<p>out of a waitlist pool of 1000-1500 (don't know about upper limit) for this year, those numbers do sound kinda bad</p>
<p>so does that mean i probably won't need to send in updated financial aid material? ...since the number of ppl they take off the list is so small that the financial aid office probably won't even look at finaid situation of waitlisted applicants? I'm just asking b/c another school that i'm waitlisted at did ask me to send in updated finaid info.</p>
<p>What school we're you guys waitlisted in? I'm on the list for Wharton...so I hope they need guys for wharton again!</p>
<p>neutralnuke: I didn't know there were that many waitlisted people. I agree, the numbers do sound bad.</p>
<p>Sierra: Have you checked the RD Decisions Thread? Most of the waitlisted people seem to be Wharton applicants (including me).</p>
<p>Waitlisted at CAS (hoping they need me!)</p>
<p>monuschaaf: when I conversed with my admissions officer, he said that there were more than a thousand waitlisted applicants for ALL Penn schools.
I don't know how many of those were waitlisted for Wharton or how many chose to remain on the waitlist.</p>
<p>I've been waitlisted for Wharton and am waiting. </p>
<p>Does anyone know by when the admissions office will have all its numbers compiled -> as to how many people chose to be on the waitlist; how many people who were accepted chose to attend?
basically, how many spots are open on the waitlist?</p>
<p>@ neutralnuke:
They certainly won't have those numbers until after May 1st, at the least.</p>
<p>My experience with waitlists was that they are done in rounds. You tell them you want to stay on the waitlist by May 1st or whatever. They then hear back from all the admitted students, and figure out how many spots they have. They then reply back to a first group of the waitlist (assuming they decide to take anyone). This will likely be around the end of June. They then may add another round from the waitlist - this could be in July or August. Basically, it's a squeeze-out-the-last-drop-from-the-toothpaste kind of deal, as they want to fill every last spot in the class without over-enrolling. You could be waiting as late as September to hear, and it can be really nerve-wracking.</p>
<p>I think it works more like this. When they say there were offered 30 waitlists spots they might have offered them to 90 but only 30 accepted. Let's say 1,000 on the waitlist, but only 500 choose to stay on it. Lets stay there are 50 waitlist spots. It looks like a 10% chance but it is really higher. They call the first 50 by phone around May 15th. They dont want their yield affected. Only if they say yes to they send the letter saying they are in. If only 25 of the 50 say yes, then they call another 25. Lets say 10 say yes. They call another 15 and 5 say yes. They call another 10 and 5 say yes and then another 5. By now to get 50 from the waitlist they have offered the spots to over 100 people. So maybe there is a 20% chance of getting off the waitlist</p>
<p>that sounds right collegebound5, i read an article about that in the wall street journal last week</p>
<p>I really really hope collegebound makes sense there because 20% sounds good :)</p>
<p>umm...it was 20% using hypothetical numbers
but yes, I hope so too</p>
<p>Except if there are 30 waitlist admits, not 50 and 1500 on the waitlist, not 1000, it's not 20% any more even by your method. And what makes you say only 1/2 stay on the waitlist and only 1/2 of those say yes? Where are those #'s from?</p>
<p>and to screw things up some more - the 1500 is for all Penn schools
and the hypothetical 30 admits are spread out over all Penn schools</p>
<p>These are hypothetical numbers. The thing is that many more are offered the spots than the school reports. They dont have to report how many they offered the spots to verbally, only those they sent acceptance packages to. Everyone who I know who has ever gotten off the waitlist at a top school, and everything I have read indicates that the school has a regional admission officer or admission officer call, and if the person declines, they go onto the next person, so yield (the percent who is offered who accepts) is not affected. They also only call those who express a lot of interest.</p>
<p>Where's the information about the phone call from?</p>
<p>someone actually mentioned it in last year's posts.</p>
<p>Are you referring to the ambiguous reference made by one poster last year that his friend received a phone call? How do we know that they email X number of people and ask them if they will absolutely matriculate and then skip over them if not?</p>
<p>i'm not saying we know this or not. you asked where the info was from.</p>
<p>If you go back and read all the threads from the ivy league who were waitlists who got accepted, you will see that those who were admitted off the waitlist received a telephone call. If you do a google search you will find various articles that mention this. I believe it was even mentioned in the wall street journal. Usually the applicant who is admitted off the waitlist receives a telephone call. This makes sense. I recall the article lin the wall street journal was recent and talked about people being on multiple waitlists. The schools dont want to send out letters and then wait for a response and have to start the process all over again. They also want to offer spots only to those likely to attend. Sending a letter expressing interest is a must. Yes, it is difficult to get off the waitlist, but the odds are better than one thinks at a school like Penn. All I am saying is that 30 waitlist spots might mean they were offered to 100 people, which could mean odds of 100 out of 500 of getting off the waitlist assuming only 500 ask to stay on th waitlist. Many who will be offered spots might be waitlisted elsewhere and holding out to go to that school or might have changed their mind.
If the schools writes a letter stating you were taken off the waitlist and you dont accept, it gets recorded in the yield figure. ie. the number offered admission who accept. The schools dont want offering waitlist spots to affect the yield. Only if the student says yes by telephone to the waitlist offer will they be sent an acceptance packet. If they say no, someone else will be offered the spot</p>
<p>umm...what happens if a student says yes on telephone but then is accepted by another waitlist school and decides to go there?</p>