What you can expect when the moment comes

While we toil away here, putting the finishing touches on our admission decisions, naturally we know that some of our peers are getting out ahead of us with decisions, building the anxiety among our applicants.  Maybe we’d rather be first, but more important, we want to be accurate and thorough, and to provide admitted applicants with all the information they need to make a decision to enroll at Fletcher.  So let me run through what you can expect to learn tonight, when we release decisions.  (All decisions, by which we mean decisions for all degree programs on every complete application that was submitted by the final March 1 deadline.  No trickling of decisions for us.  No releasing of decisions by telephone or email either, so please be patient until 6:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.)

First, when your decision is ready, you’ll receive an email to check your Application Status Page.  (Reminder for those who haven’t bookmarked the page:  To access your Application Status Page you can either click the “Start an Application” link on the Admissions website or the application link.  You’ll log in with the email and password you used when you created your application.)

I’ve already described the different decision options on Monday and Tuesday.  In addition to learning the admission decision, when admitted applicants log in, they will be able to find their scholarship award.  If you’re in a two-year program, the award is renewable for the second year.  (So a $10,000 scholarship is worth $20,000 for your full MALD or MIB.)  We make scholarship decisions based on a combination of merit and need.  That is, for any level of merit — as determined through the application review process — the larger awards go to those with greater need.  We hope that all applicants will be happy with their awards, though we know that only Admissions Committee members have the full picture of the breadth of need (and merit, to a lesser extent) among the admitted applicants.  Fletcher’s applicant pool is diverse in every possible way.

Beyond all that, let me just say that it is truly a pleasure to work with our applicants.  On the road, here at Fletcher, and through correspondence, Admissions staff members connect with hundreds of people who submit applications each year.  With some applicants, our connection goes back many years.  At the same time as the Admissions Committee’s mandate is to put together a class that will succeed at, contribute to, and benefit from Fletcher, there are many people who may not be admitted at this time but who we know will ultimately be great students.  I want to thank all of you for your interest in Fletcher and for reading the Admissions Blog throughout the year.