How does waitlist factor into Interview/Acceptance ratio?

[mechtel]

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First, I'm sure the answer to this inquiry varies widely by school, but any general insights would be very much appreciated.

Lets say a school according to USNews accepts 300/600 of those who interview for a class of 125. Is it a fair interpretation that going into the interview a candidate has 1:2 odds of being accepted initially? Or, does the 300 also include people who come off the waitlist?

I suspect it is the latter case, but please correct me if I'm mistaken. For a class of 125, then, how many people would be initially accepted and how many waitlisted out of the 300? What are realistic chances of an initial acceptance to a school with a 50% overall acceptance rate? Again, I'm sure it varies widely, but would it be closer to 25% or 45%. In other words, how much does teh presence of a waitlist (and multi-tiered at that) affect these numbers?

All my best!

 

[armybound]

Depends completely on the school. All schools do things differently. Some might give out 200 acceptances for those 125 spots and grab 100 more off the waitlist as necessary, while another school may only give 125 outright and take the other 175 from a waitlist. Since admissions are rolling, they may have people waitlisted while they outright accept other people, and they may get people turning down acceptances as interviews go on. It all depends.

If the school has a historical 50% acceptance rate, I'd say your chances are about 50%. Just a guess.