Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list 9446
Number accepting a place on the waiting list 5119
Number of wait-listed students admitted 518
These are the statistics from the 2016 CDS. I think all of us that were waitlisted should keep some hope. I had Case as my top choice (31 ACT, 3.92 GPA UW, Math 2 730 Chemistry 690 Physics 640, Many EC’s and good Essays) but still got waitlisted after deferral from EA. This was really shocking thou.
I’m sorry for my lack of understanding of other posts, I’m just a bit confused. What does it mean to get wait listed? I got an email yesterday telling me I’ve been wait listed, something about housing at CWRU, and I’m still confused about that.
I feel like I match the CWRU criteria for admission because I didn’t get a direct “rejection” from them, but instead got wait listed.
@RohanRJA Waitlisted means that if someone else turns down their offer of admission, there’s a chance they’ll let you in instead. As for housing, they probably just want you to apply for housing, just in case that does happen. You should honestly start looking at other options right now, as it is pretty unwise to bank on someone else deciding not to go.
Also, Case does the thing called yield protection. To look like a more selective school, Case makes the application process really easy (free, no additional essays, etc. remember?), and then defers, waitlists, or rejects the overqualified ones, believing that they’ll get accepted into some higher level school anyways.
I wonder if part of what we are seeing is another year of record applications. The acceptance rate at CWRU has been going down as the number of applications has increased over the last 10 years.
Overall Admission Acceptance Rates:
2016- ???
2015- 36.0% accepted
2014- 38.3%
2013- 39.1%
2012- 41.9%
2011- 54.3%
2010- 51.3%
2009- 66.7%
2008- 70.0%
From reading the range of folks who were accepted and those waitlisted, to me it seems like CWRU looks at standardized test scores, HS GPA, HS Course schedule Rigor, EC’s (especially leadership positions), and demonstrated fit (and interest) equally. If you read some of the threads about acceptance at Duke, Vanderbilt or the Ivies, you see many of the same type of bewilderment about who gets accepted and how a perfect 2400 SAT, 4.0 GPA with lots of EC’s gets turned down. It does seem to me that CWRU is getting increasingly competitive each year.
Deferred and now waitlisted. I will not be playing their games anymore.
Well I have a 2260 sat and 4.0 UW while taking the hardest courses at my school (IB program)and wait listed so idk… Confused
It’s not just about scores, they also take into consideration leadership/jobs, volunteering/other extracurriculars, your essay/recommendations, your interview if you had one…they can deny you because they already have enough white female psychology majors, or because the nursing major is more difficult, or accept you because they need a cello player or someone interesting in playing volleyball. It’s really hard to know.
To all of you who are confused, upset, surprised, shocked, stunned that your great credentials got you only a Wait List response, please understand that higher education has immersed itself in Big Data (see: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/new-tool-colleges-using-admissions-decisions-big-data/ ) and (see: http://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2014/07/30/the-invisible-force-behind-college-admissions/#3162844d6efb ) to predict among other things, which applicants will matriculate if admitted.
This predictive power not only helps the institution ensure sufficient housing, parking, classes, etc, but also enables them to maximize the “yield” (% of admitted students who matriculate). Why is the yield so important? Because it is one component of many college ranking systems in which the higher the yield, the higher the score for the college. So you may very well have been waitlisted by CWRU because you were fit the profile of a high achieving student unlikely to matriculate if admitted to CWRU by virtue of being overqualified. So if your academic credentials and extracurriculur accomplishments are similar to those who apply to CWRU as a safety school, then you may well be waitlisted. The colleges which tend to use Big Data to maximize their yield tend to the be ones which are making a concerted effort to raise their rankings in various college ranking lists. They actively play the game. They also try to maximize their ranking score for selectivity by expanding the number of applicants; notice how some colleges make it very easy to apply by charging no application fee and not requiring extensive essays?
So take heart, you are not caught in a non-sense world. You are simply the victim of profiling by Big Data which some colleges utilize to game the system. The term for this type of game playing is “The Tufts Syndrome”, named after the Medford, MA college which usually is seen as the back-up choice to the Ivies/MIT. They wanted to emerge from the second-tier, brides maid situation so they started playing the yield and selectivity enhancement game. Sorry it happened to you. My brother was admitted to four Ivy League colleges and Johns Hopkins, Rice, Duke, Swarthmore and many others, but was rejected by Tufts. His extra-curriculars were truly exceptional, including earning a US Patent (not provisional, not design, but a utility patent). Algorithms and artificial intelligence will play a progressively bigger role in our lives. I and several of my peers have received $ offers by obscure sounding research firms to provide detailed responses to our college admissions decisions (i.e. which colleges did we apply to, which ones we would matriculate if accepted, why not others). These firms consult for the college admissions offices for large fees. See the second article above.
But on the bright side, Big Data predicts good things for your admissions chances to higher ranked colleges. Also, if CWRU really is your top choice, then send a personal letter to their top admission officer to declare such. One reason CWRU uses the wait list rather than rejection for overqualified candidates is to give those few committed to CWRU a chance to declare such and thus distinguish themselves from the rest who have their hearts set on higher ranking colleges. Good luck to you all. Please don’t stress yourself too much over this unfair (but now understandable) process. The same great qualities that got you this far will propel you to great things regardless of where you go to college (not just my opinion, but this is borne out by research).
@Thisishassanali Thanks for the updated information. Definitely giving me some hope of an acceptance at Case now!
I got in and I don’t know if I got a scholarship I need to check again but I had a 28 act and a 4.1. I spent my junior year in Germany and they added a note about that too!
while overqualification certainly plays a role for those who got waitlisted, if you show enough interest you can get past the yield protection thing. i heard about case’s tufts syndrome and went all out to show interest including 2 tours (probably unnecessary), any info sessions i could find, and an interview. granted, i live relatively close and it’s harder if you live further away, but there are local alumni interviews and stuff you can sign up for.
I have a 36, 800 on subj. tests, and Pres of 3 clubs. Tons of other EC’s as well. My other friend with similar stats got waitlisted, but he didn’t show any interest.
Thank you @Redpandabear for all of that information. It really is the best explanation I have seen for this rise in wait-listing and increased pressure from many universities to apply Early Decision that seems to happening at most of the elite colleges I have been following.
My son was deferred EA, but was accepted over the weekend. His ACT was a 34, with SAT II subject tests of 710 Physics, 750 Chemistry, and 750 Math II. He is also a National Merit Finalist. He did not have a ton of ECs, but the ones he did have required a great deal of time (year round competitive swimming and debate).
He received a University Scholarship of $22,500/year and a grant of $1,170/year. Our out-of-pocket expenses would be $39,909/year! Our EFC is MUCH lower than this, and there is no way we will take out loans in that amount. Our son has been offered several full-ride scholarships at state universities, so he will not be attending Case. Good luck to those who have been deferred or denied. I am certain that wherever you end up attending, you will be successful!
Son was accepted (RD applicant) with a 31K/yr scholarship.
While Case is still more expensive than two of his state flagship options, this scholarship makes it a real possibility! It will be tough (or even impossible) to justify paying OOS costs for schools like UIUC and Purdue, despite their great engineering rankings.
Accepted with 22.5K/yr scholarship
Does case send an acceptance package in the mail?
@tryinmybest I believe they sent them out to EA/ED accepted students
Also I would think taken into consideration is expected major…There are many many Biomed Eng and Biology prospective majors…they need to round out the class with others as well.
Yeah one of the reasons I think I got in was because my major isn’t in the natural science/engineering field.