International/Currently Abroad "IWantMyDecision!" Thread Forum

[parker09]

I'm currently abroad and I put my overseas address for current address on my apps, figuring that a.) most decisions would be electronic and b.) I'd rather wait a few weeks longer to have the Real, Glossy Admit Packet (what can I say, I'm a sucker for packaging/marketing) in my hands than just have my parents rifle through my mail.

...Turns out, a.) isn't always the case, and b.) might have been preferable to hearing about everyone getting decisions via snail mail while I sit here and refresh TLS over and over again while staring forlornly at my phone even though Dean Tom doesn't call international applicants and it's not like I'm getting into NYU anyways but I have three more weeks of denial/false hope than everyone else who gets rejected.

So for everyone abroad who was an idiot like me , and I imagine for international applicants too, let's start a thread that tracks time to actually receive the decision and the letter/packet. This will be particularly useful for those schools that do things different with international applications (like how Berkeley doesn't make international calls), and for peace of mind (or increased anxiety and thumb-twiddling, depending on your personality type) when you haven't heard anything even though everyone else and their mothers are getting letters left and right. And oh, put electronic decisions too, just so everyone knows whether to also be waiting for something in the mail later or not.

I'll start! (It's going to be really embarrassing when this doesn't catch on...)

Duke, Priority Track
Accepted via email on 10/16
Admit packet (FINALLY) received on 11/17 via what I assume was normal USPS, hence why it Took Its Sweet Time

Georgetown, RD
"Decision rendered" on status checker on 11/2
Admit letter received on 11/9 via courier (Fedex or UPS, I forget)

Michigan, RD
"Decision" on status checker on 11/14
Admit packet received on 11/17 via courier (Fedex or UPS, again I forgot)

[Saya]

...Turns out, a.) isn't always the case, and b.) might have been preferable to hearing about everyone getting decisions via snail mail while I sit here and refresh TLS over and over again while staring forlornly at my phone even though Dean Tom doesn't call international applicants and it's not like I'm getting into NYU anyways but I have three more weeks of denial/false hope than everyone else who gets rejected.

Amen!

I don't even understand why I keep waiting for Dean Tom's phone call.

For me, it was:
Duke, Priority Track
Accepted via email on 11/03
Still no admit packet. lol

Georgetown, RD
"Decision rendered" on status checker on 11/16
Admit letter received on 11/18 via... I forget. But it was international priority mail! Two days! Faster than I get mail from the same country!

[anthonyc350]

I'm abroad, but im having mail sent to my parents house. I'm glad my first acceptance was via status checker so I got to see it

[Bikeflip]

Being abroad waiting for decisions sucks. Got my 1st acceptance via email

[parker09]

Being abroad waiting for decisions sucks. Got my 1st acceptance via email

Is email the standard way for that school to notify people, or did you get the email (instead of a phone call or snail mail) cause you were abroad?

[joshikousei]

it helps if you qualify these posts by location

case in point, it is very likely that i'll NEVER receive anything in the mail because of my present location

[parker09]

it helps if you qualify these posts by location

case in point, it is very likely that i'll NEVER receive anything in the mail because of my present location

I thought about that, but figured people might not want to give too much info away... your vagueness about your location seems to suggest this might be true

Though you're right, there's gonna be a huge difference in mailing time (/whether mail ever is received) between, say, Paris and rural Tanzania. I guess what I was mostly aiming for was couriered mail (like Michigan and GULC) versus normal mail (Duke for sure, Vandy I think) since some schools are mail-only (NYU), and then whether we should be expecting phone calls from the schools that call domestically but may/may not call internationally (Berkeley doesn't; unsure about UCLA or UVA, for example) and/or whether they have an alternative notification system (emailing instead).

All that being said, I'm okay with sharing my info: urban sub-Saharan Africa. Usually takes about 3-4 weeks to receive letter-sized envelopes from the US. My roommate had a $10 bill stolen out of a card from her grandma; the person did carefully reseal the envelope and send the card on its way though.

(ps... as I was typing this post, just received a thin packet from Duke with a letter from Dean Levi and an excerpt he'd written for the Duke Law Journal. Don't know when it was mailed, but the letter is dated 11/10.)

[ontologyfail]

I wish I could add to the info, but I haven't gone DR anywhere I sent out apps mid-November and I'm a splitter, so I'll probably have quite a ways to go. My parents do the snowbird thing, and the post offices keep messing up their mail forwarding service, so I didn't want decisions sent to them. My mailbox here is in the teachers' lounge at the school where I teach, so I get drawn into work questions whenever I stop by, and it's stinky.

What sucks most is the time difference. Admission offices don't open until mid-afternoon my time, and the west coast ones don't close until the wee hours of the morning here. The only plus side is that it cuts down on my status-checker use.

[parker09]

What sucks most is the time difference. Admission offices don't open until mid-afternoon my time, and the west coast ones don't close until the wee hours of the morning here. The only plus side is that it cuts down on my status-checker use.

Totally agree--I'm probably in a similar time zone.

Though I've given up on status checkers in general... and instead transferred my "refresh page" obsession to TLS. As you may have noticed by how I have replied to just about every post in this thread. And I also get really sad when I check my email in the morning and have nothing from schools since they had the last 6-10 hours while I was sleeping to accept me.

Good luck with your apps though!

[jsoell]

Completely agree -

Going back and forth with Stanford right now about an international transcript, and the process has taken about a week longer than it should have because of the time difference. They don't open until 6pm my time, and they usually don't respond to my emails/replies until 2 or 3 am. I respond the next morning, and then have to wait until the next day (at best) to see their reply.

ontologyfail wrote:
What sucks most is the time difference. Admission offices don't open until mid-afternoon my time, and the west coast ones don't close until the wee hours of the morning here. The only plus side is that it cuts down on my status-checker use.


Totally agree--I'm probably in a similar time zone.

Though I've given up on status checkers in general... and instead transferred my "refresh page" obsession to TLS. As you may have noticed by how I have replied to just about every post in this thread. And I also get really sad when I check my email in the morning and have nothing from schools since they had the last 6-10 hours while I was sleeping to accept me.

Good luck with your apps though!

[Moba]

Hey guys, I'm in Mexico. So far have only received a package from UT. Still waiting on a bunch of other schools. Anyone else in Mexico?

[parker09]

Hey guys, I'm in Mexico. So far have only received a package from UT. Still waiting on a bunch of other schools. Anyone else in Mexico?

How long did it take you to receive the package from when you knew you had a decision, did you know what it was before the mail arrived, like through email or status checker, and was it regular mail or FedEx/DHL/UPS?

[ontologyfail]

Just went DR at Georgetown. Given that none of the 12/1 DRs have actually heard back from them yet, I may be waiting for a long long time. My mom and sis are coming over to spend the holidays traveling with me, so I won't have access to mail from 12/14-1/5. I don't even want to think about waiting until January to actually get my decision.

[Saya]

Just went DR at Georgetown. Given that none of the 12/1 DRs have actually heard back from them yet, I may be waiting for a long long time. My mom and sis are coming over to spend the holidays traveling with me, so I won't have access to mail from 12/14-1/5. I don't even want to think about waiting until January to actually get my decision.

I actually think Georgetown international acceptances receive mail sooner. They send it by priority mail, so I got mine in 2 days. DR on Monday. Letter on Wednesday.

[ontologyfail]

Just went DR at Georgetown. Given that none of the 12/1 DRs have actually heard back from them yet, I may be waiting for a long long time. My mom and sis are coming over to spend the holidays traveling with me, so I won't have access to mail from 12/14-1/5. I don't even want to think about waiting until January to actually get my decision.

I actually think Georgetown international acceptances receive mail sooner. They send it by priority mail, so I got mine in 2 days. DR on Monday. Letter on Wednesday.

Ah, so there is some hope (Congrats, btw). I was going to ask on the gtown thread, but seeing the carnage there right now, I didn't think it was the best idea. Whatever. I need to focus on the fact that I get to go play in the Alps this weekend

[Bikeflip]

Being abroad waiting for decisions sucks. Got my 1st acceptance via email

Is email the standard way for that school to notify people, or did you get the email (instead of a phone call or snail mail) cause you were abroad?

Standard for the school.

[Saya]

At least Stanford and Berkeley do email. I don't know if I could stand the snail mail wait if I knew a decision was already made.

[Nikiya]

Hey guys, I'm in Mexico. So far have only received a package from UT. Still waiting on a bunch of other schools. Anyone else in Mexico?

I'll be in Guadalajara in about a month. Everything will be sent to my parents' house. It's going to be pretty crappy having them read my mail to me over the phone instead of being there to open it myself!

[bluedolphins]

At least Stanford and Berkeley do email. I don't know if I could stand the snail mail wait if I knew a decision was already made.

But neither Stanford or Berkeley has sent out any email yet, have they?

[Saya]

At least Stanford and Berkeley do email. I don't know if I could stand the snail mail wait if I knew a decision was already made.

But neither Stanford or Berkeley has sent out any email yet, have they?

Neither. I'm hoping Berkeley's will come this month, but I don't think Stanford's will until the new year. Does Stanford send out acceptance/rejection letters after the email? I thought only Berkeley was 100% electronic correspondence.

[Moba]

Hey guys, I'm in Mexico. So far have only received a package from UT. Still waiting on a bunch of other schools. Anyone else in Mexico?

How long did it take you to receive the package from when you knew you had a decision, did you know what it was before the mail arrived, like through email or status checker, and was it regular mail or FedEx/DHL/UPS?

I received email from Int. office at UT on Nov. 14. The acceptance mail was postmarked on Nov. 11, but I did not receive it until Nov. 23 or 24. (It took an eternity). It was sent via regular mail.

I know NYU sent a bunch of mails during the first week of Dec (postmarked Dec 4)... the suspense is killing me. If they were also sent regular I am not going to receive it until the 16th or later (why can't they just send an email?)

[ankit]

Received a EA deferral from Cornell via regular mail postmarked 11/30 on 12/9. So took 9 days to reach me here in East Asia.

Georgetown and Michigan both sent me acceptances via courier services (FedEx & UPS), which reached me within 2 days of posting.

NYU told me over the phone that they have mailed me a decision, and I know they use first class USPS. According to the USPS website, that takes around 14-20 days to reach Asia.

Hope this helps!

[bluedolphins]

Received a EA deferral from Cornell via regular mail postmarked 11/30 on 12/9. So took 9 days to reach me here in East Asia.

Georgetown and Michigan both sent me acceptances via courier services (FedEx & UPS), which reached me within 2 days of posting.

NYU told me over the phone that they have mailed me a decision, and I know they use first class USPS. According to the USPS website, that takes around 14-20 days to reach Asia.

Hope this helps!

So NYU makes international phone calls to inform admitted students?

[bluedolphins]

Hey guys, I'm in Mexico. So far have only received a package from UT. Still waiting on a bunch of other schools. Anyone else in Mexico?

I'll be in Guadalajara in about a month. Everything will be sent to my parents' house. It's going to be pretty crappy having them read my mail to me over the phone instead of being there to open it myself!

I definitely feel your pain. Every letter I have got so far were opened by my parents and sent by attachment over email. I think when I go home, it will be time for rejection letters. oh well...

[parker09]

So NYU makes international phone calls to inform admitted students?

I think I can answer this from what I've read in the NYU 2010 (or whatever it's called) thread: NYU doesn't call you, but if you're wondering about your status, you can call them and it seems like if you get a nice person, he/she'll tell you whether or not you have a decision (though he/she won't tell you what it is).