More acceptances sent than spaces

[DOby]

Is it possible to be accepted by a school (send in a deposit) but not eventually enroll because more acceptances were sent back than anticipated by the school?

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[spunkydoc]

usually, if you send in your money, your spot is held..if you dont show up on the first day, you dont get your money back

 

[Dr JPH]

Medical schools send out more acceptances than seat they have because they know that not everyone accepted will attend their school.

There are people out there (lucky people) who have the extreme fortune to be able to choose between a few medical schools that they were accepted to.

If there were 200 acceptances sent out for 200 seats, there would be a whole bunch of empty seats.

And, as the above poster said, once they have your money, you're good.

Best of luck to you!


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Joshua Paul Hazelton
[email protected]
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (2002)

 

[muonwhiz]

This sounds like overbooking on an airplane! I thought that the acceptances were pretty much close to the actual number of seats available in a class, and that any unfilled spaces came from the wait list. Are you saying that this is wrong?

 

[turtleboard]

JP is correct. Schools -- med schools, colleges, law schools, anything -- know that not all accepted applicants will eventually enroll. The number of acceptances that translate into a certain number of matriculants is known as a "yield." While the yield will vary from year to year, the change is slight and usually inconsequential. Airlines sorta overbook on a regular basis too, I believe, for this very reason.

Anyway there have been instances in the past where a school projected its yield to be lower than what was seen at the end of the application cycle. This happened to Cornell, which accepted way too many kids. They offered those students a free year of med school if they just waited for the next class. Surprisingly, NOT EVERYONE took it.

Weird.


W.

 

[Dr JPH]

A free year of medical school?

Where do I sign up?

Do they cover the tuition themselves, or do they pay you in cash?

I would kinda like the cash...I could make some good investments.

Buy low, sell high!

Peace



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Joshua Paul Hazelton
[email protected]
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (2002)

 

[turtleboard]

JP,

What are you doing up at three in the morning? I haven't slept a wink yet. Still studying...

SECOND-YEAR BITES.


W.

 

[muonwhiz]

Okay, turtleboard, I'll bite. If the number of admissions is in excess of the number of seats available, then what is the purpose of placing students on the wait list? Under your theory, the overbooked acceptance students would take any seats opened by movement, so the wait list would be moot. What's up with that?

 

[turtleboard]

I think at any one time a school seeks to maintain a total number of acceptances. So when people start declining their acceptances, the schools start filling up those spots with the waitlisted people.

That's all I could come up with to explain the waitlisted students. Of course there are some students who are waitlisted because they're just God-awful applicants.

W.

 

[muonwhiz]

I got wait listed at DMU so I guess that makes me a God Awful applicant! Anyway, your response confirms what I thought was the case. Otherwise, I should just shoot myself now!