Interviews or Decision Made

[kingduck]

I am applying for biostats programs, and I was wondering how interviews are notified. That is, if we are notified of a decision before an interview is scheduled, does that imply the decision is a rejection? Or have programs that typically interview, accepted candidates without interviewing?

[Geococcyx]

To your last question, it's certainly possible for programs that typically interview to accept candidates without interviews, since they may just choose to not do interviews for some or all students that year -- for instance, I think Duke used to do interviews before my application year, but I know they didn't do interviews my year (at least for domestic students) and so far as I know they didn't go back to interviewing people.  

I imagine the answer to your middle question depends on the program, although I can't pretend to be an expert.  Maybe someone else can help you with specific schools in mind.

For your initial question:  I had one interview, and for that I just got an email invitation to a "recruitment day" for top candidates, and heard something akin to an accept/waitlist/reject a month or two later.  I think I applied to one or two programs that also did interviews that year, and was aware interviews had happened at each place well before I got a decision notification (which were both rejections, as expected).  That said, this is all pre-COVID, so for all I know admissions committees still aren't sure how they're going to do things this year.