Department decision vs. Graduate school decision

[allyjeanne]

I recently checked my application status for an Urban Planning program and saw that I have been admitted to the department but the graduate school decision is still pending.  Does anyone know what this means? 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Once the department submits who they want, the graduate school people check that you meet the minimum school requirements for admission and process the paperwork, thus the different admission statuses.

[HiFiWiFi]

The program I am going to reviews applications. It picks who they want, then refers the application to the graduate school. The graduate school looks over the application to be sure that everything is in order and that it meets standards for the school itself, and presuming there are no problems, they approve the admission and you're in.

As an example, I got caught up in this process! In a central application service I answered "Yes" to have I ever been required to academically withdraw for any reason including cheating, criminal offenses, alcohol policy violations, poor academic performance, etc.  (I failed out due to bad grades 10 years ago.) Then on the second step application I answered "No" to a question asking about alcohol policy violations honor code violations, criminal activity, cheating, etc. that did not mention just poor grades. The program didn't seem to care and referred my application to the grad school. The grad school, seeing the "yes", became worried that I had a code of conduct/community standards violation and they contacted me to clear it up. I did so, they thanked me, and I received an acceptance notification a week later.

So yeah, just a second look-over to be sure everything's in order.