I just wanted to share and few observations I have made over the years, both as an interested observer and this year as a real live applicant, and to wish everyone the very best of luck as we enter the peak of WL season next week.
First of all, it has been said ad infinitum, but bears repeating-- anyone making it this far should be extremely proud of themselves. Each school applies an 80-90%+ screen to applications pre-II, so making it through that, even just once, is a BFD. Clearing that hurdle multiple times is an even bigger deal.
Next, it is worth remember that, by design, every school is going to have at least some WL movement. If they don’t, it’s because someone screwed up, and people can and have lost their jobs over it. Unlike an airline that gives you a voucher (if you’re lucky) and puts you on the next flight if they overbook, it costs schools tens of thousands of dollars, per person for each of 4 years, to induce people to accept the interruption to their lives and careers by deferring for a year if schools overbook. They go to great lengths to avoid this, primarily by being conservative with initial acceptances and using the WL to fill in anticipated gaps.
Finally, and most importantly, while people on WLs with no As are understandably anxious, all is not doom and gloom at the end of April. Once each school dips below its projected class size (and almost all will by Monday), each and every WL call WILL, ULTIMATELY, result in someone, somewhere, at some school, receiving an A who did not have one before. This is the only way all classes will be filled!!!!
Either the first person receiving a call has no A and gratefully accepts, OR they now have 2 As and have to give one up within a week. This repeats itself in multiple waves, across all schools, until the last people receiving calls have no other A to give up.
For this reason, we should all be happy whenever anyone gets a call from any school. If it’s a school you are on the WL at, because it’s as sign they are having movement. And even if it isn’t, any call, anywhere, can create movement at your WL school.
The one exception to this is at the very top schools, where people tend not to give up their seats, since they really have nothing to trade up to there. But below the T20 or so, there is wave after of this, starting two weeks ago, really picking up next week, and continuing with some velocity into mid May before starting to slow down, but not really drop off until mid June or so. Calls will continue to go out until classes start, as some people drop out at the last minute, but there really will be a ton of movement over the next few weeks, and A LOT of people who have nothing now WILL have something before things start the calm down at the end of May.
If it is meant to be, it will happen. And, if it doesn’t, while it will suck, that will put you in a position to get into an even better school with a better application in a future cycle.
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!! STAY STRONG!!!! 🙂
