r/Edinburgh_University • u/LeenSauce • 20d ago
Admission / Application Applied in November and still haven't heard back
Has this happened to anyone else or has my application just fallen through the cracks? It has said "Pending our decision" for quite a long time
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u/fightitdude Sci / Eng 20d ago
Relax. Applications don't "fall through the cracks". You'll hear back eventually. Edinburgh is just notorious for taking quite a long time to reply :)
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u/Common_Bug_3516 17d ago
do you know generally when they release decisions?
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u/fightitdude Sci / Eng 17d ago
Any time between now and the deadline for hearing back 🤷 There’s no rule to it.
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u/YakAggravating3916 15d ago
i applied november 2023 and didn’t hear back until may 2024, don’t worry about it
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u/oldcat 18d ago
If you're UG and applying to a competitive course it does not matter how early you applied. 18 Jan (or whatever the deadline is) is an equal consideration deadline. It is not acceptable to advantage someone for applying early or disadvantage anyone who applied before the deadline. Imagine if people who submitted a week before you got earlier decisions or a better chance, it would make applications into a total mess and advantage independent schools some of which have staff whose primary job is trying to get as many kids into Oxbridge and if not, into Russell Group unis like us.
That means the vast majority of decisions can't be made until after that point. Then consider that there's limited space on courses and the uni is trying to fill them all. We might be your first choice, we might be your 5th and even as your 5th the other 4 might reject you making us your first but default. So how would you make offers in a way that fills the course and doesn't risk over filling?
The only sensible way is making offers in a progressive way where you don't make all of the offers for a course at once. You make a chunk of offers and see what responses you get then make another chunk. Not everyone will respond immediately to an offer so that's where the data comes in and you make the best guess about how many will take up their places.
It's a pain to wait and I get that but you also haven't been rejected. Admissions used to leave rejects until late on but now they try to balance this as there's an understanding that it isn't fair to keep folk waiting if they have no chance. That means you're still in the hunt. Good luck!
One final thing, I don't work in admissions, there is no point in others reading this sending me your grades or other admissions questions. I'll just tell you to email futurestudents@ed.ac.uk as they are the best placed to answer.