While we wait, I was wondering what you guys/gals thought the reasons were for waitlist movement at UAB? It seems to vary from year to year and be "unpredictable."
As mentioned above, a waitlist spot opens up only when a currently accepted student withdraws.
On April 30th, students holding multiple acceptances to medical school had to drop it down to one (but they could remain on an unlimited number of waitlists):
The AAMC Application and Acceptance Protocols for Applicants
Therefore, for any student giving up their spot at UAB
after April 30th, their first choice at the time was UAB. Since UAB is ranked in the top40 on USNews, it makes sense that it is the top choice instate, despite south alabama having almost exactly the same matriculant GPA/MCAT statistics. It also makes sense that very talented out of state applicants (usually OOS matriculant stats > IS), especially from the southeast, would also apply to UAB because of its ranking etc. However, on UAB's facts & figures' page, it's clear the OOS students comprise a tiny fraction of the class.
I made a post earlier in this thread after reading through the UAB thread on SDN of each of the last 8 years or so. I found numbers that vary from 69, 49, and 36 students being accepted off of the waitlist at UAB. Some years, this information was not posted in these threads. It also seems like (based on the past threads) most reported waitlist movement on SDN for UAB occurs
after April 30th.
So:
A minimum of around 36 students are giving up their spots at UAB, after having UAB as their best available choice from the beginning of their application cycle through April 30th. So why do they give their spots up? Did they apply to schools ranked higher in the USNews, like the ivies/hopkins/UCs/duke/vandy/washu? And have they not been accepted at these schools, but instead been waitlisted (just like us)? Are there many students with Alabama residency status, that apply to these schools with UAB as their backup? Are many of these applicants from Mobile and surrounding regions, and see South Alabama as a great school that is close to home? Does South Alabama offer more financial aid than UAB? Are deferrals a real thing? If so how many occur on average? I've heard of this happening because of inability to get loans by the start of the MS1, but otherwise, why would this be allowed?
What caused the waitlist movement so far, and what will cause any from now till orientation?