Thanks @GrinsteadGrinch - I know logically that we will hear when we hear... but I think psychologically, it makes one worry alot. I know when we were waiting for interview offers to drop, we were second guessing ourselves as to whether the university had received the application etc, particularly when you hear (even amongst friends/known individuals) that they received an interview offer and you know your grades were on par or higher.
@bluefineliner - I don't have experience of med school admissions but I have experience of other university department's admissions (large, usually oversubscribed)...and in those cases, most are processed by central admissions teams (located at the university level, not department - ie they'll be processing history apps as well as business school apps etc). Only when it's slightly different (e.g. different entry qualifications, query about international/home, mature students) do they then refer to the actual department's admission tutor.
In the case of med school, I would imagine that each med school will have their own admissions team and looking at their emails and sign offs, it seems to consist of one or two academic directors, and a couple of professional services support team. I don't see the benefit of 'drip feeding' a few offers over a few days/weeks. But I guess that's our viewpoint since all we see are the people posting on this thread, and the people posting on the reddit/TSR pages. If we assume that we are only 1-5% of the actual population of parents/applicants then if there are 4 people who say they've received an offer, then it's entirely possible that 400 have received an offer, but 396 don't post.
This is just a guesstimate of course. I have no real clue.
The only 'benefit' I can see of sending it out in drips is that these applicants have done so well (if scored out of 100%, they are those who scored 90% and above??) that there's no need to wait to be measured against the others even if they are still interviewing... That benefit is psychological to the student (endearing them to the school that offered - "wow they like me so much!") and possibly an enticement to make them 'firm' them ("if you firm us, we'll drop a grade"), and somewhat transactional to the school (we get a 'firm' from this student and that starts filling up our spaces).
Logically, it doesn't really matter because the demand outstrips supply so there's no need to fight for students since there are more students than spaces but obviously it's not really foolproof since in recent years a couple of places have been offered up in clearing (granted, not as open as other less popular subject areas and possibly for internationals)... but the issue with clearing for med spaces is that they usually then open it up to those who were waitlisted, vs those who might be applying cold (ie, not applied in October so school haven't seen their ucat let alone the possibility of interview). This is unlike other subjects (with exceptions of course).
Of course, med school also has the issue that for those holding more than 1 offer, there will be alot of movement come UCAS closing dates (May?)... so that's when those holding 4 offers will decide which 2 to firm and insure...releasing the other 2 (and potentially the 3rd - because they are an insurance, the school may then go out and offer more)... So, hypothetically, someone could hold offers from Oxford, Birmingham, Cardiff and UEA (entirely plucked out of the air). They choose to firm Oxford and insure Birmingham. That releases Cardiff and UEA back into the system. Birmingham also gets 'released' in the sense that they are insured, not firmed. So those waitlists or lists of students will get shuffled and whoever's on the top of Cardiff and UEA may then get an offer in May...Birmingham may also choose to send out offers because if this applicant gets the grades and goes to Oxford, then they'll be down an applicant.
And imagine this happening up and down the country...