School Websites

[Bach]

How many of you have found that the school you applied to have updated the Status of your application?  Am I wasting my time looking at these sites everyday?

[avflinsch]

The sites are probably not updated realtime, so it isn't worth the effort and added stress to check them more than twice per day. That said, I still look several times a day.

[GeorgeC07]

The application websites are usually maintained by the offices of graduate and are not updated unless they receive confirmations from the programs. However, while many programs inform the applicants through email of the decisions, some would simply update the status in the application websites. 

The formal way to determine how you'll hear from the schools is to check the specifications on their websites, both the ones of the graduate office and the departments. If you can't find any information on this, you can also check the results from previous years in the result search section of this forum. You should be able to find how and when the programs inform the applications.

[NoMoreOrgo]

From my experience, if the program you're applying to has their own status checker, it's probably updates in real time. If it is the general tracker, just wait for an email from the department.

[TakeruK]

My experience has almost always been that I get notification via email or phone before the website updates. There has only been one exception, where I get a one-line email from the department saying "The decision on your application has been made. Please check the website for the result." It was a rejection.

[DBear]

12 hours ago, Bach said:

How many of you have found that the school you applied to have updated the Status of your application?  Am I wasting my time looking at these sites everyday?

For the programs I applied to, once all my applications were in, the websites ceased to serve anything function. They're all showing some variation of "under review" for nearly 2 months now. Even the schools I've interviewed with AND the school I got accepted to still show "in progress". So probably not worth checking, but I still check once or twice a day (which is a lot less than before, I think I'm wearing myself out)

[BellaAung]

I regularly check all the applicant websites of the schools I have applied to, and some only show application submitted even after a month of the actual submission date. Some apps have been under consideration for a month or so. However, I got an email from SOAS saying a decision has been made on the website, and when I went to the portal and checked, it said I have been accepted for their programme. Anxiously waiting it out for my 5 other schools.

[kurfew007]

I check the application status sites at least every other day, and most often every day. I've gotten 1 rejection and 3 admissions. For the rejection I checked in the morning and it was still pending. That evening I got an email saying to check the site and it had been updated. For the 3 admissions I saw my result in the application status portal generally 2-3 days before I received an email notifying me of the change.