Mom of a DS20 UMass applicant here. Son ended up matriculating but ultimately chose to transfer. I just wanted to encourage those of you whose kiddos are losing interest to remember that the end of January hasn’t arrived, so getting upset about not hearing yet isn’t really a fair criticism of the school until and unless that clearly published deadline passes and you still don’t hear. It can be hard to wait, and if your kids have heard from friends who got in already or have heard from other schools, or applied super early and are really just ready for it all to be over, etc. —it’s certainly anxiety provoking, but it’s not “unfair”.
My ds heard in an early wave his year, but he had other schools where he heard at or near the published deadline when other friends knew sooner. I wanted to know, too! But also modeling patience for our kids is worth it (ask this elementary school teacher how I know…).
What I know after helping 2 of my own kiddos through this process and several others privately is that some schools do it better. UMass could certainly improve and they definitely need a new social media manager in the admissions office, but it really is a great school, and if your kiddo loved it, don’t let waiting for the actual deadline sour them. Just my 2 cents.
Agree not to let the wait sour opinions BUT to be fair I think most of us on this thread (and others on CC) see this as a “safe” place to vent, share anxiety, share knowledge and best of all support each other.
Totally agree and not suggesting it’s not stressful. Just reacting to the posts where people are saying that the school is potentially no longer in their top picks because of this and trying to offer some perspective. It’s a great school and it would be a shame to let not hearing early cause someone to write it off. Fingers crossed everyone gets their answers no later than the 31st!
I don’t think it’s the “early” that is the issue here. It is the lack of transparency with the kids about how/when decisions are being made. We applied to 7 schools and this is the only one where we cannot make rhyme or reason of how decisions are handled. Delaware, Indiana, and LSU all told us decisions were rolling…applications are reviewed as they come in, and answers would be received approximately X weeks after submission. Rutgers said RD applications would be reviewed on a rolling basis after EA decisions were announced. South Carolina released all EA decisions on the same day, and we are waiting for Tennessee to do the same with RD on 2/15.
Here, we don’t understand why a kid who applied MONTHS after we did already have an answer and we don’t (similar stats, same major). We don’t know how the “batches” are determined. We don’t know what kind of review they are doing that requires 4+ months. Which adds a tremendous amount of anxiety to an already stressful situation. Kids are on pins and needles wondering if being in a late batch is a bad sign.
Honestly, if they had held decisions and released them all on 1/31, you would not hear a peep out of me. But this process of random batches that nobody can figure out is not particularly student-centric, IMO.
My son was in 2nd wave and he got that same email yesterday. He never got an email from the wave itself announcing he had been acxepted, it was just on his portal.
3.4W GPA, 1250 SAT
In state, bio major
9 APs
Debate team president
What’s funny for me is that I got into a more competitive college and UMass rejected me… (Still sad though cause most of my friends will be going there)
