Question about acceptance rates

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This is in reference to US News which shows # interviewed and # accepted at most schools.

Let's say a school interviews 200 people.

Of those, 50 are accepted outright, 100 are waitlisted, and 50 are rejected post interview.

Let's say that of the 100 who are waitlisted, 50 eventually withdraw due to acceptances elsewhere.

And then 25-50 or so are eventually accepted from the waitlist.

Given this, couldn't you say that the post interview acceptance rate is therefore higher than just dividing the total number accepted over the total number interviewed, because the post-interview applicant pool actually shrinks due to people withdrawing from the waitlist?

 

[Goro]

There is no way of knowing, period.

Stop trying to overthink this.

Just figure the overall accept rate is about 3x that of seats. Increase that number for in state residents of state schools.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

When a medical school says that it accepts an X percent of students who apply there, it is meaningless for the following reasons:

1) Many people get auto-rejected
2) Your state of residence many have a lot of influence
3) Schools accept a lot more people than seats available

 

[Thienyl15]

How deans manage to hand out the right amount of acceptances without overfilling the class is a dark art steeped in centuries of lore and voodoo magic.

 

[Goro]

Definitely one of the Dark Arts

How deans manage to hand out the right amount of acceptances without overfilling the class is a dark art steeped in centuries of lore and voodoo magic.

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

Definitely one of the Dark Arts

Sometimes they over accept though. I've heard of it happening.

 

[LizzyM]

Sometimes they over accept though. I've heard of it happening.

It happens very, very rarely. My school can make offers to 3N where N is the number of seats in the class and end up with exactly N matriculants without going to the waitlist. In other years anywhere from 1-33% of the matriculants have come from the waitlist.

My understanding is that proportion offered admission post interview includes all offers made outright plus offers to applicants on the waitlist where the denominator remains the number interviewed. So, if we interview 600, admit 300 and take 5 from the waitlist, the acceptance rate is 305/600 or ~51%

 

[Goro]

It is so rare that Admissions deans get fired over it.

Sometimes they over accept though. I've heard of it happening.

 

[efle]

This is in reference to US News which shows # interviewed and # accepted at most schools.

Let's say a school interviews 200 people.

Of those, 50 are accepted outright, 100 are waitlisted, and 50 are rejected post interview.

Let's say that of the 100 who are waitlisted, 50 eventually withdraw due to acceptances elsewhere.

And then 25-50 or so are eventually accepted from the waitlist.

Given this, couldn't you say that the post interview acceptance rate is therefore higher than just dividing the total number accepted over the total number interviewed, because the post-interview applicant pool actually shrinks due to people withdrawing from the waitlist?

I'm about 99.5% certain the US News value for acceptances already includes those taken off waitlist.

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

It is so rare that Admissions deans get fired over it.

Yeah happened down here in the South not more than a few years back. It's how I know it's possible, just not likely!

 

[md-2020]

Sometimes they over accept though. I've heard of it happening.

Sometimes planes get overbooked too. At either point of which someone gets pulled kicking and screaming into the dark abyss.

 

[DoctorSwagger]

Sometimes planes get overbooked too. At either point of which someone gets pulled kicking and screaming into the dark abyss.

Too soon


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[LizzyM]

Sometimes planes get overbooked too. At either point of which someone gets pulled kicking and screaming into the dark abyss.

Yes, but the compensation offered is sweet enough that someone will bite. Usually full-ride scholarship for 1 year. Sure, it means delaying attending salary for 1 year but people will bite for the chance to do something they want to do knowing that they have the offer of admission sewed up for the following year. It happens very rarely.

 

[motu]

How deans manage to hand out the right amount of acceptances without overfilling the class is a dark art steeped in centuries of lore and voodoo magic.

At University of Miami, they compile a list and rank them based on points, and accept the top 20 people every two weeks. The rest are waitlisted, with the a certain percentage at the bottom of the list outright rejected. Eventually, they will have accepted 150~180 (for the MD program) by March~April. As people turn down Miami and if the total acceptances fall below 150, they then accept people off the wait list one by one.

Pretty smart system in my opinion.