hold vs. no answer

[chanchito]

What is the difference between being officially 'held' and simply not receiving an answer yet? Why do they even bother to hold people?

[Columbia Law]

A scholarly dance, perhaps?

[eupelia]

All I know is your profile picture makes me smile.

What is really mean are the schools where you write this nice email letting them know you never received your online status-checker login information and explain that you just want to make sure nothing got lost in the mail and their response is "Your file is complete and no decision has been rendered at this time."

No mention of "Thanks for your inquiry" or "Hey, we'll answer you before the end of the month" or nuthin'!

[Bert]

I have come to believe that "hold" is more or less equivalent to "we looked, we liked, well, kind of, but we're gonna get to the end of the other applications before we render a decision" whereas "no decision yet" is more like "we don't know yet".