Waitlist?

[Chanyoung Kim]

Yesterday, I was informed by e-mail from Michigan that I was placed on the waitlist and they would keep me update as soon as possible, although everything would be figured out by April, 15. I really wonder if I have any chances to get admissions from Michigan. For me, "waitlist" means nothing, and given the current economic situation, it is less likely that I would be admitted. What do you think about it?

[limeinthecoconut]

Yesterday, I was informed by e-mail from Michigan that I was placed on the waitlist and they would keep me update as soon as possible, although everything would be figured out by April, 15. I really wonder if I have any chances to get admissions from Michigan. For me, "waitlist" means nothing, and given the current economic situation, it is less likely that I would be admitted. What do you think about it?

I wouldn't rule out Michigan, as there had been instances of people getting off the waitlist in Michigan. Why don't you ask them where you are on the waitlist, and what are your realistic chances of getting off the waitlist? Michigan funds all its admits, even if you were admitted off the waitlist.

[Septimius]

As far as the wailtlisting goes I know how it feels, I'm currently waitlisted at UNC. When I contacted the DGS to find out more info I was informed that there is no real "order" to the waitlist, or rather that it isn't necessarily strictly ranked, and as far as knowing how many are on the list with you, I was told this was confidential.

One major factor to remember as well is about your field. At UNC there a good number of specialties and the smaller ones can only admit 1 grad student. (As in my field, Ancient) But in larger fields, like US history, they can probably admit around 6, so if say 3 of those 6 reject UNC's offer, then they go to the list. They would likely go to 2 of waitlisted US history applicants, and maybe 1 from another field. But, if the 1 from a smaller field goes, then they would go directly to the 1 waitlisted for that field, and if none from that field were waitlisted, then they'd most likely go to another smaller field waitlistee.

These are more or less my guesses on how this works, but one thing that I know for sure is this: There is not a master list with all waitlisted apps ranked from 1-15, and they work their way down the list numerically whenever a spot opens in any field.

If that was how it happened, it would be very possible that say out of the incoming class of 20, which when the first acceptances were made was split to:

6-US/3-Euro/2-Military/2-Global/1-Asian/1-Woman's/1-Russian/1-LatinAmer/1-Ancient... totaling 20.

Where the numbers per field was very fair and distributed.

Now....

Lets say that all 6 of the US apps turn down UNC, as well as 1 from European, 1 from Global, and 1 from Russian. That adds up to 9 denials. Now if on that waitlist the top 9 applicants are all Latin Americanists, you would have an incoming class of 10 Latin American historians, and no US historians. Very unbalanced.

The bottom line here is that: contrary to popular belief there really cannot be a "ranked" system of all apps. It is reasonable though to have a ranked list among sub-fields, but as the DGS from UNC told me, they strive for a balance among their specialties.

All this being said, I think that the general consensus for waitlists is that most will be eventually offered admission. I am here at UPenn now, and was told that they usually offer admission to twice as many applicants as they can afford to fund, expecting less than half to accept the offer. But since last year they only offer to their max budget. They also said that as far as how they waitlist, it is a very short list, and they expect nearly all, if not all to be offered admission at some point.

Feel free to contact the DGS and let them now about your desire for their program. Good luck!

Edited March 3, 2010 by Septimius