How do most schools respond?

[phdconfessional]

Does anyone know how most schools notify you of acceptance or rejection? Is it snail mail, email, phone call? I've got a school that met on Monday and I'm just wanting to know what I should be looking for..

[walker]

It depends on the school. Some school will email you right away to notify you of your admission status and later send you a mail for confirmation. Other schools only contact admitted students via email and or/mail and do not contact rejected students. To the best of my knowledge, I do not think schools will ever call you regarding your admission status. It's either via email and/or mail and some only contact admitted students while others contact you either way through the same way. I am in the same case than you and I am still waiting to hear from my school regarding my application status. Wish you good luck on waiting!

[wheninhell]

My understanding is it can come via any means of communication short of homing pigeon. My first notification came in the form of an informal e-mail from the department secretary a week after I submitted my application, offhandedly telling me they were going to offer me acceptance but needed me to send in formal transcripts to finalize. Second one, application website had a downloadable letter from the grad school. It seems many people hear first (and informally) from their POI via e-mail/phone call, and later get formal documentation from the University. So yeah...crap shoot.