Wait List/Post Interview

[Jfasten]

Just got waitlisted from New York Medical College. Does anyone have any advice regarding anything you can do after you've been waitlisted to improve your chances of gaining acceptance? I was told that schools are sometimes more likely to take you if you show a lot of interest in the school (through a letter, other communication, etc.). Is this true?

I have interviewed elsewhere and have another interview coming up soon. Still, I want to do anything I can to help my chances to get in to New York Medical College. I realize this process is highly arbitrary in many respects, and as a result, I don't want to take any chances.

A few others questions:
1) Does anyone have an idea of what schools are more likely to take people off the waitlist (I assume the less selective schools have to go to the waitlist more often)?
2) Is there anything you can do post-interview (and pre-decision) to help your chances?

Thanks everyone.

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[RySerr21]

Just got waitlisted from New York Medical College. Does anyone have any advice regarding anything you can do after you've been waitlisted to improve your chances of gaining acceptance? I was told that schools are sometimes more likely to take you if you show a lot of interest in the school (through a letter, other communication, etc.). Is this true?

I have interviewed elsewhere and have another interview coming up soon. Still, I want to do anything I can to help my chances to get in to New York Medical College. I realize this process is highly arbitrary in many respects, and as a result, I don't want to take any chances.

A few others questions:
1) Does anyone have an idea of what schools are more likely to take people off the waitlist (I assume the less selective schools have to go to the waitlist more often)?
2) Is there anything you can do post-interview (and pre-decision) to help your chances?

Thanks everyone.

All schools are different in terms of the effectiveness of LOIs. I would call to see if they accept them (some schools dont). If they do, and you are seriously interested in attending their school, then I would definitely send one. It can only help.

 

[GoSpursGo]

1) Does anyone have an idea of what schools are more likely to take people off the waitlist (I assume the less selective schools have to go to the waitlist more often)?

It's more than that; some schools. ESPECIALLY those less-selective schools, actually send out more acceptances than they have seats, figuring that enough people will decline the acceptance to get them down to the right number. So the amount of waitlist movement at these schools in entirely dependent on how many people decline- sometimes they overestimate how many acceptances they need to send out and there's actually no waitlist movement at all, while other times they might underestimate significantly and wind up getting significant waitlist movement. So there's just no good rule of thumb to predict which schools will have the best waitlist movement, as it changes from year-to-year.

2) Is there anything you can do post-interview (and pre-decision) to help your chances?

As has been suggested, at some schools an LOI can help, so you should ask if that particular school does accept them. More helpful, IMHO, is an update letter, and if your school accepts them and you have done something meaningful in the six months since you applied (e.g., recently my PI submitted an abstract to a national conference with me as a co-author, so I sent an update), I'd go ahead and update them.