what does "on short list" mean?

[Guest Jay]

when I checked my status, a coordinator of my application for Washington University in St. Louis said: "you are on the short list."

Since I don't know what that means, I asked "you mean this is good new?" and she said "yeah."

However, I just wonder what "on the short list" does really mean.

could you help me?

[Guest Jonez]

There are long lists with lots of names, and there are short lists with fewer names. You are on the short list. It is slightly unclear from the information provided whether this means:

a) enough admissions have been granted to fill the class, but you remain on a short waitlist (and could be admitted if enough decline their offers)

or simply

some admissions have been sent out, but you are on a short list of people who may soon be offered admission

It would be cruel to phrase a) like what you heard, so is likely.

Short lists are people who remain after some amount of sorting, culling, cutting, and ranking.

Hope this wasn't all obvious.

[Guest Guest]

I thought short list means the top so and so people list.

E.g if they are accepting 20 people, they shortlist 40 and they look at these applications to decide who gets financial aid offer and who gets wait-listed or gets admitted with no aid.

Anyone has the exact answer as to what short-listed means?

[Guest]

They've accepted their top choices already, and if any of those people decline the offer, they'll start working their way down the short list.

[Guest guest]

Nope. It just means a shorter list of names to pick from, the list of applicants really consider for admission.

The ones whose applications they'll be looking into detail. That's all there is to it.

The list you are referring to is the waiting list. That's what remains after they have picked people to admit from the

shortlist.