rejection letter vs. interview invitation

[kk]

For those familiar with the application cycle:

Do all schools (regardless of whether they practice rolling admission or not) send applicants rejection letters or interview invitations after they finish reviewing the applicants' files? Thanks!

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[Becket]

No. Some schools send out rejection letters all at once, sometimes not until the spring.

 

[MTY]

I applied early, completed my application around the end of August and early September. Since i havent' heard anything from the schools except the post card stating that my file was completed and it has been two months already, does that mean that i already got rejected?

 

[omores]

No of course it doesn't. Each school's policy is different. Harvard, for example, does not have rolling admissions. It hangs onto everyone's file until the bitter end, and it is possible to be rejected and not know until February. I have not heard of other schools that operate this way (although there may be some). More common, I think, is the "immediate decision" type of school, which tries to tell you yes or no when they review your file. Many of these schools do, however, have a "limbo pile". Files that live there have been given a maybe, and are subject to subsequent review, meaning that you will get a rejection or an invitation somewhere down the road.

When you're in limbo -- and plenty of people are, myself included -- you have to take a "no news is good news" approach: if you haven't receive a rejection, you're likely still in the game.

I'm not sure how the UC schools work, though. Anybody know?