2018-2019 Waitlist Support Thread

[JiffyLube]

My theory was based on the belief that cautious admissions officers would over-interview and under-accept.
If, in fact this did not happen, the stalemate will continue until mid July.

Even then... unless applicants are really unhappy with their PTE medical school and/or financial aid package and forego medical school... theres very little reason why PTE students wouldn't automatically become CTE students.

How would CTE deadlines make a difference with the stalemate unless (as you said) a few schools under enroll and are waiting for more movement?

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[965978]

Even then... unless applicants are really unhappy with their PTE medical school and/or financial aid package and forego medical school... theres very little reason why PTE students wouldn't automatically become CTE students.

How would CTE deadlines make a difference with the stalemate unless (as you said) a few schools under enroll and are waiting for more movement?

The magnitude of this is completely impossible to determine because we don’t know the magnitude of how many people are holding multiple acceptances.

 

[ReturnToMed]

I currently know someone who is holding THREE haha. And is PTE'd at one school, but has not withdrawn the acceptances at the others. No consequences yet, and has received word from all schools that this situation is okay until the end of June.

you gotta be zhitting me....

 

[gyngyn]

I agree. There’s no incentive to be the first school to take people off the WL and it comes with a massive risk.

Almost every school is full of PTE.

We need a few brave schools to risk over enrollment

I know one that isn't up for it!

 

[Rory_B_Bellows]

A T20 school I’m on the WL at sent a mass email last week asking to confirm interest to remain on the WL...signs of movement to come?

 

[JiffyLube]

The magnitude of this is completely impossible to determine because we don’t know the magnitude of how many people are holding multiple acceptances.

California schools are roughly 10% of all medical schools.... Gyngyn has pretty much confirmed that there are no more multiple-acceptance applicants in Cali.

10% should be relatively representative of the whole

 

[JiffyLube]

A T20 school I’m on the WL at sent a mass email last week asking to confirm interest to remain on the WL...signs of movement to come?

Which one?

 

[PB&]

A T20 school I’m on the WL at sent a mass email last week asking to confirm interest to remain on the WL...signs of movement to come?

Which school if you dont mind me asking

 

[tanbrucewayne]

Which school if you dont mind me asking

UChicago did last week

 

[gyngyn]

Even then... unless applicants are really unhappy with their PTE medical school and/or financial aid package and forego medical school... theres very little reason why PTE students wouldn't automatically become CTE students.

How would CTE deadlines make a difference with the stalemate unless (as you said) a few schools under enroll and are waiting for more movement?

Yes, PTE's will matriculate whether or not they click CTE (if they do not get off a waitlist).
Apparently, about half of accepted students believe that they are going to get off a WL at another school.
We won't know how many of them are right until the CTE dates for those schools come and go.
We won't even be sure after school starts since there is no prohibition against poaching after matriculation.

 

[tanbrucewayne]

Yes, PTE's will matriculate whether or not they click CTE.
Apparently, about half of accepted students believe that they are going to get off a WL at another school.
We won't know how many of them are right until the CTE dates for those schools come and go.

Is your school using the withdraw from all waitlist guideline? And how is it going to be enforced?

 

[JiffyLube]

Worst Wait List Year Ever........

 

[Rory_B_Bellows]

Which school if you dont mind me asking

Uchicago

 

[ReturnToMed]

Giving up sounds really nice right now.

 

[gyngyn]

Giving up sounds really nice right now.

I wish I could.

 

[labscience]

@gyngyn , is there a non-annoying way to call and ask a school what its plans are re: waitlist movement (if it has any such plans)? Or maybe that's not the question to ask, but looking at my school-specific WL threads it is a bunch of people running around like chickens with their heads cut off without any real information. It's ok if the answer is "no, absolutely don't call"! I just find myself grasping for any shred of clarity. Thanks!

 

[futuredoc0307]

Worst Wait List Year Ever........

I absolutely hate that I’m part of this cycle

 

[smallscrapes]

I absolutely hate that I’m part of this cycle

I keep saying to my partner I wish I had my life together a year earlier!

 

[gyngyn]

@gyngyn , is there a non-annoying way to call and ask a school what its plans are re: waitlist movement (if it has any such plans)? Or maybe that's not the question to ask, but looking at my school-specific WL threads it is a bunch of people running around like chickens with their heads cut off without any real information. It's ok if the answer is "no, absolutely don't call"! I just find myself grasping for any shred of clarity. Thanks!

The problem is that most us still haven't a clue as to what is going to happen this cycle.
Calling us only makes us feel more inadequate.

 

[965978]

California schools are roughly 10% of all medical schools.... Gyngyn has pretty much confirmed that there are no more multiple-acceptance applicants in Cali.

10% should be relatively representative of the whole

@gyngyn Did you really say that

 

[gyngyn]

@gyngyn Did you really say that

Today, at my school, only 4% of accepted students are holding another acceptance.
This is up from last week when it was 1% but it is still a tiny subset of accepted students.

 

[965978]

Today, at my school, only 4% of accepted students are holding another acceptance.
This is up from last week when it was 1% but it is still a tiny subset of accepted students.

How do you know this?

Because someone is PTE’d at your school then you wouldn’t know if they are holding onto another acceptance unless they told you.

 

[gyngyn]

How do you know this?

The AAMC tells us (in a convoluted report) how many students are holding other acceptances.

 

[965978]

The AAMC tells us (in a convoluted report) how many students are holding other acceptances.

Have any colleagues from other schools shared their percentages?? What’s the highest you’ve seen?

 

[gyngyn]

Have any colleagues from other schools shared their percentages?? What’s the highest you’ve seen?

I'll tell you in a week.

 

[965978]

I'll tell you in a week.

I’m a little bit confused though. If so few candidates are holding multiple acceptances then that means WL movement is almost over.

But you seem extremely confident that most WL movement will be in June.

 

[deleted965424]

I’m a little bit confused though. If so few candidates are holding multiple acceptances then that means WL movement is almost over.

But you seem extremely confident that most WL movement will be in June.

Hit the nail on the head Clam. Most important point I’ve seen someone make on this thread.

 

[tanbrucewayne]

It is more the issue that most who have PTE'd hold multiple waitlists, and therefore schools won't know who is actually committed until the CTE deadline. Can still be significant WL movement. It is not just an issue of people holding multiple acceptances.

How does this work if each school waits until their CTE deadline? Don’t applicants have to withdraw from waitlists and in this scenario there’s no waitlist movement. The only way there will be movement is if schools have underaccepted and are slowly filling up their class (or waiting to fill up until later date like in June) or there’s still students holding multiple As. I’m just speculating tho and trying to make sense of this mess

 

[JiffyLube]

Hit the nail on the head Clam. Most important point I’ve seen someone make on this thread.

I've been saying this too. There are only 3 ways that significant WL movement is going to occur:

1. Some schools (probably not in California) have students holding multiple acceptances.
2. Some schools currently do not have a full class and are waiting for some CTE deadlines to pass before they feel comfortable accepting kids off the waitlist
3. Some very rash admissions officers at some schools begin taking people off the wait list even though their class is full. This carries a high risk of over-enrollment.

I personally think the wait list is dead this year. There will be a trickle, but most people will be stuck and unhappy.

 

[meronebib]

Sigh. Couldn’t I have just been born a year earlier?

 

[JiffyLube]

There are different CTE deadlines. Harvard's, for example, is early next month. Harvard will know then if their class if full. If not, they will fill it from the waitlist. A person could be accepted off of the Harvard WL who has PTE'd at Hopkins, as an example and, could choose to go to Harvard. And on it goes.

The only reason though that I can imagine that a significant people at Harvard are not CTE at the moment though is that they are waiting on their state school for financial or geographical reasons....

their state school wont open up spots until some of their students get off the WL for a higher ranked private school...

these student wont get off the WL for a higher ranked private school until the Harvard kids get off the WL for their state school...

do you see the problem?

 

[meronebib]

The only reason though that I can imagine that a significant people at Harvard are not CTE at the moment though is that they are waiting on their state school for financial or geographical reasons....

their state school wont open up spots until some of their students get off the WL for a higher ranked private school...

these student wont get off the WL for a higher ranked private school until the Harvard kids get off the WL for their state school...

do you see the problem?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Harvard’s class is now almost entirely CTE. Plus they have such a high yield anyway (the highest, if I’m not mistaken) that they won’t be accepting many off their waitlist anyway. I don’t think their CTE deadline will be pivotal for WL movement at other schools.

 

[asdfwelldoit]

Where did you see that most PTEs hold multiple acceptances? Gyngyn just told us that 4% of all who were acceptanced (ie. people who have CTEd, PTEd, or didn’t put anything) have multiple acceptances.

We can assume that this 4% stat is roughly representative of other medical schools.

So I’m pretty sure WL movement is not gonna just start pouring out of the walls here.

So the part of the reason I think that more waitlist movement will occur later is that many schools are slightly under the number of seats needed to fill their class. The problem is many schools are waiting to see which students get selected off their waitlist, before reformulating their class. Also has others have discussed 4 % of applicants holding multiple acceptances is a lot, I actually know someone right now holding 4 different acceptances. So I don't think gyngyns number applies to all situations.

 

[deleted965424]

So the part of the reason I think that more waitlist movement will occur later is that many schools are slightly under the number of seats needed to fill their class. The problem is many schools are waiting to see which students get selected off their waitlist, before reformulating their class.

Ok, makes sense. But where did you see that most schools are under filled?

 

[meridian17]

It is Wednesday my dudes. A Wednesday with 0 movement is a sad Wednesday indeed.

Honestly the more I go over this in my head the more I am suspecting that the majority of the movement has already happened. Gyngyn is saying that only 4% of their class holds multiple acceptances, the majority of FB groups are completely filled, there's been 0 movement on either of my pending school's SDN threads and those schools are low-tier so you would expect the most movement there. I think it's time to accept that those of us on the waitlist only gang are essentially hosed

 

[asdfwelldoit]

Ok, makes sense. But where did you see that most schools are under filled?

Based of comments from adcoms making comments about being extremely conservative this cycle and even waitlisting more so they could accept students later based off clear understanding of their class. I would clarify that has been my experience YMMY.

 

[1nside]

So the part of the reason I think that more waitlist movement will occur later is that many schools are slightly under the number of seats needed to fill their class. The problem is many schools are waiting to see which students get selected off their waitlist, before reformulating their class. Also has others have discussed 4 % of applicants holding multiple acceptances is a lot, I actually know someone right now holding 4 different acceptances. So I don't think gyngyns number applies to all situations.

I hope that is true. I know someone with multi A's too so let's keep our spirits up but be prepared as well..

 

[adoconeday]

Sigh. Couldn’t I have just been born a year earlier?

Why should that matter? As a reapplicant I can tell you WL movement wasn’t friendly last year either.

 

[SuperMonkeyDude]

I thought it was mandatory for all students to PTE to only to one school by April 30 and then dump all the other schools but we could keep waitlists. Is this only for some schools? It is definitely unfair that there are students holding PTE to multiple schools.

 

[deleted715868]

Why should that matter? As a reapplicant I can tell you WL movement wasn’t friendly last year either.

I would have been accepted already if my school had the same waitlist movement it did last year.

 

[deleted715868]

I thought it was mandatory for all students to PTE to only to one school by April 30 and then dump all the other schools but we could keep waitlists. Is this only for some schools? It is definitely unfair that there are students holding PTE to multiple schools.

It was a guideline that got thrown out the window almost immediately leading us to the situation we are in now.

 

[LongLiveThanos]

Waitlists are never friendly every year, according to applicants.

 

[1nside]

I would have been accepted already if my school had the same waitlist movement it did last year.

One of my schools has been dead silent this year compared to WL offers last year. Another school extended offers up to 20% of huge class size More than this year by this time. I think it is very fair to say that WL movement is stifled compared to the past and I see that reading a lot of school threads.

 

[voltiva]

I thought it was mandatory for all students to PTE to only to one school by April 30 and then dump all the other schools but we could keep waitlists. Is this only for some schools? It is definitely unfair that there are students holding PTE to multiple schools.

I believe that they have PTE'd to one school but have not dropped other acceptances

 

[JiffyLube]

Waitlists are never friendly every year, according to applicants.

At least according to the current timeline, this is the worst WL year ever.

A certain percentage of students post their WL acceptance to the school specific threads on SDN every year.

I will tell you, having looked at many school specific threads, that significantly fewer students have posted.
So.... either fewer students are posting or fewer students are being accepted off the WL

 

[gyngyn]

Hit the nail on the head Clam. Most important point I’ve seen someone make on this thread.

The problem is not an excess of candidates holding multiple acceptances. That number is quite small.

The problem is the number designated as PTE (which I estimate to be about half of the accepted population, at least in CA).
They are all on waitlists (expecting to get off of one). Nobody knows if they are right or not.

 

[JiffyLube]

The problem is not an excess of candidates holding multiple acceptances. That number is quite small.

The problem is the number designated as PTE (which I estimate to be about half of the accepted population, at least in CA).
They are all on waitlists (expecting to get off of one). Nobody knows if they are right or not.

@gyngyn

Can AMCAS schools see tmdsas schools in terms of holding multiple acceptances?

This is the only large group of applicants that might potentially still be doing this.

 

[voltiva]

The problem is not an excess of candidates holding multiple acceptances. That number is quite small.

The problem is the number designated as PTE (which I estimate to be about half of the accepted population, at least in CA).
They are all on waitlists (expecting to get off of one). Nobody knows if they are right or not.

Hasn't that always been an issue? You don't know who will leave to accept a waitlist position. At least now you have an insight with the PTE.

 

[JiffyLube]

Hasn't that always been an issue? You don't know who will leave to accept a waitlist position. At least now you have an insight with the PTE.

I'm pretty sure that they don't know who is PTE or CTE until they PTE or CTE at another school.

Schools can only see broad percentages.

@gyngyn can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[PB&]

Hasn't that always been an issue? You don't know who will leave to accept a waitlist position. At least now you have an insight with the PTE.

In the past years, they had the MAR, so they could see WHICH schools they were accepted to. Based on that information, they can guess whether a student is more likely to stay or leave. Now adcoms do not have that gauge.