<p>I've heard that if you're rejected from an Ivy, you receive the rejection letter earlier than the decision date. So if you're not entirely rejected, you don't get a letter until the actual day decisions are released. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out.</p>
<p>Take my cousin, for example. He applied as a grad student to a couple of Ivies and already received a rejection letter from one of them. Columbia, I think? I was also browsing through one of the 2010 decision date forums here on CC and saw a post from a kid who said that he had already received his rejection letters from Brown and Yale on March 12th.</p>
<p>So I'm just wondering if that's true or if anyone has any possible insight on this?</p>
<p>No. I don’t think so, in general. Might be the opposite (for undergrads). Sometimes I’ve been seeing likely letters, scholarship offers, etc…coming out before the normal admission time (to the schools who still haven’t announced). The only people I’ve seen get rejection from this type school were all international students…and their rules are always different. Was the Brown/Yale person international? That might tell part of the tale?</p>
<p>My nephew was accepted to Colombia medical school a while ago (maybe two weeks??) Some schools may just send earlier. The trend in undergrad. especially usc and some of the other threads i have read, tends to be rejection is later than acceptance.</p>
<p>Graduate school rules are completely different. The undergrad Ivy & MIT agreement is to announce simultaneously online. Mailed notices (whatever the decision) will hit mailboxes in the days AFTER April 1, certainly not beforehand.</p>