Ghosted by CUHK CSE for over 8 months now (Early Round Applicant) – Is anyone else in this nightmare?
Hey everyone,
I’m an international applicant from India, and I am losing my mind here. I applied to CUHK for Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) all the way back on October 24, 2025, during the early round. It has been more than 8 months of absolute, deafening silence. No interview invitation, no offer, no rejection. Just nothing.
I even called the admissions office recently. The person who picked up just gave me the standard generic script: "Your application is still under consideration," "I understand your frustration," "I am sorry."
Meanwhile, I’ve seen other students from India on Reddit getting their offers for the exact same CSE program. Why is my application just sitting in limbo?
For context, here are my stats and profile: 10th Grade (ICSE): 94.6% 12th Grade (ISC): 94.4% SAT: 1410 IELTS: 7.0 Extracurriculars: Published 3 research papers, won some robotics competitions, and have a solid set of other ECs.
Because of my profile, I actually managed to get offers from the other top HK universities, but the financial situation didn't work out:
HKU: Got an offer for Computing & Data Science (CDS), but missed out on the full scholarship because my 12th score wasn't 97%+.
HKUST: Got an offer for CSE, but with zero scholarship.
Because I was holding out hope for CUHK and expecting a timely response from an early round application, I didn’t apply to any colleges back home in India. Now, regular admissions here are closed, and I feel like an entire year of my life has been completely wasted because CUHK refuses to give me a straight answer.
Is anyone else from the early round still waiting, or is this basically a silent rejection at this point? What should I even do now?