As far as I know, there are only a few admission committee member whereas there are way too many applicants for MSOR program. Maybe, this is why the application process for the program takes so long for some applicants. But, this was not true for me though. Also, a lot of people I know had received admissions more than a month ago.
As for me, I sent them an e-mail early April coz I was not hearing anything from them when there were many people here saying they already had completed the interview process. 4 days after I sent the email, I received an invitation from a grad student for an interview.
During the interview, I told my interviewer that I had received an admission from other schools and asked her directly when the final decision would be out coz I would have to pay deposit to my other alternative in 2 days. I received an admission from MSOR at the end of the interview day itself .
I do not really agree that asking would lead to a negative answer. On their website, it is clearly written that applicants would hear about admission decision from the school around late March. They are not keeping that promise for you and some other applicants. Remember that you are the buyer in this process. So, my question is why are you still not calling them and ask them to tell you what you were supposed to know a long time ago?
It is up to you what you are going to do about this. But, just know that I asked them for what I wanted to know and directly expressed my need to know about final decision ASAP and eventually got it. Good luck
