Schools that Wait-list most interviewees

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musicalfeet

musicalfeet

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Just wondering if anyone knows a general consensus on which schools will wait-list a majority of interviewees/hand out relatively few acceptances?

I interviewed at 3 schools in Sept, and was wondering whether or not my interview skills are sub-par if none of those 3 yield an acceptance? I heard back from one so far and it was an alternate, still waiting on the other 2. One of the other two is Gtown, which everyone seems to say they love to waitlist a ton of people. I think the school that put me on the alternate list also seems to put most of their students on a ranked wait-list as well. I have no idea how the third school does things...but just hearing back from 1 school and it being a wait-list makes me worry about my interviewing ability.

I have 4 more interviews coming up in a week (2 DO, 2 MD), so I was going to use my first 3 interviews as a gage to my interview ability. I don't know how good of a metric that would be though, since every school is different.

I did 2 mock interviews before interviewing, and the evaluator said my non-verbal communication was really good. I seemed to stumble more on the ethics questions (but only 1/3 schools so far has asked me anything ethical), and I subsequently did a lot more research to be more informed on those topics after my mock interview (and was also never asked about any of those).

Another possibility could be that since early interviews tend to go towards the high-stat superstars (and I am not one), my interviewing ability just isn't strong enough to compete with the stat stars that got interviews the same time I did? I have pretty mediocre stats (3.64 cGPA, 33 MCAT, but 3.9 sGPA) but an interesting story. I just don't think my stats compete with the 3.7/3.8 and 35-36 MCATs though.
 
Most top schools will accept 30-40% of their interviewees (most state schools are anywhere from 50-90%). Some schools like Columbia will waitlist most of their interviewees while others like Harvard will waitlist very few.

Also this is very premature to be worrying about this. One interview ---> waitlist means absolutely nothing about your interviewing skills.
 
WedgeDawg said:
Most top schools will accept 30-40% of their interviewees (most state schools are anywhere from 50-90%). Some schools like Columbia will waitlist most of their interviewees while others like Harvard will waitlist very few.

Also this is very premature to be worrying about this. One interview ---> waitlist means absolutely nothing about your interviewing skills.
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So if I'm waitlisted at the other 2 schools, then I should start to worry that it's my interview skills?
 
You have 4 more interviews to go -- If your first two responses were rejections, I'd say that yes, you could start worrying. But they weren't, and the acceptance period is very young yet.
 
WedgeDawg said:
Most top schools will accept 30-40% of their interviewees (most state schools are anywhere from 50-90%). Some schools like Columbia will waitlist most of their interviewees while others like Harvard will waitlist very few.

Also this is very premature to be worrying about this. One interview ---> waitlist means absolutely nothing about your interviewing skills.
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Why do you say Columbia waitlists most of their interviewees? As far as I know, they accept the same amount as the rest of the top schools: ~25-40% of those interviews.
 
Thego2guy said:
Why do you say Columbia waitlists most of their interviewees? As far as I know, they accept the same amount as the rest of the top schools: ~25-40% of those interviews.
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They interview like 1100, outright accept about 250 (class size is 160), then accept about 75 more off the waitlist (which is composed of nearly everyone who didn't get accepted post-interview).
 
WedgeDawg said:
They interview like 1100, outright accept about 250 (class size is 160), then accept about 75 more off the waitlist (which is composed of nearly everyone who didn't get accepted post-interview).
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Last year they interviewed about 1050 and accepted about 300... so give or take ~30% acceptance. So 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 get accepted outright. How many would you say get waitlisted? 1/3? 2/4? and then the remainder 25-30% get rejected? I can't find stats on waitlisted applicants.
 
Thego2guy said:
Last year they interviewed about 1050 and accepted about 300... so give or take ~30% acceptance. So 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 get accepted outright. How many would you say get waitlisted? 1/3? 2/4? and then the remainder 25-30% get rejected? I can't find stats on waitlisted applicants.
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They waitlist nearly everyone. The 300 is post waitlist-acceptances.
 
WedgeDawg said:
600-800 is the number I've heard. I honestly have not heard of a single person get rejected post interview before getting waitlisted.
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Wow. That is so strange. How many other schools do that?
 
Some schools are going to practice yield protection by waitlisting almost everyone and then filling the class from the waitlist. This helps protect against making too many offers and having over-enrollment but it runs the risk of losing top candidates to other schools. But, it also avoids making offers to applicants who are going to turn you down and helps to identify those who are most motivated to attend.
 
West Virginia wait list all II OOS candidates

Are there other schools operating this model?
 
LizzyM said:
Some schools are going to practice yield protection by waitlisting almost everyone and then filling the class from the waitlist. This helps protect against making too many offers and having over-enrollment but it runs the risk of losing top candidates to other schools. But, it also avoids making offers to applicants who are going to turn you down and helps to identify those who are most motivated to attend.
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Does yield matter for anything outside of internal pressure to improve the yield? Is yield even used in US News ranking like it is for undergrad schools?
 
redzone1 said:
West Virginia wait list all II OOS candidates

Are there other schools operating this model?
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If you look at the WVU thread there were OOS applicants who were accepted on 10/15 this year
 
As someone said above, West Virginia is notorious for poaching the waitlist. They'll interview a ton then wait to see who didn't get in anywhere come April 30th. I believe Indiana does a similar thing (interviews like 500 OOS for 90 OOS spots). I have heard that Emory like to do a similar thing where they will poach high stat candidates who don't get any acceptances from their waitlist. I personally know a couple people who got in there off the WL after no acceptances during the regular season despite having lizzyMs close to 80.

On the flip side I know Tulane will accept nearly everyone they interview (~400 of 500 was the number I heard quoted during my interview). Florida Atlantic only interviews 330 people, but accepts +270 of those too.
 
Yield protection is a poor and inaccurate descriptor; resource protection is much more accurate. It make no sense for a school to allocate time and money to candidates who are unlikely to attend.


Fastrada said:
Does yield matter for anything outside of internal pressure to improve the yield? Is yield even used in US News ranking like it is for undergrad schools?
Click to expand...
 
I thought resource protection happens BEFORE the interview process? So how would wait listing a bunch of candidates equal yield protecting?

And at what point could I start to assume my interview skills are lacking? Should be hearing back from 2 schools in the next 2 weeks, one of which apparently loves waitlisting people, and another I have absolutely no idea.

Do schools save some spots in the beginning for later interviewees? If it seems like that's the case, then an early interview isn't really an advantage..
 
gonnif said:
Trying to figure out "the black of admissions" on something like waitlisting, is for most applicants, an exercise is frustration, tension, and anxiety. Not only is it very school specific in motivation (why), process (how), and percentages (amount), it serves no purpose to an applicant. I know this isnt easy, but save your capacity for stress when you are in medical school. Better to wait for the tea to brew, then to try to read the tea leaves. Only when it is done, will you know how it tastes.
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Yeah, I was bitter because I was in the first interview group at 4 schools who waitlist everyone and that sucked up a huge portion of what little interview money I have. It could've prevented me from having the money to intreview at schools that would actually accept me in the future. I was accepted to a school today and can now save money by not attending all interviews, so I am less bitter. I do still, however, find it borderline unethical to interview a large amount of students that you know will be waitlisted

Edit: And it is useful for students to know because I would have scheduled schools that would likely waitlist me for later in the cycle, so I would only go if I had no other acceptances
 
of course it's unethical. As is charging 100+ dollars for a secondary with no essay. As is allowing an applicant with a 25 MCAT to waste days on essays only to be screened out by their very MCAT score. This whole admissions process is far from ethical and is a way for admissions departments at some schools to make literally hundreds of thousands if not a million+ dollars.
 
I can't remember where I saw this, but somewhere on SDN there was a relationship in that every 3 II on average yield 1 Acceptance. Just doing a quick MD Apps survey of folks from last couple of cycles, this seems to be in the ball park. This doesn't take into consideration all the pain and agony of staying on the WL for months before the actual acceptance becomes a reality. If anyone else remembers seeing this, let me know. Thx.
 
Rainbow Zebra said:
I can't remember where I saw this, but somewhere on SDN there was a relationship in that every 3 II on average yield 1 Acceptance. Just doing a quick MD Apps survey of folks from last couple of cycles, this seems to be in the ball park. This doesn't take into consideration all the pain and agony of staying on the WL for months before the actual acceptance becomes a reality. If anyone else remembers seeing this, let me know. Thx.
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Definitely would like to know if these applicants went through months of wait list agony... I'm getting disheartened by the minute by freaking out in my head.
 
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