Do schools/programs always notify you if you've been waitlisted?

[goosejuice]

It's the middle of March and I still haven't heard any admission decisions from 5 of my choices. Even after scrounging through the results page , I've not seen a single admit/rejection/waitlist post from any of these programs. I am aware of one of them being behind on making decisions. The other 4 have been dead silent, even after reaching out to their department. A part of me wonders if I've been waitlisted, but I've yet to be told so. Is it something that people generally notify you of? Mandatory or optional?

[TheHoff]

As far as I know, it's optional.

So far I still haven't heard from most of my programs, the only one that I know I'm on the waitlist is because I contacted my POI

[worried2018]

Optional. I emailed them and found out.

[Eric_E]

POI emailed me after the interviewing and let me know that I was waitlisted. It's been one and half months and I am pretty desperate right now. Anyway, I would reach out to the POI or the committee and ask them about your admission status. Best of luck!