Sressed on the waitlist

[ariels]

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So, I've interviewes at NYU, Sinai, Einstein and Downstate, (I wanna stay in NY) as well as a few other (7total), and haven't gotten any admissions yet. I'm officially waitlisted at Sinai and Einstein, (sent a letter of intent to Sinai 2 days ago and haven't gotten a reply...), and haven't heard from NYU 2 months later. I have pretty avg. stats for MSTP (3.8/36S) and wanted to hear from those in the know if I should assume I will get in somewhere (preferably in NY)???
Thanks for the input!

 

[MiniPanda]

[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]An adcom member I know said that "last year many student were accepted off of the waitlist". So have hope!
If you email them, I'm sure they'll give you a general idea about where you are on the waitlist.
And idk if your stats really matter anymore.

.

 

[wuhanese]

did yasmin tell you you were on top 1/3 of waitlist or anything of that nature?

 

[runner125]

I'm not "in the know" any more than you are probably, but I am in sort of a similar situation. I am on five waitlists, and I'm very interested in some of these schools, but I think my chances (and yours as well) are pretty good. Looking at statistics from various schools I applied to, my general impression is that many MD/PhD programs wind up admitting up to half of the students they interview, even though their class size may only be 1/4 of the size of their interview pool. But at this point in the game, schools can't extend too many offers and are just accepting their first batch of applicants, since theoretically all of those students could accept the offers (and schools won't know whether they do accept until the end of April when students are forced to release multiple offers). At the end of April, I think there will be quite a bit of activity and schools will probably accept another batch of applicants.

So if a school interviews 40 people for 10 spots in a program, before April they may only accept 12 people to be safe. But after applicants are forced to release multiple acceptances, the school might have to extend another 8 spots to replace people they lost. Some schools openly post the number of students they interview and accept on their website, and by comparing those numbers to their actual class size, you can usually see that there is significant movement off the waitlist.

 

[wuhanese]

^no, you really can't tell unless you know:

1. the % of students that go to the school after they get the offer
2. the amount of students they initially accept
3. their total class size

some schools take many off of their waitlist, others don't. i.e. schools like UTSW accept 50% of their interviewees in their first batch and don't take any of their waitlist, expecting that 1/3 of all the acceptees will matriculate. harvard might just take 14 people expecting that 90% will matriculate. i think at this point there's too much variance in these numbers from year to year for you to place faith in them... email them regularly and hope for the best.

 

[runner125]

^no, you really can't tell unless you know:

1. the % of students that go to the school after they get the offer
2. the amount of students they initially accept
3. their total class size

some schools take many off of their waitlist, others don't. i.e. schools like UTSW accept 50% of their interviewees in their first batch and don't take any of their waitlist, expecting that 1/3 of all the acceptees will matriculate. harvard might just take 14 people expecting that 90% will matriculate. i think at this point there's too much variance in these numbers from year to year for you to place faith in them... email them regularly and hope for the best.

Wuhanese, very good point. I guess I am personally comfortable with the assumption of waitlist movement, because most of the schools I am waitlisted at wound up directly telling me that they do not over-extend offers much beyond the actual class size. And based on past statistics, the number of total people they accept every year is pretty large compared to actual class size. I figured they must be accepting people off the waitlist as accepted applicants release the offer. However, that is not how all schools do it certainly, and without this type of information, you can't determine how it usually works. And of course, even if you can determine how it usually works, there could always be a fluke year where things turn out differently.

Still, I think there's cause to be optimistic if you are on multiple waitlists, and if you can find any information about how each individual school's waitlist usually works, it might be helpful.

 

[ariels]

She didn't say where I am on the list, but this was a while ago, in the beginning of November... Has she told most people where they are? Do you know how many offers of admission were extended??

 

[MiniPanda]

idk how many offers total have been made, but I know that as of late january 3 people who had been offered admission had committed to the school. so at least ~1/3 of sinai's class has already been filled : (

 

[phatlineman]

from what i heard Einstein usually pulls 1/2 the class from its waitlist. But they interviewed like 150 applicants so I imagine alot of people were waitlsted..

 

[Lil Mick]

This is just my experience, but a good number of interviewees end up being accepted to several programs and make their decision on which school after revisiting the ones of highest interest, thereby freeing up spots in programs. I am not sure how often this happens and at which schools this happens, but I've known a few people who have gotten off wait-lists (especially top programs) later in the year (April, May, June)...