Pol Sci 2024-25 / Waitlisted Candidates

[brzher]

26 minutes ago, smoothoperator77 said:

I got an email from the DGS. Yeah I think all decisions were already out. Where did you accept? 

UMN (my top choice from the start)

[smoothoperator77]

9 minutes ago, brzher said:

UMN (my top choice from the start)

That's great! Congratulations. 

[jaliren]

Is it the impression of others that in the case of schools that haven't sent a decision yet, we may be unofficially waitlisted? I am thinking that certain schools like to send out an initial batch of acceptances, wait to see who accepts/rejects, then send out another wave later to lower-ranked candidates. The reason they may not officially place applicants on a waitlist is that it could negatively color their perception of the school—they may believe that waitlisted applicants will in the meantime start to develop a more positive opinion of other schools that they believe are more interested in them, and therefore refrain from actually doing a real waitlist. 

Does this (admittedly entirely speculative) theory sound reasonable to other people? Maybe I'm just deluding myself haha 

[PolSciComp]

2 hours ago, jaliren said:

Is it the impression of others that in the case of schools that haven't sent a decision yet, we may be unofficially waitlisted? I am thinking that certain schools like to send out an initial batch of acceptances, wait to see who accepts/rejects, then send out another wave later to lower-ranked candidates. The reason they may not officially place applicants on a waitlist is that it could negatively color their perception of the school—they may believe that waitlisted applicants will in the meantime start to develop a more positive opinion of other schools that they believe are more interested in them, and therefore refrain from actually doing a real waitlist. 

Does this (admittedly entirely speculative) theory sound reasonable to other people? Maybe I'm just deluding myself haha 

During my previous application cycle, I had been waitlisted at City University of New York(CUNY) but i could learn this only after sending them multiple emails during the first week of March at that time, I had thought that they forgot reviewing my application 🙂 They had replied that they were looking options whether they could extend further offers.

Hence, there is a possibility that you have been waitlisted if schools still do not respond to you.

[Omkar Poojari]

Just an observation- see two acceptances for Stanford and Wisconsin posted today. two schools that had sent initial acceptances earlier. I wonder if these were acceptances off the waitlist. I did not apply there but if these were waitlists getting converted to an offer, it gives much more hope to everyone here.

[01anonymous]

 

16 hours ago, Omkar Poojari said:

Just an observation- see two acceptances for Stanford and Wisconsin posted today. two schools that had sent initial acceptances earlier. I wonder if these were acceptances off the waitlist. I did not apply there but if these were waitlists getting converted to an offer, it gives much more hope to everyone here.

Saw the same about the University of Michigan just now. I am wondering if they just put the date wrong or were actually accepted off the waitlist (seems early for this). The comment just says '123' for reference. 

[Omkar Poojari]

No clue, maybe drop a comment?

[Omkar Poojari]

Not sure if this has been asked before and I apologise if it has been but do programs normally wait till April 15 to admit students off the waitlist? So, if a few people from their initial list decline earlier- in March- would they move people on the waitlist in some days or wait till the April 15 deadline?

Could things differ this year?

Edited Monday at 03:53 PM by Omkar Poojari

[01anonymous]

On 3/10/2025 at 9:51 AM, Omkar Poojari said:

Not sure if this has been asked before and I apologise if it has been but do programs normally wait till April 15 to admit students off the waitlist? So, if a few people from their initial list decline earlier- in March- would they move people on the waitlist in some days or wait till the April 15 deadline?

Could things differ this year?

Hi Omkar,

I was waiting for someone else to take a jab at this because of knowing quite little and being on the same boat as everyone else here, but here's my take - I think, at this point, it depends on how soon other people reject their offers. Say over 50 percent of people reject their offers post admit day or by the first week of April, they might move to the waitlist sooner than anticipated and probably have a decision before 15 April. However, for a lot of schools, people may hold their offers till the last minute and sometimes not even reject them until 15 April when the schools assume an automatic rejection. I think the wait could really vary from school to school and department to department. What worries me more, is the funding cuts, which are causing schools to admit less and less people which might mean that they may not move to waitlists and that is kind of scary. 

[Omkar Poojari]

54 minutes ago, 01anonymous said:

Hi Omkar,

I was waiting for someone else to take a jab at this because of knowing quite little and being on the same boat as everyone else here, but here's my take - I think, at this point, it depends on how soon other people reject their offers. Say over 50 percent of people reject their offers post admit day or by the first week of April, they might move to the waitlist sooner than anticipated and probably have a decision before 15 April. However, for a lot of schools, people may hold their offers till the last minute and sometimes not even reject them until 15 April when the schools assume an automatic rejection. I think the wait could really vary from school to school and department to department. What worries me more, is the funding cuts, which are causing schools to admit less and less people which might mean that they may not move to waitlists and that is kind of scary. 

Hi!

Yeah. I second that- the fear is if they would actually get into the waitlists this year. But on the brighter side, I think most schools have not over admitted or admitted fewer than usual students in the initial round this year. Possibly this could mean some more chances for those on the waitlist. This is my guess based on the place where I've been waitlisted. I know they don't target more than 2-3 people for my subfield and I only know 3 offers being made. At max, I am assuming they made 5 offers - so 1-2 more admits. Again, all this is my guess.