is this a rejection?

[meow123]

I received an email from a POI today, saying that the cognitive area will try to make a decision next month, and he said "good luck". That sounds really bad to me. I am just wondering if that is a hard no or do I still have a little chance with "luck"?

Thanks!

[mcdonaad]

I suspect you're reading too much into it. It sounds to me as though they're in the admissions process and the "good luck" was a friendly sign-off.

[Lilac13]

I also think you may be reading too much into it. The admissions committee is still deciding and wishing someone "good luck" with the process seems pretty standard to me.

[meow123]

The only problem is that when I talked to the guy in October he told me there is no committee, applications are forwarded to individual professors and they get to pick. Sucks!

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

The cognitive area is not the same thing as an admissions committee. An admission committee consists of profs within an area, while all the profs that do research in cognition are in the cognitive area. All admits by committee or individual have to be approved by the graduate school.

My sense is that students who've been rejected hear back from the school after interview invites or admits go out. You've got a while to wait.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Quant_Liz_Lemon

[TakeruK]

The cognitive area is not the same thing as an admissions committee. An admission committee consists of profs within an area, while all the profs that do research in cognition are in the cognitive area. All admits by committee or individual have to be approved by the graduate school.

I agree with this assessment -- at the schools "where applications are forwarded to individual professors and they get to pick" (mostly Canadian ones), this would mean that the application was forwarded to all profs in the cognitive area and they have about a month to decide either way. At many schools, usually the official acceptance by the graduate school does not happen until you accept the department's offer and it's basically just a formality (i.e. the official graduate school requirements are much lower than the competitive requirements of any department).