"Implied Rejection"?

[AnxiousNerd]

When people have "implied rejection" or something similar in their signatures, does that just mean schools that have sent out acceptances but you did not receive one? Or did you talk to someone? Or what?

[FishNerd]

Yes I think it means that people have seen several others post acceptances and/or waitlist for their school but have themselves heard nothing from that school. So it may not always turn out to be an official rejection but it can at times.

Edited February 13, 2018 by FishNerd

[AB121212]

Could also be that the school does rolling admissions without being transparent about it, and those who applied early got their applications reviewed and accepted before those who applied later. Therefore the people who applied later might still be having their apps reviewed. I would never assume a rejection until they've explicitly told you.

Edited February 13, 2018 by AB121212

[TakeruK]

I think a better/more correct phrase is "inferred rejection" not "implied rejection", unless the school specifically said something to the candidate that implies rejection without actually saying they are rejected? 

As others said above, I think most cases of these "implied rejections" are actually the applicant inferring that they are rejected based on the fact that the school has sent out a large number of acceptances. But sometimes these guesses can be wrong! Especially in my field, where there aren't usually an explicitly waitlist. Some schools just make all the offers then send rejections two weeks later. Some schools accept in waves but they only notify the acceptances---not hearing yet might mean they are way down on the list and will be rejected or it could also mean that the applicant is likely to get accepted in a future round. 

The reason that my field doesn't seem to do explicit waitlist is because most schools don't just rank waitlisted people and make offers down the waitlist. Firstly, they often make more offers than they have spots for (like how airlines overbook flights) because they know not everyone will accept. So, even if a bunch of people decline the offers, they aren't necessarily going to make offers from the waitlist---not until more than the expected number of people decline their offers. In addition, schools often seek a balance of representation of fields/interests in their incoming classes (since students work with profs, it would be more efficient to spread the students around the faculty, not have them all concentrated in one area), the offers made to the waitlist will likely depend on the interests of the students who have declined. Because of these reasons, I think schools in my field prefer to not notify about waitlists because they often make a large waitlist (in order to meet the two criteria above, especially the diversity in interest one) which means that notification of waitlist can give false hope! Although usually if a candidate inquires about their status later in the season (perhaps they need to decide on another offer), they can get some sort of information.

All of this is to say: make educated guesses/inferences as you feel comfortable but remember it's not over until it's over.

[FishNerd]

I'm really not sure because I've seen instances on this site of people thinking they've had an implied rejection from a school only to find out that the acceptances were being sent out in rounds and they end up being accepted in a later round. This could happen by the schools having an "invisible waitlist" (which means they have people on a waitlist but don't actually notify them of this status), so once someone who was offered an acceptance maybe turns it down they dig into their "invisible waitlist" to offer acceptances to those people.

However, I do think others do end up being truly rejected from the school they thought they had an implied rejection. Since most schools do acceptances, rejections and waitlists differently I don't think what happens at one school will be what happens at another.

[AnxiousNerd]

@FishNerd that makes sense... is it pretty much true that if a bunch of people received acceptances and you've heard nothing, that you're probably out of luck?