Final Decisions
At the start of the final admissions meeting we go over supervisory loads, the number of students in programme and the number who will complete (we hope!) and we somehow come up with a final number of places, plus 3 or 4 additional to make up for those who will probably go elsewhere. Each file is then discussed and after a number of hours the final decision is made as to who will be admitted, who may be considered for alternate admission and who will not be considered. (Alternates are students who we would like to admit but for whom we have no space. They will be offered admission should someone turn us down.)The Department Head contacts all successful applicants by phone and this is followed up with a letter stating that we are recommending to the Dean that they be admitted. The files are then copied by the Department and the original documents are sent to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, who go over them and then send out either formal or tentative letters of admission. A formal letter of admission is sent in cases where the applicant has finished a degree, a tentative letter is sent in cases where a degree has yet to be finished or some other requirement has to be met (TOEFL for example).
Funding and Scholarship Decisions
Things calm down for a bit and then we have one final meeting once we finally hear about funding. At this meeting all students, whether newly admitted or in programme are considered for funding; at Calgary students who have been awarded scholarships are usually not considered for departmental funding. This is another long meeting and one at which difficult decisions are made. Do we fund incoming students to the detriment of students already in programme? Or do we look after those students in programme and risk not getting any new entrants? We usually manage to walk a fine line and fund both new and continuing students to the best of our abilities. Of course it is never as much as we or the students would like! We also rank unfunded students so that if additional funding becomes available we can work down the list.Again, as soon as funding is decided we contact the successful new admissions and follow up with a letter. At this point we set a date by which we would like a final decision as to whether they are coming. If they decline we will then go to the rank listing to see who next gets offered funding.
I have gone into the university side of things in some detail so that you are fully aware of the steps your application goes through and how very vital it is for you to supply the university with the best and fullest information you can.
Table of Contents
Who Decides Who Gets in and What Do They Base it On? < | The Application Process – From the University’s End | > The Application Process – From the Student’s End
