How does a waitlist work?

[ldybugg82]

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Sorry if this is a dumb question, but enlighten me.

Let's say I'm waitlisted at school XXX. Do they assign me a rank on the waitlist now or (I would think) they'll wait until March when they have a whole pile of waitlisted apps and then assign a ranking.

Also, if a school offers acceptances to 50 over its capacity, expecting people to withdraw, and I am #10 on the waitlist, does this mean that 60 people need to withdraw for me to get an acceptance?

Sorry about the waitlist talk. It's way too early for all of this, but there's been talk already and it's making me nervous! Thanks!

 

[ClockworkDoc]

Good question...or maybe I just think it is because I am on so many waitlists. In any case, I look forward to an answer.

 

[ldybugg82]

Anyone?

 

[UBC-Guy]

As far as I know, for Canadian schools anyhow, they rank all of the applicants that interview after the interview, then offer positions to X number of people, and as people send in their rejections people on the waitlist are offered positions one by one based on rank. Because of this I don't know how many schools offer positions that far above their quota. That being said I have never been on a wait list so I can't comment conclusively.

 

[chevaliermalfet]

My understanding is it differs from school to school. So far, there are two systems that I have seen. One way is where they do indeed rank you with respect to your other peers, and simply start accepting people off the top of the list as other accepted people turn them down (OHSU does this for example). The other way is where you are simply tossed into a pool of other waitlist-ees and reviewed again and again with each meeting of the adcomm, either to be rejected, accepted or waitlisted again (I think UW and USC have methods similar to this). So yeah, that's my two cents as to how waitlists work. Hope it helps . . .