March 04, 2009
They are gone!
Freshman admissions decisions were mailed this afternoon! I'll post tomorrow with some more information about the number of applications, offers of admissions, etc.</p>
<p>We will email admissions decisions to the email address provided on your application this Saturday. This way you'll be sure to get your decision by the weekend even if you are hit by a major snow storm (not a problem in Pasadena) between now and Saturday. We do not give admissions decisions over the phone.
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<p>Like, why do adcom officers want to keep us waiting longer? why not release the email results right after the decisions are final?
I'm waiting for the email outside of U.S., and I know no matter how fast the FedEx travels across the Pacific the arrival will be after my knowledge of the decision through email.
Some people in America already know their admission status while i'm still waiting, can't put my focus on anything else in the anxiety. And I know there are plenty of other students who are in the same way. </p>
<p>Why do the results have to come out on Saturday (which can be Sunday for most students in Asia) when the official decisions are already pre-made in Wednesday?</p>
<p>I think it is because getting to hold the acceptance envelope in your hand has a much bigger impact than checking an e-mail. I would have much rather have waited for the MIT tube to arrive and find out that way I got in than through the e-mail. It was much more exciting to open the Caltech big envelope that the MIT e-mail.</p>
<p>Caltech's yield is not that high. I think they want to make the most favorable impact. I think this is why they release decisions earlier too. The first acceptance has a big impact.</p>
<p>At least you guys get an email notification. In previous years, the mail was all you'd get unless you were international. And if you didn't receive your decision in the mail, you'd call them and then they'd mail it out again instead of just telling you their decision.</p>
<p>I volunteer a lot at our high school, which is a competitive public school in a university town. I really appreciate the schools that either notify by mail or post decisions late in the day, long after school has closed.</p>
<p>For some of the students who get denied, finding out about that with a bunch of other kids around -- some of whom got in -- is painful beyond belief. Teachers tell me that it is about impossible for kids to get much real work done as they're trying to absorb either the yes or the no, and I've seen way too many kids in tears.</p>
<p>Caltech has one of the more humane approaches, and I'm glad. I wish that other schools did the same, or released decisions on line on a Saturday morning.</p>