Chances on a Pre-Interview Hold?

[johnwandering]

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I just received an email that I was on hold today at SUNY Upstate.
For those who are more educated on the matter, what does this mean for me (are there any average statistics for the number of hold students actually offered interviews?)?

When do schools usually re-review applications?


I feel that it's almost an outright rejection...
=(

 

[jyb5011]

While it is not a rejection, they are going to review every other application before they come back to yours. I am in the same situation in some places and that is just the way it is. If you do not fit what they are looking for but have a good enough application to not be rejected outright, they will hold onto it for later, just in case they have opened spots (which is unlikely from my experiences).

 

[Longshanks]

While it is not a rejection, they are going to review every other application before they come back to yours. I am in the same situation in some places and that is just the way it is. If you do not fit what they are looking for but have a good enough application to not be rejected outright, they will hold onto it for later, just in case they have opened spots (which is unlikely from my experiences).

I agree with this.

There are a few exceptions though with schools. However, for Upstate this seems to be the case. I'm in the same situation as well with Upstate. Their hold e-mail was rather rude, wasn't it though? At least in comparison to my two rejections and a hold elsewhere, which were very kindly written letters.

Anyway, there are some schools where hold isn't necessarily a bad thing. VCU for example puts almost everyone on hold except for the few they interview right off the bat. RFU/CMS also have their small pool, which is similar to a pre-interview hold, but it seems to be a filter the vast majority of future interviewees go through. Some other schools, such as GWU, claim they re-review your application throughout the cycle. So its not the end of the world. They didn't reject you, but someone reviewing your application has some reservations towards extending an interview at this time, or: the alternative is that in the batch of applications you were reviewed with, there were some truly amazing people, and they like your application but holding off to go over the next group of applications before making a decision.

Its not the end of your application, but its not great either. Sort of like limbo, which admittedly sucks (I'm there too at a few places). But if you're doing something during this cycle or have some sort of new accomplishment, write them an update letter. It helps some people or at least gets them to open your application again and remind them you still exist.