I just saw someone claim to have gotten an email from a particular school notifying him of his acceptance before that school officially releases its decisions. This was NYU regular decision if it matters.
Are schools doing this now? What does it mean? Are they emailing acceptances early and leaving rejections for the official release date or what?
Anyone know what’s going on?
Usually means nothing. They promise a date, and people tend to complain only when it is late, not when it is early.
But sometimes it does mean something, depending on the school.
Some schools do notify a select group of applicants that they are/will be accepted and this notification can happen a few weeks or even more before the official RD notification date. So far, I have seen posts of this happening at Cornell, Amherst, Davidson, W&M, Grinnell.
So how many of the accepted people get told ahead of time? Why would a school do this? If you don’t get an early email does that mean they don’t want you?
One form of this is called an “early write”. They do especially want those students, but it doesn’t mean you won’t get accepted
Well, I’m feeling rather insulted now. I find that practice exceedingly rude.
@Vanyali , I can’t tell whether you are a parent or student (from other threads you seem to have posted as both) but whichever - you really need to try to not take decisions personally, or the fact that you/your daughter are not one of a tiny % of applicants to get an early email. (I believe in nyu’s case it is usually the handful of merit scholarship winners who get early notification, I have no idea of course if this is the case for the person you’re talking about). I know it’s difficult not to take it personally if you’ve worked so hard on applications, but often it’s just a numbers game. Good luck for decision season, it’s stressful.
Keep your game face and wait until all is posted.
At the end of the day, if you get in, you get in. No one will start school wearing a special t-shirt that says “I found out a week before you.”
I saw the NYU one also. It literally seems like one person got it. Don’t read into it, you 100% have a chance!
It is a rude practice in a system full of rude practices and until people start realizing that they are people who deserve respect and respectful treatment, schools will continue to treat people badly.
My son got an early write from Grinnell, and it really just seemed like they were trying to spread out admitted student visits. The acceptance included a link for an admitted student visit that was happening even before the regular decision date. I wouldn’t assume any ill intent or rudeness. There could be a very simple explanation.
They could be a 12 year old trying to stir the pot.
@vanyali, I’m sorry you feel you’ve been treated rudely. My daughter felt respected and well treated by all the admissions and related personnel she met and communicated with across a range of colleges.
Havig a fake announcement day is dishonest (NYU, Cornell) — if you are going to announce to different people at different times whenever you want to, just admit it.
Demanding kids list off their favorite, what was it, TV shows?, instead of an essay (Columbia) is just demeaning. When I saw that I just thought “dance, monkey, dance”. Did they really think that was cute?
I just read on Reddit that not having actually travelled to a college beforehand decreases your chances? Really? How petty to even consider keeping track of such a thing. What percentage of people in the country can afford to fly around visiting schools here and there and everywhere?
All these little slights when everyone now KNOWS that some good portion of applicants have fake SATs and fake sports recruitments. So just how much of this process is fake? And how much are these slights intentional, designed to put applicants in such a groveling state of mind that they accept it all?
Demeaning others to convince them that you are superior to them works very well. But that doesn’t make it a good thing to do.
OP, if this troubles you so much then I would stay off CC and Reddit. That way you can be blissfully ignorant about other applicants receiving early writes.
No, I think the problem is that not enough people understand the system, and just how corrupt it is. So people shielding themselves from understanding it is bad.
Cornell is upfront about likely letters. It’s not a secret. I’m sure it’s the same for other schools.
If you feel demeaned by certain schools’ practices, feel free to turn down their acceptances.
@Vanyali I have no issue with schools accepting a handful of merit applicants earlier, such as the NYU MLK scholarship recipients. There is a place for everyone, no need to be so bitter, just focus on you. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if you were one of the early admits.
Well, if someone on Reddit says it, it MUST be true!
If you are upset this easily, you are going to have a difficult road ahead.