How common are waitlists?

[Hopelessly_Neurotic]

I'm just curious about whether most/all schools use some form of wait list, or is it possible that some schools send out a batch of admissions, reject the rest, and hope for the best? Anyone wanna speculate?

[socialpsych]

Yeah. I'll speculate.

I would guess that waitlists are probably pretty common. I only know much about the inner workings of one program, but it is a top program in the field and I think their yield is very high...also, it is a very small program with about 2 students per field per year. And they have a (short) waitlist. If they have one, I can't imagine what kind of program wouldn't.

I did hear that one program tends to reject people who don't pre-commit to choosing the program if they get an offer (which is really crappy of that program :x ) so I could imagine that program not having a waitlist. But I think that's a special case.

[Sonic]

Considering that a lot of people on last year's forum (in many fields) heard nothing from some schools until mid-April or later, I would imagine waitlists are common. Beyond that, different schools and programs have different systems. I've heard of some schools having short, ranked waitlists, and some schools really seem to keep a ton of applicants on the line until they are absolutely sure they've filled their slots.

I've never been explicitly told that I was on a waitlist, but the graduate coordinator's vague replies to my post-April 15th emails gave it away, as did the rejection letter dated in late May.

[cardnav]

This purely theoretical and I have no backing to it, but I would also expect waitlists to be more popular this year. With the economy the way it is, endowments are going down the toilet, so programs are going to maximize revenue. If there is an outside chance a spot will be open, they will have a way to fill it.

[Lizzle]

I was told by my several profs from my M.A. program that wait lists will be more common this year than in the past. Yes, this is because of the economic situation and the related funding cuts many universities have faced. I don't know if the impact will be felt equally between private and public institutions, although I have to admit I'm starting to wish I'd thrown in apps at a few more non-state schools (already waitlisted at one public u.).

Good luck, everyone!

[socialpsych]

I was told by my several profs from my M.A. program that wait lists will be more common this year than in the past. Yes, this is because of the economic situation and the related funding cuts many universities have faced.

Yeah, I have now heard the same thing from someone who is actually involved in the process (vs. my previous post).

Universities will want to fill their spots, but they also will not want to accept more candidates than they actually want to end up with (which they often do because yield is not 100%), due to the risk of ending up with too many students and not enough funding. So they will be more inclined to accept precisely as many as they want but have a bigger waitlist.