<p>UCSD sent out some acceptances a few days ago. Only two posts on thegradcafe, so I'm not sure if this is the first wave, or if they're just cutting back on admissions.</p>
<p>It sounds like schools everywhere are scaling back quite a bit because of the economy. Berkeley is shooting for an incoming class of less than 20, after averaging 25 the past few years (and I believe considerably more before that). Apparently Washington is shooting for a class of 15. Minnesota is shooting for an incoming class of 5 or 6, when they're usually around 25. MIT had something in their wait-list letter about having to be extra careful to make sure they hit their marks this year, which wasn't there last year.</p>
<p>I emailed UC-San Diego and they informed me that they made a small first wave of offers and my application is being considered for the 2nd round. I also was told that I had a good chance of getting into my home school Stony Brook, but I just emailed them saying it's probably a good idea for me to see a new department and live in a brand new city, even though I really love Stony Brook and their math department.</p>
<p>On another note, I got into UC-Santa Barbara and I got rejected from Johns Hopkins. I'll probably turn down Santa Barbara after my visit to Texas next week.</p>
<p>Hmm... I expected more answers this week but nothing has come in. It kind of annoys me me that schools don't give all their applicants some indication when they send out their first waves. I feel like grad school admissions is some giant Quaker meeting where applicants have to wait for admission committees to be spiritually moved before telling us anything.</p>
<p>Well, that's what The Grad Cafe is for. I can understand why grad schools do things the way they do. It would be a hassle to keep everybody updated. You don't really gain anything by updating people on their status (I think if anything, you might scare off some potential second-third round acceptees). And I don't think it would be very professional to formally label some accepted candidates as being "better" than others. It's just the nature of rolling admissions; your application is under consideration until you hear back accepted or rejected. It can be hard to wait, but as long as you hear something with a reasonable amount of time before April 15th, it doesn't really matter.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Berkeley is shooting for an incoming class of less than 20, after averaging 25 the past few years (and I believe considerably more before that).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Berkley had about 460 applications this year. No wonder why admissions are so tight.</p>
<p>Certainly if all grad programs did it, then each individual program would benefit because applicants wouldn't need to wait to accept offers at say Minnesota just because they think they still have a chance at Wisconsin and it works both ways. At the very least Minnesota and Wisconsin now have a better idea of their incoming class before they make second round decisions. This allows those programs to make second round decisions quicker and more selectively, secure in the knowledge that they already have > number of commitments and > amount of time to run a third round if necessary. </p>
<p>It's also just good practice to stay in touch with your applicants. If a program accepts someone in late March / April, it's because they want that student to fill a slot. However, if that student hasn't heard anything from that program since January when they were notified application is complete, that student may have given up on that program or lost their excitment about the program. Or perhaps simply feel that the program ignored them / isn't very welcoming. Even after admissions, the math community is so small, you want people to have a good impression of your program. Let's be honest, if they enumerate the bottom half of their applications, it is not going to take some undergrad work study student more than 4 hours to arrange the email list for rejections, and this is a task that will eventually need to be done. It actually saves the departmental assistant from having to interact with you all who are audacious enough to call and email.</p>
<p>I talked to one of my Berkeley profs, last Nov.
According to him, Berkeley had decided not to cut back on the number of graduate students accepted into the math department at one of their meetings. which seemed a HUGE issue as he knew that other graduate schools were definitely cutting back. and it was something the dept. had contemplated.
The fact Berkeley cut back a little by accepting 20 instead of 25 is quite a big deal O_O</p>
<p>I can only imagine what other graduate schools who have no choice but to cut back as of last Nov. are deciding on by now.</p>
<p>I wasn't talking about how many people they'd accept, I was talking about how many students they're expecting to eventually enroll. Without taking the time to make an exact count, they accepted around 40-50 people.</p>
<p>I take back the last two lines of my post, then. Was totally irrelevant of me.
I should've worded it as, "The fact Berkeley is shooting for 20 when they've averaged 25 is quite a big deal"
Just wanted to convey that the idea of universities making some cutbacks this year has not sunk in for me yet.
Thanks for the numbers, dilksy.</p>
<p>Dilksy is correct -- from a Berkeley student, with a friend who just got accepted back to the Ph.D. program, and has this info from people who help with the admissions process. Less than twenty is what they're shooting for. </p>
<p>I heard Chicago aimed for a class of 6 students or something.</p>
<p>I hope things are calmer in my year. Apparently UChicago had to think about its finances as well, hence the incredibly small size. Very, very exceptionally qualified people were rejected, apparently. I personally don't know any applicants to UChicago, but heard all this through a guy who has a friend who applied.</p>
<p>UCLA did send out several offers early, not sure. They might be waiting at this point for people to either accept or reject their offers, before they say anything else. My friend received a UCLA offer a fair while back.</p>
<p>Just checked UMD website and they said the decision regarding my application had been made. The result was sent via postal service. They say they won't respond to the query via e-mail or phone. Does it imply a rejection?</p>
<p>That is just strange man. UMD said they waitlisted me, but it seems like they waitlisted everyone. I still have heard nothing from Duke, I have no idea why they are taking so long. The April 15th deadline is nearly a month away. Maybe they are content to take a small freshman class?</p>
<p>Just figured out. There is a link to another website to check the status. It requires UID (found on the information page) and PIN (your DOB in mmddyy format). And...it's just what I guessed...a rejection.</p>
<p>I haven't heard anything from Duke either. The chair offered me a fee waiver if I applied based on grades, etc, (maybe he does that for everyone...) so I was hopeful that I would be considered early.</p>
<p>In other news... I am 3 for 3 so far! In addition to UNC, I'm also in at OSU and UGA (with a VIGRE offer). Now I'm realizing that decisions are terrible, terrible things. It would almost be better to only get in to 1 school.</p>
<p>Duke gave out some admissions in early-mid February. I got one on 2/15 and it looks like there are 9 admits so far. I don't know how many more they're going to accept, but the recruiting weekend is March 20-22.</p>