"Leverage" for getting off of a waitlist or asking for more financial aid

[EBLoneStar]

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First off, let me say that I am incredibly thankful to have already been accepted to a school I would be really happy to attend (probably my 2nd or 3rd choice school)! I hope that by the end of the application cycle, everyone is in a similar position.

I am wondering about whether I should attend some of the other interviews I have lined up at this point though. I'm 90% certain that I wouldn't attend any of these other schools over the one I'm already accepted to.

However I am wondering if there is any benefit to holding multiple acceptance offers when it comes to trying to get off a waitlist or ask for a better financial aid offer. My absolute top choice at this point is a top 10 school, so obviously my chance of acceptance is statistically lower than many others, even post-interview. If I end up on the waitlist at this school, would it help me at all to have other acceptance offers at top 20 schools? In terms of either just looking like a more desirable applicant, or making letters of interest/intent hold more weight?

Or if I end up deciding to attend the school I'm already accepted at, would it increase my chance of being offered merit-based financial aid?


I feel bad about taking interview spots from other people who would really like to go to these schools, but I want to do everything I can to increase my chances of being accepted to my top choice school!

 

[245399]

Interesting question.

Logic would say that holding multiple acceptances would give you a modicum of "leverage", but given the fact that the average med school has ~30 applicants per seat I wonder if that is actually the case.

I am curious to hear what others have to say.

 

[OpalOnyx]

According to UMich, they can only see what other schools you've been accepted to AFTER they have also accepted you themselves, so holding acceptances at multiple schools should not increase or decrease your chance at any one school with a pending decision if this is the case.

On the other hand, I've heard rumors that schools may "communicate" with each other in terms of competitive/desirable applicants; i.e. if someone is accepted at a top school and this becomes known to lower-ranked schools, the second school may waitlist the applicant thinking there is little chance that they would attend. According to the rumors I've heard, if the desirable applicant then sends a letter of intent to the lower-ranked school that waitlists them they may be taken off the waitlist after clarifying their preference. In any case, this wouldn't matter in the reverse-scenario you're describing (hoping for an acceptance to a higher ranked school after being accepted at a lower ranked one).

Financial aid is the one spot where this may make sense; UMich said that once they see where else you're accepted they determine a recruitment scholarship that may bring their cost down to that of the state school or whatnot that is cheaper for you to attend, therefore giving you an incentive to go to them instead. If the school you're into is a good bargain, and you hear from higher-ranked schools that they award such scholarships, then you might want to hang on to that acceptance. This probably only pertains to highly desirable applicants, however, and may make the most sense when trying to get the max amount of aid out of acceptances at multiple top schools.

So in conclusion, it doesn't make any sense to hold acceptances or interviews at schools ranked lower than the one you're already accepted to and most interested in attending, and it doesn't seem like this could increase your chances at a top 10 school in any way. Open up the interview slots for people who are actually interested!

found this to be quite informative 👍 thanks.

 

[EBLoneStar]

According to UMich, they can only see what other schools you've been accepted to AFTER they have also accepted you themselves, so holding acceptances at multiple schools should not increase or decrease your chance at any one school with a pending decision if this is the case.

On the other hand, I've heard rumors that schools may "communicate" with each other in terms of competitive/desirable applicants; i.e. if someone is accepted at a top school and this becomes known to lower-ranked schools, the second school may waitlist the applicant thinking there is little chance that they would attend. According to the rumors I've heard, if the desirable applicant then sends a letter of intent to the lower-ranked school that waitlists them they may be taken off the waitlist after clarifying their preference. In any case, this wouldn't matter in the reverse-scenario you're describing (hoping for an acceptance to a higher ranked school after being accepted at a lower ranked one).

Financial aid is the one spot where this may make sense; UMich said that once they see where else you're accepted they determine a recruitment scholarship that may bring their cost down to that of the state school or whatnot that is cheaper for you to attend, therefore giving you an incentive to go to them instead. If the school you're into is a good bargain, and you hear from higher-ranked schools that they award such scholarships, then you might want to hang on to that acceptance. This probably only pertains to highly desirable applicants, however, and may make the most sense when trying to get the max amount of aid out of acceptances at multiple top schools.

So in conclusion, it doesn't make any sense to hold acceptances or interviews at schools ranked lower than the one you're already accepted to and most interested in attending, and it doesn't seem like this could increase your chances at a top 10 school in any way. Open up the interview slots for people who are actually interested!

Thanks for the reply. What you said makes sense.

I just feel kind of strange canceling interviews at top-ranked schools that largely because of their location, I wouldn't attend over the pretty-good ranked-in-the-50s school I've been accepted to.

I wasn't sure if holding potential acceptances at top-15 ranked schools could possibly help me get off of a waitlist at my first choice top-5 dream school (if I end up being waitlisted). I figured that other acceptances at unranked schools wouldn't help, but since at least in my mind, all the top-20 schools are just as good as the others, maybe other acceptances at top-20s would help.

But then again, it's possible my chances of being accepted at those other schools wouldn't be too good anyway, especially if interviewers were able to pick up on the fact that I wasn't really all that interested in attending.


Note: This was never my strategy to begin with, and I didn't apply to any schools I wouldn't have been super excited to attend. I received way more interviews than I expected, however, and ultimately decided I would rather attend a north-east coast school if I could get accepted to one, even over an arguably better and higher ranked school that wasn't on the north-east coast.

Also, I don't care about school rankings per-se, however the advantage I see in attending a top-20 school is more opportunities for research, more opportunities for funding for research, and likely better financial aid.

 

[flip26]

I doubt if there is much way for applicants to leverage anything in this process RE admissions, notwithstanding that specific piece of info RE Michigan, and in that case, it applies to the finaid, not the admission decision.

Only attend interviews where you really want to attend from this point forward. This is a crazy expensive process as is - no need to be blowing $ on schools where you aren't really gung ho. According to you, you already have an acceptance at #2 or #3, which indicates there are at most 2 more schools you should interview at - cancel the others.

 

[Compass]

Win the lottery. Ask for the 30-year dividend. Take the giant check. Take a picture of yourself holding it and send it to the med school. Tell the school you have one reason in your hands, and 29 more in the future.

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Remember, the school loses nothing if you decide not to go to their school, so asking for more aid is probably going to be a financial aid office kind of thing.

 

[JJMrK]

It might help you get more finaid, but I doubt it will help you get off waitlists. IMO, if I were accepted to my #2 choice, I wouldn't interview anywhere else unless my #1 came calling, or for whatever reason another school invited me and looked really interesting. It's just too expensive.

 

[MossPoh]

I continued to interview at a few places because honestly, you have no clue. Many people have a pre-interview rank list and then interview at various schools and realize they were completely wrong.

As far as financial aid stuff, I wouldn't hold my breath. A very select few actually get offered money to come to the school. Unless you are a truly exceptional candidate, there are about a dozen other people that would gladly pay full tuition to take your spot.

 

[Jolie South]

I continued to interview at a few places because honestly, you have no clue. Many people have a pre-interview rank list and then interview at various schools and realize they were completely wrong.

As far as financial aid stuff, I wouldn't hold my breath. A very select few actually get offered money to come to the school. Unless you are a truly exceptional candidate, there are about a dozen other people that would gladly pay full tuition to take your spot.

Yea, I wouldn't hold your breath for a scholarship unless you're a super star. It's just not happening.

 

[EBLoneStar]

Yea, I wouldn't hold your breath for a scholarship unless you're a super star. It's just not happening.

*Sigh* Yea, definitely not a super star.

I guess I should just get used to the idea of $250,000 + debt when I graduate.

(How in the world do people manage to come out with significantly less than that? Assuming they're attending schools where tuition alone is $40,000+ per year? There can't be that many people with rich mommies and daddies ready to foot the bill, driving debt averages all the way down to ~$120,000, can there?)

 

[flip26]

*Sigh* Yea, definitely not a super star.

I guess I should just get used to the idea of $250,000 + debt when I graduate.

(How in the world do people manage to come out with significantly less than that? Assuming they're attending schools where tuition alone is $40,000+ per year? There can't be that many people with rich mommies and daddies ready to foot the bill, driving debt averages all the way down to ~$120,000, can there?)

Think again - there are tons of people with this very situation.

Plus, there are some scholarships - often for a specific group like minorities - and some schools have decent need based aid.

Plus - not everyone attends a school, even at full cost, that would result in $250k debt - look at the lucky Texans, for instance...

 

[JJMrK]

*Sigh* Yea, definitely not a super star.

I guess I should just get used to the idea of $250,000 + debt when I graduate.

(How in the world do people manage to come out with significantly less than that? Assuming they're attending schools where tuition alone is $40,000+ per year? There can't be that many people with rich mommies and daddies ready to foot the bill, driving debt averages all the way down to ~$120,000, can there?)

Some schools who report these averages don't consider people who didn't take out any loans at all. I know you might not be going to any other interviews, but it's a question that's worth asking. If the average debt of graduates looks pretty low and they tell you that it doesn't include people with $0 in loans, that's a good thing.

 

[dingyibvs]

First off, let me say that I am incredibly thankful to have already been accepted to a school I would be really happy to attend (probably my 2nd or 3rd choice school)! I hope that by the end of the application cycle, everyone is in a similar position.

I am wondering about whether I should attend some of the other interviews I have lined up at this point though. I'm 90% certain that I wouldn't attend any of these other schools over the one I'm already accepted to.

However I am wondering if there is any benefit to holding multiple acceptance offers when it comes to trying to get off a waitlist or ask for a better financial aid offer. My absolute top choice at this point is a top 10 school, so obviously my chance of acceptance is statistically lower than many others, even post-interview. If I end up on the waitlist at this school, would it help me at all to have other acceptance offers at top 20 schools? In terms of either just looking like a more desirable applicant, or making letters of interest/intent hold more weight?

Or if I end up deciding to attend the school I'm already accepted at, would it increase my chance of being offered merit-based financial aid?


I feel bad about taking interview spots from other people who would really like to go to these schools, but I want to do everything I can to increase my chances of being accepted to my top choice school!

Can't help you, but thanks dude, I have the same EXACT question!

 

[Dr McSexy]

Some schools who report these averages don't consider people who didn't take out any loans at all.

How many of those people per school/class do you think there are? If it's a small number per class, do you really think they'll have much affect on the average debt of the medical students in that school?

 

[EBLoneStar]

Can't help you, but thanks dude, I have the same EXACT question!

I can't imagine that it could have no influence whatsoever, but I guess it's not as much as I hoped.

At least in terms of letters of intent.

I feel like one saying "I've been accepted here, here, and here, however if I were accepted at *top choice* I would withdraw from all the other schools and attend *top choice* would be more meaningful than a letter from someone who doesn't have any other acceptances. And I thought maybe it would be more likely to get a second look/consideration if these other accepted schools were considered to be great schools. Potentially by making the school think "wait, if they were accepted to all these great places, why didn't we accept them?".

But who knows.

I guess I'll just have to decide if it's worth it to pay the money/spend the time to give a school a chance, even though school location is at the top of my priority list.

 

[dingyibvs]

I can't imagine that it could have no influence whatsoever, but I guess it's not as much as I hoped.

At least in terms of letters of intent.

I feel like one saying "I've been accepted here, here, and here, however if I were accepted at *top choice* I would withdraw from all the other schools and attend *top choice* would be more meaningful than a letter from someone who doesn't have any other acceptances. And I thought maybe it would be more likely to get a second look/consideration if these other accepted schools were considered to be great schools. Potentially by making the school think "wait, if they were accepted to all these great places, why didn't we accept them?".

But who knows.

I guess I'll just have to decide if it's worth it to pay the money/spend the time to give a school a chance, even though school location is at the top of my priority list.

Judging by my observations of past years' profiles, I think it can indeed be used as leverage when it comes to scholarship offers.