What is a WL a soft rejection? What is the purpose?

[2024NonTradAnon]

Last week, I was WL at a school that has a waitlist the size of their incoming class. Some digging in previous school specific threads showed the school used to have waitlist that were 1.5 times their class size. The school provided information in the MSAR waitlist procedures shows they usually only end up pulling 25 folks off their waitlist. When I told a former professor I had been placed on the waitlist he said it could be a “soft rejection.” He isn’t a medical school admissions counselor and couldn’t really explain why a school would do that so I did a bunch of article reading and find myself also asking the wise folks here at SDN…

What is the purpose of WL positions as soft rejections? I may be an odd duck but I’d rather just be outright rejected than left hanging and soft rejected; then I can move on with my life and make decisions with concrete information instead of being in limbo.

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[Frigidcold]

It's a kink.

Or more likely it allows them to curate their class better. If someone chooses another school, they can more easily replace them with someone similar.

 

[Goro]

Until you get that Acceptance email in your Inbox, you are rejected.

 

[GoSpursGo]

These are the sorts of cruel questions that do you no good in asking.

Assume you're rejected and act accordingly. If you miraculously get off the WL consider yourself lucky.

 

[2024NonTradAnon]

These are the sorts of cruel questions that do you no good in asking.

Assume you're rejected and act accordingly. If you miraculously get off the WL consider yourself lucky.

With all due respect, you’re not denying it’s a “thing.” I think having a waitlist for the purposes of backfilling a class makes sense. However, putting people on a waitlist a school has no intention of accepting as a “soft rejection”, which does seem to be a thing based on the now numerous articles I have read, seems like a poor practice and worthy of critique.

For the record, I am acting as if I am rejected and planning accordingly.

 

[chilly_md]

Some schools prefer to have a large WL every year in the event that a truly worst case scenario plays out for them one cycle. There is no use digging beyond that.

 

[LizzyM]

Some schools don't want to insult someone who is a perfectly good candidate who could not be admitted solely because there was not enough room. So a waitlist/soft rejection is saying, "it's not you, it's me" . I think that sometimes there is also the hope that the applicant will reapply and be that much better next time to rise to the top and be admitted. I have seen this happen with applicants who were okay but not rising to the top whatever-percent that you need to be in to go from "interviewed" to "admitted". After an additional year of school/work/volunteering/maturing they come back and nail the interview.

 

[2023applicantxd]

Sounds like Baylor’s WL
They put 550 people on and take off 25

 

[2024NonTradAnon]

Some schools don't want to insult someone who is a perfectly good candidate who could not be admitted solely because there was not enough room. So a waitlist/soft rejection is saying, "it's not you, it's me" . I think that sometimes there is also the hope that the applicant will reapply and be that much better next time to rise to the top and be admitted. I have seen this happen with applicants who were okay but not rising to the top whatever-percent that you need to be in to go from "interviewed" to "admitted". After an additional year of school/work/volunteering/maturing they come back and nail the interview.

Thank you. I genuinely appreciate the perspective sharing.

 

[2024NonTradAnon]

Some schools prefer to have a large WL every year in the event that a truly worst case scenario plays out for them one cycle. There is no use digging beyond that.

With all due respect…why take the time to respond to say don’t ask the question when it is clearly a practice of which you are either not aware of or not interested in discussing?

I understand that it could be frustrating as a volunteer staff member at SDN to deal with the persist neurosis and redundancy of questions posed by premed students. However, discouraging people from asking questions is generally in poor form, particularly on a forum such as this. Perhaps if more people asked questions and were open to listening to the perspective of others, our society would be in better shape.

 

[WildWing]

SDN recently published an article on waitlists that might provide some perspective:

From Waitlist to Offer: Inside an Admissions Committee - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

Part of the reason the waitlist may be larger than their class size is that they want to have the ability to replace an accepted student who turns down their acceptance with a similar student, not just any student. For example, if Imperial Med School offered an acceptance to Luke Skywalker, a young man who grew up in a rural area, and he goes off to join the Rebel Alliance instead of joining their class, they might want to have someone with a similar rural profile to take his slot. That requires a larger waitlist.

 

[GoSpursGo]

With all due respect, you’re not denying it’s a “thing.” I think having a waitlist for the purposes of backfilling a class makes sense. However, putting people on a waitlist a school has no intention of accepting as a “soft rejection”, which does seem to be a thing based on the now numerous articles I have read, seems like a poor practice and worthy of critique.

For the record, I am acting as if I am rejected and planning accordingly.

Of course it’s a thing. It sucks. It has sucked ever since I applied to med school 15 years ago.

As others have said, schools have a reason for doing this. While it results in a bad experience for a lot of people on the waitlist, it does mean that there are probably a few who get in who would not have gotten in had the school used a strict ranked waitlist. It just depends on your perspective and whether you are one of the applicants who gets off the waitlist.

 

[Med Ed]

With all due respect…why take the time to respond to say don’t ask the question when it is clearly a practice of which you are either not aware of or not interested in discussing?

I understand that it could be frustrating as a volunteer staff member at SDN to deal with the persist neurosis and redundancy of questions posed by premed students. However, discouraging people from asking questions is generally in poor form, particularly on a forum such as this. Perhaps if more people asked questions and were open to listening to the perspective of others, our society would be in better shape.

Neurosis and redundancy come with the territory. The people who make things truly unpleasant are the ones who default to getting defensive and accusatory.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As WildWing pointed out, read the article.

The admissions process is crazy. The job requires us to fill the class with as many qualified candidates as possible by the enrollment date. Undergrad admissions at many schools are just as big and can fill their classes with just as qualified students from their waitlist.

It's like having your bench players be just as good or better than your starters. (Geez, that South Carolina women's team was incredible!)

If you don't want to be on a waitlist, consider many other professions that have a near 1 to 1 ratio of applicants to seats (see the other forums). I'm sure medicine is doing everything to avoid that despite the rapid increase in available seats.

 

[wysdoc]

Neurosis and redundancy come with the territory. The people who make things truly unpleasant are the ones who default to getting defensive and accusatory.

And the 100% correlation of the phrase "with all due respect" being immediately followed by something that is critical, sarcastic and disrespectful.

 

[2024NonTradAnon]

And the 100% correlation of the phrase "with all due respect" being immediately followed by something that is critical, sarcastic and disrespectful.

Was it really? Or do administrators/volunteer staff/longtime posters on SDN sometimes have the tendency to be dismissive of users...? And instead of not saying something about it, which is usually the case because folks are anxious, scared, and tired in the admissions process, I just pointed out that it wasn't helpful or productive. But then I was accused of being defensive...of what I don't know...

Instead of being patronizing about what I should or should not be concerned, one of the veteran posters here just responded with helpful information in a manner that wasn't dismissive of the question I asked.

ETA: My question has been answered and I am genuinely appreciative of the reply.

 

[2024NonTradAnon]

Neurosis and redundancy come with the territory. The people who make things truly unpleasant are the ones who default to getting defensive and accusatory.

I got a substantive answer to my question that was helpful to me and will no doubt be helpful to other applicants in the future.

 

[TheLad]

The answer is that medical schools preach compassion and wellness but they don't actually care about your feelings at all. Medical schools only do what benefits them.

 

[gyngyn]

Closing.