WAITLISTEDs chances?

[dirtyone]

30R, 3.54, ton of research. So-so huh. Pulled 7 interviews including Cornell, Tufts, Dartmouth, Mt. Sinai. fine...But here is the kick in the pants: Waitlisted from state schools. Rejected from Dartmouth. Does this mean I'm toast as far as the other schools? Anyone? Is there any hope for state school waitlistees? anyone else feel the heat?

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[Doctora Foxy]

Hola, welcome to SDN!

I have a feeling that this year, wait list movement will be greater than normal, so I'd say you have an excellent chance in general. I think acceptances have been given out slower and fewer in number than in the past, which means more people will be pulled off the wait list this cycle. So just be patient...you had interviews with great schools, and sometimes peoples' "safe schools" turn out to be the opposite, and competetive schools become easier to get into. This process is soooo random.

Good luck to you!

 

[ValleyGal]

I've got to agree with the last post -- rumor has it that schools are taking less people outright this year and pulling more people off the waitlist. If you talk to students at any school, without fail a bunch of them are pulled off the waitlist. So keep up hope because a waitlist means that they are still considering your application!

 

[serpiente]

"Is there any hope for state school waitlistees?"

Honestly it depends on what state school you're talking about. For instance in my state (Mass) there is only one state school. It is ranked highly, in top 50 for research, top 5 for primary care. And the tution is so low, it's almost free. Thus a lot of people don't get off the UMass waitlist, as most people accepted won't turn it down. Also UMass has a very stringent rule about how many people it can accept etc.. Anyway this is definitely not true for all state schools--many are not highly ranked, have higher tuition (still less than pivate but not a lot less etc.)so more acceptees wil turn down the school, leaving ample opportunity for the waitlistees. Another factor in the whole situation is the weird stuff going on this year as others mentioned--ie maybe the school is not accepting enough people, so there will be more ovement later, etc. In any case, I think it really depends on what school you're talking about.

 

[sandflea]

i guess i don't understand how more people will be pulled off waitlists this year than in years past. schools are required to admit enough people to fill their classes by march 15, although i've heard that this has been pushed back to april 15. regardless, they are required to fill their classes *before* moving to the waitlist, and then only moving to the waitlist if people start turning them down. i don't know how dramatic an impact the whole AMCAS situation is going to make, because it doesn't change the fact that schools are still held to the march/april 15 deadline. waitlist movement has more to do with how much people want to go to a particular school than any other factor.

your chances of being pulled off the waitlist at your state school really depends on the school and the state, as someone else pointed out. you're competing against a different pool of applicants there than at other schools.