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Currently viewing the tag: "Early Notification"
Decisions were posted yesterday for our Early Notification applicants so, today, I’ll try to anticipate incoming questions and answer them before you have a chance to ask.
First, allow me to congratulate those applicants who have already been admitted! We’re excited to welcome new students to the community, and I read some super applications in this round! I’m sure it’s good news that you can just relax through the next three months. Scholarship decisions will go out with the next round of admission decisions at the end of March, but you don’t need to make a final enrollment decision until April 20. Meanwhile, I encourage you to use this time to gather information about Fletcher so that you’re ready to make an informed decision. Of course, if you already know you’ll attend Fletcher, all the better!
Next, let me say that I’m sorry to bid farewell to a group of applicants who were denied admission. We always regret making these difficult decisions, but we hope it will help the applicants make their choices on where else they should apply.
Finally (and most complicated) are the applicants who were told we will discuss them again after we receive applications for our regular deadline in January. That is, we wish to look at the applications in the context of the larger application pool. Important to note if you fall in this group: you are welcome/invited/encouraged to update us on changes to your credentials. Here’s a list of updates that we particularly value:
- An updated transcript that reflects grades received since you submitted your application;
- New standardized exam (GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, IELTS) score reports;
- A revised résumé that includes information on a new job position;
- An additional recommendation that sheds light on an aspect of your background you weren’t able to illuminate in other parts of the application.
Are you thinking of something not included on the above list? It may be a fine addition. Just use this simple rule of thumb: if the information is already in your file in another form, there’s not much value in sending it again. That is, an additional academic recommendation will add little to an application that already includes three. On the other hand, a professional recommendation will add a lot to an application that only includes academic recommendations. Think it through before you flood us with info, but don’t hesitate to send us something that will give your application a happy bump.
Whether you were offered admission this week, or you were told we’ll reconsider your application in the spring, we look forward to hearing from you and to working with you during the coming months. Please be sure to be in touch if you have questions.
We posted Early Notification decisions on Friday, and applicants will probably have seen their results by now. Some of you will also have wandered through the blog archives and found previous years’ posts about the decision options. Here’s the outline for those who want fresh info.
First, congratulations to our newly admitted students! You probably don’t need further explanation of what the news means. If we have made the decision conditional upon pursuing study to improve your English or to raise your foreign language proficiency, you’ll be hearing from us directly about the requirement.
Then there are applicants for whom we’ve decided to defer decision-making until the spring. I realize this is a good news-bad news place to be. On the good news side, we encourage you to update us before the end of February if there are changes to your application. New grades, new test scores, updated résumé, or even an additional recommendation can be good additions. Please, though, make sure that the additional information reflects something new. We don’t need a fresh copy of your résumé if nothing has changed. Send the new materials by mail or email — there’s no special defined protocol.
Finally, applicants to whom we have already said no. It’s only in the last three years that we have been telling EN applicants that they would not be admitted, and we were initially very reluctant to take the step. Now we feel more comfortable, knowing that the best in this group will use the information to make good decisions about where/whether to apply in January.
Before we call it a wrap on this phase of the admissions cycle, let me give you the details on the very wide geographic spread of this rather small group of admitted students. Whether they are only temporarily in these places or it’s their home town/country, we have admitted students currently in:
Afghanistan, Kandahar and Kabul
Albania, Rreshen, Mirdite
Armenia, Yerevan
Bangladesh, Chittagong and Dhaka
Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
Cambodia, Battambang town and Phnom Penh
Canada, Toronto
China, Manghuai, Yunxian County; Beijing; Shanghai
Democratic Republic Of Congo, Bukavu
Germany, Berlin and Hamburg
India, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi
Indonesia, Tanjungpandan, Belitung
Japan, Urayasu-shi, Chiba; Kashihara; Tokyo; Yokohama
Macedonia, Prilep
Mexico, Guadalajara and Mexico City
Nepal, Kathmandu
Nigeria, Lagos
Pakistan, Karachi
Philippines, Guiuan, Eastern Samar and Dingle, Iloilo
Singapore, Singapore
South Africa, Kuruman
South Korea, Seoul
South Sudan, Juba
Switzerland, St. Gallen and Zurich
Tanzania, Monduli and Moshi
Thailand, Bangkok
Timor-leste, Dili
Turkey, Ankara and Istanbul
Ukraine, Voznesensk
United Kingdom, London and St. Ives
And, in the U.S., outside of the Maine-Virginia corridor (always well represented), our EN admits live in California, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Texas.
Decisions on our Early Notification applications went out on Friday, and we’re receiving questions on what it all means. If you’ve been admitted, congratulations! I’ll assume you don’t require much more explanation. On the other end of the happiness spectrum, for the second year, we denied admission to some applicants and, when appropriate, informed the applicant that the missing piece is professional experience. We always feel some regret in denying applicants, but we hope it will help applicants make informed decisions on where else they should apply.
That leaves those whose application was deferred to the spring round. These applicants will have their credentials reviewed again in the context of the larger application pool. Applicants who were deferred are invited to update us on changes to their status. New grades or test scores definitely should be submitted. An additional recommendation or a new résumé that sheds light on your recent activities can also be valuable. The bottom line is that you’re welcome to update us, but please be sure that whatever you send is really an update. If the same information is already in your file, there’s little to be gained from sending it a second time.
The deadline for PhD and Map Your Future applications is tomorrow, so the Admissions Office is making a quick shift of focus. If you have further general questions about the deferrals, please include them as comments below. If general themes emerge, I’ll address them in an additional blog post.
If, like me, you’re pursued through elevators, shopping malls and supermarkets (or, in my husband Paul’s case, Tokyo hotels) by an endless loop of holiday songs, you may think that this post’s title refers to snowmen and trappings of the season. No! The most wonderful time of the year is….Committee Time!
The Committee on Admissions reviewing fall 2012 applications will meet for the first time today. The meeting kicks off the part of the year when most (all?) admissions staffers agree we’re doing our most interesting work. We have three returning student Committee members who will help us train the five new students and three new professors. The Committee’s task is the same each year, but every group has its own vibe and I’m looking forward to learning what this one is all about.
Time to grab my coffee and head over to the meeting. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
I don’t usually have a chance to take a full day to read applications at home during our Early Notification review, so today is my lucky day. All the stars aligned: a calendar free of appointments and a big box of applications needing attention. My slippers are on and I’m ready to read!
I love Thanksgiving, and I always appreciate the extra long holiday weekend. But meeting our Early Notification goals means reading applications at some point before Monday. I have a couple of dozen applications — enough to need some time and focus, but not as many as I’ll bring home on a typical February weekend. So I’ll probably read a few tonight. Maybe a few tomorrow, while we’re waiting for my cousins to arrive. The rest? Well, knowing myself, I predict that Sunday will be organized around application reading.
But first the holiday. I’ll spend this afternoon baking more than is reasonable, which will put me in a Thanksgiving frame of mind. I’m trying a new pumpkin pie recipe, as well as some old favorites. Paul will demonstrate his expertise with stuffing and I’ll cook up the sweet potatoes. Tomorrow morning, I’ll pursue one of my favorite pre-meal traditions and take a walk. I live in a busy neighborhood, and I enjoy the quiet that comes when nearly everyone is inside preparing or socializing. Around 4:00, a cousin who lives locally will arrive at our house with a turkey and everything else that goes with it. Our annual ritual of food, family, and friends.
Wherever you are, and whatever your holiday traditions may be (or even if you didn’t realize the U.S. is celebrating a holiday this week), I wish you a happy Thanksgiving!
(Please note that the Admissions Office will be closed from Thursday through Sunday.)
I’m still having trouble believing that October is over, so imagine my surprise that the first application deadline for September 2012 admission is tomorrow! Our newly selected student members of the Admissions Committee are already busy reading files, grabbing two last week and two today — a pace that will soon be unsustainably (laughably) slow. (I think they know that, but we’re glad to allow them to breathe for a few days more.) Time for me to get going, too!
For the majority of you who have not yet submitted your EN application, it’s not too late to avoid running up against the precise deadline of Tuesday, November 15, 11:59 p.m. EST (GMT -5). Submit your application today, and you can pat yourself on the head that you were early. Note that the piece that must arrive by the deadline is your online application. It’s preferred that your recommendations, transcripts, and test scores arrive by tomorrow, too, but please don’t hold your application simply because your professor hasn’t zapped through a letter.
Once you’ve submitted your part of the total file, you can monitor our work through the Graduate Application Management System (find details here). Fortunately for you ENers, we’ll receive a very manageable number of applications tomorrow, and we can compile files much more quickly than in January. In fact, the whole turnaround for the EN process is super rapid. You’ll hear from us well before the end of December (exact date still TBD).
Finally, the decision options for Early Notification fall in three groups. We may choose to admit applicants (occasionally with a condition, such as additional foreign language study); to defer the decision to the spring, when we’ll look at the application in the context of the larger pile; or to deny. Last year was the first year we denied some applicants and, while I appreciate how disappointing this is, we believe it’s better for the applicant to have clear information that can be used in deciding which other schools to apply to in January.
