a despicable practice in grad school admissions?

Parents Forum
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<p>Have any of you had any experience with this?</p>

<p>The Director of a PhD program at a reputable university calls you up and says they are offering you admission. Then they ask “Can I put you down for a yes?”. You say “Can I have some time to think about it?”. (Still have not heard from several other schools…) They say reluctantly “Well maybe a couple of days.” You ask “Will you be sending a letter with financial aid details?”. They say “No, we don’t plan to send a letter.”.</p>

<p>I figure the program is trying to guage interest and get a preemptive commitment and perhaps trying to determine the best ways to invest their financial aid dollars.</p>

<p>This also happened via email with another reputable school. The Director of a lab sent an email saying basically “I plan to nominate you for XYZ fellowship. Can you commit to coming here? If you can’t commit, would you still consider coming here?”</p>

<p>What is all this about? High pressure salesmanship? It makes me wonder whether you blow your chances by not making an on-the-spot decision. </p>

<p>Have any of you had any experience with this? Any advice or insight?</p>

<p>This is for engineering PhD programs by the way.</p>

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<p>At least some graduate schools have the excuse of a limited number of slots (at least in a particular narrow specialty). I know of a law school applicant who was placed on the HLS waiting list. He got a call that asked, if we let you in (to a class of 500 or so), will you accept (immediately)? He told them want to do to themselves and went to Yale law.</p>