Archive for Application Tips – Page 49

Fall 2011 Admission Time Line and Welcome Page

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 
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The Admissions Committee continues to read/review at a fast and furious pace but we are happy to be nearing the end of the review process.  No decisions went out on Monday but our hope is to start publishing more today.  As always, check here for updates, however we cannot tell individuals when their decision will be ready to view.

I do want to provide those who have been admitted with a few reminders and give insight to those still waiting of what lies ahead in the future if you do receive an offer of admission.

First, please note that if admitted to SIPA you will be given a link to a Welcome Page in your admission letter.  The Welcome Page contains very important information regarding a variety of topics.  We have already received a large number of emails from admitted applicants with questions that are clearly answered on the Welcome Page.  We want admitted students to receive answers to questions as quickly as possible and reviewing the Welcome Page will most likely answer many questions admitted applicants might have.

For example, many applicants have emailed asking if they can interact with a current student.  The answer is yes and we make this easy by offering an internet message board that allows admitted applicants to interact with one another and with current students.   SIPA students will be on spring break from March 14th to 18th so traffic will likely be slow this week, however the board is live and waiting for admitted applicants to take advantage of.  How do you log in?  Details on are the Welcome Page.

Second, SIPA will host an Admitted Student Day on Tuesday, April 12th.  Admitted Student Day will take place on the Columbia Campus and it will be a full day event.  Professor Jeff Sachs will be giving a special talk during the lunch portion of Admitted Student Day.  How do you register?  Registration information is on the Welcome Page.  If you cannot attend, there are some resources available for those unable to attend . . . you guessed it, on the Welcome Page.

Third, May 2nd is the date by which admitted students must pay a deposit confirming enrollment for fall 2011.  The typical day is May 1st, but since May 1st falls on a Sunday we moved the response date to the next business day, Monday.

Fourth, a series of communications will be sent to admitted applicants and these messages will come from the [email protected] address.  Please ensure that your email client is set to receive messages from this account.  Faculty, current students, administrators, and alumni will all be included in the communication chain.

Fifth, if you are admitted you will need to ensure that official academic transcripts and official test reports are in our office no later than June 15th.  We will work with admitted applicants to determine if official copies of these documents were already provided to us during the application process.  What address should you send them too?  The address is listed on the Welcome Page.

Last, unfortunately applicants placed on the waitlist are unable to participate in admission related activities until an admission offer is made.  More details regarding the waitlist will be published on this blog in the future.  We will begin to “work” the waitlist in April and this process will often continue into the summer.

Thank you for your attention . . . now back to Committee meetings . . .

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Admission Decisions Update – Read Carefully

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Monday, March 7th, 2011 
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As the title of this entry indicates, I hope you will read this message carefully as I explain where we are in the application review process.  My goal is to answer questions you might have, assuage any fears, and give you the detailed information you need regarding the release of decisions.

First, as I have stated before on the blog, we do not publish all of our admission decisions on a single day.  We would love to be able to publish all decisions at the same time, however the structure of our Committee and the coordination involved causes us to spend more time on some applications than others.  How long it takes to review a file is largely dependent upon scheduling and coordination among the Committee members and it should not be a cause of concern if you have to wait longer than some other individuals to receive a decision.

I know this is easy for me to say since I am not the one waiting to receive a decision, however because of the coordination required, neither I nor my staff can tell you the exact date when you will receive your decision.  Our goal is to release decisions as soon as possible, but if you email or call with this question, our answer will be that we are working as quickly as we are able and you will be notified by email once a decision has been posted.

I am happy to share that the Committee has finalized decisions for approximately 65% of those in the applicant pool.

Decisions for this group will be posted between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM today (New York City Time) – March 7th.

As stated in a recent post, you will know that your decision is ready to view when you receive an email with the following subject heading: SIPA Admissions Decision Notification

The process of releasing decisions can now be described as “rolling” in the sense that as decisions are finalized and approved by the Committee, we will post them and send out email notifications each day.  There will be no standard time window like the one mentioned above, the emails will be sent based on when decisions are posted and ready.  As hard as it is to wait, we kindly ask for your patience as we work as quickly as we are able.

If your admission decision is favorable, I ask that you pay special attention to the Welcome Page that is referenced in the admission letter.  Admitted applicants are likely to have many, many questions and the purpose of the Welcome Page is to provide answers.

The Welcome Page contains information on a variety of topics including, but not limited to:  housing, Admitted Student Day, Orientation, visa processing for international students, and happy hours/events taking place for admitted candidates in various cities around the world.

Thank you for your attention and we look forward to rolling decisions out as they are finalized.

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Feedburner Update

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Saturday, March 5th, 2011 
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It has come to my attention that we have experienced some issues recently with our Feedburner service.  If in the past you have entered your email over there on the right in the box with “Subscribe” written beneath it you should receive an automated email letting you know when a post has been added to the blog.  Although we have been posting almost every day on the blog, the emails noting such stopped going out recently.

The “back end” of this blog is handled by a centralized department and sometimes upgrades are made that impact functionality.  I was recently made aware of this issue and have been told that service should be restored soon.  In the meantime, those who have applied are likely checking the blog on a daily basis to learn more about when decisions will be released.  I would encourage you to continue to do so.  Decisions have not started to go out yet, but when they do you can count on this blog for details.

The topic of emails and admission decisions has come up recently when more than one candidate has expressed that their heart skips a beat each time an email from SIPA is received (thinking that the email will be related to their decision).  The last thing I want candidates to do is suffer in this way and I can let you know exactly what you can expect in terms of an email subject heading when your decision has been published on the application site for you to view.

The email noting that your decision has been posted will still come from [email protected] (like most of our emails) but the subject heading will be:

SIPA Admissions Decision Notification

So, any other email you receive could be considered general business and there is no need for any heart skipping.  Thank you for your patience as we do our best to communicate clearly all of the aspects of the admission review process.

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Admission Decisions Category #2: Admitted

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Monday, February 28th, 2011 
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This is the second of three posts targeting the topic admissions decisions.  Decisions have not started to be released yet – this series is meant to provide an understanding of what you will see when decisions are released.  The first post covered the waitlist category and this post covers the admitted category.  The admitted category does have some different groupings.

The first and largest category in the admitted group is standard admission.  Due to our limited fellowship budget for first-year students, most admission offers to SIPA do not include first-year funding.  Most of our funding is reserved for second-year students.  It is very difficult to select recipients for first-year awards and those that receive an admission offer without funding should not take this as an indication that the Committee was not extremely impressed with your background, experience, and potential.

Approximately 15% of admitted candidates will receive funding to help pay for costs during their first-year of study.  Awards vary in amount and specifics will be included in the admission letter.  All first-year students, whether receiving funding or not, can apply for a second-year award.  Applications for second year funding are submitted in the spring semester.  A first-semester GPA of 3.4 or higher is required to apply for second-year funding.

One common question we get from admitted candidates that do not receive funding is, “If someone is offered an award but decides not to attend SIPA, can I be considered for the money that is ‘freed up’ when they decline their funding offer?”

While I can understand what might lead one to a conclusion like this, the Admissions Committee knows that not everyone we offer funding to will choose to accept our offer.  We thus spend about twice the amount of money we have in our budget, meaning it is not as simple as offering funding to another candidate if one candidate chooses not to attend.  It is thus incredibly rare for us to be able to make a funding offer to a candidate that is not initially chosen to receive an award in the first year of study.

Admitted candidates will have until May 2nd to pay a $1,000 deposit to secure a space in the fall 2011 class.  A variety of resources will be made available to admitted candidates including a Welcome Page, Admitted Student Day (April 12th), an Internet based message board, and a summer math tutorial.

One final note is that we do have one category of “conditional” admission.  Some admitted applicants that do not speak English as a native language will be required to attend an intensive English language class in the summer on the Columbia campus prior to enrolling in the fall.  If this program is required, information will be included in the admission letter.

One more entry on admissions decisions to go . . . and no, admissions decisions have not started to go out yet.

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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Admission Decisions Category #1: The Waitlist

Posted by Columbia SIPA 
· Thursday, February 24th, 2011 
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The hot topic on email, the phone, and information sessions is, “When will decisions start to be released?”  The Admissions Committee is still feverishly reviewing applications and as stated in previous blog posts, hopes to start releasing decisions in early March.  I understand that “early” is not an exact term, and it matches the fact that I do not know the exact date yet.  I can tell you that this blog will be the first place where you can find out when decisions start to be released.

As a reminder, we do not release all decisions at once. The majority of our decisions will be made soon but a decent percentage of applications take additional time to review.  Once we start to release decisions we do move to what you could call “rolling release.”  In other words, after the first large batch of decisions goes out we will start to release the decisions as they are made.

The one question I cannot answer from an individual applicant is, “When will MY decision be released?”  The Committee has a system set up and that system does not accommodate individual requests for a decision.  I understand it is difficult to wait, but you will have to be patient and understand that we work as quickly and accurately as we are able.

I thought I would take a few entries to describe the basic categories of decisions.  The categories are not complex and you could probably guess them, however providing an overview might help with digesting your letter when you view it.  Let me start with the waitlist category.  Do note that we do not release decisions in a specific order, the categories can be mixed.

Admission to SIPA is competitive.  Sometimes the Committee must make tough decisions between applicants that might have similar backgrounds, qualifications, and potential.  While the Committee might agree that a candidate is certainly qualified for the program, the strong number of candidates and limited number of seats means that we cannot make an offer to everyone we feel is admissible.   Therefore, we will place a limited number of qualified candidates on the waitlist.

Just like waiting for a decision requires patience, waiting for waitlist updates requires patience.  We will give admitted candidates until May 2nd to pay their deposit, and we likely will not have a strong feel for the number of accepted offers until after May 2nd passes.  The Admissions Committee does meet frequently to gauge the response to our offers and I will send out email updates to those on the waitlist after each meeting.

There is no specific waitlist window so to speak, we have made offers to candidates on the waitlist as early as late April and as late as early August.  Circumstances in life can change and if candidates that have accepted an offer and pay a deposit inform us that they will not be able to come, it might open up a seat to someone on the waitlist.  We cannot predict if or when this might happen.

If you are placed on the waitlist you will be given the opportunity to tell us whether you wish to remain on the waitlist.  Instructions will be provided in the waitlist letter.  I can say that candidates admitted from the waitlist will not be offered any scholarship funding from SIPA in the first year.  More information on funding will be provided in a future entry on the admit category.

One final note about that waitlist is that we do not have a strict rank order.  The size of the waitlist changes over time as candidates notify us that they no longer wish to be considered.  When it comes time to consider candidates from the waitlist, files are read once again.  Although a “full read” might not be necessary, Committee members will review reader comment sheets and reference particular parts of the file that were highlighted in the comments.  As the reading is done we get a feel for the overall landscape of those on the waitlist and make decisions as appropriate.

I am working on two more entries on admission categories that will be posted soon so stay tuned.

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Categories : Admissions, Application Tips
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