Does waitlisted basically equal rejection?

[AverageMan]

Does anyone else feel that being waitlisted is almost analagous to being rejected? I know that there are thousands of people who eventually get off of waitlists but that's not what I'm concerned with. It seems like schools will waitlist all of their non-accepted interviewed applicants rather than rejecting the ones they don't like. So far I've only heard of one school who has rejected an applicant post interview, that guy was me at UVA. Do schools just automatically waitlist their interviewees who aren't offered first round acceptances and then let them fade away in waitlist limbo? I don't really see the point of doing so, but it's the only reasoning that makes sense to me. Otherwise, I don't really see how I would consistantly be making into that narrow range of "almost but not quite" (4 waitlists thus far). Any thoughts?

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[Smitty75]

I've heard just the opposite from 2 schools now, BU and upstate.

If you're put on the waitlist, then they believe that you are qualified to attend their school.

If you're on the upstate high priority waitlist then you will be offered admission, you just have to wait a little longer.

 

[skypilot]

Seems like sometimes they will put you on the waitlist if you are in the middle of the pack and they think you might want to go elsewhere.

They are just waiting to see if you really are interested in attending their school. They have to be very careful about accepting students. After all it would be a disaster if they accepted 300 students and they all showed up in August

 

[kwanny]

To be honest, I think being "waitlisted" pretty much means being "rejected" unless that particular school happens to be one of your top choices. 😀

 

[cocoabutter]

From my personal experience, waitlist did not equal rejection. Last year, I was on two waitlists and eventually ended up getting off both of them. Like Smitty75 said, if you are waitlisted, then you are qualified to attend their school.

There could be a variety of reasons that one is waitlisted. My perspective is that schools accept the students that the really want. These students are usually superstars and will more than likely receive multiple acceptances. Schools waitlist students that are qualified and they are taken off as the superstars decline.

There won't be much movement early on, but after may 15 there is a significant amount of movement. Both of my acceptances came after May 15.

Don't be discouraged and make sure the school knows that you are still interested.

 

[Alexander99]

It depends on the school. Some schools eventually accept more than half of their applicants granted admission off the wait list (i.e. they accept what they consider the top 25% of their candidates and create a large waitlist, eventually moving people from the waitlist into the accepted pool.) Other schools pretty much accept all the people they intend to accept and the waitlist is more of a consolation prize that means little. If you are anxious to know what your chances are, you can try contacting the school to ask if they have any figures for you.

 

[citygirl]

I agree with cocoabutter and it is especially true this early on. Most schools don't hand out many acceptances with months of interviewing still ahead. Even though most schools are on a rolling admissions basis they don't want to fill all their slots too soon. Most schools also rank their waitlist in some way (ie: top half, bottom half, percentage, etc.) and you can usually find out where you stand by calling the Admissions Dept.

 

[PianoGirl04]

It definitely depends on the school and the year. Some schools have a lot of movement on the waitlist; for others, it's the kiss of death. In this respect it's somewhat like the "hold for interview" status. Not all schools rank their wait lists, in which case it matters who declines their positions, because they try to fill the spots with somebody of similar qualifications and background. Also, there's a lot of variation over time. At UVa, for example, the dean said that one year only 3 people were accepted from the wait list, but 33 were accepted another year! Don't count on either acceptance or rejection from a wait list...like the rest of this process, it's pretty much a crapshoot.