The admission results are known in spring (march to june). Don't worry if your contact person in the university tells you that you are admitted and you don't receive the official documents soon. Remember the mailing delay!

Having a `powerful' contact person in the university may even change the decision in your favour. It happened to one of our friends to receive an email confirmation from a professor that he will be taken inspite of the initial faculty decision. Mohamed Arafa received the initial university rejection sent to him by ordinary mail and got by express mail the acceptance. A similar thing occured to me (Hossam Fahmy), when I was told by an official letter that my name is on the waiting list in case a place gets empty (a very low probability as indicated in the letter). Few days later, I got a TA offer and an acceptance. This is not a rule however and generally you should NOT try to ask the professor for such things.

Don't get offended if you receive a rejection from a small university either. Sometimes, and for very strange reasons, you may be rejected from a university with a low ranking and be accepted by a much highly ranked one!!
On the other hand, don't rush to send your acceptance to the first offer you get. There is an agreement between the US universities that if you accept an offer from one university you can withdraw your acceptance before April 15 without problems. However, if this deadline passes -which would normally be the case because of the mailing delays between Egypt and the US- you are NOT allowed to accept another offer till you get an official release from the university you accepted in the first place. If you do not respect this rule you will be denied the entry to both universities.

Remember also that each university has a deadline by which you must reply to its offer. If you are still waiting for a university that did not give you its decision, send an email asking the admission office to respond quickly so that you can meet the first deadline you have.