"Unofficial" Waitlists

[Wisdom-Lover]

So... I have a question. These "unofficial" waitlists I've heard about: how do they work? Do the schools notify you by April 15th of their final decisions? Are they required to notify you at all?

 

It just seems a little cruel to make anxious applicants wait without any word. You would think that schools would try to be considerate of applicants' feelings. (I understand they're busy and get a lot of applications, but even a form rejection letter (even simply copy and pasted in email!) would be an act of kindness, I think...)

[TakeruK]

Like job postings, schools are not "required" to notify you at all. But I think most schools will eventually send you a reject notification if they did reject you. Sometimes they just have far too many rejections to be able to respond in a timely manner (they might wait until they sort out all the details of the accepted people first). I agree that it would be best to hear bad news sooner rather than later, but as an optimistic, I'd like to think that it's not like they are purposing being cruel, but limited time/resources makes some responses very delayed. It's not like they have anything to gain by being mean to a bunch of us!

 

As for April 15th, if you are on a waitlist, it usually means that they are waiting for the accepted students to decide first. These students generally have until April 15, so if people decide earlier, you might hear before April 15, but if everyone decides on April 14, then you might not hear until shortly afterwards. As you can imagine, the week of April 15 can be a very hectic and stressful time as people might need to hear back before making decisions.

 

So, I think the best practice is for applicants to make decisions as they have enough information. If you (the general you) e.g. get into 6 schools but are on the waitlist for your top choice, it doesn't make sense to hold onto all 6 offers while waiting for your top choice to get back to you. Instead, while waiting, I'd encourage you to think about the current 6 offers and narrow it down to just 1 or 2. Once you've done so, decline the other 4-5 offers so that people on those waitlists can make their decisions. Maybe someone who is holding an offer from your top choice is on the waitlist at one of your accepted schools! While I don't think anyone should be forced into making a decision before they are ready, I don't think something like a 6-way tie between schools is reasonable for most people. There has to be one or two that you prefer more (unless it's really early in the season and you haven't had any info yet).

[Wisdom-Lover]

Like job postings, schools are not "required" to notify you at all. But I think most schools will eventually send you a reject notification if they did reject you. Sometimes they just have far too many rejections to be able to respond in a timely manner (they might wait until they sort out all the details of the accepted people first). I agree that it would be best to hear bad news sooner rather than later, but as an optimistic, I'd like to think that it's not like they are purposing being cruel, but limited time/resources makes some responses very delayed. It's not like they have anything to gain by being mean to a bunch of us!

 

As for April 15th, if you are on a waitlist, it usually means that they are waiting for the accepted students to decide first. These students generally have until April 15, so if people decide earlier, you might hear before April 15, but if everyone decides on April 14, then you might not hear until shortly afterwards. As you can imagine, the week of April 15 can be a very hectic and stressful time as people might need to hear back before making decisions.

 

So, I think the best practice is for applicants to make decisions as they have enough information. If you (the general you) e.g. get into 6 schools but are on the waitlist for your top choice, it doesn't make sense to hold onto all 6 offers while waiting for your top choice to get back to you. Instead, while waiting, I'd encourage you to think about the current 6 offers and narrow it down to just 1 or 2. Once you've done so, decline the other 4-5 offers so that people on those waitlists can make their decisions. Maybe someone who is holding an offer from your top choice is on the waitlist at one of your accepted schools! While I don't think anyone should be forced into making a decision before they are ready, I don't think something like a 6-way tie between schools is reasonable for most people. There has to be one or two that you prefer more (unless it's really early in the season and you haven't had any info yet).

I guess I never thought about it like job postings.... They feel fundamentally different, and I would expect a rejection from a school, whereas I don't expect one from a job... But it makes sense. I mean, it's still a little bothersome, but I understand you're right. Would it be bad form to call on April 15th any schools I have not heard from just to know for sure so that I can go ahead and make my choice on the fifteenth? Or it would probably be more problematic because I would not be the only one calling, right?... I guess, my next question would be "how long can you wait to give a final acceptance response?" If some schools don't get to give final offers until after the 15th, then is it really bad for the student(s) to hold off (although declining all but a few as you advise)? I don't want to do that, and I will probably make a decision on the fourteenth or fifteenth, but I'm just curious.

 

I completely agree about narrowing the choices down! I am on a wait-list for funding at my top choice right now, so I would prefer the accepted ones go ahead and decline! haha That said, these are hard life decisions that some are making in the middle of full-time attendance to classes and part-time jobs and kids/family and so on. So, I don't fault them for not being sure, too. I guess it's just really difficult waiting so one wants to find out information in any other aspects possible! haha

 

Thank you for your response. It really helps!

[TakeruK]

I guess I never thought about it like job postings.... They feel fundamentally different, and I would expect a rejection from a school, whereas I don't expect one from a job... But it makes sense. I mean, it's still a little bothersome, but I understand you're right. Would it be bad form to call on April 15th any schools I have not heard from just to know for sure so that I can go ahead and make my choice on the fifteenth? Or it would probably be more problematic because I would not be the only one calling, right?... I guess, my next question would be "how long can you wait to give a final acceptance response?" If some schools don't get to give final offers until after the 15th, then is it really bad for the student(s) to hold off (although declining all but a few as you advise)? I don't want to do that, and I will probably make a decision on the fourteenth or fifteenth, but I'm just curious.

 

I would say one big difference is that since we pay for grad school applications, I think it is reasonable for us to expect that we do get a response by e.g. a month or so before the semester we applied for begins! But they are not "required" in any way, as far as I know. But I do wonder that since they take our application fee, what service are they actually legally required to provide? Maybe the grad school itself has some automated program that sends rejections to all applicants not explicitly rejected by a certain date?

 

I don't think it's bad form to call up a school you're waitlisted at, especially if you're waiting for your top choice. Maybe not right on April 15, but maybe like (just making up a number) a month after your initial waitlist notification, you can call back to see if there are any updates. And then maybe again a week or so before April 15.

 

I completely agree about narrowing the choices down! I am on a wait-list for funding at my top choice right now, so I would prefer the accepted ones go ahead and decline! haha That said, these are hard life decisions that some are making in the middle of full-time attendance to classes and part-time jobs and kids/family and so on. So, I don't fault them for not being sure, too. I guess it's just really difficult waiting so one wants to find out information in any other aspects possible! haha

 

Thank you for your response. It really helps!

 

I don't mean that you have to choose before you ever hear back from your top choice school. I think that once you have visited (if visits apply in your field) and talked to the profs you need to talk to, you have all of the information necessary to make a decision based on the schools you've heard back from. For many people, this happens in like mid- to late- March, if not earlier. In this case, if you have e.g. 6 offers and waitlisted at top choice, then by late March, you should at least know which one of the 6 offers is your favourite if you don't get into the top choice. I agree that everyone is different and for some people, there may not be a clear "second choice" (so have 2 second choices) or perhaps their second choice depends on other factors out of their control (e.g. a SO also applying to schools, job offers etc.)

 

So, once you know your best "second choice", I think the best thing to do is to decline the other 5, and hold onto your "second choice" until you hear back from the top choice. You should stay in contact with the top choice (as above) to see how likely you are going to get a spot there. Ultimately, if you think you will hear back from top choice right after April 15, you might be able to ask second choice to give you an extension for a day or two beyond April 15.

 

This may be possible because not every school/program will replace someone who declined the offer with someone from the waitlist. Perhaps a school wants to fill 7 spots so they might accept 10 people and only fill from waitlist if more than 4 people decline! So it might be the case that your "second choice" does this and you are person #8 for "second choice" so they would be okay with or without you. Just a contrived example of course, but what I intend to convey is that you should narrow down the choices when you can, and then stay in touch with your schools if you are hoping to get off a waitlist. And be patient as best you can!

[Censorry]

I think I am also on an unofficial waiting list, they told me they would let me know by next week, but it might take longer if the initially accepted students take a long time to decide.

 

I am wondering, would be it okay to ask about your ranking on the waiting list?

 

Also, statistically speaking, what are the chances of getting admission if you are on a waiting list (considering my uni is not top 25)? 

 

Also about the size of these waiting lists: I mean if they have room for example for only 15 students, it doesn't make sense to have a waiting list of 15 people since there is no way that all the accepted students would decline the offer. I would guess the ratio to be 2/3 or so, I mean for 15 accepted people, a waiting list of 10.

 

What do you think?

[airmusic]

Waitlists are done in entirely different ways from school to school, program to program. I know for at least one program (a very small one, with typically 3-4 acceptances each year), they simply waitlist everyone with acceptable applications, and reject only those whom they definitely do not want attending the school. Other programs, and I think this is true particularly of "top" programs, play the numbers game... but also tend to send out later rejections, in my experience.

 

Because of this, I think the statistics could vary greatly, depending on how the program deals with their waitlist.

Also, as far as I know, it's acceptable to ask where you are on the waitlist; I've known several people who have asked, although they haven't always gotten a straight answer. I had a friend who found out that he was the first person on his top choice school's waitlist- he ended up getting an offer, but he had to wait until the very last second.

[KyCountry]

I think I am also on an unofficial waiting list, they told me they would let me know by next week, but it might take longer if the initially accepted students take a long time to decide.

 

I am wondering, would be it okay to ask about your ranking on the waiting list?

 

Also, statistically speaking, what are the chances of getting admission if you are on a waiting list (considering my uni is not top 25)? 

 

Also about the size of these waiting lists: I mean if they have room for example for only 15 students, it doesn't make sense to have a waiting list of 15 people since there is no way that all the accepted students would decline the offer. I would guess the ratio to be 2/3 or so, I mean for 15 accepted people, a waiting list of 10.

 

What do you think?

 

It definitely depends on the university and I'm sure that each department learns their general trends from previous years. But for, say, a non-top 50, it would make sense for the waiting list to be the same size or larger than the list of accepted students. Take this scenario: University of A is lower tier and is generally considered more of a safety-like school for qualified candidates who don't get into any of their top programs. They accept 15 students and 8 decline the offer. They offer the remaining 8 spots to the first 8 on the waiting list and 5 of those candidates end up chosing other schools (or get off the waiting list somewhere else, etc.). Then the 5 offers go to the next 5 and so on and so forth. It's statistically possible to run through a waiting list much larger than the number of accepted students. But like I said, I'm sure each school and department generally knows what to expect, as the trends shouldn't be drastically different from one year to the next.

[Censorry]

ze

 

It definitely depends on the university and I'm sure that each department learns their general trends from previous years. But for, say, a non-top 50, it would make sense for the waiting list to be the same size or larger than the list of accepted students. Take this scenario: University of A is lower tier and is generally considered more of a safety-like school for qualified candidates who don't get into any of their top programs. They accept 15 students and 8 decline the offer. They offer the remaining 8 spots to the first 8 on the waiting list and 5 of those candidates end up chosing other schools (or get off the waiting list somewhere else, etc.). Then the 5 offers go to the next 5 and so on and so forth. It's statistically possible to run through a waiting list much larger than the number of accepted students. But like I said, I'm sure each school and department generally knows what to expect, as the trends shouldn't be drastically different from one year to the next.

 

yes you are very right. Well if you are highly ranked on the waiting list of such a school your chances of getting admission are probably quite high. The question of course is whether you should accept 

Edited March 12, 2014 by Censorry