<p>WashU accept vs. waitlist :</p>
<p>Sort the applicant pool into committal (very likely to enrol) vs. noncommittal (to enroll only if ALL other better or similarly ranked schools reject him -- but with good chance to be accepted by one or more such schools) according to Essays and other indicators in the AdCom's eyes, which is very subjective and arbitrary. Then,</p>
<p>1) Committal applicants: apply the measures seriously and try to fill at least a good percentage of their enrollment target. Admit generously if the applicant is financially able. </p>
<p>2) Noncommittal applicants: give waitlist by default except for some extremely poor quality applicants. Move on with the further responses from the applicant to gauge their interest/committment level and progressively admit more students from this pool as the applicant's intents become more clear. Calculate but give ample margin or cushion and create a VERY LARGE waitlist pool so that it does not hurt the yield rate for WUSTL, yet prepare for the huge uncertainty of this year in terms of the final enrollment.</p>
<p>Well, this is my pure hypothesis about the extra large waitlist and the seemingly uneven admission results.</p>
<p>toughyear - Would that imply that no "noncommittal" applicants would be admitted?</p>
<p>All I was saying was that WashU has lower admit rate (it doesn't really matter how or if it's artificially deflated; the end result is the lower admit rate) and thus slightly harder to get in. Just because you got waitlisted doesn't means you should lose all hope for Northwestern. I didn't mean to make this so complicated.</p>
<p>To shoot a hole right through toughyear's hypothesis:</p>
<p>I demonstrated no interest whatsoever and was accepted. WashU had no reason to believe that I would attend their university. There are several other students on the WashU board who have stated the same thing. </p>
<p>Anyway, about NU... I don't think anything is really an indication of anything. Different admissions officers are going to be different (d'oh!), and, as a result, it's pretty tell to tell how it's all going to do down.</p>
<p>imitosis - I, too, was accepted to WU without showing any interest (aside from accepting an alum interview).</p>
<p>On an unrelated note, does anyone have any concrete information on when we hear back from NU?</p>
<p>Plum- I first interpreted Sam's argument as your A. But then I realized that he probably meant your B, which makes more sense and is empirically true.</p>
<p>Hahaha yeah I actually read Sam's post, interpreted it as A, thought it made no sense, and for some reason kept thinking about it and trying to make sense of it. Then, all of a sudden, I realized he probably meant B... I first assumed he thought that NU adcoms have a way to find out whether or not we got into WU, and they show preference to those that were waitlisted, which obviously is improbable and makes no sense. But now I realize he meant B.</p>
<p>So back to plumsnow's second question, does anyone know when decisions are out?</p>
<p>are decisions out on 25th March, 8 p.m.EST?</p>
<p>has it been confirmed? its just a rumor going around :S</p>
<p>cant find anything on NU's website.</p>
<p>After what I understood, decision are out April 15th. </p>
<p>2007-08</a> First-time, first-year (freshman) admission, Common Data Set - Northwestern University</p>
<p>Scroll down to "Admission policy". - This was the common date for 2008.</p>
<p>That's really late....</p>
<p>my understanding of that was the LATEST that you will know is the 15th. That referred to the date by which you would hear. </p>
<p>I really hope we get emails before that (as in 10 days =), although that rumor is comletely unfounded, to my knowledge.</p>
<p>Lat year people found on the 25th and they didn't expect to find out until mid April.</p>
<p>Fingers Crossed!!</p>
<p>So does anyone know exactly when we will hear back?</p>
<p>i emailed them about it. hope they'll reply soon >__< the wait is killing me!</p>
<p>I have a feeling that it's going to be March 27th. Last year, it was released on the 25th, which was the last Friday of the month, and this year, the 27th is the last Friday.</p>
<p>The last Friday of the month seems logical, but I think March 25 was a Tuesday last year.</p>
<p>It was indeed a Tuesday.</p>
<p>hope NU releases its decisions before the 1st..</p>