Program has no wait list?

[crazygirl2012]

At my top choice, one of the grad students said that the program has no wait list. They make their offers, and if those applicants don't accept them, the offers simply disappear. Has anyone ever heard of this? I made it very clear to them that they're my top choice! I hope it helped.

[mmm2]

I don't know how common this is, but I know for certain that Harvard works off of the same system--as a program they offer a few more spots than they optimally would like to fill (in terms of funding) with the idea that some of those offers won't be accepted. Even if an offer is turned down, a POI is unable to offer that spot to another candidate even if he/she would like to because of the program's admissions guidlines.

[crazygirl2012]

I don't know how common this is, but I know for certain that Harvard works off of the same system--as a program they offer a few more spots than they optimally would like to fill (in terms of funding) with the idea that some of those offers won't be accepted. Even if an offer is turned down, a POI is unable to offer that spot to another candidate even if he/she would like to because of the program's admissions guidlines.

Thank you! I'm pretty sure this school follows the same procedure and reasoning.

[lucere]

What you described, and what the commenter from Harvard wrote, also fits generally with my understanding of how admissions works at UIUC's psychology department (at least in the divisions I'm famliar with). Like the previous commenter, I don't know how common it is across schools.

[lewin]

Pretty common, especially if all grad students need to be approved by a departmental committee. Committee meets once to approve the admissions and that's it.

[crazygirl2012]

It seems like it's most common among the top-ranked schools. It's weird, but I guess it works for them.