To think I've been accepted by accident?

[lynkat]

I am due to start a postgraduate course in a few weeks. I have enrolled and paid the fees etc and my status is showing as enrolled and I have my timetable through.

However, I did terribly at interview, really bad, hardly said a word and there was only a limited amount of spaces so I was really shocked to get a place.

Today I was emailing with the course leader (who did the interviews) and asked him to confirm something - he replied, 'Let me check with admissions as you are not on my list of people who had accepted a place and were eligible to enrol. Our system is probably just not keeping up with developments. Please check back with me on Friday.'

I am now really worried that I wasn’t actually accepted on to the course and this has been done in error. I’m also worried that even if he comes back to me and says everything is fine that I’m not actually deserving of a place on the course but they just accept me due to their mistake.

AIBU to read the email in that way?

And yes, do do this OP, to put your mind at rest. Just say you are confirming so they can update your lists and you can get yourself organised

@lynkat
A few years ago I started a postgrad course (part time). I had to go for a meeting with the other 12 people who were accepted on the course. I was tongue tied, flustered and generally felt I wasn't worthy to be there and was intimidated by how clever and experienced they all were...
Fast forward to now, I'm one of two still doing the course. There have been bumps along the road but I've kept plodding on.
Don't underestimate yourself. X

If "he" didn't intend to make an offer how would one have been made? Someone must have given OP's details to the people sending out the offers.

If course you have a genuine place OP.

I phoned admissions and they said they have me down as 'unconditional confirmed'. So must just be a mix up.

Enjoy your success. Whatever you think - they like you and you deserve your place.

Yay!

FWIW re the interview, I once interviewed a man who ended up in tears (we weren’t grilling him, he was just talking about a difficult part of his life) and we gave him the job!

At least in my line of work, ability usually comes from your CV/ application form and the interview is to weed out psychopaths and bullshitters

What a relief. At least you now have a heads up that you will need to make sure that anything you send to that course leader is backed up and secure since they can’t even read their own lists. Enjoy the course.

Often interviews are not really part of the offer process, just a chance to meet. If your academics are good enough they might just think that interviews are not your strength. A cynic would say they want your money!

PHEW!!!! Great news and congratulations!

Brilliant!

Congratulations. Enjoy the course and remember to have faith in your abilities.

Great update OP. Was going to suggest you phone Admissions. Enjoy your course.

Then you'll know the legal position on withdrawing offers...

We have a proper system that we mark each applicant on as unconditional accept, conditional accept, waitlist, reject. Offers go out through the system. If any refused, expire, or conditions aren't met by the deadline, the candidates on the waitlist are offered places.

I have no need to keep a separate list. I really cannot believe you are doing this manually.

Just call admissions "I got an unconditional offer but X person indicates I am not on a list now I am worried please putt my mind at rest" then you will know. And please stop putting yourself down - you got the grades, you got an offer now enjoy the xourse!

I work for two unis and both DC are currently at uni. I would almost bet my house that it's an admin error. Admin are shockingly short staffed at both unis I work for and it results in huge delays all over the place.

You don't have to shine in interview. As long as you meet the criteria and they think you can handle the coursework, your interview is not the deal-breaker. Some of my best students are so shy they barely speak in class. But then when they hand the work in - they get firsts.

Pack it in, honestly, if you work in admissions you should know you cannot backtrack on offers even if it was an administrative error.

An unconditional offer is legally binding and at this fluid time of the year, hardly anybody will have a finalised list of who has enrolled already.

Oh honestly, this so not true. I've worked in uni admin and I'll be honest, at times it was a real shambles. The fact that they've messed up his list/the list of students/anything else surprises me 0%. And at this time of year its peak shambles.

OP bet you'll do great. And if they did accept you by accident,
a) this is clearly fate at work, so grab it, and

b) they've offered you a place, you've accepted and paid so presumably legally they cannot now withdraw it.

c) finally,you are here, now, so embrace it, no matter what! Hopefully you will be updating this thread in a year or two when you've graduated!

@OchonAgusOchonOh it was the IT systems that always messed everything up at our place.

I guess we're lucky ours works.

Back in the dark ages I used manually read all of the paper application forms, upload details to a spreadsheet and then send that over to admissions who would then send me back the lists of acceptances, refusals, expirations etc. But that was 15/20 years ago.

Glad it's sorted OP. Try to put it out of your mind now and go and enjoy the course. You won your place fair and square, just like everyone else.

Its a uni admin error. It happens a lot!

My uni had nearly all the year 3 student on an MSc enrolled on the year before and none of us showed up on 2022.

Don't worry and of course you deserve a place!

You were probably worrying needlessly - the only criteria for getting on a postgrad course these days is whether or not you can pay the fees.

Well done! (I thought my UG offer was a mistake, then my degree classification was an error, then that my PG result was wrong - that one probably was TBH - and then when I passed my PhD with no corrections thought the examiners must have felt sorry for me. Now I am an academic and live with these thoughts every day but written down recognize they sound quite MAD). Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is don't let your imposter syndrome win and enjoy your studies! You definitely deserve to be there, university systems are often quite crap.

Phone admissions in the morning to confirm but realistically they can’t withdraw your offer at this point!
knowing academics, I’d say he’s probably downloaded the wrong list

Unfortunately this was true at my old RG uni even 15 years ago.