That's what I was thinking.
Here's to hoping we hear good news sometime in late April / early May; maybe.
Here's to hoping we hear good news sometime in late April / early May; maybe.
2014-2015 University of Colorado Application Thread
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Hey guys, this is a statement I got directly from Vidal via email.
"How many are on the waitlist? How many have been accepted?
Approximately 240-250 have been made offers. There are approximately 200 students on the waitlist – high, mid, and low alternates. Last year, over 300 students received offers, and the waitlist was active."
My analysis. I will conservatively assume that 250 have received acceptances. It seems likely therefore that at least 50 will be accepted off the waitlist. With a waitlist of ~200, the top alternate category consists of ~66 people. It seems certain that at least half of the high alternates will get in. In fact, it seems very likely that at least 80% (~50 people) of the high alternates will get in. These numbers even make it reasonable to conclude that all of the high alternates will get in and a few of the mid alternates as well..
Of course this is speculative, but what else am I suppose to do for the next few months! Good luck everyone. And to those that are leaning against going to CU and have been accepted or are on the waitlist, by all means make the decision that is best for you, but also be mindful of those of us who would kill for a chance to attend our dream school.
"How many are on the waitlist? How many have been accepted?
Approximately 240-250 have been made offers. There are approximately 200 students on the waitlist – high, mid, and low alternates. Last year, over 300 students received offers, and the waitlist was active."
My analysis. I will conservatively assume that 250 have received acceptances. It seems likely therefore that at least 50 will be accepted off the waitlist. With a waitlist of ~200, the top alternate category consists of ~66 people. It seems certain that at least half of the high alternates will get in. In fact, it seems very likely that at least 80% (~50 people) of the high alternates will get in. These numbers even make it reasonable to conclude that all of the high alternates will get in and a few of the mid alternates as well..
Of course this is speculative, but what else am I suppose to do for the next few months! Good luck everyone. And to those that are leaning against going to CU and have been accepted or are on the waitlist, by all means make the decision that is best for you, but also be mindful of those of us who would kill for a chance to attend our dream school.
Plus, not all alternates will accept CU's offer, so even if there are only 50 spots to fill, they may still have to go through more than just alt1 to fill them. Optimistically
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Fill it out now (or as soon as your taxes are done) and have it released to all the schools for which you are waitlisted. There's no harm and can only expedite the FA process when you are accepted.
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Yeah it's a good point, especially when you consider that roughy half of all acceptances historically are to OOS applicants (see US news). I think there were around 60 OOSers in last year's class. Therefore one might argue that around 1/3 of the OOS waitlist pool will not accept. Equaling roughly 10 people on the high priority waitlist.
Edit: FutureFACS corrected my math, it's more like 20 potential OOSers that might not accept an offer.
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I wonder what it has been for other years. I know for the class of 2012 that 282 offers were made for the 160 seats at the time, so adjusting for the new class size, that would equal about 324 offers.
On the topic of clinical hours, that's almost certainly the weak spot in my application and the reason I was waitlisted... does anyone who was able to get substantial clinical experience specifically here in Colorado (where rules are notoriously strict about who may directly care for patients) have any recommendations as to where to look for opportunities? This is a wall I've been butting up against for several years now with no luck.
I wouldn't be surprised if the WL e-mail was a cut and paste from earlier cycles (like back in 2010-2011 when they also tiered the WL) and says 270-300 because it's from back when they had 160 seats.
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That's easy. Scribing. PM me if you want more specific info. I could probably get you a job if you are interested.
Will do!
I'm guessing that's why I am as well. First interview wasn't my best either. The interviewer and I did not quite click
I agree that scribing is an alright experience because you get to work right next to a doctor but that in my opinion is not hands on patient care. Here in Colorado you can get a CNA license in 6 weeks and you can get hired really easy and it pays better than scribing. You actually get to be a part of the patient care team and work and talk with patients. I highly recommend it and you still get to work with nurses and doctors and learn a ton as well.
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I agree with the above. Scribing is great in that there is really no barrier to entry. However, getting licensed in healthcare (CNA, EMT, etc) will open a lot more direct patient care opportunities, both paid and volunteer.
In my opinion, the phrase in bold is KEY. Getting a LOR from someone who can recommend you as a valuable member of a patient care team is worth its weight in gold.
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I don't disagree with either of you. They pay is a big plus and working 1on1 with patients has great value and is highly regarded by ADCOMs. That being said, the training required also costs money and time which factors into the consideration.
Also, I would argue that you learn way more medicine and way more about the profession by scribing and therefore I think it is more valuable for your career in the long term. For example, I already understand how to write a good history and physical, including the assessment and plan. The internists I have worked with agree that my experience will be very valuable come 3rd year.
So while I agree that the CNA/EMT route may still be preferred slightly over scribing by ADCOMs, I think scribing (especially inpatient scribing) is better in the long term.
I actually do have a CNA cert; this was my original idea as well. But in practice it seems like everywhere I have applied has insisted on experience and no one is willing to hire someone without any, and most places I've volunteered have said in no uncertain terms that they don't care what licences I have, they still won't let a volunteer near anyone. It could be I've just gotten unlucky and run up against some particularly inflexible individuals, though. It'll require revisiting. If only there were more hours in the day to do all of these things!
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Interesting. In my n=1 experiences, I had no problem finding several all-volunteer clinics in my community. I would just encourage you to keep you looking.
Just want to add my two cents here:
First, I don't think clinical experience will make or break you. I don't see why they would really care if you are doing procedures with patients, they will teach you how to do all of that stuff anyway. I think the big thing is showing that you have experience interacting with people in a stressful or difficult situation, and you are able to do this well. Those skills are harder to teach. This application cycle I had ZERO clinical experiences (aside from a handful of shadowing hours), but I really emphasized in all my essays how my experiences outside of a hospital (I did Teach for America after college and also worked in financial services for a few years) have prepared me to be able to succeed in a clinical environment. So, make sure you are taking a step back, looking at everything you have done, and really highlighting how all of your life experiences thus far have prepared you for this field.
Also, if you have your CNA and are looking for experience but can't get over the "1 year of experience required" line, you may only be looking at the "sexy" CNA jobs? Are you applying for home care, hospice, mental health, etc? May not be your first choice, but will get you some experience and definitely help you see patient care from a whole new side.
Anyway, take all that with a grain of salt. I am not accepted, but am on the "high priority wait-list," so it's not like I am an shining example of what to do right in an application cycle. BUT, considering I applied very late and had little clinical experience, I still consider that to be a success.
This is all really valuable insight, thank you. I guess it's less about ticking particular boxes and more about positioning and selling your experiences correctly... something I know I fell short on, this cycle.
Also, I guess it's possible, re: the CNA jobs; I wasn't really deliberately filtering, but I was looking in facilities in which I had contacts and looking through local job listings, which might themselves have been biased.
I wish I'd asked for insight on these things BEFORE the application cycle, heh. But I guess that's how you learn, sometimes.
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Wonder what over 300 offers really means. If it's like 330 then that means some middle-third people have a chance, but if it's like 305 then it seems like only top-thirds.
max1221 said that last years offers were 327 per USNews.
My interpretation of this was that the 'over 300' that received offers were comparable to the 240-250 that were made offers this year--non-waitlist, straightforward acceptances--and that the point was that even with so many offers made, few enough of them accepted that the waitlist was still actively used to fill the class. This implies that with fewer acceptances this year (and presumably roughly the same number of declined offers) the wait list should be utilized even more heavily this year to fill the class.
Not very useful for those of us on the bottom, but if I'm right about this (and of course I might not be) then you middle-thirders have a more solid chance.
I think I understood this differently, that the number of offers for the year ('over 300') includes those that make it in off the waitlist. This would mean that as of right now 240-250 have been accepted pre-waitlist, if we assume last year's data will hold that number will climb to 320-330 by August after people are pulled from the waitlist.
That would mean that 70-90 waitlisters have a realistic shot. If the waitlist is ~200 people then each third is ~66, which means they would presumably make it fully through the top third and pull a couple super lucky folks from the middle third.
That seems to match what they say in their emails as well: if the top 1/3 have "a high probability that you will receive an offer" and the middle 1/3 have been told this: "In prior years, we have made offers from the middle one-third of our list, although our ability to predict whether this might be possible does not occur until much later in the admissions cycle."
Personally I do not believe they would risk the potential blow back of using the strong language of telling applicants they have "a high probability that you will receive an offer" if they weren't pretty sure of it. I am sure we all know of the kind of hissy fits that premeds have been known to throw (and their helicopter parents).
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Except just like w/ acceptances not everyone on the WL, even the top 1/3rd, will accept a WL position/offer off of it so they will, in theory, go alittle further into the middle 1/3rd than a might be expected just from the numbers...
This is definitely true some people will get into a school they prefer between now and the time CU pulls them off the waitlist and say no thanks. Also, I imagine some folks didn't care to deal with all this and already have a good position at another school they like so they did not even ask to be kept on the list.
REMINDER: If you didn't already tell them you want to stay on the list and you plan to so then do it soon that would be a silly thing to realize on day 8.
Another thing I have wondered is if this is just a ranked list so when a spot opens they just go to the next person on a list that they have predetermined or they review all the top 1/3 people or even the whole WL and pick one. I wonder this because if it is possible that people from the middle 1/3 or even bottom 1/3 get pulled off the list before top 1/3 that significantly changes the calculus of the situation.
Yes but these still count towards the total offer tally. No?
I'm pretty sure they stick with the top third before moving on to the middle/bottom third. I'm not sure if there are actual ranked lists in each tier, but I would imagine all top tier applicants would be accepted before moving on to the middle tier. But I don't know for sure.
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Yeah you'd wonder if they saw that someone in the top 1/3rd had an acceptance at like Stanford if they would just skip them, I dunno
I don't think that medical schools can see where else applicants have been accepted until after they accept them. I'm pretty sure I read this on AMCAS.
On a side note: scrolling back through previous threads, it looks like when they used to tier the waitlist they would have information sessions for the top and middle tier in order to update them on the current status of the waitlist. Has anyone heard anything about this?
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They actually can see where waitlisters are accepted after a certain date. I think they just have general information sessions
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I think the key to trying to estimate waitlist movement is looking at the data from previous years. If you look back for example to fall 2009 data, 277 were accepted, 157 enrolled, that's a matriculation rate of 0.567 .. In the fall of 2012 it looks like 304 were accepted for a class of 160, a matriculation rate of 0.526 .. Lastly we have data from last year, 327 accepted for a class of 184; matriculation rate 0.563 .. So looking at these data, it seems that matriculation rates average around 0.55% with a range of .52-.57 .. That translates into a total number of acceptances anywhere between 322-354. So this range would take into account people who are not accepting offers off the waitlist as other people above have pointed out. This leaves room for anywhere between 72 and 114 offers to be made off the waitlist (at an absolute maximum if only 240 have been made offers so far).
I do wonder if the increased number of people on the waitlist this year will cause more people to bail on CU in favor of their current offers, pushing the matriculation rate closer to the 0.52 range, which would be great news for those in the middle tier.
Lastly, I wouldn't put much hope in them taking people off the mid or low waitlist before those above them. This would seem to defeat the purpose of a ranked waitlist.
I do wonder if the increased number of people on the waitlist this year will cause more people to bail on CU in favor of their current offers, pushing the matriculation rate closer to the 0.52 range, which would be great news for those in the middle tier.
Lastly, I wouldn't put much hope in them taking people off the mid or low waitlist before those above them. This would seem to defeat the purpose of a ranked waitlist.
Definitely look into home health care and long term care facilities or nursing home. Hospitals generally do not hire people without experience...
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Wait listed top 1/3 and have 15,000 hours direct patient care as a clinical social worker.
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Especially considering some of those are admins who are current students
Strange. Most other schools with similar class sizes have fb groups around the size of their class. I hope this bodes well for alternates.
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So.... those of you on the high priority waitlist who do not have acceptances at other schools.... are you planning to reapply? Or wing it?
I guess I'm planning to reapply but am feeling non-committal because of the strong language in that waitlist email, and the trends in past years to make offers to the high priority wait list...
I guess I'm planning to reapply but am feeling non-committal because of the strong language in that waitlist email, and the trends in past years to make offers to the high priority wait list...
This is exactly how I feel. It is a very strange place to be.
I'm telling myself I should get busy preparing for next cycle, but many activities/pursuits would require that I commit longer than 3 months. But if I just wait and see, then I feel like I'm shooting myself in the foot for next year.
Not to mention letters of rec. I don't want to waste people's time if I won't need them, but don't want to not have them if I need them.
Decisions decisions.
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It does!
I would definitely prepare for the worst case scenario. But I wouldn't worry about submitting your primary app until mid June. Just do you don't waist money if you don't have it.
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I would reapply if I were you just to be safe. I am betting too 1/3rd will hear something before June 1st though
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Exactly. I applied super late last cycle and without academic letters of rec. This year, I've applied for the institutional letter from CU Denver undergrad-- which was a lot of work and having to rally profs to send in letters is not something I want to do if I'm likely to get in at CU this cycle. But if I don't get in this cycle, I want to spend time on reapplying- I don't know what I could improve over this year so I will really need to spend some thoughtful time and energy on reapplying. Every interview I had, the interviewer commented on how well-written my statement and secondaries were. With my low GPA, I know that what I wrote (along with good grad and post bacc GPAs and good MCAT) were what got me interviews. But applying late was stupid (took my MCAT late and waited for the score before getting to work on the application)... So I don't want to make that mistake again.
What an anti-climactic outcome. "Yay! I'm WAITLISTED! I'll probably get in but I just have to WAIT and seeeee!"
My friends were all... "Congrats???" 😵?
Me: Exactly. Idk. Keep hoping.
Yeah. I'm quite hopeful for the top 1/3 alternates. If I had to speculate, I would say that they are using the term approximately very loosely. I would not be surprised if they've doled out closer to the minimum number of acceptances allowed (class size), which would give them more flexiblity to fill the class later. Especially since it's the new assistant dean's first year and she's probably being extra cautious? Again, I could be totally off base, but given the fb # and the lack of a major cohort of March acceptees, I think they've probably accepted fewer than they are approximating. Besides there's no need to approximate, they know exactly how many acceptances they've handed out.
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I don't doubt the number they gave of 240-250 offers sent. That number is very low when you compare the total # of acceptances given out last year. I'm not sure why they mentioned the 270-300 number of total offers in the letter, it's obviously not accurate since the class size has increased considerably to 184.
I guess. It seems kind of odd though. You're probably right.
Also, looking at the fb group the m/f ratio is also odd (58m/33f)
I realize I have entirely too much free time and am way over-analyzing. But since I took the time to count, I thought I'd share with my fellow SDNers.
I think I'll take a break now, lol.
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I was accepted in October and never received an invite to the Facebook group. I don't know if that is a very good indicator of how many people are accepted.
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Current CU MS1 here, just wanted to chime in about the facebook talk. The issue with the class FB is that the pro-studs are in charge of running the page, and the admissions office doesn't update them that frequently with a complete list of accepted students that regularly. I wouldn't put that much thought into the number of people on the FB page because it just isn't going to accurately inform you on number of acceptances.
Also, as for waitlist movement. I know that in the past they have tried to fill seats with people that "fit the profile" of the class. I'm not sure if that is still the same this year but what that means is that while there is a tiered waitlist, the people within each tier doesn't have a numerical rank within that teir. Hopefully that makes sense.
Other advice, if you don't have any acceptances & do have waitlist positions you most definitely should proceed as if you do not have anything. Work on your primary and reassess your application. You don't want to kick yourself midway through the summer if you don't get pulled from the waitlist. If you get pulled off the waitlist, the worst that can happen is that you only lost some money.
Edit: I hit reply before I could say, good luck for those that are still waiting and for those accepted, see you on second look day!
Also, as for waitlist movement. I know that in the past they have tried to fill seats with people that "fit the profile" of the class. I'm not sure if that is still the same this year but what that means is that while there is a tiered waitlist, the people within each tier doesn't have a numerical rank within that teir. Hopefully that makes sense.
Other advice, if you don't have any acceptances & do have waitlist positions you most definitely should proceed as if you do not have anything. Work on your primary and reassess your application. You don't want to kick yourself midway through the summer if you don't get pulled from the waitlist. If you get pulled off the waitlist, the worst that can happen is that you only lost some money.
Edit: I hit reply before I could say, good luck for those that are still waiting and for those accepted, see you on second look day!
