These waiting lists are not a bad thing, they're actually much better than rejection letters! I actually ended up ranking a program that I was waitlisted at, at the top of my list. That's where I'm currently a PGY-2.
Also, I've been told this by many people, "when you get to the interview, you're on a level playing field." I know it sounds hard to believe, but I think that it is true for the most part. Whether you came off the wait list or not, you passed the screening test to interview, now it's up to you...
Finally, everyone that is "waitlisted" anywhere needs to remember that hundreds of people are applying for 2-8 spots depending on the program. As a result, these programs send out a bunch of invites, but will have plenty of well qualified people that they want to invite, but will wait until they hear from their first round of interviewees (cancellations, rejections). Again, if you get to the waitlist, they did not want to turn you away!
I asked this very question to a secretary at Kellogg last year when I was offered an interview off the waiting list. She said there are just too many qualified applicants that they can not interview everyone and therefore create a waiting list for people who they like, but due to random selection at times didn't make the initial list of invitees. She further went on to tell me that none of the interviewers had any idea that a particular candidate was off of a waiting list and gave me reassurance that they did not think any less of me.
As an example, I know of a current PGY-1 who accepted an interiew at a top 10 ophtho department off of the waiting list and remarked to me at the interview that "they just called me here off the wait list 4 days ago....I have no shot at matching here." This individual ended up matching at the program and was dumbfounded.
Hey guys, I too have been waitlisted (at OHSU) and read in Iserson's book that you should "write a short note thanking them and saying that you are still interested" to the programs you are wait-listed at. At first I was like, "Okay, easy enough." 🙂 .... 😕 Then I thought, but OF COURSE we're still interested. We wouldn't have applied in the first place if we weren't! So now it seems like more of an annoyance to the letter recipient than anything else.
Any thoughts?
I have been waitlisted at one school and I wrote them a letter to show them I was still interested. I've heard that some schools will waitlist you if they don't think you'll ever come there. In other words, they want to see who is really interested and who isn't.
