When are graduate admissions decisions made?

Graduate School
1

Just curious if there is a website that lists the timeline stats of when different schools release their admission decisions, when financial info is given, and when students need to commit. It would be helpful to have it all in one place.

2

every department in every school is different, and the dates may change. For example, my D’s PhD program historically made offers immediately after the interview weekend, which used to be early Feb. But the Uni just began a new mega scholarship program, so all Departments had to move their offers up a couple of weeks. So they had to move up the application reviews.

Of course, some programs offer in waves…

General deadline for accepting a Uni’s offer is April 15.

Grad Cafe is a good place to look to see what Uni’s did what last year.

3

Thanks!

4

Also look at the websites of the programs you applied to as some give an idea of when decisions will be made. As noted above each program/each school does it differently.

5

Most programs start their slam-dunk acceptances in February, their solid acceptances in March, and spend late April fishing to fill any remaining holes. Most departments have signed on to giving applicants until April 15th to accept or reject an offer, but most applicants quickly reject all but their current best option, and when they do so departments extend offers to their next best candidates.

6

Ehhh, I would say that depends largely on the field and program. In my field, interviews are conducted in mid-to-late January, so acceptances may come around in late February or they may come around in early March. So if you get an acceptance letter in March I wouldn’t assume that you were a second-string acceptance, nor would I panic or get antsy if you haven’t received one by February. If it’s past March 15 and you haven’t heard anything that’s when I’d start to wonder.

7

Have you found the gradcafe site? There is a section where people post when they hear back from schools and what their results were. You can look back a last year, too.

8

@intparent Yes, thanks! I was able to see when the different schools made their decisions last year. Good to know!