Waitlists! Arg!

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fizzle

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I'm curious as to how many waitlists you all are holding. I'm currently at five and expecting two or three more, and I know there are those of you out there with even more! Let's commiserate on this miserable creation called the WAITLIST OF DOOM :scared:

What are the odds of getting off a waitlist, anyway? I know it varies dramatically by year, but that explanation certainly doesn't make the stress and possibly false hope go away.
 
Four interviews, three wait lists, one rejection. Since I'm not accepted anywhere, I'm not banking on any of them pulling through. If they do I'll be ecstatic... If they don't, I'll be re-applying. 👎
 
I am on 2 and according to some, my schools waitlist move significantly. I was told by one school a couple of months ago that I was in a good position for being offered admission, but now it seems that they are making some undisclosed "changes" to the list. So I totally feel you with the frustration of this hell.
 
2 waitlists here. GL to everyone on WL's
 
To the past and future posters in this thread:

:luck::xf::luck::xf::luck::xf::luck::xf::luck:.
 
:luck: :luck: :luck: Good luck everyone!!!! I hope you all get in this year. I'm sure y'all don't want to have to go through this again and us 2014ers don't need anymore competition. 😛
 
adding some more good luck to the pot and sending acceptance vibes your way! i have high hopes for the 2013 SDN crowd :luck:
 
ksmi117 said:
:luck: :luck: :luck: Good luck everyone!!!! I hope you all get in this year. I'm sure y'all don't want to have to go through this again and us 2014ers don't need anymore competition. 😛
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haha, pleeaaasseee. you're going to get interviews at every school you apply to. this is going to be a fun year for you. you'll have too many interviews to attend that you'll have to turn some down.
 
I was on 9, got accepted by one, and withdrew from 2, so I am currently waiting on 6, and probably would only go to 2-3 of the schools if they accepted me...
 
funkydrmonkey said:
I was on 9, got accepted by one, and withdrew from 2, so I am currently waiting on 6, and probably would only go to 2-3 of the schools if they accepted me...
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But since you already have an acceptance, I guess you can breathe much easier waiting for the other schools, right?
 
BlueElmo said:
But since you already have an acceptance, I guess you can breathe much easier waiting for the other schools, right?
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True, but I am not going to actively look for apartments until mid June...
 
Im on 5 waitlists...and I guess sort of an unofficial wl, considering I interviewed beginning of sept and havent heard anything from them yet.
 
Two waitlists. One more interview to go.
 
I keep hearing anecdotes about pretty much every school taking anywhere from 25% to 60% of their classes from the waitlist. Considering these huge numbers, is it reasonable to have hope in the waitlists, or are they generally considered very slim chances/lost causes?
 
fizzle said:
I keep hearing anecdotes about pretty much every school taking anywhere from 25% to 60% of their classes from the waitlist. Considering these huge numbers, is it reasonable to have hope in the waitlists, or are they generally considered very slim chances/lost causes?
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It really does depend on the school and the year! I have had several schools tell me they expect significant WL movement. Others have very little (on the order of 5 WL spots yielding acceptances).
 
fizzle said:
I keep hearing anecdotes about pretty much every school taking anywhere from 25% to 60% of their classes from the waitlist. Considering these huge numbers, is it reasonable to have hope in the waitlists, or are they generally considered very slim chances/lost causes?
Click to expand...

Yea, it depends. People have told me that the top schools usually have few waitlist movement, since the people who hold acceptances there tend to matriculate. But, there could be a lot of movement if the people holding acceptances to top school X also have an acceptance to top school Y.

It also seems like the California med schools don't have as much waitlist movement compared to most other med schools, since everyone and their mom wants to go to California. :meanie:
 
fizzle said:
I keep hearing anecdotes about pretty much every school taking anywhere from 25% to 60% of their classes from the waitlist. Considering these huge numbers, is it reasonable to have hope in the waitlists, or are they generally considered very slim chances/lost causes?
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Its reasonable to have hope, ive read lots of times where some of the lower to mid schools have to send out a large number of acceptances (like 300) to fill a class 120. Some schools ive read it being higher. Obviously if you are waitlisted at like UCSF or john hopkins, theres probably not going to be a lot of movement as not many turn those top invites down. But if you are waitlisted at like GW or AE who knows!
 
Elijah05 said:
Its reasonable to have hope, ive read lots of times where some of the lower to mid schools have to send out a large number of acceptances (like 300) to fill a class 120. Some schools ive read it being higher. Obviously if you are waitlisted at like UCSF or john hopkins, theres probably not going to be a lot of movement as not many turn those top invites down. But if you are waitlisted at like GW or AE who knows!
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I don't know if that can be true. Are they just hoping that 180 people decline the acceptance? Risky.
 
GonnaHappen said:
I don't know if that can be true. Are they just hoping that 180 people decline the acceptance? Risky.
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They dont send out 300 acceptances all at one and just pray 180 people decline.......It means that over the long long application cycle they have to send out more and more invites and people begin to decline or withdraw. A perfect exmaple you can read on SDN here. someone interviewed at aecom and the dean told him they had to send out 500 acceptances to fill about 150 spots or so as so many people rejected to invite. Once again I'm not saying this is commonplace, just that ive read it on here and heard it from the schools themselves. You have about 45000 people each probably applying on average to 15-20 schools. You are going to get a large number of applicants who are holding 2+ spots which makes for large movements. Also consider that theres some schools like aecom that people for w/e reason just dont seem to truly want to go to. Think of all the people who have 3.8/38 mcats or are strong applicants. You know those guys are going to hold a lot of acceptances often leading to large movement. I can think of one of my friends last year, he had sick stats and held a ton of acceptances.
 
two waitlists here!

both at schools which dont normally reject post-interview....

good luck to all!
 
Five!! Ok, UCLA 2nd tier means reject, so four. 4!!!! Fun times waiting...
 
Was on six! Withdrew from one...so now 5 (including my dream school)
 
3 waitlists, awaiting 1 decision and 1 interview to go. Still hoping for an acceptance!
 
6 interviews -> 4 waitlists & 2 rejections --> 2 rejected from waitlist...maybe itll work out in the end
 
I'm on 3 waitlists, but I know I have a good shot at all 3 of those schools. I'm not even crossing my fingers. That's how confident I am.🙂
 
4 WL's fo sho.

OSU, Cincy, Pitt, WashU.

No acceptances, so post-5/15 will suuuuuuuuuuuck.
 
Considering that waitlists are increasingly becoming a part of everyone's diet, I wish there was more information about them (i.e. How many people are on them? How many people have gotten in off the waitlist each year in the past at each school? etc.). Waitlists are mostly horrible because of the lack of information, not because of the actual waitlist itself.

Why is it that in this era of information, we're denied this kind of simple data? What significant drawbacks are there to open-ness that would override the angst, the stress, and the incessant calls/emails/letters that we send to try to crack open this black box, where even a ballpark figure (taking into account the yearly variations) would help?
 
fizzle said:
Considering that waitlists are increasingly becoming a part of everyone's diet, I wish there was more information about them (i.e. How many people are on them? How many people have gotten in off the waitlist each year in the past at each school? etc.). Waitlists are mostly horrible because of the lack of information, not because of the actual waitlist itself.

Why is it that in this era of information, we're denied this kind of simple data? What significant drawbacks are there to open-ness that would override the angst, the stress, and the incessant calls/emails/letters that we send to try to crack open this black box, where even a ballpark figure (taking into account the yearly variations) would help?
Click to expand...

You know, I've thought about this a lot, and I have a theory.

I think med schools don't really have a simply-ranked waitlist per se. I think what they do is that they try to pick a person off the waitlist who most closely matches the person who just came off it. Lost an athlete from the midwest? Try to get another athlete from the midwest! Lost an international student? Try to get another international student? Lost someone with a 42 MCAT? Try to get another high-MCATer! For that reason, to say your exact spot on the waitlist would be kinda pointless, cause while you may be the number 1 half-Japanese liberal arts major from the south, it's not really guaranteed that the other half-Japanese liberal arts major from the south will drop out, even though maybe a good 30 people will drop out of the class in total. I think that's probably why they give vague "tier" classifications.

On the other hand, I do wish that every school gave those tier classifications, and that they wouldn't use BS feel-good terms for them (I'm thinking of Penn- tier one actually means tier 3, since there's a "top of tier one who goes to second look", and a "top of tier one" and then a "tier one").

Edit: as for me, I had 6 interviews, 3 acceptances and 3 waitlists.
 
Elijah05 said:
They dont send out 300 acceptances all at one and just pray 180 people decline.......It means that over the long long application cycle they have to send out more and more invites and people begin to decline or withdraw. A perfect exmaple you can read on SDN here. someone interviewed at aecom and the dean told him they had to send out 500 acceptances to fill about 150 spots or so as so many people rejected to invite. Once again I'm not saying this is commonplace, just that ive read it on here and heard it from the schools themselves. You have about 45000 people each probably applying on average to 15-20 schools. You are going to get a large number of applicants who are holding 2+ spots which makes for large movements. Also consider that theres some schools like aecom that people for w/e reason just dont seem to truly want to go to. Think of all the people who have 3.8/38 mcats or are strong applicants. You know those guys are going to hold a lot of acceptances often leading to large movement. I can think of one of my friends last year, he had sick stats and held a ton of acceptances.
Click to expand...
There are a lot of assumptions being made in this post. Don't forget that SDN probably doesn't match the 'average' pre med population when coming up with these figures. I do however agree with the overall idea being presented.
 
7 interviews: 1 rejection (Einstein), 5 waitlists (Columbia, Vandy, Dartmouth, Iowa, Wisc), 1 pending (NYMC)
 
ButImLETired said:
You know, I've thought about this a lot, and I have a theory.

I think med schools don't really have a simply-ranked waitlist per se. I think what they do is that they try to pick a person off the waitlist who most closely matches the person who just came off it. Lost an athlete from the midwest? Try to get another athlete from the midwest! Lost an international student? Try to get another international student? Lost someone with a 42 MCAT? Try to get another high-MCATer! For that reason, to say your exact spot on the waitlist would be kinda pointless, cause while you may be the number 1 half-Japanese liberal arts major from the south, it's not really guaranteed that the other half-Japanese liberal arts major from the south will drop out, even though maybe a good 30 people will drop out of the class in total. I think that's probably why they give vague "tier" classifications.

On the other hand, I do wish that every school gave those tier classifications, and that they wouldn't use BS feel-good terms for them (I'm thinking of Penn- tier one actually means tier 3, since there's a "top of tier one who goes to second look", and a "top of tier one" and then a "tier one").

Edit: as for me, I had 6 interviews, 3 acceptances and 3 waitlists.
Click to expand...

It's a plausible theory, but then, going back to the complete lack of information, we're still stuck with complete guesswork and no facts. I can understand that the process is very unpredictable, but what is there to gain from holding back what information they do have? Even if solid historical numbers won't account for everything in your scenario, they do give a sense of a trend (even with yearly variation, there has to be a general trend; the system is just not completely random) for what the odds are of getting off a waitlist. As far as we know, a school could waitlist anywhere from 100 people to over 500. Regardless of any pattern, knowing the exact number would give us a general idea of our odds, even with a selective situation such as yours. Yet since even the number of people waitlisted is kept from us, we're left completely in the dark.
 
fizzle said:
It's a plausible theory, but then, going back to the complete lack of information, we're still stuck with complete guesswork and no facts. I can understand that the process is very unpredictable, but what is there to gain from holding back what information they do have? Even if solid historical numbers won't account for everything in your scenario, they do give a sense of a trend (even with yearly variation, there has to be a general trend; the system is just not completely random) for what the odds are of getting off a waitlist. As far as we know, a school could waitlist anywhere from 100 people to over 500. Regardless of any pattern, knowing the exact number would give us a general idea of our odds, even with a selective situation such as yours. Yet since even the number of people waitlisted is kept from us, we're left completely in the dark.
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Eh yeah I know I agree. I think the most frustrating aspect of this process is how incredibly hush-hush it is. We pay for applications to "be read" but we don't know anything beyond that. We don't know how careful readers are, when they plan to read them, who is there when they discuss our application, what happens post-interview, how we're ranked, when we're going to hear, what the med schools are looking for, how waitlists are dealt with, where we are on the waitlist....it never ends. We send our applications and our checks into a black hole and pray to God that everything works out in the end.
 
7 interviews, 1 acceptance, 1 rejection, 5 waitlists
 
4 interviews, 2 acceptances, 1 rejection, 1 waitlist. I probably wouldn't attend my waitlist school over my current acceptance, but we'll see how this plays out.
 
aznb0y129 said:
4 interviews, 2 acceptances, 1 rejection, 1 waitlist. I probably wouldn't attend my waitlist school over my current acceptance, but we'll see how this plays out.
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Stony Brook is supposed to be nice, isn't it? Even if its picture in the MSAR is of a weird, sorta ugly looking building? :meanie:
 
RoadRunner17 said:
Stony Brook is supposed to be nice, isn't it? Even if its picture in the MSAR is of a weird, sorta ugly looking building? :meanie:
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Yeah, it's nice, but I would probably get cabin fever living out there in the boonies of Long Island.

Plus, it's more research-oriented and I like the clinical exposure at Downstate more.
 
Reapplicant, 5 waitlists, 1 pending (most likely waitlist).

After two years of nail-biting, waiting, self-steem drops, incessant worrying/ "what if" scenarios running rampant through my head, and putting life on hold for an uncertain future... i have finally let go of it all.

It's time to live life and appreciate each moment. If something good happens then great. Otherwise i'm going to enjoy whatever comes. I've tried my best.

Good luck to everyone!!! i hope you receive/achieve whatever your heart desires (and more) :luck::xf::luck:

😎 PS- It's not over yet =)
 
fizzle said:
Considering that waitlists are increasingly becoming a part of everyone's diet, I wish there was more information about them (i.e. How many people are on them? How many people have gotten in off the waitlist each year in the past at each school? etc.). Waitlists are mostly horrible because of the lack of information, not because of the actual waitlist itself.

Why is it that in this era of information, we're denied this kind of simple data? What significant drawbacks are there to open-ness that would override the angst, the stress, and the incessant calls/emails/letters that we send to try to crack open this black box, where even a ballpark figure (taking into account the yearly variations) would help?
Click to expand...

I was actually able to find some waitlist statistics of the schools I'm waitlisted at by rummaging through some past SDN threads. (like how many people they usually waitlist/how many people get off/etc..)
Perhaps you can try that?
If there's no information on SDN, then I guess you have no choice but to wait in the dark.
Yeah, the uncertainty is definitely the worst part.
You don't want to get to hopeful because you might ultimately get rejected and you'll be devastated,
yet, it's hard not to be hopeful because you want to go there.
 
Just wanted to bump this thread to say that I am now on 6 waitlists. Bummer. At this point, I feel as if I wasted thousands of dollars and tons of time traveling to schools just to hear them say that they don't want me 🙁

And I don't think I'm that bad of an interviewer, either, but judging from how this interview season went, what do I know?
 
fizzle said:
Just wanted to bump this thread to say that I am now on 6 waitlists. Bummer. At this point, I feel as if I wasted thousands of dollars and tons of time traveling to schools just to hear them say that they don't want me 🙁

And I don't think I'm that bad of an interviewer, either, but judging from how this interview season went, what do I know?
Click to expand...

I guess letters of updates. Keep your head up. I mean one out of 6 should surely call you with an acceptance.:luck:
 
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