That’s the other thing. I’m almost certain western has never had this happen before. I’ve heard in the past that the waitlist has had little movement some years, and other years they’ve gone through the whole thing. But I’ve never heard of this happening. And since there were more applicants this year than ever before, I’m sure more people got rejected from other schools and so accepted an offer from Western. That’s probably where this problem stems from. Also the gap in communication, given that someone spoke to Karen this morning and she said that they’re expecting to take a few people off the waitlist. From what it sounds like, they’re not.
I know I’ve already made some assumptions about what’s going on, but I’m eager to hear what their explanation is if they give one. I was waitlisted, but lucky enough to be accepted by another school. However, I still feel almost attached to western because of how different they made themselves out to be. It’s a little disconcerting to me now that this is happening.
I would definitely contact them and ask about getting it back.They didn’t say anything about the deposits. I mean I feel that’s the least they could do.
Thank you so much
I think Ohio state had it happen in the past and Illinois had it happen for 2020 but deferments were not forced. Incentives were offered like a free masters or in state tuition to get people to defer to the next class. Illinois has a goal of 130 total and ~180 had accepted. They got it down to ~160 I think with incentives for deferment and just rolled with it. They had enough seats in the classroom and made it work. But certainly did not take away someone’s acceptance because they had a huge jump in acceptances.
It's based on who payed the deposit first.
I know it’s a really long shot, but I’d consider contacting your next top choice just to see if they’d be willing to let you have your spot back or your spot in the waitlist pool? Maybe someone would take pity since this is an extreme case...
That’s dumb as hell.
I don’t see any harm in it. Because if it’s based on who paid deposit first, that definitely seems like it violates the April 15th deadline.
Well that finalizes my decision on that. To make matters 10x worse, Karen explicitly said on interview day just before the financial aid seminar that if any college tries to get you to submit your deposit before the deadline that they should be reported to the AAVMC.
I will definitely do the same. Just on the website?
In the contact us section on the AAVMC website, I selected “other” for the topic of my comment.
Do you have to be an applicant to do this? I wasn’t in the running for western but I’ll 200% do it, because I am so disheartened for you all
Nope. You can still report it since you know it’s going on. I wasn’t affected by it since I withdrew my application back in February, but I still want this to be handled appropriately.
Western was my first acceptance and I emailed Karen about how soon we needed to put our deposit down (I was panicked from the over-acceptance statement in the acceptance letter) and she literally told me to wait until April in order to consider all of my offers. So I’m incredibly frustrated for you all I’m so sorry
Yea it’s kind of a 6 in one, half dozen in another argument. Just because applicants are EXPECTED to be in the class of 2019 doesn’t mean they will be, just as it was unexpected that so many would accept the offer. So as of now, students are deferred unless told otherwise. That’s the only thing that’s been confirmed, and I still don’t see how it’s not in violation of the AAVMC deadline. Especially because the students submitted their deposit before the deadline, but weren’t actually guaranteed a spot.
Is the bolded not exactly that, though? Clearly something is getting lost in translation.
Ah, I see. Not too early, not too late. That seems to be right around when the majority of schools put out their decisions. A few schools don't release decisions until mid-late March or even early April.
Yea the problem is also that this is exactly why waitlists are a thing. You accept around how many people can be in the class, maybe a little more. Then whatever is left you pull from the waitlist. I understand they want to get the best applicants possible by not waiting until others have accepted their spots to then pull off the waitlist, but this is far worse. In addition, it sounds like other schools incentivized to make the class size more manageable, but then ate the difference. They didn’t force students to defer.
There’s also the fact that the other schools had VOLUNTARY deferments. Western is FORCING them if they don’t have enough people drop. Choosing to wait a year is completely different than being told “whoops we ran out of spots so you can only come if people drop whooooops sorry not sorry”
I just have to say, don’t look at a gap year between graduation and vet school as being stuck in limbo. It was the best thing I ever did. I was able to work much more at a vet hospital, make great relationships, hone my clinical skills and get great experiences in the hospital, and make some money as well. I honestly think I would have felt overloaded going right to school from school. If you didn’t take a gap year between high school and college then you’ve basically been in school for 17-18 years straight! A year in between can actually do a lot of good. And if you decide to do a post-bacc or something, it’s less work than a full degree so it’s still a bit of a breather.
Mo’ money less loans
For now I'm going to eat all the dessert I want, though. I'll be rollin' into vet school next year 
