Accepting vs Matriculating for adcoms

[GlennGuglia]

Hey everyone,

I had a quick question regarding Acceptance vs Matriculation for medical school adcoms. If you wanted a class size of 160, and you had 160 accepting, is that different than 160 matriculating? Basically, would you accept more than 160 to make sure you had a class size close to 160? Essentially, if you accept and offer of admission for medical school is it set in stone or can you accept more than one offer?

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[cactus8910]

Essentially, if you accept and offer of admission for medical school is it set in stone or can you accept more than one offer?

Accepted applicant can hold spots at multiple schools until a certain date (april 30 this year). At that point, they can only choose one school. Still, this isn't completely set in stone, because applicants can be taken off waitlists up until the first day of classes at some schools, which could result in them switching.

 

[NickNaylor]

You will only attend one school. You can be offered as many acceptances as you can amass, but as mentioned above, you can only hold one acceptance - the school you intend on matriculating to - after a certain date. The only exception to that is if you're accepting off of a waitlist.

 

[GlennGuglia]

Accepted applicant can hold spots at multiple schools until a certain date (april 30 this year). At that point, they can only choose one school. Still, this isn't completely set in stone, because applicants can be taken off waitlists up until the first day of classes at some schools, which could result in them switching.

So basically, medical schools will accept more than those "accepting", because when April 30th comes around there could be a mass exodus of people taking offers elsewhere? For example, even if you had a class size of 100 "accepting" an offer at this point, you would still accept more in the event that people ultimately do not attend?

 

[cactus8910]

So basically, medical schools will accept more than those "accepting", because when April 30th comes around there could be a mass exodus of people taking offers elsewhere? For example, even if you had a class size of 100 "accepting" an offer at this point, you would still accept more in the event that people ultimately do not attend?

Yup. Schools have a pretty good sense of how many applicants they can accept to get the right number of matriculating students, based on previous years. Some are more cautious and will waitlist a lot of applicants so they have more control over their class size (Georgetown, for example).

 

[GlennGuglia]

Thanks Cactus. I did not know if this was a similar process to undergraduate admissions, with some schools practicing a bit more yield protection than the others. This makes me a bit more hopeful as I am interviewing late at a few of my top choices.

 

[gyngyn]

Accepted applicant can hold spots at multiple schools until a certain date (april 30 this year). At that point, they can only choose one school. Still, this isn't completely set in stone, because applicants can be taken off waitlists up until the first day of classes at some schools, which could result in them switching.

We cannot offer acceptances after the student has started at another school, though.

 

[Osteoth]

We cannot offer acceptances after the student has started at another school, though.

So when is the last point a school can offer acceptances/accept people off the WL? I've heard anecdotal stories (n=low) about kids getting in a few days or a day (!) before starting medical school.

 

[gyngyn]

So when is the last point a school can offer acceptances/accept people off the WL? I've heard anecdotal stories (n=low) about kids getting in a few days or a day (!) before starting medical school.

We can accept people even after school starts! We just can't take people who have already started elsewhere.

 

[hoihaie]

what if a school predicted their yield wrong and more people intend on matriculating than the # of seats available in the class?

 

[gyngyn]

what if a school predicted their yield wrong and more people intend on matriculating than the # of seats available in the class?

It's like overbooking an airplane. Inducements start small and then ramp up. In a worst case scenario, you start knocking out walls and adding seats.
This is every admissions dean's nightmare.

 

[LizzyM]

It's like overbooking an airplane. Inducements start small and then ramp up. In a worst case scenario, you start knocking out walls and adding seats.
This is every admissions dean's nightmare.

but the accrediting agencies and the patients object to adding bleachers in the patient care areas to fit a bigger clinical clerkship group so the limiting factor is often the available clinical sites.

Schools that are seeking superstars are all competing for the same relatively small pool of applicants (about 3,000 of them). A school that limits itself to instate applicants and has a low cost of attendance for instate residents and that takes students who aren't superstars (and who may have no other choice having been admitted to just one school) will have a high yield and make few offers over the number of seats available. (Maybe 1.2 or 1.3 offers per seat vs 3-3.3 for a school that is vying for the cream of the crop from all 50 states and international applicants, too).

 

[Bovary]

I (optimistically) predict that the current trend of applying to more schools will lead med schools to take more applicants off the waitlist as their collective yield decreases.

 

[LizzyM]

I (optimistically) predict that the current trend of applying to more schools will lead med schools to take more applicants off the waitlist as their collective yield decreases.

It is not necessary to take anyone from the waitlist if you admit enough to begin with. What is "enough" is the million dollar question. Schools not concerned with protecting the yield will just admit more applicants hoping to fill the seats without going to the waitlist.

 

[Goro]

Very much so. We accept ~250 for ~100 seats. MSAR can tell you exactly how many accepts there are compared to the number of seats for MD school...it's about 3:1 to 5:1.

This is an art form, not a science, and I have no idea how our wily old Admissions dean accomplishes this, but the entire time I've been a faculty member, we never once had to matriculate more students than we have seats for. The accreditors would have our scalps if we did, though, and I think we have to seat them, gratis.

In the worst case scenario, we'd save a seat in in the next years class for those who would willingly defer.

gyngyn's school might be unique, or it might be an LCME thing, but we've lost students after classes started to MD schools.

It's like overbooking an airplane. Inducements start small and then ramp up. In a worst case scenario, you start knocking out walls and adding seats.
This is every admissions dean's nightmare.

 

[Bovary]

It is not necessary to take anyone from the waitlist if you admit enough to begin with. What is "enough" is the million dollar question. Schools not concerned with protecting the yield will just admit more applicants hoping to fill the seats without going to the waitlist.

Schools don't want to over-enroll, though. I'm wondering if yield % is less predictable in this high-application-number era, so the "safe" thing to do is hang tight until waitlist season just in case too many people want to attend.

 

[gyngyn]

This is an AAMC traffic rule. We can't steal from each other but we don't even know if they have been accepted by our DO colleagues!

 

[NickNaylor]

what if a school predicted their yield wrong and more people intend on matriculating than the # of seats available in the class?

This happened in a big way when I applied a few years ago.

Texas A&M made an oopsies with their pre-match offers and offered acceptances to twice as many people as they intended. As @Goro mentioned, the offers to defer or otherwise occupy yourself for a year began in earnest. I believe the initial offer was a relatively small scholarship. Eventually they started offering people free tuition for a masters (e.g., MPH). I'm sure there were more offers made beyond that.

Even that situation was a fluke, though. .Remember that most schools have years if not decades of data on hand. They can predict with a degree of accuracy who will end up matriculating and who won't - in ways more complex beyond "x% of people we accept will ultimately matriculate."

 

[gyngyn]

Schools don't want to over-enroll, though. I'm wondering if yield % is less predictable in this high-application-number era, so the "safe" thing to do is hang tight until waitlist season just in case too many people want to attend.

Nope, it's pretty predictable.

 

[gyngyn]

Even that situation was a fluke, though. .Remember that most schools have years if not decades of data on hand. They can predict with a degree of accuracy who will end up matriculating and who won't - in ways more complex beyond "x% of people we accept will ultimately matriculate."

Exactly.

 

[hoihaie]

This happened in a big way when I applied a few years ago.

Texas A&M made an oopsies with their pre-match offers and offered acceptances to twice as many people as they intended. As @Goro mentioned, the offers to defer or otherwise occupy yourself for a year began in earnest. I believe the initial offer was a relatively small scholarship. Eventually they started offering people free tuition for a masters (e.g., MPH). I'm sure there were more offers made beyond that.

Even that situation was a fluke, though. .Remember that most schools have years if not decades of data on hand. They can predict with a degree of accuracy who will end up matriculating and who won't - in ways more complex beyond "x% of people we accept will ultimately matriculate."

I hope this happen to me 😛 I would love some perks heh

 

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Is it true that schools actually lose money training students, and that's why they are so cautious about over accepting? I would assume those schools taking kids off the waitlist are practicing more conservative acceptance patterns and trying not to accept too many.

 

[bionerd20]

This happened in a big way when I applied a few years ago.

Texas A&M made an oopsies with their pre-match offers and offered acceptances to twice as many people as they intended. As @Goro mentioned, the offers to defer or otherwise occupy yourself for a year began in earnest. I believe the initial offer was a relatively small scholarship. Eventually they started offering people free tuition for a masters (e.g., MPH). I'm sure there were more offers made beyond that.

Even that situation was a fluke, though. .Remember that most schools have years if not decades of data on hand. They can predict with a degree of accuracy who will end up matriculating and who won't - in ways more complex beyond "x% of people we accept will ultimately matriculate."

As in specifically which people they accept will likely attend? Just curious, how are they able to make these predictions? Probably a silly question but I'm curious about the whole process

 

[gyngyn]

As in specifically which people they accept will likely attend? Just curious, how are they able to make these predictions? Probably a silly question but I'm curious about the whole process

Mathematical modeling plus known factors affecting matriculation.

 

[Bovary]

Mathematical modeling plus known factors affecting matriculation.

Has anyone ever written publicly about this process or published anything that we could see? (Like others, I'm mostly curious)

 

[gyngyn]

Has anyone ever written publicly about this process or published anything that we could see? (Like others, I'm mostly curious)

The algorithm varies by school.
I can't recall a single scholarly article that goes into details, though.
This may explain why successful admissions deans seem to have such a long shelf life!

 

[Goro]

I think it's black magic, really.

As in specifically which people they accept will likely attend? Just curious, how are they able to make these predictions? Probably a silly question but I'm curious about the whole process

 

[gyngyn]

I think it's black magic, really.

Dark art, indeed.