Does a longer wait mean denied?

[ItsBrainScience]

I read a couple of blogs randomly here and there that discuss the issue of the time it takes to hear if you have been accepted or rejected. Has anyone else heard that a longer wait means rejected, denied, just not good enough?

I have heard nothing from ASU, my application for two programs at the school continue to say "IN Review" and i want to die! HELP! :?:

[wantaphd]

I can only speak for myself, but I was rejected from two schools, one by mail that did not update my status on their webpage. The other one sent me a nice email the same day they updated the site. The program I was accepted to sent an email and letter by post about two weeks earlier. In my experience, acceptances are sent out earlier, but don't give up until you get the letter in hand.

[Victory]

Today I was rejected from Columbia's International Affairs program. They announced decisions in a blog post where they described how the application process went. It's not an exact science, but maybe it will help you out a bit. They said 60% of people had a unanimous decision from the committee one way or the other...admit or reject. The other 25% had to go to council for further review because there was not unanimous decision, and the other 15% were being considered for fellowships and had to go through further review. Longer could be good or bad :mrgreen:

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

I've heard that rejections come faster, and I'm praying that's the case as I got four of them around the same time, and now no news for a couple weeks. You have to imagine that they throw out a full first round of people whose scores, LoR, SoP, or whatever immediately disqualifies them, who hear about it immediately - and then the app com takes their time working through and accepting or rejecting the ones worth debating. So I'd say the wait is, overall, a good thing - it means you weren't discarded at once - but it definitely doesn't mean an automatic acceptance OR rejection.

And on second reading it occurs to me that my post is the same as Victory's, just sloppier and without any backing evidence. Ah well, at least there's two of us!

[Jakrabite]

One of my recommendation providers told me that the ad coms rarely dwell too much on applications. It's hardly the case that they're losing sleep thinking about whether on not to admit a particular student. Also, in most cases the clincher might be something totally out of your control. I went to a top ten graduate school in my field and since the chair of the ad com was chinese, of late their policy is heavily sino centric. So no point over analyzing the process.

[ec86]

I think there was quite some debate about this issue. But the bottom line is that it's dependent on both the school and the department. I guess the rule of thumb is that if you don't hear around when other applicants are receiving acceptances for that program, then it's not so optimistic.

[Tinyboss]

Rejections from the first round of weeding may or may not come first (not all schools bother to let them know immediately). First-round offers come in a cluster, and when some of those guys go elsewhere, slots are opened for those who didn't get a first round offer (waitlisters). Then the final rejections come last.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but that's typical. As you can see, an acceptance or rejection can come at any time, but you can definitely tell if you've missed the first round. After that your chances are diminished.

[OnceAndFutureGrad]

After that your chances are diminished.

Really, though? I'm not a stats person but it would seem to me that, if you made the first massive cut of rejects without an acceptance, your probability - based on the number of people you're competing with - would still be much better. You began as one of hundreds and are now one of dozens, and even though the number of slots is smaller, it was pretty small to begin with. Or maybe I'm misled/too optimistic, can a stats person make sense of that?

[allamerican]

I applied to three schools in Dec, got rejected from one in feb and still waiting to hear from the others. Hope this waiting won't go in the wind.

[waitingtoexhale]

Really, though? I'm not a stats person but it would seem to me that, if you made the first massive cut of rejects without an acceptance, your probability - based on the number of people you're competing with - would still be much better. You began as one of hundreds and are now one of dozens, and even though the number of slots is smaller, it was pretty small to begin with. Or maybe I'm misled/too optimistic, can a stats person make sense of that?

Unfortunately, some schools don't inform rejected applicants of their decision right away. While the specific department has completed their decisions for admission and has informed the dean's office of the graduate school, it can take time for the graduate school to notify applicants for a number of reasons, such as sorting out all the funding details or waiting to send all decisions in one shot. So, in some cases, a professor from the department will informally notify accepted or waitlisted applicants days or weeks before an official letter goes out. It's brutal, but it seems there's no incentive to inform rejected applicants of their status. But, this isn't how all schools do it, so it really depends on the school.

[Dontuse]

longer wait = rejection

[djrg]

longer wait = rejection

I agree with Dontuse... while it would be nice to dream... I guess it is indeed healthier to believe in long waits as rejections..

However, talking from what I am experiencing, and my own decision taking, while i am assuming I have been rejected in all three schools I am still waiting to hear from, and I have planned the next few months on the basis that this will be the final outcome, I have not taken any drastical decisions relying on this plan.... To make it clearer, I haven't notified my currently selected school that I will be attending there, since anything could come from those pending decisions...

[fields&charts]

I'm inclined to agree with the above statement. If you haven't heard anything by now you're probably out. At this point all the "don't give up until..." statements are kind of worthless. Accepting rejection is the first step on the path to recovery. Wait until the letter comes in the mail and then email the programs to see if they have any advice to offer regarding the weaknesses of your application.

[fuzzylogician]

longer wait = rejection

I'm not an expert but I think that this statement may be a bit harsh. The best indication of your status is probably the results page. If others have been offered admissions to a program you applied to but you didn't hear back, then yes: a longer wait is likely to mean rejection (though it could mean an unofficial wait-list). But it could also be that the program hasn't finished making its decisions yet and you just have to wait it out along with everyone else.

[frankdux]

longer wait = rejection

i think it is more accurate to say:

longer wait = not in the first round of acceptances = significantly higher chance of rejection

[TulipOHare]

FWIW... my SO's aunt is faculty in physical therapy at a decent program (not great, but pretty good), and told me yesterday that their applications doubled this year. She said they only just got done winnowing the definite rejects out, and were meeting today to start going over the rest.

Granted, that's a professional program. And they probably notified their must-have people right away -- but it is just slightly possible that some of us are still buried in a pile somewhere.

[Joel418]

I've spent so much time during this process trying to figure out the rules of the game, and here are my official findings:

You really shouldn't waste your time trying to figure out the rules of the game!

I have received two acceptances (and a healthy dose of rejections!), and they were both very different processes. The first started with an invitation to interview; since I couldn't afford the trip, I did it by phone (which many say is a death-knell, as opposed to doing it in person). I was accepted and received an immediate funding decision as well. The other came in an email from the admissions secretary last week (which is moderately late for my field)--two more contradictions of "common knowledge" (acceptances usually come from an individual professor over the phone and never from an email from a "lower-level person" late in the process).

Don't count yourself out until it's done, and never try to guess at what a certain group of people that you don't know (and frankly, neither does anyone else) are thinking or doing.

Best of luck!!!

[ItsBrainScience]

I have found out that

Longer wait= You weren't one of the first round applicants you got offered admission

now you have an even longer wait to see if those who got offered admission will accept or deny their offers by april 15th which we all know they will take their sweet time.

THEN you have an even longer wait because those first round applicants took their precious time (Until april 14th at 11:50 PM to make their decision) accepting or rejecting the offer. Then after april 15th.... you may finally get a rejection letter or an acceptance letter... UGHHHHHH..... this SUCKS!!!

[djrg]

I have found out that

Longer wait= You weren't one of the first round applicants you got offered admission

now you have an even longer wait to see if those who got offered admission will accept or deny their offers by april 15th which we all know they will take their sweet time.

THEN you have an even longer wait because those first round applicants took their precious time (Until april 14th at 11:50 PM to make their decision) accepting or rejecting the offer. Then after april 15th.... you may finally get a rejection letter or an acceptance letter... UGHHHHHH..... this SUCKS!!!

Loool as sad as it may sound... you are probably right... I was thinking of rejecting at least one of my offers which I will not accept, now that I have better offers... Since we are all in the same boat, maybe we should encourage people to start rejecting offers they will not take as soon as they can... After all it is selfish not to.....