2018-2019 Waitlist Support Thread

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If you have ZERO acceptances and are only on waitlists (which I am), your waitlist schools can tell that you have no acceptances.

I don't believe this is quite accurate. They can tell that you haven't chosen to PTE at another school, which may or may not indicate that you do not have other acceptances. (I have been wrong before on the CYMS tool, so someone else may correct me here)
 
Hi everyone, I was wondering.. what do you think it means when a school rejects students off the alternate list?
Is it more due to lack of movement or because they’re zeroing in on specific students?

sometimes it just means they know they arent going to reach the students at those ranks if it is a ranked waitlist
 
Can anyone confirm this is true? It won’t delay the app being sent to schools as long as they’re added before June 30??
For someone who is reapplying I really still don’t understand amcas lol.
Yes, you need not apply to more than one school to verify your transcripts. Schools added later will upload within a business day.
 
sometimes it just means they know they arent going to reach the students at those ranks if it is a ranked waitlist
That is quite merciful in my opinion. The two schools I'm waiting on wait listed every darn applicant they didn't accept outright. Imo it's kinda cruel since when writing an LOI I had to take a gamble and pray the school I was courting has me in a reasonable position. If not they should reject me so I can court the other school!
 
What annoys me is how AAMC is rewarded more or less for this mess by recieving more application fees from reapplicants who eventually will come off of waitlists but have to move forward with reapplying due to the delayed movement
Dun dun dun.... You cracked the code! This is all a master plot by some MBA somewhere to increase profits!
 
Dun dun dun.... You cracked the code! This is all a master plot by some MBA somewhere to increase profits!
I know this is more of a side effect of a major overhaul of the system and our class drew the short straw and gets to be the guinnea pigs, and that there was no garantee of avoiding reapplying in previous cycles, but still grinds my gears a bit, what can I say?
 
Do you know any wait list movements started in Keck USC? I’m a mother , my daughter is in waiting list. I’m reading everyday how stressful all of you are in WL. This is so sad to see these smart kids getting mentally exhausted. My daughter has 517, cgpa 3.83 she has very good extra curricular acitivities also research publications. She worked so hard for her dream, since she was in middle school. It’s hard me to see her sad face which she tries to hide from us. As parents we are also very disappointed about this unpredictable and unorganized system. Something missing in this system. I wish you all the best! A mom.

Unfortunately the only way to discern if a specific waitlist is moving would be to go to that specific school thread. I believe very few schools are receptive to folks contacting them to find their place on a waitlist, or if the list is moving.

I am much older than your daughter (most likely anyway) and can tell you that this process is horrifically stressful. Not just because of the MCAT and AMCAS stress (FInancial, GPA, ECs), but because so much information is out there which proves how difficult it is. Statistically, only about 40% of applicants get accepted every year. Some of those people may not get accepted until their 3rd or 4th application cycle, or maybe ever.

You sound like a supportive parent and I cannot stress enough how wonderful that is. Though my support is my wife and children, I can confidently say that having some form of comfort is critical for this process.

I hope your daughter gets the acceptance she wants. If it doesn't happen this year, apply again. It sounds like her stats are good and with careful applying, and a good interview, she should get somewhere. Keep supporting and trying to remain positive. This process can be soul crushingly demoralizing and almost make you feel more like livestock than a human. It takes fortitude to keep fighting into the wind.
 
Has anyone tried calling the school(s) you're waitlisted at to get insight into projected waitlist movement? I've been thinking about calling but don't want to bother them and also think I may just get a very vague response. Anyone get any helpful information by calling?
One of the schools actually let me have a consultation with the Director of Admissions to express my interest. He said there has been WL movement and will add notes to my file to reflect my interest.
 
I personally called Hofstra and was told the class is almost filled and don't get my hopes high. Others on Hofstra's waitlist called and got generic response about continued waitlist movement till class starts in August. Take it as you will.
 
What do you guys think about using a new job as an update at this point in the cycle? I want to do everything I can to get off the WL but worry if my WL will look at my update and maybe pass up on me if I’ve committed to a new job. No idea if adcoms are this convoluted lol.

Tagging @gyngyn to try and get noticed
We're not this twisted.
 
UCSF historically has a LOT of movement. Wofsy told us almost half get offers from the waitlist


That is shocking. Is that because they have too many cross-admits with Stanford, Harvard, etc?

Dumb question...does CTE mean commit to enroll? Or is it an acronym that’s associated with when a need school begins classes?
 
I personally called Hofstra and was told the class is almost filled and don't get my hopes high. Others on Hofstra's waitlist called and got generic response about continued waitlist movement till class starts in August. Take it as you will.

How can they be sure? What if some of their admits come off other WLs?
 
How can they be sure? What if some of their admits come off other WLs?
Yeah, I'm not so sure how schools are interpreting this stuff. There have been posts of different schools revealing not even half CTE percentage rates, yet the same schools also say to some applicants that the class is full and they are surprised by the lack of movement/not to expect any movement. Some students are interpreting this as the seats being "reserved." There are many people in this forum, and many I know, that are reserving their seats with PTE but prioritize a WL school.

Maybe the schools are just being careful in their correspondence to not get your hopes high, but I don't know how schools can be so sure of their yield when more than half their class is yet to CTE. Maybe schools are more or less confident about their yield due to various reasons (High CTE rate, desirability, previous year data, maybe sharing info between schools?).

If a stalemate does exist, maybe people will continue to commit to their current PTE schools instead of waiting to get off WL on a larger scale, and resulting in less movement in the end.
 
Maybe they over-accepted this year with particularly good yield? Maybe a significant majority, a higher number than they expected, has already committed? It is a projection, but an official projection nonetheless.

Do I wish their projection to be off? Absolutely.
 
I’ve already sent in an update letter that expresses my interest in the school explicitly as well as a letter of intent about 1.5-2 months ago. Is sending another letter of interest too much or desperate?
 
I’ve already sent in an update letter that expresses my interest in the school explicitly as well as a letter of intent about 1.5-2 months ago. Is sending another letter of interest too much or desperate?

As desperate as the ex crying outside your apartment building at 1:00 am begging you to take him/her back.
 
@gyngyn

What would be the appropriate way to call a school and inquire about WL movement?
"I understand it's especially difficult to predict this year, but I was wondering if there was anything you could share regarding waitlist activity."
 
Emailed my waitlist school yesterday and they basically said "we don't know what's going on with waitlists this year, but even if we did we wouldn't tell you" (they were quite nice about it tho tbh). Not a huge surprise lol. They said they think the class will likely be filled as early as June which makes me think they expect minimal movement :\
How does this compare to previous years for this particular school? Do they usually have limited WL movement? Also, is it one of those schools that start in July, and that's why they say the class will be filled by June?
 
@gyngyn Do you happen to know specifics about which schools are delaying the bulk of the WL movement until June or is this a general trend that you have noticed?
This is a widespread trend. Nobody knows what we are doing. We are just making it up as we go along.
 
re-applying while also holding some hope that it might work out this cycle is extremely difficult and expensive. It should not be this way 🙁
This is true but at the same time we have a lot of CTE dates coming up which should move WL along. I would say its still safe to be cautiously optimistic.
 
Feeling neurotic and want some fodder for magical thinking, does anyone have a link to that thread that posted an excel table of post-ii acceptance rates for a bunch of schools?
 
Feeling neurotic and want some fodder for magical thinking, does anyone have a link to that thread that posted an excel table of post-ii acceptance rates for a bunch of schools?
I do not unfortunately, but I think it's on Reddit floating around. But as an aside with the new rules it'd be extremely helpful for future applicants if the US News report included post WL acceptance rates. Not sure how likely that is though.
 
I
is there anyone else here who can relate to this:

being at a job that you really and truly cannot stand? My work has gotten to the point where I genuinely and thoroughly dread each day. Sometimes I drag my feet in the morning for those few extra moments of peace before I get to spend 9 hours having my soul sucked out through my eyes. The culture is toxic, and based in pointing fingers and laying blame. People undermine each other, and there isn't a sense of teamwork or camaraderie. My SO is friends with many of their coworkers and they sometimes go out and get drinks and spend time together, and I envy them so much. I so wanted to have something like that when I started in the workforce.

It frustrates me because I thought I could hang on to this job while waiting on medical schools, and could finally feel comfortable enough to quit sometime this month and move on to a future I could only hope would be different. But now I have no clue if medical school is going to happen. I worry about if/when I should start a job hunt (obviously if I don't get in this cycle, I will not spend more time being miserable here lol). I just want to know what's going to happen in my own damn life!


AH. It feels good to get that out. Such a rough time this is, truly.
I couldn’t have voiced my situation better myself...
 
Has anyone tried calling the school(s) you're waitlisted at to get insight into projected waitlist movement? I've been thinking about calling but don't want to bother them and also think I may just get a very vague response. Anyone get any helpful information by calling?

Called and was a very pointless phone call
 
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