Change in Grad degree completion date

[Guest Chieka]

I was initially not supposed to finish my master's degree until mid August, but plans have changed and I will now be finishing it at the end of June. In January, when U of T requested supporting documents for grad students, my grad supervisor wrote a letter to explain the August completion date. Now that things have changed, should I notify U of T, or will the change not have a major influence on the final decision? I hate to call the office now, as it is a very busy time for admissions.

 

Thanks,

 

C.

[Guest Blackbird15]

Hi Chieka,

I think you should definitely call the office for something like that, as your situation is fairly unique. I understand that you feel uncomfortable, though. Whenever I have to call a med school admissions office (usually to ask something annoying like "when are the letters coming out? ... Are they out yet?... How about now; are they out yet?... How about now? ...now?... How about now?" etc, etc.), I give myself a little pep talk along the lines of "this is their job. This is what they do. This is what they get paid for; fielding calls from pestering med applicants. They won't be mad at me. They'll understand; this is a difficult time for me... and hopefully they don't have caller ID." It works wonders!

[Guest Dannyboy]

I actually think your situation isn't at all unique...standard grad stuff, really. I don't think the dates would decide anything since your supervisor has already provided a letter indicating you'd be done by Sept--that is the date that med schools are most interested in. My understanding of the whole grad thesis procedure (and I've travelled that nasty road) is that your defence date could very, very, very easily change at this point in time even if you are 100% prepared to defend. For this reason, I think you might be best with the later August deadline.

 

That being stated, an anonymous phone call might be called for. Congrats on almost finishing.