Are this years decisions earlier than previous years?

[otakupaul]

Have this years decisions, on average, been made earlier than in previous years?

I'm making another attempt to try and make sense of all of this and just wondered whether I should be prepared to wait this out until the end of April, say, or whether I should reasonably expect all of my decisions sometime in March.

Any thoughts?

[illinoisellie]

I think, theoretically, this year's decisions should be later than those of the last few years....

Why?

1) more applicants than last year

2) less funding than last year (so they have to be more careful with it)

So i'm not expecting my applications to come until a week or two after they usually do (though there's not very much data from I/O programs from last year - at least the ones I am applying to)

[rising_star]

A lot of programs in my field seem to be notifying later this year, for whatever reason.

[AllOverthePlace]

I was wondering the same thing. I have already found out about 4 schools and wasn't expecting to hear back until mid-March... should I hope to hear back soon from the other 3 schools I applied to ? or take it as a rejection if they do not respond soon?