Thanks! I also emailed them and got a reply about the waitlist ranking! I'm an IR applicant.
For me, not really. Based on what I've heard about my ranking, it could be that the waitlist is small, or I was lucky enough to make it to the top of the waitlist. Not sure which one is true. I think if you're an IR applicant, you might have a decent chance of getting in, because I think most schools tend to admit more IR students compared to the other subfield. However, I'm not optimistic about funding. UCLA seems to accept people without funding.. and on their website, it says that some students pay tuition. (It was a post about in-state vs out-state tuition.. that itself means that there are some students who pay to get their PhD). For me, I think getting off the waitlist without funding means nothing. I would probably reject the offer. The fact that I'm on the waitlist and UCLA is known to have very limited funding for PhD students, I'm pretty sure I'm at the very end of the line for funding.