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USC Tells Philosophy Department It Cannot Honor All of Its Offers of Admission This Year
The Department of Philosophy at the University of Southern California (USC), like many departments, sends out offers of admission to its PhD program to more students than it actually expects to admit. The idea is that some accepted students will end up choosing to enroll at other universities, leaving the entering class close to the target number.
There is usually wiggle room in the budget in case more than the target number choose to enroll.
But not this year.
Last week, USC declared a hiring freeze and assorted cutbacks, and the Graduate School at USC told the Department of Philosophy that it could not take in more than the target number of students.
The chair of Philosophy at USC, Ralph Wedgwood, shared with me an email he sent last Friday to the admitted students letting them know about the development: “as soon as we reach the target number of acceptances, the remaining offers will be rescinded.”
He also announced that those whose offers were rescinded would automatically get “offers for a deferred place for next year.”
He added that “Our department has tried to find some other solution to the problem, but I am afraid that we have not succeeded in identifying one that seemed satisfactory.”
The letter continued with this message:
_So, I need to warn you that, if you delay too long, there is a risk—not a huge risk but a significant risk nonetheless—that your offer will be rescinded and replaced with an offer of a deferred place for next year._
_I am extremely sorry to be putting this pressure on you—especially after conveying to some of you that there was no risk in delaying your decision. I sincerely believed that that was the case, but now the university’s decisions have proved me wrong._
_It is still true of_ each _of you that we hope that you accept. But I guess I now also hope that not_ all _of you accept unless enough of you are happy with deferring for a year._
By the next day, enough students had accepted the offers of admission that the target number was reached. In another email, Professor Wedgwood informed the relevant applicants of this, and reaffirmed that any of those whose offers had been rescinded would have offers for the following year, should they want them.
One person who wrote to me about this turn of events stated that USC’s decision violated the convention that universities give graduate students until April 15th to respond to offers of admission. If so, it seems worth noting that responsibility for the decision seems to have rested outside of the Department of Philosophy.
