Half-in

April 29, 2013 1:28 PM

Graduate students and admissions folks of Metafilter, I need your help. Awhile back, I posed this question about grad school admissions (tl;dr: shitty undergrad, have taken lots of classes since and aced all of them, great GRE). Great news: I got in! Or, I thought I did.

Basically, two Fridays ago I got an e-mail from the director of the program I applied to, informing me that I had been "recommended for admission". He told me to be on the lookout for an e-mail from the graduate school itself, with information about registration, paying deposits, and all that. I promptly got very excited, bought hoodies and coffee mugs, wandered around the campus, etc.

The application hit a snag when he e-mailed early last week, telling me that the graduate school didn't have an official copy of one of my transcripts, and asked if I could re-send. I did.

Then today, he e-mailed a third time, saying that the application has been held up again since the department has had to submit a justification for admitting a student with a sub-3.0 GPA. (In reality, my GPA is slightly over 3.0, counting classes I've taken outside the school I got my degree from, both while I was a full-time student and after graduation. Post-graduation classes constitute my main case for admission in the first place; my undergrad major is entirely unrelated.)

What I want to know is: is this just a bit of red tape that has to be cleared up? Or is there a non-trivial chance I won't be in grad school this fall?

posted by downing street memo to Education (16 answers total)

Most graduate schools don't take the reins out of the hands of individual departments, although they do have to account for student GPAs, paperwork, etc. That said, why don't you just call or go by the office (make an appointment) of your DGS and ask him these questions? He'll know better than any of us.
posted by mrfuga0 at 1:34 PM on April 29, 2013

is this just a bit of red tape that has to be cleared up?

Yes. If the department wants you, you're in. There may be some bureaucracy involved over the school's standards, but absent any egregious violations of standards that the school review provides a backstop-on (eg, the candidate doesn't actually have an undergrad degree, and it turns out that a professor is admitting his nephew as a means of funneling stipend money back to his family), you will be admitted.
posted by deanc at 1:37 PM on April 29, 2013

Judging from watching my friends' kids college experience, this is par for the course. If you weren't accepted, they wouldn't be bothering with all this.
posted by small_ruminant at 1:37 PM on April 29, 2013

No one can tell you outside the admissions department. Personally, I'd be cautiously optimistic, but depending on your personality, feel free to assume you're admitted and this is just some paperwork, or assume you're out of of the program and can be pleasantly surprised when it all works out. Sometimes I feel like being the Buddha with the broken cup helps me get through the rough patches, but YMMV.

Good luck!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:38 PM on April 29, 2013

It could be a bit of a red flag, certainly, but mostly it's a red flag regarding the ineptitude of someone on the admin side. It's not unworkable. Talk to the director, and see what he needs to help make your application process go more smoothly. Feed him any piece of information he might require. The director will know what needs to happen (and who he needs to go lean on) to get things moving again.
posted by LN at 1:38 PM on April 29, 2013

Sounds like you're fine. The departmental director wants you; when he interacts with the larger graduate school on issues of individual student admission, he gets what he wants. As a graduate student, nothing ever feels 100% certain, especially on issues of funding (you're not doing an unfunded degree, right??), but this doesn't sound like something to worry about.
posted by Sfving at 1:40 PM on April 29, 2013

I say just a bit of red tape. Unless someone on high has an axe to grind, which is unlikely.

Individual departments have a lot of latitude and autonomy when it comes to admitting students to grad programs. So while the university may have a rule about 3.0 GPAs, the form for justification is designed to let the department say "We vouch for this person and wish to let them in."

The program director's word should be good. If you're worried, I would ask him.

In all likelihood, this kind of thing can be cleared up quickly. So you should know within a week if everything is good to go.
posted by Mercaptan at 1:40 PM on April 29, 2013

I have nothing to do with graduate studies, but I do organize all kinds of guest scholar visits that have a lot of requirements to meet and I have been part of various university searches. Whenever we've needed an exception to a general policy, it has been granted - the point is, is the exception in the spirit of the policy, or not? We want someone to work in a particular lab and the role generally requires a PhD, she is from a country where a degree is awarded that we do not have here and she does not have a PhD - maybe we have to request an exception via HR, but there is no reason they won't grant it. The issue is whether the candidate is qualified, not mere compliance with the rules. The rules are there to support getting qualified candidates, not to keep qualified candidates out.
posted by Frowner at 1:42 PM on April 29, 2013

If I understand this correctly, the transcript / GPA thing are unrelated, right? (I.e. the department was aware of your GPA and how it was represented on that transcript?) If so, then this is probably red tape, meant as a formal check on something departments might miss, though the admissions director can answer this more effectively. If my department wanted to admit someone with a low GPA we might get asked about it, but we certainly would be able to. I'm guessing that this is happening late because of the missing official transcript, leading to some things (incl. GPA) not being fully processed on the graduate school side until now, and otherwise this would have happened a bit more smoothly.
posted by advil at 1:43 PM on April 29, 2013

you're not doing an unfunded degree, right??

If it matters, it's an M.S. that I'm paying for, out of pocket.
posted by downing street memo at 1:45 PM on April 29, 2013

This might seem a little too obvious: call them and ask. The person with whom you have been emailing certainly wants you in their school. Call and ask what this means, timelines, if you can provide more documents (and fully explain the GPA issue), etc. Emailing back and forth is not giving either side enough information, in seems. Opening the lines of communication further can only aid you.
posted by Flamingo at 1:46 PM on April 29, 2013

Another vote for you're fine. It's very common to have to make a case to the Grad College if an applicant's performance has fallen below the College's cutoff. I've never heard of a College not agreeing once the department makes the case -- it's just an extra hoop the department has to go through.
posted by ravioli at 2:28 PM on April 29, 2013

They may have some specific rule about having a 3.0 GPA in the discipline of choice, or your major, or all intermediate/advanced classes, or all classes taught by a French guy with a penchant for tapdancing. Universities have all sorts of weird regulations.

If I were you, I'd consult with your current academic mentors/recommenders and see what they'd suggest. And don't overload the admissions guy, but send a brief response saying, "Thanks for letting me know. If there's any additional information I can provide that will help you in this process, please don't hesitate to let me know."
posted by Madamina at 3:15 PM on April 29, 2013

So, in my experience, grad and professional programs want to keep the average GPA of admitted students high, for their own stats and for accreditation and ratings purposes. Sometimes, students are not admitted because their GPA (or test scores) would "make the school look bad." I think this is pretty obnoxious, but it happens.

But that's a worst-case scenario. Probably you're going to be fine; the department wants you, which is the main thing.

(Also, it's totally common, that thing where they calculate your GPA differently from the way you think they should. I'm honestly not sure what the rationale is for that.)
posted by mskyle at 6:06 PM on April 29, 2013

Update: I got in! Again!

Thanks to all for the help.
posted by downing street memo at 2:07 PM on April 30, 2013

Hooray! Congrats!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:58 AM on May 1, 2013