Does is make sense to receive a generic rejection after interview?

[blah1]

I was invited to interview weekend at my top choice university. Although I'm an international, I took a very expensive flight (on my own expense) to get there. The interviews went really well, and the POI said that I'm a very good fit to his lab, during and after the interviews. Yet, I got the generic rejection letter from the automatic system. I'm actually insulted, I expected that after coming to the interviews I would at least get the rejection from a faculty member, and not just a mass email. Is it always like that? Don't you get something more personal after coming to an interview weekend?

[TakeruK]

Perhaps your field is different, but I have never gotten a personalized rejection email at any application stage, even when it's from people I do know professionally and even after flying out to visit the department (here, I'm thinking of postdoc applications). 

I am not bothered by this because I don't think there's anything a faculty member could say that would make a difference. It is usually considered unprofessional to tell a student/applicant why they were not selected (also, this leaves them open to liability or an argument). And personally, if I am not selected to join a group, it doesn't help me for the PI to say there were more qualified candidates than me (obviously) nor would it make me feel better for the PI to point out my deficiencies (or sometimes they will just say nice things to you which aren't very meaningful either).

So, personally, I think the most professional way to inform someone of a rejection is a brief, professional message that informs them that all positions have been filled and to wish them best of luck on their other searches.

[fuzzylogician]

What @Eigen said. The only times I've gotten personalized rejection emails have been after campus visits for TT faculty positions, and even then not always. They always came from people who I already had a longstanding relationship with and who I would continue to be seeing professionally and working with for years. I don't think it's at all common to send personalized rejections at the graduate school application stage. 

[Eigen]

I've only gotten personalized rejection notices after campus interviews for faculty positions, and even then only from some schools. And most of those were with colleagues that I will continue to work with for years.

[ZeChocMoose]

I know that rejection stings so I understand that you are disappointed.  As the other posters mentioned, it doesn't get better when you go on the academic job market.  In a couple of cases, I never received any notification/follow up/rejection after campus visits for tenure track faculty/post doc positions.  I thought that was a bit odd, but from talking with others it seems par for the course.  The generally good thing about grad school applications is usually they inform you of their decision even though it may not have come in the way that you hoped.

[blah1]

Thanks everyone!