How does HPWL vs Reg WL work?

[soulvester]

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Was placed on reg. WL at my top choice. Heard this school has a “ranked” high priority wl and an “unranked” / “regular” wl. I was wondering whats the point of having both types of waitlists at a school. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have everyone ranked? Seems to me the regular wl is basically a silent R since they don’t do post-ii R’s, but I’m curious how these two systems work.

Was also WL at 2 other MDs so I’m going to put my stats below to see what may be the reason why I was placed on WL. (*I alr know my mcat is a red flag but are there any others?)

ORM; OOS; Trad

• 3.9X / 50X (Score got worse but I did explain this in the OIE)
• 4000 clinical; 400 volunteering; 250 leadership; 50 shadowing; 1700 research (2 pubs pending)
• Application & Experiences were themed around mental health advocacy, after witnessing a traumatic exp when I was young
• Had to take care of a family member and switched to full-time clinical bc of it
• Update letter sent

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Previously, I wrote

Post in: 'need a reality check; downward trend mcat score w/ t20 ii offer'

Dec 17, 2025

I’m very grateful to get a ii at this school, given this troubling situation. But do you think I could get rejected by the committee simply because of this?

Pardon my cynical response, but you could get rejected... or worse, you could get strung along as an alternate.

Focus on what you can control. Nothing is hidden for final file review in many cases, so let's hope for the best.

• Mr.Smile12

• 

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Was placed on reg. WL at my top choice. Heard this school has a “ranked” high priority wl and an “unranked” / “regular” wl. I was wondering whats the point of having both types of waitlists at a school. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have everyone ranked? Seems to me the regular wl is basically a silent R since they don’t do post-ii R’s, but I’m curious how these two systems work.

I suppose the best way to describe it is that you're all sitting in Economy, but some of the Plus seats are "preferred" (and why you have to pay more to sit there). If you want it simplified, everyone's ranked, but past history suggests a certain fraction will likely be given an offer (thus the "high priority" designation). Regular WL is likely but not necessarily a silent R.