wait list questions

[vnacyd]

I have seen this topic discussed before, so forgive me if you are tired of seeing these questions. Anyone have a rough estimate of how many come off the wait list? How do schools pick students from a wait list that is unranked? What is acceptable in terms of bothering a school that one has been wait listed at? How does one become a senior member of these message boards? If I do not get off the wait list of two California schools, I am headed to IU. Anyone else? Have a great day, Southern Cal is beautiful today.
Thanks,
Vanessa

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[Mango]

Hi, I too am waitlisted at a couple schools and accepted at others, so I know how you feel. I will say that I think every school is different when it comes to taking people off their wait lists. It depends on how many people reject the offer of a seat in the class of each school. Say School A is very competative and lots of people want to go there, you would expect that most of the acceptances they send out will NOT be rejected. That school will therefor take very few people off it's waiting list. But then say School B is a less respected school and gets a rejection for every two acceptances it sends out. That school may go through half of their list to fill a class. The point is, we have no way of knowing where a specific school stands on this scale. So my plan is to just wait it out (ha ha) and let fate decide!

As far as unranked lists, I wasn't aware there was such a thing. All the schools I interviewed at made it clear that each student recieves a score used to rank them. Also, I went to undergrad in Indiana, and while it's not as warm as So Cal, it's not as bad as you might think. IU is a good school, and the bars in Broadripple are not very far away incase you feel the urge to let loose! Good Luck, Mango

 

[dugan]

I'm also waitlisted at several schools--two ranked lists and one unranked list. I'm sure you're still ranked or scored in some way at every school, even on the "unranked" lists. They might just say that it's unranked to avoid applicants' pestering and to allow themselves more flexibility.

And what makes this more difficult is that every school has a different waitlist policy. There could be hundreds of people on the list--even just in the upper tier. So knowing where you are on the list doesn't help very much, unless you know your exact place. (which I'm not sure I would want to know--ugh!)

How competitive the school is won't have much to do with waitlist movement, I don't think, because the most competitive applicants can be accepted at a few top-tier schools and are able to choose among them. I think the most significant factor is class size, actually. Most schools take about 1/3 to 1/2 of the class from waitlists.

Also be aware of the domino effect of the waitlist. A person choosing between school A and school B can affect the class at a dozen schools as people drop one acceptance in favor of another.

Best of luck to all the alternates out there.

p.s. Don't panic when May 15 comes around and you haven't been selected from the waitlist--it might take a few weeks.