2020-2021 Waitlist Support Thread

BU Medical Sciences
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Missed the first post-April 30th wave of acceptances at the school I'm waitlisted for... and today was the day my alma mater required reapplicants to submit a committee letter interest form in order to be considered for the next cycle 🙁 all-around rough and anxiety-inducing day. can't wait to rinse and repeat tomorrow LOL #sad
 
gyngyn said:
If you are asking me why medical schools have slow-moving responses in a fast moving world, I am only one person at one school. I am merely explaining as transparently as I can with what I have observed.

No one knows at the end of the primary acceptance season who will remain on April 30th. What may have constituted a good waitlist in Mid March (when many committees have essentially concluded their work) might be no where near good on May 10th.

You are correct in observing that every waitlist has an abundant number of excellent candidates (probably even schools that I hold in low esteem).
Click to expand...
@gyngyn I’m curious about what you mean by “good waitlist”— could you elaborate? Do you mean diverse? Or overall high stats? Or is there something else I’m missing?
 

koki22z said:
@gyngyn I’m curious about what you mean by “good waitlist”— could you elaborate? Do you mean diverse? Or overall high stats? Or is there something else I’m missing?
Click to expand...
Good is in the eye of the beholder. Depending on the demands of the dean or others in high levels of management, a good class can mean any of a number of things... more engineers, more non-trads, more artists, more researchers, more public health wonks...
 
I know it's not even the end of May but I can't help feeling like I'm not getting off the waitlist after missing the first wave of acceptances today - I'm in a state of holding onto a sliver of hope while trying to regain the focus to retake the MCAT/apply again - if anyone has any advice on how to get outta this funk, pls lmk
 
wegotthis20201234 said:
I know it's not even the end of May but I can't help feeling like I'm not getting off the waitlist after missing the first wave of acceptances today - I'm in a state of holding onto a sliver of hope while trying to regain the focus to retake the MCAT/apply again - if anyone has any advice on how to get outta this funk, pls lmk
Click to expand...
+1
 
Question for yall. Im currenly on 1 WL and per the school thread on SDN, there hasn't been any movement. I was wondering if I should email them to ask about movement, even though in previous emails they have sent to everyone on the WL, they give off the vibe that they don't want any questions about WL standings...

I got into a SMP and don't want to have to pay tuition+tech fee that's due at the end of May unless I don't get off the WL since it is a lot of money...
 
Does anyone have any kind of impression as to what the waitlist movement is like overall this cycle? Does there seem to more more movement than normal due to COVID, or are things pretty slow?
 
ginger3151 said:
Question for yall. Im currenly on 1 WL and per the school thread on SDN, there hasn't been any movement. I was wondering if I should email them to ask about movement, even though in previous emails they have sent to everyone on the WL, they give off the vibe that they don't want any questions about WL standings...

I got into a SMP and don't want to have to pay tuition+tech fee that's due at the end of May unless I don't get off the WL since it is a lot of money...
Click to expand...
I don’t think it would hurt to email or even to call about their current WL movement. A simple genuine inquiry shouldn’t be a ding on your application/chances.
 
FriedLemon said:
Called a school I am WL at and they said "I wouldn't say that the majority of waitlist movement has occurred yet." Vague. 😂
Click to expand...
Oh, but that’s a good thing to hear - could mean that they’re soon to experience a wave of As.

I emailed the school I’m WL’ed at and they replied that the majority of WL movement typically occurs prior to 4/30, and they expect possibly a few more acceptances between May and June, so that’s a lot less promising 🙃
 
SicilianDragon said:
Oh, but that’s a good thing to hear - could mean that they’re soon to experience a wave of As.

I emailed the school I’m WL’ed at and they replied that the majority of WL movement typically occurs prior to 4/30, and they expect possibly a few more acceptances between May and June, so that’s a lot less promising 🙃
Click to expand...
Oh for sure, knowing that there is some chance no matter how small is absolutely better than knowing there is no chance at all. But, I can't help but think that from the tone of her voice she either wasn't sure or wanted to let me down real easy. 😂😬
 
Coronavirus said:
How do schools who claim their waitlist is unranked choose among their WL candidates?
Click to expand...
This crossed my mind today. And then I wondered if they are really all ranked, but we just aren't allowed to know our rank for some. Haha.
 
Dr.EMD said:
I had a vivid dream I got into school and took a screenshot of the email. I woke up and checked my camera and found a screenshot of MCAT formulas. Like it was borderline lucid.
Click to expand...
Literally had a dream last night that I got in off one of my WLs and couldn't sign in to the portal to see it officially lol
 
FriedLemon said:
This crossed my mind today. And then I wondered if they are really all ranked, but we just aren't allowed to know our rank for some.
Click to expand...
Coronavirus said:
I heard its based on demographic needs of the class but not sure what that really means
Click to expand...
It’s probably ranked internally with flexibility to account for demographic needs of the class. I can’t imagine that everytime someone drops an A that they go through a pile of 100+ WL applicants.
 
tahinitajin said:
It’s probably ranked internally with flexibility to account for demographic needs of the class. I can’t imagine that everytime someone drops an A that they go through a pile of 100+ WL applicants.
Click to expand...
This ^^^^^^. It's not "ranked" per se, because that is a technical term that has ramifications for the school, but everyone has a relative position, since everyone has a score from when they were discussed at the adcom.

Unranked really just means they have flexibility to deviate from the strict order. Decisions are either made by the adcom or by a delegated subcommittee.

@tahinitajin is correct. Most full adcoms don't meet each time to make decisions (although some definitely do!), but they are absolutely not discussing every candidate again at every meeting. There definitely is an order to every unranked list, and only the top people are discussed when making decisions about a given wave of calls.
 
Coronavirus said:
How do schools who claim their waitlist is unranked choose among their WL candidates?
Click to expand...
Demographics is correct. Say an african american, male out of state applicant drops off. Then they would look for an African American, male OOS applicant in their WL (presumably the most qualified).
 
aroga16 said:
Demographics is correct. Say an african american, male out of state applicant drops off. Then they would look for an African American, male OOS applicant in their WL (presumably the most qualified).
Click to expand...
Not always, but unranked gives them the flexibility to do so. Just keep in mind that the demographic make up of the class is not set in stone, so WL movement is NOT one-for-one mapped to who withdraws. The big exception to this is IS/OOS at public schools, where they typically maintain separate lists for each.
 
I'm really struggling today guys, I just feel like there's no point to this app cycle and no point to all of the hard work I put in. Every single advisor I talked to about my app told me it was good enough to get in, but ofc, here I am on 2 WL. My family wants me to pick another career because I'm already 2 years out of college at this point, but even going into the dentistry or PA route would take me another year to work on my app, and it seems like I'm just never really at the finish line. Really just feel like giving up and accepting that being a doc is not for me.
 
ohshizmyquad said:
I'm really struggling today guys, I just feel like there's no point to this app cycle and no point to all of the hard work I put in. Every single advisor I talked to about my app told me it was good enough to get in, but ofc, here I am on 2 WL. My family wants me to pick another career because I'm already 2 years out of college at this point, but even going into the dentistry or PA route would take me another year to work on my app, and it seems like I'm just never really at the finish line. Really just feel like giving up and accepting that being a doc is not for me.
Click to expand...
JMHO, but I think it's way too soon.

Receiving IIs is proof your advisor was not wrong. This is a historically competitive cycle. Literally thousands of well qualified people will not be successful due to nothing other than the numbers.

If this turns out to be you (and it really is too soon to know that on 5/11 with 2 WLs), then it's up to you whether or not to press on, but you shouldn't quit out of a mistaken notion that you were not "good enough" the year 61,000 people applied for 22,000 spots, after receiving a few interviews.
 
ohshizmyquad said:
I'm really struggling today guys, I just feel like there's no point to this app cycle and no point to all of the hard work I put in. Every single advisor I talked to about my app told me it was good enough to get in, but ofc, here I am on 2 WL. My family wants me to pick another career because I'm already 2 years out of college at this point, but even going into the dentistry or PA route would take me another year to work on my app, and it seems like I'm just never really at the finish line. Really just feel like giving up and accepting that being a doc is not for me.
Click to expand...
Your 30-year-old self would probably say otherwise.

You could always become an antminer, but it's best to keep pushing and delay gratification a little bit longer while continuing to have faith in yourself and the WL Gods.
 
ohshizmyquad said:
I'm really struggling today guys, I just feel like there's no point to this app cycle and no point to all of the hard work I put in. Every single advisor I talked to about my app told me it was good enough to get in, but ofc, here I am on 2 WL. My family wants me to pick another career because I'm already 2 years out of college at this point, but even going into the dentistry or PA route would take me another year to work on my app, and it seems like I'm just never really at the finish line. Really just feel like giving up and accepting that being a doc is not for me.
Click to expand...

As a third-time reapplicant, four years out of college, who -finally- got interviews this cycle only to be waitlisted, I want to say this. Getting those interviews? It means your qualified.

If this is a career you really want to go into (which I know it is for me given I tried like three other career paths and none brought me joy like medicine), keep at it as long as you can; I promise it will be worth it. You got interviews, you are already so close to getting in.
 
I had my only interview a week ago and was waitlisted yesterday. Their CTE date was the day of my interview, and they had waitlist movement a couple days before I was waitlisted, I'm kind of at a loss as to what my chances are after getting waitlisted this late in the cycle.
 
frslip2 said:
I had my only interview a week ago and was waitlisted yesterday. Their CTE date was the day of my interview, and they had waitlist movement a couple days before I was waitlisted, I'm kind of at a loss as to what my chances are after getting waitlisted this late in the cycle.
Click to expand...
My question is why do schools continue to interview long after the 3/15 date when they are supposed to have a full class? Surely there are plenty of people on the waitlist prior to that to pull from?
 
adrummingdog said:
Literally had a dream last night that I got in off one of my WLs and couldn't sign in to the portal to see it officially lol
Click to expand...
Lmao, story of my life, my top school keeps sending the wrong, dead links to their portals and almost gave me a heart attack last week that I couldn't log on to confirm my spot on the waitlist. Was getting extremely anxious that I was going to lose my chance at my top school because of a technical issue on their end 🙁
 
ohshizmyquad said:
I'm really struggling today guys, I just feel like there's no point to this app cycle and no point to all of the hard work I put in. Every single advisor I talked to about my app told me it was good enough to get in, but ofc, here I am on 2 WL. My family wants me to pick another career because I'm already 2 years out of college at this point, but even going into the dentistry or PA route would take me another year to work on my app, and it seems like I'm just never really at the finish line. Really just feel like giving up and accepting that being a doc is not for me.
Click to expand...
It took me six years out of school to get in, and my undergrad GPA was garbagio (I mean really, my advisors told me it’s not worth it). In that time I took some more classes, got my masters, a ton of clinical experience, and raised my MCAT significantly to a competitive score. There is no set timeline for acceptances. The older you are, the more mature you are, the better an applicant you become. If you want it, it will happen for you eventually. But while you work towards that goal, there are a lot of wonderful things you can achieve for yourself in between!
 
BigRed0017 said:
My question is why do schools continue to interview long after the 3/15 date when they are supposed to have a full class? Surely there are plenty of people on the waitlist prior to that to pull from?
Click to expand...
Big misunderstanding here. 3/15 is the date schools are supposed to have issued at least one A for every seat in the class. This is very different from having a full class, since no school, not even Harvard, has a 100% yield! 🙂 People drop As all the time. A lot of that happens between 3/15 and 4/30. Having a full class on 3/15 does not mean schools don't need a WL!!!!!

Schools continue to interview looking for hidden gems, or to fill out a WL that is getting low. You're right -- someone interviewing in May does not have a great shot, but, it's definitely above zero. Otherwise, schools wouldn't waste their time, even if they don't care about our time.
 
Honestly kinda feeling like I wont get off of any of my 6 WLs. I had a feeling about not getting an A out of any of my interviews after the first few WLs and that was right, most classes are pretty full already. I guess I must've been just been bottom tier ranked after every interview? What gives man. Also seeing a school accept people off the WL with LizzyM scores literally 10 whole points below mine absolutely sucks.
 
adrummingdog said:
Honestly kinda feeling like I wont get off of any of my 6 WLs. I had a feeling about not getting an A out of any of my interviews after the first few WLs and that was right, most classes are pretty full already. I guess I must've been just been bottom tier ranked after every interview? What gives man. Also seeing a school accept people off the WL with LizzyM scores literally 10 whole points below mine absolutely sucks.
Click to expand...
I feel the same. I know for a fact I'm top tier on at least one of the WLs I'm on so it isn't necessarily that. How late did you apply? I was very late.
 
By any chance, does anyone have data for how many people are taken off the WL at different MD schools? I thought I remembered seeing a PDF.
 
FriedLemon said:
I feel the same. I know for a fact I'm top tier on at least one of the WLs I'm on so it isn't necessarily that. How late did you apply? I was very late.
Click to expand...
I submitted in May for MDs (Texas), and was complete in October for DOs, I thought being early would give me better chances but it didnt really work out that way. Was a little later for the DO schools but nothing too bad.
 
We are gunna make it guys!!
Mr Rogers Clown GIF
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rhymic
2024-2025 Waitlist Support and Manifestation Thread
11 12 13 14 15
Replies
707
Views
115K
erwinsmith
E
D
2023-2024 Waitlist Support Thread
12 13 14 15 16
Replies
768
Views
146K
Adil Khan
Adil Khan
Happy Bulbis Cordis
2022-2023 Waitlist Support Thread
25 26 27 28 29
Replies
1K
Views
242K
Angler
Angler
BioPsychotic
2021-2022 Waitlist Support Thread
22 23 24 25 26
Replies
1K
Views
187K
sacguy
S
H
Previous cycle waitlist
Replies
1
Views
514
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Top