WL vs. acceptance offers made

[mangomaniac]

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When MSAR or a school says for example 200 acceptance offers are made for a class of 100, does this mean 100 direct acceptances + 100 WL offers that eventually turned into acceptances? Or does this mean 200 acceptances + WL?

 

[ModernAlchemist]

It's usually the latter.

 

[mangomaniac]

It's usually the latter.

Interesting... So they OVER accept AND have a WL? That's basically... less than a 50% matriculation rate then.

 

[ModernAlchemist]

Interesting... So they OVER accept AND have a WL? That's basically... less than a 50% matriculation rate then.

You have to realize that applicants apply to many schools and medical schools have to balance getting the best applicants with getting applicants who will choose to attend. If they're a good applicant for one school, they'll be good for another school. Also of note, my medical school (and I assume many others) never go past the top 3rd of the waitlist.

 

[Pusheen]

they have to. Just over 1/2 of all matriculating students receive more than 1 acceptance. therefore schools are ready to fill those seats

Are you confirming that the acceptance numbers on msar are direct acceptances only, no wl acceptances?

 

[libertyyne]

It gets even better at some schools where they only perform 400 interviews for 100 seats and send out 300 acceptances +WL.

 

[Pusheen]

no quite the opposite. total acceptances are just that: total, from all source, be them direct acceptance or via WL

Ok, that's what I thought. This thread seemed headed in the wrong direction at first 😛

 

[CharlieBillings]

When MSAR or a school says for example 200 acceptance offers are made for a class of 100, does this mean 100 direct acceptances + 100 WL offers that eventually turned into acceptances? Or does this mean 200 acceptances + WL?

MSAR shows # of accepted people, but not total # of acceptances. If you look at #accepted it matches the class size typically. You can't use MSAR to check acceptance rate.

What you want to look at is post-II acceptance rate, which should include both direct acceptances and WL acceptances. You can google this and find the entire list, and it has been posted on SDN multiple times. This comes from the US News report.

 

[Goro]

ALL med schools over-accept. Just like the airlines overbook seats. Not everybody shows up, so to speak, and so you have to go to your bench.

How do Admissions deans manage to get just the right amount of people? It's a Dark Art.

At my school, we get around 5-6000K apps
We interview about 500
We accept ~250-300
We seat ~100.

Interesting... So they OVER accept AND have a WL? That's basically... less than a 50% matriculation rate then.

 

[mangomaniac]

It gets even better at some schools where they only perform 400 interviews for 100 seats and send out 300 acceptances +WL.

What school is thaaat? Should've applied.

I'm back to being confused again.

no quite the opposite. total acceptances are just that: total, from all source, be them direct acceptance or via WL

So total acceptance DOES include WL acceptances. When a school says they send out 300 acceptances for a seat of 100, that could mean 200 direct acceptances + 100 WL that turn into acceptance

 

[cactusman]

So total acceptance DOES include WL acceptances. When a school says they send out 300 acceptances for a seat of 100, that could mean 200 direct acceptances + 100 WL that turn into acceptance

If it's reported as total acceptances, it includes WL acceptances also, but a med school might make a less formal statement that only includes direct acceptances.

 

[LizzyM]

You have to realize that applicants apply to many schools and medical schools have to balance getting the best applicants with getting applicants who will choose to attend. If they're a good applicant for one school, they'll be good for another school. Also of note, my medical school (and I assume many others) never go past the top 3rd of the waitlist.

My medical school seldom goes past the top 3 on the waitlist. 😱

 

[Goro]

For a total of about 20-25k seats. Thus, the national avg is about 2.5 accepts for each seat.

No, all acceptances have to be formally reported to AMCAS and there is no difference between a direct acceptance or WL. What an school m indivdual school may do is report the number of final acceptances (ie offers given and currently held by students) which may be a few more than matriculants.

PS: With 830,000 total applications last year, my rough estimate would make about 50,000 total acceptances during the course of the cycle

 

[cactusman]

No, all acceptances have to be formally reported to AMCAS and there is no difference between a direct acceptance or WL. What an school m indivdual school may do is report the number of final acceptances (ie offers given and currently held by students) which may be a few more than matriculants.

PS: With 830,000 total applications last year, my rough estimate would make about 50,000 total acceptances during the course of the cycle

I'm just thinking of (non-med school) information that says things like "we extended x offers for x spaces" before WL acceptances have been given out. Do med schools never make that kind of an informal statement before the AMCAS report?

 

[Horse Apiece]

If you go to the final tab on the MSAR, 'Acceptance Information,' some schools will show an approximate for how many they waitlist and how many they accept from the waitlist.