今天（周四）收到Ｋ大的信。信的內容有關我在二月申請九月入學的事宜：
“Please be informed that you are being placed on the waiting list for admission. I will let you know as soon as possible if a place becomes available. Due to the limited number of places availalbe on the program, you are strongly encouraged to re-apply for next next year’s programme should you not hear from us after classes commence in mid-September 2006.”
這樣的修辭，我是明白的。美其言曰已將我放在「候補」名單，實情就是不想直言不收錄你，所以創出一個所謂「等候名單」來逗樂兒。
那麼，倒不如乾脆說未能取錄更好罷。難道還要我在餘下的數月掛慮有沒有位給我？
花了一整晚自我檢討。是申請書寫得不夠好？大概不，否則的話連面試機會也沒有。是工作經驗不夠好？不太可能吧。至少我認為我從事的職業，與我申請的課程可說是吻合。朋友說校方每年收錄的若干學生中，有數個配額是留給與我從事同一行業的人，不幸的是這年申請的同行中，幾個都是老行家，經驗都我比多，結果取錄的是他們而不是我。若是如此，我沒有話說。
思前想後，大概最大的問題，是我在面試那天太緊張，說話太結結巴巴吧。像我這類拙於言辭，又容易緊張的人，比起那些能言善道的人，都是比較蝕底吧－－學府如是，職場如是，情場也如是。
K大直接把我据掉了，所以既然你在候补名单上，也许还有机会。
不要氣餒, waiting list 是有意思的, 取錄的如果不讀便到你, 不是沒機會. 也不用在餘下的數月掛慮有沒有位, 平常心.
後補入學不是問題, 入, 就行了, 正選後補都只是申請程序的結果, 不是學業成就的指標.
good luck!
Cheer up, Alex!
寫封摯誠表心跡的follow up letter, 成為打動校方的最後一根稻草亦未可知
不要灰心呵,我也是一面試甚至一跟陌生人說話便會緊張的人,面試對我也是難關,但有經驗的考官應該會知道這是人性格的差異問題, 跟他的知識不掛鈎.
一個”有料”的人不會被埋沒, 終有一天會被賞識的.
like good HRM at big companies, i would suppose the university should make every attempt to let applicants to their programmes feel happy, or at least not uneasy.
actually, putting a candidate on a waiting list or not, an internal admin arrangement, is meaningless to a candidate. admission or not, just tell the candidate when it is so decided. if a holding reply is desirable, given the mid-sep deadline, pls make the candidate feel comfortable! and the key message should be the decision has yet to be made rather than “you r on the waiting list”.
for example, why not write it this way (just a wild attempt!), to show appreciation of applicants, hope for patience, and express regret about the long time it takes!
“Thank you very much for your particpation in the selection interview process.
We are generally satisfied with your qualifications and performance. Unfortunately, owing to the keen competition between a significant number of applicants and the quota of intake with this programme, we regret very much that at this stage the decision on whether to admit you remains outstanding.
Neverthless, we should like to assure you that in any case we will make the decision and inform you before mid Sept 2006.
We would appreciate very much your kind understanding and patience, and, if you have any question in the meantime, we would be very happy to discuss it with you.”
cheer up!
“－－學府如是，職場如是，情場也如是”
這麼慨嘆呀﹖
肥周~~
你這樣說,在你後面的人豈不是全部都是廢柴!
別氣餒啊.
“－－學府如是，職場如是，情場也如是”
隨着智慧增長,這一句一定會改寫的。
港大的MIPA課程 …… 有咩咁巴閉呀，讀完會發達的嗎？ 從你的Blog，覺得你幾勁，為何不收你呢！
我今年也報了港大的Full Time Master Course，在網上enroll 沒有出現困難 (你識整Blog，我想電腦知識唔差，網上enroll應該唔會出現問題)；另外，我有個朋友一齊報course，(網上enroll都冇問題)，佢連Referee Reports，甚至連證書及工作證明都冇交，都有得interview ，我相信interview 是港大的一個程序，會最低入學條件的都會有得in，不關你的申請書寫得好唔好(申請書只是提供你的背景及hints 給他們想 question 來響interview 時問你，所以在寫申請書時已經可以準備好在住後的interview 時，以首尾呼應的答案來完成一個完美的interview)，我的另一個朋友，幾年前報non JUPUS的BA 課程，港大明知冇位都安排interview，去到interview先同佢講冇位，最多waiting list。
其實Full Time Master Course 的位應該冇Undergraduate 咁緊張，因為我於Admission Talk 時問嗰個Admissions Tutor 個Course有冇Quota，佢都話沒有的，如果是合適的便會收，我不知道MIPA畢業的市場價值，為什麼會連你咁『勁』都唔收呢？
也不用太失望，因為往年的確有人，報讀了多間大學的課程，學系收了，但最後轉投他系/校，機會還在，還有明年一月的intake。今年好似有百幾人報讀，只有三十幾個位，競爭大….雖然係廢話，去年報讀的人較少，如果你去年報讀，結果可能不同。
剛由北京回港不久的vivi
I manage a overseas Master’s programme and we also have a wait list for those applicants who fulfilled our criteria but which we cannot accept due to limited places (25 max). So cheer up really, you must have impressed them both at the application and interview stages for them to place you on a wait list. I don’t know about the HKU course, but in our case because we emphasize a small group setting we also take into account potential class dynamics and the range of backgrounds and expertise that the students in any given year will have, and so sometimes we might be particularly “stringent” on a certain professional discipline if we received lots of applicants from that group, because we want to balance our intake so that not all our students comes from the same background in any given year. (Bear in mind that one of the key attractions of a Master’s programme is that it gives students an opportunity to network with others outside of their industry so there is a good reason why we don’t just accept all qualified candidates with similar backgrounds). From what you’ve written perhaps it really is a case of you being from a profession that just happened to have quite a few high calibre candidates and you were placed on a wait list because not everyone with your background could be placed on the programme.
Having said that, I do agree that the HKU could have manage the offer process much better, it’s very bad for them to be asking you to hang around for months without knowing whether you actually got in. It’s very bad form also from the employers’ perspective because many of our students are funded by their employers to attend the course and not being able to give candidates a precise time-frame means that they in turn can’t apply for funding and study leave arrangements. So the key difference between the way we manage things and HKU (judging by the excerpt from your letter) is that we won’t ask our applicants to wait until after the course has started to know whether they are actually accepted on the course. All our first round offer candidates were given a provisional offer that they have to accept about a month after receipt of the offer letter, which specificially states also that if we don’t hear from them by the deadline then their place will go to somebody else on the wait list. This has the advantages of ensuring that the applicant is indeed serious about taking their place on the programme (this is extremely important because as someone said above there are people who will apply to several programmes and we need to make sure that they have accepted ours), that we will indeed know what kind of students – i.e. with what professional backgrounds and industry experience – have decided to partake the course (in order for us to plan the group work sessions as part of the programme induction), and that we will indeed have a full class when the new academic year begins by allowing us the chance to place our reserve candidates if these first round candidates decided not to accept our offer, so that our wait list candidates won’t be left waiting forever.
So the very best of luck, at least you know you’re qualified to attend the programme, and if the worse comes to the worse, you could still re-apply next year. Again I’m not sure about HKU but people who are on our reserve list for our programme will be given first priority should they re-apply again in the next academic year. You might want to ring them and find out whether this will be the case.