At what point do IIs become courtesy interviews or fighting for waitlist spots?

[calipremed5768]

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Asking for a friend

 

[710118]

Probably depends on the school tbh

 

[calipremed5768]

Interested in Harvard Yale Stanford processes

 

[Goro]

Asking for a friend

Usually when the class is filled, or close to being filled.

Interviews are NOT done or courtesy. Schools don't have the resources to waste on courtesy, unless wealthy donors are involved.

Getting that accept is 100% on you.

 

[907914]

Earlier interviews are better. Most schools will not have even completed 2-3x the number of seats they have (the number of As they send out) for interviews until the new year. Even in January or February, you are not likely interviewing for the waitlist and there are never courtesy interviews.

Harvard barely started last week and hasn’t even had their first interview day. Stanford has not sent out their first interviews yet.

Chillax, bruh.

 

[710118]

Its not likely until admission committee meetings in March do school have their projected goal of acceptances with WL. Indeed, AMCAS rules still stand requiring schools to have at least as many acceptances by March 15th as they have class seats. Schools are unlikely to be interviewing anyone specifically for WL. Schools will be placing people on WL from first interviews of cycle as a way to limit absolute acceptances. Remember, its not when interviews take place but when invites are offered that are more indicative of strength of applicant.

yes but I would assume early invites lead to early interviews which lead to higher acceptances because of stronger early applicants which means later interviewees have a harder time getting an outright acceptance

 

[deleted976595]

Earlier interviews are better. Most schools will not have even completed 2-3x the number of seats they have (the number of As they send out) for interviews until the new year. Even in January or February, you are not likely interviewing for the waitlist and there are never courtesy interviews.

Harvard barely started last week and hasn’t even had their first interview day. Stanford has not sent out their first interviews yet.

Chillax, bruh.

The dean at Cincinnati told us (and provided data in support of the fact) that their # of accept/reject/waitlist remains constant throughout the entire cycle. It’ll definitely vary school to school.

 

[710118]

That is correct but rarely does a school interview applicants with the express goal of adding to WL

I agree that is probably true but if 200 people are interviewing for 10 outright acceptances in Jan/Feb then most are in reality interviewing for a WL spot. I just wonder how true this is for non rolling schools. I believe @LizzyM spoke about a system where applicants can be ranked no matter when they interview and interview date does not actually matter for acceptances.

Would you agree that the people interviewing at almost all schools in the first 4 weeks are generally the strongest candidates in the interview pool?

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Its not likely until admission committee meetings in March do school have their projected goal of acceptances with WL. Indeed, AMCAS rules still stand requiring schools to have at least as many acceptances by March 15th as they have class seats. Schools are unlikely to be interviewing anyone specifically for WL. Schools will be placing people on WL from first interviews of cycle as a way to limit absolute acceptances. Remember, its not when interviews take place but when invites are offered that are more indicative of strength of applicant.

For schools that don't release any acceptances till March, are first or second wave interview applicants ever at an advantage? Held in higher regard due to their earlier status? Or is the earlier status and the affect it may have on admission rates strictly a result of earlier invites being stronger applicants?

Second question, for schools that release all their acceptances in March, are applicants voted on and "accepted" earlier, or is all decision making done in, example, Feburary.

 

[710118]

All schools have finite interview slots and rolling acceptance decisions. Some just announce all at once

Wouldn't the system LizzyM described where applicants are ranked after the interview and only at the end do they hand out acceptances based on rank order dispute this? In that case for some non rolling schools wouldnt acceptances really be non-rolling? This implies if I get an invite in August and schedule my interview for Nov., I am at disadvantage even at non rolling schools compared to scheduling it in sept. I have had to start scheduling interviews in oct because I literally do not have dates left over to interview in sept. I am already doing 3 per week in sept. and its likely going to be very tiring.

 

[deleted987519]

Wouldn't the system LizzyM described where applicants are ranked after the interview and only at the end do they hand out acceptances based on rank order dispute this? In that case for some non rolling schools wouldnt acceptances really be non-rolling? This implies if I get an invite in August and schedule my interview for Nov., I am at disadvantage even at non rolling schools compared to scheduling it in sept. I have had to start scheduling interviews in oct because I literally do not have dates left over to interview in sept. I am already doing 3 per week in sept. and its likely going to be very tiring.

*World's smallest violin starts playing*

I think with 17II you will be okay, my friend.

 

[710118]

I describing exactly the same thing as @LizzyM all admissions are rolling: all candidate are evaluated, interviewed and ranked/decided at meeting soon after interview. Outstanding ranked high, put on acceptance list, most ranked on steps lower and WL. On announcement day, they take the previously ranked lists and announced

This is opposed to the concept that many applicants have that at nonrolling schools, there is one adcom meeting where everyone is decided. A

So for example, a school like Yale, which says there is no advantage to interviewing early ("Keep in mind that our admissions process is non-rolling, which means that the date of your interview will have no effect on the final decision."), is not telling the whole truth here?

 

[LizzyM]

I describe it this way: after the interview, your file and your interview are assessed and you are placed on a stair. At this point, your location on the staircase, which is broad and can hold many applicants on the same stair, is not subject to change. However, other candidates may come later and take positions on higher stairs. We may know from past cycles that anyone on the top seven stairs is likely to be admitted and anyone lower most likely to be on the waitlist but that won't be completely clear until the interview season ends. You are scored after the interview but the decision about whether your score is high enough for admission or will consign you to the waitlist is determined later. That is the way that schools that give no preference to early vs later interviewees will do it.

 

[Jeremy Bearimy]

I'm curious about a mildly unrelated WL topic, but not important enough to open a new thread: what is the earliest waitlist applicants can be accepted off the waitlist? For example, if one is WL-ed after interviewing in the fall, could they conceivably be accepted off the waitlist in the winter, or would it only happen in the spring?

 

[Lucca]

I'm curious about a mildly unrelated WL topic, but not important enough to open a new thread: what is the earliest waitlist applicants can be accepted off the waitlist? For example, if one is WL-ed after interviewing in the fall, could they conceivably be accepted off the waitlist in the winter, or would it only happen in the spring?

Depends on that schools process but the majority of WL movement will happen in the Spring.

 

[710118]

I describe it this way: after the interview, your file and your interview and assessed and you are placed on a stair. At this point, your location on the staircase, which is broad and can hold many applicants on the same stair, is not subject to change. However, other candidates may come later and take positions on higher stairs. We may know from past cycles that anyone on the top seven stairs is likely to be admitted and anyone lower most likely to be on the waitlist but that won't be completely clear until the interview season ends. You are scored after the interview but the decision about whether your score is high enough for admission or will consign you to the waitlist is determined later. That is the way that schools that give no preference to early vs later interviewees will do it.

What advantage is there then for a school to do either rolling or non rolling admissions? It seems like with rolling admissions, people might get excited about a school over the course of 6 months whereas with non rolling, they only have a few weeks. Do some schools lose students who they initially put on the waitlist even though those students might have matriculated if they were accepted outright?

 

[Goro]

What advantage is there then for a school to do either rolling or non rolling admissions? It seems like with rolling admissions, people might get excited about a school over the course of 6 months whereas with non rolling, they only have a few weeks. Do some schools lose students who they initially put on the waitlist even though those students might have matriculated if they were accepted outright?

All schools lose waitlisted students. Our wily old Admissions Dean constantly badgers us with comments like "if you don't take him now, he'll go elsewhere".

 

[710118]

All schools lose waitlisted students. Our wily old Admissions Dean constantly badgers us with comments like "if you don't take him now, he'll go elsewhere".

I wonder why some schools decide on rolling or non rolling admissions? Why do more selective schools generally opt for non rolling?

 

[Goro]

I wonder why some schools decide on rolling or non rolling admissions? Why do more selective schools generally opt for non rolling?

I think it's simply a matter of keeping one's options open, from the standpoint of the Admissions Dean.

SDNers are reminded that there is nothing magical about rolling vs non-rolling admissions.

 

[LizzyM]

Harvard has non-rolling, IIRC and Yale either has non-rolling or holds many decisions until the end of the season... because they can. Other schools will make some offers early in the cycle on a rolling basis but make no decision on many others until the end of the cycle to try to snag the hottest prospects while leaving everyone else hanging until the end of the cycle, again, because they can.

 

[710118]

Harvard has non-rolling, IIRC and Yale either has non-rolling or holds many decisions until the end of the season... because they can. Other schools will make some offers early in the cycle on a rolling basis but make no decision on many others until the end of the cycle to try to snag the hottest prospects while leaving everyone else hanging until the end of the cycle, again, because they can.

Then scheduling interviews later for non-rolling schools once someone has already had a couple under their belt is the best strategy while for rolling schools scheduling them as early as possible is the best strategy