that Fletcher gives feedback to unsuccessful candidates. I never asked for feedback last year. Why o why? Now I will never know what aspects of my application I was supposed to improve. :/
The pictures you posted are both exciting and scary! 🙂
I hope my answer to N will help you, too, Neha. I don’t want to be cagey, but I can’t pinpoint a time for such a detail-driven task that’s so technology dependent. Be glad it’s not the old days when all we did was send out the packets and tell applicants their decision was in the mail!
Hi Jessica !
I second N and my post is almost entirely identical but this is the 50th time today, that ive checked the admissions blog itself.
It is alright if you cannot answer, just hoping for any sort of indication, so that i can stop refreshing my GAMS server.
Your blogging has been directly responsible for keeping my sanity intact(almost).
Hope I hear from you !
Hi N — Yours was probably the quickest comment on a post I’ve ever received! 🙂 I’m still being mindful of answering questions, rather than opening new ones, but it’s ever trickier. One part of your question is easy: All the decisions in the “will” category described in the post will be released together.
As I said, I’m not directly involved in the current phase of work, and I hesitate to blog-nag those who are. I can say that we’re close, but the exact timing will depend on how quickly everything comes together. I’d encourage you to stay far from GAMS (and even leave your computer) for a while longer. Checking email won’t make the decision turn up quicker. And checking GAMS may actually make it turn up slower, if everyone else checks it, too. Of course, that’s easy for me to say, since I’m not the one who has been waiting for so long! Deep breath — patience!
Hi Jessica,
Does this mean that decisions will start to be realized today, and then throughout the week? Or will all decisions be released later on in the week?
I know that this might not be possible to answer. However, im asking it in order to know for how long i can wait until i need to check my email/GAMS every 30 minutes 🙂
Thank you for your continuous blogging, it has been a pleasure following the updates.