Waitlisted at Pitt

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Quix said:
This thread is giving me the creeping terrors. While I had a great faculty interview (he and I discussed the neurological bases of consciousness and the ability to manifest awareness in another substrate, among other abstractions) and my MS1 interview was a fellow Hoya (we talked about the faculty we had in common and I gave her some local restaurant recommendations (she wasn't from Pittsburgh)), I spent a grand total of <5 minutes with Lisa Wick. She was very personable and I enjoyed talking with her, but it was still really, *really* brief. I'm planning to drop off a summary letter of everything I've been doing at Pitt since they received my AMCAS and secondary (i.e., studies I'm PI-ing and forthcoming publications), but I have this fear that it will be for naught.
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Good luck Quix and everyone else. Make sure you get it in soon. I sent an update letter via email post-interview but before a decision was made (the Friday before my file was going to committee) and it got lost in a spam folder until after my file was reviewed by the adcom. However, I received a nice note from Dean Davis thanking me for it the following Monday! 😳

I also thought my dean interview wasn't that great. I mean she was incredibly friendly towards me, but we didn't talk about much and it was also brief (Maybe more like 7-8 minutes than 5). However, even though I stressed about it, in retrospect I didn't need to. I think as long as you seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the school and could answer the "What did you think about Pitt" question, that's all that's needed for that interview. Luck!
 
They're getting a paper copy - I have meetings at Pitt tomorrow (one for the CSTP in addition to my regular research meeting), so I'll be in Scaife. I don't trust e-mail for this. 😉
 
kypdurron5 said:
- my letter is very personal. They usually say "the committee has decided," etc. This letter starts out "I am writing to inform you..." and it looks like it was signed by hand (vs. printed or rubber-stamped). It also happens to be from the person I had the 15 minute meeting with, who is an (the?) Associate Dean. From what I've read, LOI's should usually be written to the dean, but should I/we make an exception in this case since were were "assigned" someone in our 15 minute meeting? What do you guys think?
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I wouldn't read too much into that. I could dig through and look for my waitlist letter for comparison, but I really doubt that someone personally wrote to you to tell you about your waitlist. It is likely the standard letter.
 
Darkshooter326 said:
I wouldn't read too much into that. I could dig through and look for my waitlist letter for comparison, but I really doubt that someone personally wrote to you to tell you about your waitlist. It is likely the standard letter.
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I'm sure it is a standard letter....but my point is that 1) it's from a specific person and not just the committee/the school, 2) it was hand signed (I think) rather than just rubber-stamped and 3) the wording of the standard letter makes it seem like I am in some way in a group that's "assigned to her" and she is tasked with giving the committee decision. I could be reading way too much into this, but it should be easy to put to bed....are everyone else's letters from the person they were assigned to for the 15 minute meeting, or are they all from the assistant dean?
 
kypdurron5 said:
I'm sure it is a standard letter....but my point is that 1) it's from a specific person and not just the committee/the school, 2) it was hand signed (I think) rather than just rubber-stamped and 3) the wording of the standard letter makes it seem like I am in some way in a group that's "assigned to her" and she is tasked with giving the committee decision. I could be reading way too much into this, but it should be easy to put to bed....are everyone else's letters from the person they were assigned to for the 15 minute meeting, or are they all from the assistant dean?
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My wait list letter is from the person I met for the 15 min meeting...
 
Mine's from Beth Piraino, but I met with Paula Davis...

hey Quix-- congrats on the interview-- sounds like you aced that section of the test, you know? And that's all you could do. Now I guess it's time to write a letter..... Dear AdCom PLEASE!!!!!
 
merlinwall said:
Mine's from Beth Piraino, but I met with Paula Davis...

hey Quix-- congrats on the interview-- sounds like you aced that section of the test, you know? And that's all you could do. Now I guess it's time to write a letter..... Dear AdCom PLEASE!!!!!
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Hrrmm. Well, maybe Dr. Piraino is just the one tasked with giving the decisions. Who to write to...that's up in the air. I think it should go to her since she seems to be in charge of correspondence, but if it's customary to send it to the dean..... I don't know. Thoughts?
 
kypdurron5 said:
Hrrmm. Well, maybe Dr. Piraino is just the one tasked with giving the decisions. Who to write to...that's up in the air. I think it should go to her since she seems to be in charge of correspondence, but if it's customary to send it to the dean..... I don't know. Thoughts?
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Both Dr. Beth Piraino and Ms. Paula Davis sign the acceptance letters (three letters total with another coming from the registrar head with Dr. Piraino's on the top as the official letter followed by a congratulatory keep your grades up letter from Ms. Davis that I think also mentions filing for financial aid by April something or other if you want to be considered need-based) so I don't think it matters out of those two. In terms of Ms. Lisa Wick, I also don't think sending it to her would be bad if you interviewed with her during the dean's meeting since she's also very nice and seems to attend the committee meetings since she interviews. You could call the office and see what they recommend. They were very nice when I bugged them about the status of my app pre-decision time.
 
kypdurron5 said:
are everyone else's letters from the person they were assigned to for the 15 minute meeting, or are they all from the assistant dean?
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mine is from the assistant dean (dr. piraino). i met with lisa wick. so, it's not personalized (at least in my case).
 
Still waiting for a decision from pitt... this stressed thread did a good job of stressing me out. 2-4 more weeks for me! yay!
 
Disinence2 said:
Still waiting for a decision from pitt... this stressed thread did a good job of stressing me out. 2-4 more weeks for me! yay!
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Not knowing is better than knowing it's a waitlist decision! >) At least you still have a chance of being out-right accepted.
 
Does anyone know if Pitt rejects outright post-interview or do they waitlist everyone? And has anyone heard back who interviewed mid to late December?
 
tecumseh said:
Does anyone know if Pitt rejects outright post-interview or do they waitlist everyone? And has anyone heard back who interviewed mid to late December?
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I don't have any anecdotal evidence, but during my interview day they said there are three possibilities; rejection (that's bad), waitlist (that's not too bad), and acceptance.
 
I asked the same question on a separate thread-- someone looked through threads from previous years and apparently some folks were rejected post-interview including someone with good looking scores (I guess 3.7 ...) But that just means the waitlist may actually be a decent place to be.

I don't want this thread to stress people out! It's helping me a lot to read posts from others going through the same WAITING process.
 
Pitt waitlists everybody they do not accept, unless you give them a strong reason (i.e. complete lack of interest).
 
wowzer said:
Pitt waitlists everybody they do not accept, unless you give them a strong reason (i.e. complete lack of interest).
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Would you care to cite a source for this? You can't just make a statement like this and expect anyone to believe it without some justification for why it was made.
 
I'm a med student here and I'm one of the student interviewers...
 
It seems Pitt gave out a lot of interview this cycle. A rough search on MDApplicants yielded a whooping 128 profiles that have interview at Pitt for 2007. No other schools even come close to that figure. So I imagine the waitlist is huge.
 
wowzer, thanks for your input! Do you have any idea how full the class is now? Are they even giving out acceptances, or is my best possible outcome a waitlist? I interviewed mid january.
 
TheGalvaniFrog said:
It seems Pitt gave out a lot of interview this cycle. A rough search on MDApplicants yielded a whooping 128 profiles that have interview at Pitt for 2007. No other schools even come close to that figure. So I imagine the waitlist is huge.
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There is a thread for interview invites. I noticed that Pitt quickly jumped to the number 1 position as far as total number of invites, but most other schools have caught up the last time I checked it. I have a feeling you're right...however, maybe Pitt applicants are just better represented on SDN/MDapplicants for one reason or another. To add to your theory though...all other schools I've interviewed at have had groups of 4-7; my Pitt group was somewhere between 12-16.
 
AS OF 2/5/07

5610 applied
1110 invited to interview
929 with interviews done so 181 to go (last interview date on Feb 28th)
329 accepted

normal accept: 460 to fill the class of 149
 
Is that number of accepted people figure including those who were taken off the waitlist? If it is, that's like 40%, which is reassuring! Hang in there everyone!
 
Meeher said:
Is that number of accepted people figure including those who were taken off the waitlist? If it is, that's like 40%, which is reassuring! Hang in there everyone!
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Has anyone even been taken off the waitlist yet? I assume the 329 accepts were all post-interview, no waitlist.
 
Oh, sorry, I meant the "normal accept" figure, not the current accepted one.
 
I hit the four week mark since my interview today, and I'm still biting my nails (considering the CSTP deadline is also rapidly approaching). :scared:
 
Those numbers are kind of weird; are you saying they've accepted 329 people for a class of 149 this year?! I realize that a certain amount of turnover is expected...but how can a school possibly accept double the class size? The school I just came from said that their turnover is about 50%, but last year it was 33%. I don't see why Pitt would risk ending up with too many students like that. Wait a minute....if they're accepting above the class size already, then a waitlist would be pointless, unless you're saying they've already pulled from the waitlist but in that case the turnover rate is already almost 100% and we haven't even reached the multiple acceptances deadline yet! Either I'm not getting something, or those numbers aren't right (probably the former, I'm sure).

This all assumes you're talking about this year and not last year...but from your post it looks like you are indeed speaking of the process so far.
 
wowzer - do you know if that 460 acceptances includes waitlisters that are eventually offered acceptance?? My guess would be yes, but I'd rather hear it from you.... Do you know if they are still offering straight up acceptances?? Only asking because I interviewed on 2/5, the date of your statistics...

cheers
 
i think pitt accepts so many people because a lot of those people end up picking other schools. think about it...people getting into pitt a lot of times have scores that will get them into "better" schools. so maybe pitt really does need to accept a lot of people in order to fill their class.
 
kypdurron5 said:
Those numbers are kind of weird; are you saying they've accepted 329 people for a class of 149 this year?! I realize that a certain amount of turnover is expected...but how can a school possibly accept double the class size? The school I just came from said that their turnover is about 50%, but last year it was 33%. I don't see why Pitt would risk ending up with too many students like that. Wait a minute....if they're accepting above the class size already, then a waitlist would be pointless, unless you're saying they've already pulled from the waitlist but in that case the turnover rate is already almost 100% and we haven't even reached the multiple acceptances deadline yet! Either I'm not getting something, or those numbers aren't right (probably the former, I'm sure).
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Those accpetance/matriculation numbers are pretty standard from most schools. Last year's stats for Pitt was (according to US News): 1188 Interviewed, 462 accepted and 148 matriculated.
 
TheGalvaniFrog said:
Those accpetance/matriculation numbers are pretty standard from most schools. Last year's stats for Pitt was (according to US News): 1188 Interviewed, 462 accepted and 148 matriculated.
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Alright, so they have a high turnover rate....but are you telling me that as of February 5th the turnover is already near 100%? That's the part that still seems strange; why would so many people decline an acceptance so far before the deadline- talk about burning bridges! >)
 
you're confused

don't you understand that these people haven't declined an interview yet? yes, if everyone who got accepted who has already been accepted goes to PITT, then the class size will be way too big. But from prior experience, the adcom knows this will not happen, and so they accept over the class size already.
 
kypdurron5 said:
Alright, so they have a high turnover rate....but are you telling me that as of February 5th the turnover is already near 100%? That's the part that still seems strange; why would so many people decline an acceptance so far before the deadline- talk about burning bridges! >)
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Nothing in the numbers suggest anything about people declining acceptances so far; there are currently ~300 people who have been accepted to Pitt straight off post-interview. I imagine very few people are declining acceptances right now. Also, note that the US News number of acceptances handed out probably include people who got in off the waitlist. (unless someone in the know say so otherwise.)
 
TheGalvaniFrog said:
Nothing in the numbers suggest anything about people declining acceptances so far. Also, note that the US News number of acceptances handed out probably include people who got in off the waitlist. (unless someone in the know say so otherwise.)
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I see...so they've accepted a number to accommodate a 121% turnover rate in anticipation of an eventual 209% rate. I guess that's not too bad, but it's a little risky. I wonder what they'd do if they ended up with too many. Anyway, I guess that's still bad news for the waitlist; I'm sure there will be some waitlist movement, but not as much as, say, a school that doesn't accept more than the class size at any given time.
 
to answer some questions..

yes, pitt does have a high turnover rate. As some of the other members have already stated, these numbers are not unlike what they have been in the past years. Students do pick other schools for many reasons, the major ones being acceptance into a higher US News-ranked school and because of problems with the location/weather and type of city (I personally think that Pittsburgh is one of the best places to live and study esp. as a young adult - and very few other medical/research institutions solely represent and cover a large population and area).

The numbers I gave are jsut up to 2/5. So, there are about 131 more acceptances to be given out INCLUDING the waitlist, so assuming a ~1/3 acceptance rate and that it is a rolling school, id say another 50 or so acceptnaces to be given out by the end of interview seeason, and then another 80 to come off of the waitlist. .

I believe that a significant percentage of each class has come from the waitlist
 
wowzer said:
AS OF 2/5/07

5610 applied
1110 invited to interview
929 with interviews done so 181 to go (last interview date on Feb 28th)
329 accepted

normal accept: 460 to fill the class of 149
Click to expand...

Some quick (hypothetical) math:

329/929 = ~1/3 post-interview acceptance rate
181 * (1/3) = ~ 60 acceptance to be handed out. (assuming rate of acceptance stay the same)
60 + 329 = ~390 total acceptance straight after interview:

Come May 15th, people start dropping acceptances:

460 - 390 = ~70 offers from the waiting list to fill the class, assuming the 460 figure include waitlist acceptances.

Assume 10% (probably an over-estimate) of those interviewed either showed no interest or something and was rejected right off the bat:

1110 * 90% = 1000

1000 - 390 = 610 people on waitlist.

70 /610 = ~10% of waitlisted people get accepted.

It's all guess work, of course.
 
Trismegistus4 said:
Hi, everyone. I'm joining the Pitt waitlist club today. They were my first choice, too. It's pretty disappointing.
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Interesting; your MCAT is better than mine, and yet you were also rejected pre-secondary from Vanderbilt...that's just nuts!
 
kypdurron5 said:
I see...so they've accepted a number to accommodate a 121% turnover rate in anticipation of an eventual 209% rate. I guess that's not too bad, but it's a little risky. I wonder what they'd do if they ended up with too many. Anyway, I guess that's still bad news for the waitlist; I'm sure there will be some waitlist movement, but not as much as, say, a school that doesn't accept more than the class size at any given time.
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Even schools like harvard, jhu, yale, etc. accept like twice their class size. People who get accepted to pitt often get multiple acceptances, so it's not that outrageous.
 
kypdurron5 said:
I see...so they've accepted a number to accommodate a 121% turnover rate in anticipation of an eventual 209% rate. I guess that's not too bad, but it's a little risky. I wonder what they'd do if they ended up with too many. Anyway, I guess that's still bad news for the waitlist; I'm sure there will be some waitlist movement, but not as much as, say, a school that doesn't accept more than the class size at any given time.
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i heard that penn state accepted too many...last year? sometime recently. they ended up with a class size that was bigger than they had been expecting.
 
Erina said:
i heard that penn state accepted too many...last year? sometime recently. they ended up with a class size that was bigger than they had been expecting.
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And then you have schools like UW Madison which actually accepted too few one year and had to pull from their rejection list...Balancing act I guess.

Sorry to hear you got waitlisted 🙁 Tris. As a fellow Penn postbac-er, I was rooting for you - hopefully they'll be lots of movement as predicted!!! :luck: :luck: :luck:
 
Just letting everyone know that I withdrew from Pitt today because of another acceptance. Good luck to those on the waitlist!
 
fotografía;4948129 said:
Just letting everyone know that I withdrew from Pitt today because of another acceptance. Good luck to those on the waitlist!
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Why thank you >). Good luck with your other opportunities!
 
stiffany said:
And then you have schools like UW Madison which actually accepted too few one year and had to pull from their rejection list...Balancing act I guess.
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That's so funny, because my UWisc interviewer told me that two years ago they accepted too many and ended up offering full one-year tuition to anyone who would be willing to defer a year. And even then their class was too big. I guess they overcompensated.
 
Has anyone gotten a post-waitlist rejection from Pitt? I ask because there seems to be a letter at home from Pitt, and I can't help but imagine what it might be&#8230;. Unfortunately I don't get off work for another 3 hours!!! >(

PS- it's a letter, not a packet.
 
kypdurron5 said:
Has anyone gotten a post-waitlist rejection from Pitt? I ask because there seems to be a letter at home from Pitt, and I can’t help but imagine what it might be…. Unfortunately I don’t get off work for another 3 hours!!! >(

PS- it's a letter, not a packet.
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I know someone who got a straight rejection post-interview from Pitt, but no one who got a rejection letter after having been waitlisted.
 
Garrison1 said:
I know someone who got a straight rejection post-interview from Pitt, but no one who got a rejection letter after having been waitlisted.
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Nooo, don't say things like that; hope is far too dangerous >). Ok...so here's the difficult question to ask; I found on this thread that the acceptance packet is three letters....can anyone tell me whether it comes in a regular envelope or some type of proper "packet?" Also, is there anything special about it like "acceptance materials enclosed" printed on the outside? Thanks.
 
uhh, just tell your family to open up the envelope and take a look inside.
 
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