Is it a good or a bad sign to not have heard from schools yet at this point?

[NewDex]

Title pretty much says it all. What do you all based on your experience honestly think?

[FailedScientist]

I'd say its good because you probably meet all of the basic cutoffs for the program. i.e. GPA, GRE other requirements. However its probably not great because you are probably not at the top of their list of students to invite. You are probably middle of the pack in their list of applicants.

[fuzzylogician]

No news is good news if the relevant department hasn't sent out interview invitations or acceptances, and bad news otherwise. Without knowing which one holds, it's not really possible to say much of anything other than that as long as you haven't heard otherwise, you can hold onto hope that something good will happen. 

[Fauxpow37]

I'm in the same boat. Applied to six schools, but still waiting to hear back from all. I just talked to my adviser about it, and she said some encouraging things as possibilities:

1) As FailedScientist said, it's good news for us because it wasn't an automatic no--those are sent out first, as they simple toss them on the 'no' pile.
2) You've made the list high enough not to wait list you (yet), but not an instant acceptance.
3) They're waiting to see if they can fund you--some schools will only admit candidates with funding or full funding.
4) They want to secure all the funding or most of the funding for you ASAP to make the best possible offer because they have a feeling you're going to be accepted elsewhere with just as attractive an offer (if not more so), and they are possibly concerned that you will not accept the offer right away if it isn't good enough--this is, of course, the best possible explanation, but according to my adviser and several professors it is completely within the realm of possibility. 
5) Your application has reached the faculty without being cut by admins--good sign--and a few (or one) is rooting for you while others are trepidatious or are interested in another candidate that the other(s) aren't sure about.

Ultimately, though, there are three good signs for us both: 1) We managed to stay out of the instant 'no' pile; 2) at this point, it's almost certain that our applications have made it to the faculty; and 3) no news is, indeed, good news--we're still in the running.

[GunningForGrad]

It also really depends on application deadlines, the school, and your particular program.

[Fauxpow37]

Oh, and one more possible reason we haven't been informed of a decision yet: 

6) They do acceptances on a rolling basis up to the cut-off date in April

All of these are possibilities...

[OhSoSolipsistic]

Good news, and it's not uncommon. Some schools haven't wrapped up their adcomm meetings for final review yet, so no one has heard anything positive yet from those programs (e.g., both of the adcomms for the programs I applied to are meeting this Wed). It's still fairly early.  

[redikulus]

hmm. I feel like I just answered a question like this in the last couple of days. Everyone is freaking out. Let's just all admit it. We're freaking out. We want information. This wouldn't happen if the schools all agreed to notify everyone at the same time. That way the entire nation/world would get their acceptances/rejections at the same time. No freaking out. Sadly, that would require a level of coordination our professors do not possess.

[Psychtrepreneur]

I'm so glad someone asked this question! Sigh, guess I'll just have to bite my nails and wait while every e-mail I get makes my heart rate jump by a dozen or two BPM's.

[NewDex]

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the replies! They do make me feel a bit better about myself! hahaha!

So, I'm applying mostly to Materials Science and Engineering programs. My first deadline was on Dec 13 and my last one was on Jan 8. OMG, this situation is so nerve-racking! Glad (and sad) that I'm not the only one in this situation, though...

Good luck to all of us! (I guess luck is all we can count on at this point...)

[krystasonrisa]

This is my third application season. I've obsessively combed through the Results Search going back to 2013, and I have a really good idea when I should hear back from each of the 3 programs I've applied to, and they're all different. 

 

I've had one interview, and cricket silence from the other two, but I think today's the day IU is sending out mass rejections + first acceptances for History, and I'm rejoicing I didn't wake up (again) to a first round rejection. 

I personally will not be worried about anything until mid March. 

 

And even then, there's always next year.  

[FailedScientist]

4 minutes ago, krystasonrisa said:

This is my third application season. I've obsessively combed through the Results Search going back to 2013, and I have a really good idea when I should hear back from each of the 3 programs I've applied to, and they're all different. 

 

I've had one interview, and cricket silence from the other two, but I think today's the day IU is sending out mass rejections + first acceptances for History, and I'm rejoicing I didn't wake up (again) to a first round rejection. 

I personally will not be worried about anything until mid March. 

 

And even then, there's always next year.  

I admire your perseverance and optimism. I'm really struggling with believing in myself and keeping the optimisim after 10 rejections over 2 cycles.

[krystasonrisa]

14 minutes ago, FailedScientist said:

I admire your perseverance and optimism. I'm really struggling with believing in myself and keeping the optimisim after 10 rejections over 2 cycles.

Thank you!  It's a fake it til you make it kind of thing, but I'm working on it  

 

I applied in 2014, and took one of the two MA offers, but was rejected from three PhD programs. I reapplied in 2016, but honestly my applications were not ready, my thesis wasn't finished enough, and I was rejected from four programs. Idk how people can afford to apply to like 20 programs, so I am just hoping at least one of these three works out this year. 

 

My odds aren't great, but I know what I want. 

Edited February 14, 2017 by krystasonrisa
grammar

[Charlsa]

I've got one first round rejection out of my four applications, but nothing else. Two of those applications are to schools that rejected me two years ago (unfortunately not the one that rejected me this time), but I'm hoping my application has improved enough for them to reconsider. The daily stomach aches leading up to checking the mail are no fun.

Also two schools moved back their deadlines from January to March, so that could be another reason why decisions are late.

"All I Need Is One" has become my anthem by this point.