When looking at PhD programs you always use the ranking of the PhD program and not the university as a whole. US News does renew the list every year but from the years I have looked at there usually isn't any major changes unless something serious happened with a department. I believe you can find the old rankings with a simple Google search if you are interested in looking them up yourself.
The first wave of offers of admission went out the previous week. However, the waitlist has not been finished yet. (according to the graduate administrator from U Pitt)
If not a secret, what is the subfield of your research interest?
Howdy y'all, welcome to another episode of "What Big Name Schools are Going to Drop Some Decisions This Next Week?" ???
Standard caveat (to be read aloud super quickly) : There are always reasons why things aren't the same year-to-year, like new having a new DGS, someone being out on vacation or an emergency, or conference timings. It is way above my paygrade to verify whether or not any of these things are at play. I do not and cannot guarantee that any results will come when they are predicted to off of historical data -- and frankly, if I could, I would be monetizing the heck out of it.
These are ordered pretty much by when I expect to hear things back and that could possibly be next week:
UCLA: Since 2011, results have always come by the first week of February. By all estimates, this year is on the late side for an otherwise pretty consistent school. Forecast: Very soon
UC Davis: Same deal as UCLA.
WashU St. Louis: I've seen as late as Feb 15, which as you would know it, is indeed next week. Forecast: some point next week. There's more variance across years for WUSTL, so don't put more money on it coming out on Monday versus Friday.
UNC for those outside of the American subfield: Not sure if any of these have come out yet? The results page only indicates the American subfield. I haven't seen anything come later than about Feb 13 historically. Forecast: some point next week, possibly divided by subfield
Cornell: Another high variance school. Have come out as late as Feb 26 but more often than not in about the second week of Feb. Forecast: you can get your hopes up but please not too much that we'll know by the end of the week
Stanford: Looks like they try to stick around the mid-point of February give or take a few days, but have historically been as late as Feb 20th and as early as late January. Forecast: I don't know about anyone else, but I am ready to have one of my greatest hopes and dreams crushed pretty likely by Friday of this week as the Stanford math department announces that they have discovered the smallest non-zero number, and that number happens to be the same number as the Political Science department acceptance rate
University of Pennsylvania: Looks like they try to keep it approximately around Feb 15-20. There's a bit of variance though. Forecast: More likely around the 18th, but possible late this next week.
Columbia: More variance in more recent years, but looking at the historical release record as a whole, they seem to aim for mid-February. Forecast: We could be getting this as early as Monday next week but also maybe not for two more weeks, who knows.
Vanderbilt: I believe interview requests have already gone out, and conventional wisdom is that at Vandy, no interview=rejection. They have been as early as next week but I think the interviews aren't until next week (it could be cool if someone confirmed this, I didn't apply to Vanderbilt) edit started earlier this week, so decisions probably won't come until later. Forecast: The last three years point to Feb 20-something, this is probably something worth asking in your interview if you want a better answer than this magic 8 ball I'm using an official answer
Georgetown: These went out Feb 17 this year and last year. Previously they've been a trickle starting around now. Forecast: probably not until the week of Feb 17, though if we get any notification of like only 1 or 2 people hearing back, don't freak out too much
Notably missing: Harvard (will almost definitely make us wait two more weeks) and Yale (has released as early as about 2/14 but that does not seem to be the recent trend. It seems like they like 2/20 more these days).
