Hey everybody.
As many others did, I received a Penn snail mail detailing missing financial aid documents. On the main thread pertaining to this topic, all 14 people have been accepted. However, I seem to be the only one to have been waitlisted among that group. I was wondering whether anyone considers this a bit strange and of so whether it would be worth it to look further into this? As you can imagine, it is extremely disheartening to be the statistical anomaly in this case. Penn was likely my top choice college, and I would have really looked forward to going there. Do you think that there is anything I may have done between the snail mail arrival and ivy day to downgrade my possible acceptance? Maybe a penn admissions officer saw my post on the pertinent CC thread? (My username is closely linked to my name across all forms of social media and might have even been listed on my application) Is it possible a mistake was made (very unlikely I know)? I would greatly appreciate any advice or thoughts. Thanks!
I read the threads, and you were not the only one waitlisted. A few others were as well; it seems more people were waitlisted with this mail than previous years, at least based off the small sample size that is CC.
@Exwire thanks for responding! At least in these two threads it seems like everybody was accepted:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1974079-financial-aid-snail-mail-indicating-acceptance.html#latest
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1947951-university-of-pennsylvania-rd-class-of-2021.html#latest
Could you please point me in the direction of some people who were waitlisted perhaps? In both threads it seems like I was the only one to post that I was waitlisted. thanks!
No
You’re overestimating that amount of time an admissions officer has during the workday if you think they are spending it trying to cross-reference on this site.
Anyway, a couple of things:
• Correlation does not imply causation.
• The users on CC are not a representative subset of seniors applying to college, or even seniors applying to highly selective colleges.
• You can draw no conclusions in from any group where n=14.
Congratulations on your acceptances. At this point, love the school that loves you back. If you get off a WL, great, but if not, you’ll still be fine. Good luck.
@skieurope thanks for the kind words! you are definitely right about the small sample size and unrepresentative sample. However, the degree of correlation up to now has undeniably been very strongly leaning towards acceptance, so I don’t know what to think 
@Y2JRedskins The fact that you got the snail mail may indicate that you are under serious consideration, and you are on the real waiting list and may be on the short list. Many on the WL are for the PR purpose and have zero chance of getting off. You have some real chance if there is right opening. Good Luck!
@f2000sa I hope so! Thanks for the well wishes.
That’s terrible news! I was glancing through the thread and everyone I saw was accepted as well, so I really don’t know how you got waitlisted. The sample size is small as @skieurope mentioned, but so far you are the only one. You probably have a better shot than most at getting off of the waitlist I’d presume. I hope the best for you and maybe (just maybe) I’ll see you at Penn this fall.
@PleaseStan thanks bro. The correlation of the letter and acceptance is undeniably strong at this point. I don’t know what could’ve happened. I sincerely hope to see you come this fall.
@Y2JRedskins don’t worry about it. You’ll be alright wherever you may end up!
@PleaseStan I’m sure I will haha. Thanks again