adsperli

I also did this and got good (and consistent) responses two years ago. I agree with the above that POIs will give you the best feedback, and framing it as "how to improve" is best. As hard as it is, I might also suggest waiting until later to ask-- winter is an especially busy time for most people, and before April 15 people seem either focused on admitted students or done thinking about admissions. At least for me, I was also in a better place to take advice then...I got some pleasant but straightforward feedback that would have felt maybe more personal if it was right after rejections. 
Some other framing devices I used: What does a successful candidate for [field] usually look like? I'm planning on doing x and y to improve, what else can I do to refine my interests? I get the impression that [qualification] is very common in this field, do I need that? I've been working on x, y, z over the summer, do you think it's worth re-applying to this program? 

I was beginning to find this waiting process kind of debilitating when it comes to finishing my thesis work, but I've gotten out of the funk and have accepted that it's not the end of the world if I get all rejections. Radio silence is hard to cope with though. I'm both appreciative of this site for the insight I can get from the results page (knowing nothing would practically kill me), but it's also discouraging to see schools I applied for sending out acceptances. I thought I had a shot at UVA  UPenn, not so, I didn't do a great job with the 10 page limit. 

I was beginning to find this waiting process kind of debilitating when it comes to finishing my thesis work, but I've gotten out of the funk and have accepted that it's not the end of the world if I get all rejections. Radio silence is hard to cope with though. I'm both appreciative of this site for the insight I can get from the results page (knowing nothing would practically kill me), but it's also discouraging to see schools I applied for sending out acceptances. I thought I had a shot at UVA  UPenn, not so, I didn't do a great job with the 10 page limit. 

UW-Madison folks, you should hear no later than the end of the week.
 

I have no idea. Normally, they go out about a day or two later. I think I got mine on a Tuesday or something.

Not necessarily.  Give them a few days to get themselves organized with the notifications. (Also, if it's a 4 PM meeting, people are allowed to "quit" their work for the day after that last meeting... ) 

I do not think it is safe to assume rejection just yet. Looking at the reports of informal admission e-mails from Harvard, they seem to stagger them over multiple days, or even over a week. For instance, in 2017, one person posted they got theirs on February 1st, but another posted on Feb. 2nd. This could mean that the person waited a day to post it, but then you have other posters who say they woke up to an e-mail on February 3rd, and then another person on February 7th mentioned they just received an e-mail letting them know they have been recommended. For 2018, people list February 4th, 8th, 9th, and 11th for the dates they received their e-mail. There is still much hope for you all!

The decisions will probably go out next week. The committee meets on the 4th.