Copying over my comment made in SKMC forum:
Was put on HPWL last Wednesday. Interviewed 12/16. Went through last years SDN SKMC forum, and after reading it, I'm pretty conflicted. It seems that if you get an II, post-II decisions are either accepted, HPWL (high priority WL) or alternate WL. I haven't read of anyone getting a post-II rejection, but only one of the two WLs. Furthermore, they take people from HPWL first and then from the alternate WL (which only a few people seemed to be pulled from, if at all).
I've read that anywhere from 30% to as high as 70% of ppl in the HPWL are pulled into the upcoming class. However, if you take a look at SKMC's MSAR, typical number of WL positions per cycle is ~370. Number of acceptance offers granted to applicants on the waitlist: 40. That percentage is ~11%, clearly much lower than what people have posted in earlier forums. Couple of things about this: 1.) MSAR doesn't differentiate HPWL vs. alternate WL for total number of WL positions. One would think that high priority means that the HPWL group is 'significantly' smaller than the alternate WL group. However, from reading the past forums, have only seen 1-2 people (vs like 20-30) saying they got alternate WL rather than HPWL. 2.) Always take MSAR with a grain of salt, especially with statistics like these.
I'm a pragmatist so while these stats aren't entirely comforting, nevertheless, don't give up. I'm sure as hell not. Doing big things this year and will be diligent about keeping SKMC up-to-date. Planning on sending updates and/or letters of interest about every 1.5 months. If you have no value to offer them in these letters, don't send them. Instead, find something to wow them. You got time. No excuses. Going from last years forum, it seems that the earliest to be removed from HPWL is end of April/early May. In fact, some people noted that they got their acceptance end of June. Others just never heard back until SKMC noted that the class was full = silent rejection. So, for people in my position, it's now a waiting game and we gotta fight to get in, no other way around it. Best of luck, and sincerely rooting for everyone on here.