Hypothetical Question: What happens when schools under-accept or under-waitlist?

[ssggs]

Firstly, I apologize if my question is silly/has been asked before. I know in reality, the probability of this scenario happening is extremely low, but what would a school do if it miscalculated and somehow did not accept or waitlist enough applicants? Would it accept someone who was previously rejected or would it simply settle for a smaller class?

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[darkjedi]

The waitlist is usually much larger than the expected number of people they expect to take off. Med schools keep track of their prior year stats and so have a pretty good idea of what their yields will be from each year to year.

 

[ndafife]

Because it doesn't happen, I doubt many (if any) schools have a protocol.

And based on that, if it did somehow happen (which it doesn't) a class would only be a handful of people short of the desired class size so I assume they would leave it as is

 

[Goro]

Wishful thinking ? Schools do not let this happen. But I can tell you one thing if something like this ever happened,The very first thing would be that the admissions Dean would be fired.

If the admission Dean needs to he will go deeper and deeper into the bench even if the candidates are less than expected or stellar.

It's Over booking that the admissions Deans worry about.

Firstly, I apologize if my question is silly/has been asked before. I know in reality, the probability of this scenario happening is extremely low, but what would a school do if it miscalculated and somehow did not accept or waitlist enough applicants? Would it accept someone who was previously rejected or would it simply settle for a smaller class?

 

[ssggs]

Wishful thinking ? Schools do not let this happen. But I can tell you one thing if something like this ever happened,The very first thing would be that the admissions Dean would be fired.

If the admission Dean needs to he will go deeper and deeper into the bench even if the candidates are less than expected or stellar.

It's Over booking that the admissions Deans worry about.

There may be some wishful thinking involved.

 

[terra330]

I always assumed that's why some of us get put on a "pre interview hold" instead of being rejected outright. Just in case they really messed up.

It's Over booking that the admissions Deans worry about.

What happens in this situation?

 

[darkjedi]

What happens in this situation?

It only very rarely happens. Sometimes they'll offer students a generous financial aid package if they agree to defer a year.

 

[carpediem22]

This happened with an MD/PhD class at a school that I interviewed at. That year, because of freak circumstances, there were only 4 people in the MD/PhD class. They did not accept rejected applicants, and just had one year with an unusually small class size.

Never heard of it with an MD class. I'd imagine if they came up a few students short they'd just go with it.

Edit: 4 out of a projected 10-12 student class.

 

[claduva94]

Some weirdness happened with Illinois last year...

 

[ChrisMack390]

This is kind of the exact function of a wait list, so I can't really imagine it happens much.

I have heard of over-acceptance due to more people accepting offers than anticipated. In that case I believe they usually find ways to "bribe" students into deferring for a year (larger scholarships, free housing, research gigs, etc).

 

[LizzyM]

Not uprising. a few years ago one of the University of Illinois had 9 funded MD/PhD program slots but somehow wound up with 13 acceptees taking offers . They then had to scramble to find funding. Mismanagement from a state institution where the state government hasnt been able to approve a budget for nearly two years seems less than surprising. Four of the last seven governors of the state have gone to prison.

The weirdness last year was that applicants who had been rejected were contacted in June and invited to interview and at least some who interviewed were admitted. All were OOS applicants. Theory was that the school was looking for some people who would pay the OOS tuition to help balance the school's budget given the loss of state funding.

 

[redferrari]

I know of a school that had a ranked waitlist of 30 that ended up doubling the waitlist because 30+ people deferred/went elsewhere. They accepted previously rejected applicants days before orientation when many had already scheduled interviews for the next cycle. Extremely unlikely scenario, however.

 

[7331poas]

How do med schools prevent over acceptance or under acceptance?

Even airlines can't get it right usually.

 

[7331poas]

.
You can always under accept and have a long waitlist. It is rare a school runs thru everyone on the waitlist. Over accept isnt very common

Why not may I ask? Do schools just keep their margins throughout the cycle very low and only bring people off the waitlist when they really need them?

 

[LizzyM]

Why not may I ask? Do schools just keep their margins throughout the cycle very low and only bring people off the waitlist when they really need them?

Some schools admit many, many more applicants than they could ever accommodate but with the thought that 20 other schools are fishing in the same pond. In the end, each applicant can attend only one school so many of the offers will be turned down but you won't get "the best" without making them an outright offer rather than waitlisting them. This is a nerve wracking week as the Deans of Admissions see if they got it right or if they are over-enrolled or under-enrolled and going to the waitlist.

Some other schools may care more about getting instate applicants and not going over so they may make fewer offers and go to a waitlist knowing that they are likely to attract instate candidates who are price sensitive even if the candidate has other offers.