Do schools usually send out acceptances all at once?

[LeraK]

basically my question is in the title of the post. was wondering if it is typical for schools to send all their acceptances on the same day, or if there will be some variation?

[Excelsior!]

5 minutes ago, LeraK said:

basically my question is in the title of the post. was wondering if it is typical for schools to send all their acceptances on the same day, or if there will be some variation?

I think it depends on the school.

[anon1234567]

Depends on the school. For Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, official admission, for all, comes on the same day (as do rejections). POIs, however, can and sometimes do email/call earlier. Typically the case for Harvard. 

Check the results page for previous years. 

[Excelsior!]

2 minutes ago, anon1234567 said:

Depends on the school. For Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, official admission, for all, comes on the same day (as do rejections).

Those schools do that for every program? Because I have seen some acceptances for the program I applied but I got no mail.

[anon1234567]

I am only familiar with History. But you ought to check the results page for previous years, a pattern will emerge. 

[Excelsior!]

3 minutes ago, anon1234567 said:

I am only familiar with History. But you ought to check the results page for previous years, a pattern will emerge. 

Ok thank you!

[TheHessianHistorian]

Almost never. Another user put together some handy charts showing the progression of acceptances being sent out by top-tier schools over the January-April season: https://imgur.com/a/lXdLe  In every case, there is a gradual roll-in of acceptances over a period of days or weeks--in some cases the accumulation of decisions is steeper than others. However, none of the charts exhibit a perfect 90 degree angle of all the acceptances coming in at once (which would look like a vertical line) and then no more acceptances coming in after that (which would be a horizontal line). Although acceptances do plateau, it's never a perfect plateau--one or two waitlisted applicants inevitably turn into acceptances in March/April.

Edited January 31, 2018 by TheHessianHistorian

[archist]

4 hours ago, TheHessianHistorian said:

Almost never. Another user put together some handy charts showing the progression of acceptances being sent out by top-tier schools over the January-April season: https://imgur.com/a/lXdLe  In every case, there is a gradual roll-in of acceptances over a period of days or weeks--in some cases the accumulation of decisions is steeper than others. However, none of the charts exhibit a perfect 90 degree angle of all the acceptances coming in at once (which would look like a vertical line) and then no more acceptances coming in after that (which would be a horizontal line). Although acceptances do plateau, it's never a perfect plateau--one or two waitlisted applicants inevitably turn into acceptances in March/April.

Why do they trickle in like this? Does the admissions committee not discuss all the applications at once? It seems like it'd be more efficient to decide on the acceptances and send them out all at once instead of doing them one by one. 

[khigh]

25 minutes ago, archist said:

Why do they trickle in like this? Does the admissions committee not discuss all the applications at once? It seems like it'd be more efficient to decide on the acceptances and send them out all at once instead of doing them one by one. 

They may be getting a feel for the field or wait for some acceptances to decline before accepting or rejecting more people. 

[OHSP]

1 hour ago, archist said:

Why do they trickle in like this? Does the admissions committee not discuss all the applications at once? It seems like it'd be more efficient to decide on the acceptances and send them out all at once instead of doing them one by one. 

It's a school by school thing. At some schools it's up to the POI to let the candidate know they're in, and so you can be waiting on news because the professor has a paper deadline etc etc etc (a true story). 

[TheHessianHistorian]

1 hour ago, archist said:

Why do they trickle in like this? Does the admissions committee not discuss all the applications at once? It seems like it'd be more efficient to decide on the acceptances and send them out all at once instead of doing them one by one. 

Early acceptances seem to be given to those who are being nominated for university-wide scholarships, due to university-level deadlines. Then, I think ad-coms tend to accept the top tier of applicants, see how many applicants accept/decline, then accept a few more based on that.

[anon1234567]

On ‎2018‎-‎01‎-‎31 at 8:51 AM, TheHessianHistorian said:

Almost never. Another user put together some handy charts showing the progression of acceptances being sent out by top-tier schools over the January-April season: https://imgur.com/a/lXdLe  In every case, there is a gradual roll-in of acceptances over a period of days or weeks--in some cases the accumulation of decisions is steeper than others. However, none of the charts exhibit a perfect 90 degree angle of all the acceptances coming in at once (which would look like a vertical line) and then no more acceptances coming in after that (which would be a horizontal line). Although acceptances do plateau, it's never a perfect plateau--one or two waitlisted applicants inevitably turn into acceptances in March/April.

Cool. But that graph reflects acceptances and rejections over several years. Schools don't accept/reject applicants on the same calendar day every year. Also, He/She probably did not take into account that not everyone reports their decision on the day they received it, may do so later, and either forget or missdate the original receipt date of decision.

Clearly I thought too much about this. Only because official admission/rejection is released by the graduate school, and it is a computer generated email. It doesn't read "Dear Name", it reads "Dear Name Last name". Whereas personalized department emails that follow about an hour after a grad school formal email, read Dear Name. 

 

[anon1234567]

19 hours ago, khigh said:

They may be getting a feel for the field or wait for some acceptances to decline before accepting or rejecting more people. 

That's what the waitlist is for, although I have heard for some schools students are forced to wait until March to find out they are on a waitlist, or a hidden waitlist.