How do rolling admissions work?

[Pyrogen15]

Hey everyone! So most schools do a true rolling admission where they work through applications on a first come first serve basis. A post was made earlier on reddit talking about II-holds and then basically being a soft R, and that most true Rs aren’t sent till later in the cycle.

I got an email a few weeks ago from KCU saying that they had reviewed my AP once and it didn’t lead to an II but they would re-review it later in the cycle. I heard on the school specific thread that it is basically yield protection.

Do normal admissions work like this and just don’t send emails? So say I submitted a secondary 7/15 and a school has sent interview invites for 7/20 (hypothetical). Does that mean your application was basically rejected and you’re waiting for a R later in the cycle or do schools put certain back into the pool for reconsideration?

Excuse my ignorance and slight neuroticism, I just wasn’t sure how applications were processed with the rolling system.

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[LizzyM]

I highly doubt that any school is *really* rolling. Most know what their yield will be based on past history and will take that into account while also recognizing that some highly qualified candidates will be late to the party and perhaps even highly desirable for admission (more likely to be non-traditional, first gen, under-represented minority, etc). Its not as if they review applications in the order received and make offers until the class is filled. Most schools get enough applications to fill the class 5 times over on day 1.

In terms of reviews, let's say that a school reviews applications and scores applicants on a scale from 1 to 10. Imagine if they then place you on a wide staircase with many applicants on each step according to your pre-interview score. Now they start from the top and begin offering interviews to the 10s and 9s. Maybe you are an 8. They'll wait and see how many 9s and 10s they end up identifying. Maybe they'll invite some 8s to interview but not if the pool this year is particularly strong.

They may also know that the 10s tend to have so many offers that only 11% of them will matriculate if made an offer. They need to interview and make offers to 9 of those folks to fill one seat. For the 9s, it might take 6 interview to fill one seat. That's where some yield protection may kick in. If it is getting toward the end of the cycle, they may choose to interview more 8s knowing that they are much more likely to matriculate. But they want to at least have a shot at those 9s and 10s before they get a mid-October offer and start being much more picky about which interviews they'll do (with virtual interviews, I think that they are less picky about which they do as the cost and time is far less than it used to be).

So, you might not be at the top of the heap but the season is still very young.

 

[MyStateofMind]

Thanks @LizzyM, very helpful. I didn't think of yield (resource) protection in that manner. I always thought of it as a rationale as to why one is NOT a recipient of an II. For example, I've been very fortunate to receive some II from Top 20 schools, but am for the most part, ghosted by others.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

... Excuse my ignorance and slight neuroticism, I just wasn’t sure how applications were processed with the rolling system.

While You Are Waiting: Processing Health Professions Applications - SDN

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Consider yourself as being denied an interview unless you get invited. Read the archived posts.

We may initially assign a priority score to your application, and, as described in the example, the 10s and 9s get asked first until all the slots fill up to the end of the interview session. More spots can open after offers start going out so the 8s may have a chance. The committee decides the policies to communicate with those who got lower scores d they want according to past history. We want robust waitlists for interviewing and for filling the class

 

[deleted1139574]

I highly doubt that any school is *really* rolling. Most know what their yield will be based on past history and will take that into account while also recognizing that some highly qualified candidates will be late to the party and perhaps even highly desirable for admission (more likely to be non-traditional, first gen, under-represented minority, etc). Its not as if they review applications in the order received and make offers until the class is filled. Most schools get enough applications to fill the class 5 times over on day 1.

In terms of reviews, let's say that a school reviews applications and scores applicants on a scale from 1 to 10. Imagine if they then place you on a wide staircase with many applicants on each step according to your pre-interview score. Now they start from the top and begin offering interviews to the 10s and 9s. Maybe you are an 8. They'll wait and see how many 9s and 10s they end up identifying. Maybe they'll invite some 8s to interview but not if the pool this year is particularly strong.

They may also know that the 10s tend to have so many offers that only 11% of them will matriculate if made an offer. They need to interview and make offers to 9 of those folks to fill one seat. For the 9s, it might take 6 interview to fill one seat. That's where some yield protection may kick in. If it is getting toward the end of the cycle, they may choose to interview more 8s knowing that they are much more likely to matriculate. But they want to at least have a shot at those 9s and 10s before they get a mid-October offer and start being much more picky about which interviews they'll do (with virtual interviews, I think that they are less picky about which they do as the cost and time is far less than it used to be).

So, you might not be at the top of the heap but the season is still very young.

Could you please explain yield protection to me using scoring logic you had in this comment?

 

[WildWing]

I think @LizzyM explained it in this sentence: "For the 9s, it might take 6 interview to fill one seat."

Here's how it works out: SOM has 18 interview slots left and 6 seats to fill. SOM only interviews people from the 9s and offers all 18 seats. Based on their prior experience only 3 will end up matriculating. This leaves SOM with 3 empty seats. So SOM may choose to interview some 8s instead of all 9s, because the 8s are more likely to matriculate if they are offered a seat.

Edit: Fixed a grammatical error.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

If you want an explanation of yield protection (calling it Tufts syndrome), this is a perspective on the undergraduate admissions side

What is Yield Protection/Tufts Syndrome?

Some colleges purposefully reject qualified students to protect their yield? Here's how you can protect yourself from falling victim to yield protection.

blog.collegevine.com

 

[DNAJB6]

Does anyone have a list of medical schools that yield protect?

 

[gyngyn]

Does anyone have a list of medical schools that yield protect?

All schools practice resource management.

 

[Pyrogen15]

That is utterly incorrect. Virtually no school works in this manner. All schools will "screen" or initial eval for the purposes of what queue though into for full evaluation and the priority or place in that queue. If "better" applications come in later, you can be pushed back in the queue

So do you think a 3.65 GPA combined with an early to late August secondary submission could have put me later in the pile? Just has been strange to see people who applied around the same time as me with worse stats and ECs getting II's and not even seeing a rejection come through for me.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So do you think a 3.65 GPA combined with an early to late August secondary submission could have put me later in the pile? Just has been strange to see people who applied around the same time as me with worse stats and ECs getting II's and not even seeing a rejection come through for me.

As mentioned, we don't know, but it's not just your GPA and your timing of secondary submission that determines your application's fate in a process. Stop comparing.