Stanford waitlist

[mipple]

I just received notice that I have been placed on the Stanford waitlist. Does anybody know how many people they usually place on this list and what the prospects are for getting off of this list? Also, would the fact that I am an international applicant (from Toronto) come into play at all?

Mipple

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[LaughingGiraffe]

i don't know much, but here is what i can say:

stanford has several different waitlist categories. the highest is the group of people who interview late, whom they would have accepted had they not hit their acceptance limit. these people are the first ones they go to for the waitlist, and they are guaranteed a spot in the following year's class if they want one.

then there's the full-out waitlist. which i believe is divided into at least two tiers. the reason i say this is that when i e-mailed the admissions office (because i hadn't heard from them for much longer than they had said it would take) they said i was in their "high hold" waitlist group. they may not typically tell students about this, because the letter i got mentioned nothing of this (or maybe i wasn't really on it and the person e-mailing just felt bad). i think the prognosis for the official waitlist might not be too good, since they go to the near-accept group first. i've withdrawn, though, so that's one less person!

from the old usnews numbers, they interview about 500 and ultimately accept like 185, not that that sheds any light on waitlist movement.

hope this helps a bit.

 

[mipple]

Any idea how many are put on the waitlist versus the number that are rejected outright?

 

[alphabeta53]

i got rejected outright after my interview: approximately three weeks to be more precise. my interviewer and I had differing opinions on how an interview should be conducted. he felt the need to subjugate me to a submissive role throughout our conversation and I didn't budge. after aprroximately an hour and 45 minutes, we stopped our feuding with the general agreement that I would not be coming to Stanford next year. Oh well... they have a nice ping pong table in the student lounge, if only the same could be said about the facilities.

not that I am salty or anything.

 

[bujji13]

Mipple,

I'm also on the Stanford waitlist, and I'm wondering about a lot of the same things you are. I've heard differing rumours about the waitlist. Some say that the alternate list is made separately for those people that Stanford wants to accept but doesnt have room for late in the interviewing season. But I have also heard that the adcom actually makes the alternate list from people that are pulled from the waitlist. I really want to believe this, but it also makes sense: why would they make a waitlist they have no use for? In any case, someone in the admissions office told me that they won't even begin to look at any of this business until July (!!!).

I don't know any specific numbers about rejections vs. waitlist decisions, but from what I have heard and from what I've seen on SDN, it seems like Stanford tends to reject man after the interview, accept some, and waitlist few. Also, last year was a bad year for people on the waitlist - zero were taken off it (of course, not counting alternate list accepts).

I really liked Stanford, and I hope I get taken off the waitlist. But I have to say, their process is really really wierd and unnecessarily mysterious for applicants.

 

[mipple]

alphabeta53,

Sorry to hear about your bad experience at Stanford. I was fortunate to have two very good interviewers when I was there and felt that the whole experience was great. In contrast, the two interviews that I had here, closest to my home in Toronto, did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. Unfortunately, it is just the luck of the draw when it comes to your interviewers. Best of luck elsewhere...

mipple...

 

[scifi]

bump!

 

[mipple]

Just wondering if anybody has heard anything from Stanford recently?

 

[greenwitch]

I called a few days ago and they told me that things are still to uncertain that they can't make any predictions about how many people, if any, will get off the waitlist this year. she did throw out a ball park figure of 10-15 people off the waitlist proper, not including the "first alternate" list...

as for the difference between the waitlist and first alternate list, i do no think that the first alternate list comes off of the waitlist. i was lead to believe that they would tell you out right if you get on this select list (it's the list that they put people that they would have accepted but didn't have space, so these people are guaranteed a spot next year). they told me that only 8-10 people are on the first alternate's list.

as for how many people get waitlisted, i think there are about 200 people on it. of the 600 they interview, they accept the top ~200, waitlist the next ~200, and reject the bottom ~200.

i made sure to find out all this information because my interview was really late - it was at the beginning of april!

i got waitlisted... =(

anyway, hope this helps!

greenwitch

 

[snoopdizzle]

Stanford was by far my number one, I felt like I was in paradise. However, getting off the waitlist is practically impossible, so I gave up hope. Que sera, sera.

 

[snoopdizzle]

Has ANYONE been taken off the waitlist yet? Response: not expected.

 

[greenwitch]

hey there snoopdizzle,

i don't think anyone has been taken off yet. when i called, they said that they wouldn't even have a vague idea about waitlists until early/mid june.

they're stanford. they take their sweet sweet time .

greenwitch

 

[scifi]

called stanford today. seems the admissions counselors aren't taking phone calls anymore. it's july now, so has anyone heard any news yet??