Waitlist question

[geneman]

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With regard to USnews statistics, there is a figure for "Accepted" and "Enrolled". Harvard, for instance, accepted 241 people while 164 enrolled.

Does this imply that 241-164 (77) students were taken off the waiting list?

 

[TommyGunn04]

No, you can't tell how many were taken off the waitlist from those stats. Schools (yes, even Harvard) have to extend offers of acceptance to a larger number of applicants than they actually have spots for in their incoming class. For example, I hear that Penn typically accepts about 250 students to fill their class of 150. Actually, it's possible that those US News numbers don't even include waitlist acceptances, because those numbers sound about right for the INITIAL offers made.

 

[Supafly MD]

I think its hard to say.

Sinai for example only sends out enough acceptances to fill the class. And as acceptees withdraw, others are pulled off the waitlist.

So, the extra spots enrolled all would have come off of the waitlist. It depends on the school so its best to contact the school to find out their waitlist procedures.

 

[geneman]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Supafly, MD:
•I think its hard to say.

Sinai for example only sends out enough acceptances to fill the class. And as acceptees withdraw, others are pulled off the waitlist.

So, the extra spots enrolled all would have come off of the waitlist. It depends on the school so its best to contact the school to find out their waitlist procedures.•••••Something seems funny here.

Sinai accepted 283 whereas 105 enrolled. That would mean 283-105 (178) people came off of the waiting list. That's a lot of people. And, since many people still decline after being accepted off of the waiting list, there must be about 300 people on the original list.

 

[Lloyd Christmas]

Actually, most schools will accept more people outright than spots they have available for their class because they know that some will turn them down. For example: if school X is a private school that enrolls 150 students, it will probably accept outright after interviews at least 250-300 people. Then the school will put a number of people on their alternate (or wait) list. The number of people on the list can never really be known. But the school will only take people off the alternate list when spots become open in the class. That is, in this example when at least 150 accepted people turn them down.
Now there are some schools that would accept a lot less for a class of 150 for various reasons, like good tuition, state school, or it is very "highly ranked" or is prestigious. These schools tend to get less turn downs.
So this means that there is no real way to tell the size of alternate lists in general and how many people are pulled off each year becuase it varries so widely by each school.