<p>does anyone have stats for prevoius waitlists? i really wanted to go but was waitlisted and i'm hoping to know my chances</p>
<p>Same here. Getting waitlisted sux big. Especially at your #1.</p>
<p>i don't know about the stats for this year, but they differ year to year.</p>
<p>are there some schools that generally put more people on waitlist just as an extra safety net? or the chances of getting accepted from waitlist pretty much indistinguishable bewteen schools? thanks!</p>
<p>i was soooo confused by the fact that they don't rank the waitlist. which is weird.</p>
<p>Plus, the admissions rate this year is 6.5% (5900 applied, 380 get in). Does that strike anyone else as being ridiculously low?</p>
<p>They don't rank the waitlist, because they are building a small class.</p>
<p>The specific people that they want to take off of the waitlist will vary depending on the niches they want to fill once they get the responses back from RD.</p>
<p>Overly concrete example: Pomona needs a cello player, and admits three of them and waitlists one.
If the 3 admitted ones decline, the 1 waitlisted one will be a much more attractive member of the class than someone who may be "ranked" above them. </p>
<p>The reason they cannot really rank is because the students they choose are contingent on which of the RD admitted students choose to attend, in that the people taken off the waitlist and the RD matriculating students need to come together to form as complete of a class as possible.</p>
<p>to post #5: FALSE.</p>
<p>people need to stop thinking that the admit rate is class size divided by applicants! </p>
<p>Every school overadmits because obviously not every single accepted student will attend. Last year Pomona's acceptance rate was around 19%; this year, because of an increase in applications (experienced by pretty much every school... except yale, ha) but an unchanging freshman class size, the admit rate might be a percentage point lower.</p>
<p>Bottom line: no school will ever assume that every single admitted student will choose to attend, hence the idea of a "wait list" and overadmitting.</p>
<p>ah, i get it now. i just assumed when Pomona told me the class size, they were referring to the number they accepted. I definitely understood the yield wasn't 100%.</p>
<p>anyway, thank you both for the explanations</p>
<p>Grrrrrrr, waitlist = sucks</p>
<p>I think I'm taking the spot, but I'm accepted into Brown and Amherst, which will probably take precedence...it's just that Pomona has the qualities I looked for in both those schools with a location in CALIFORNIA</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> It would have been nicer just to have been flat-out rejected.</p>
<p>PS: I also got waitlisted at CMC and SCRIPPS...the last one has me torn between amused/insulted. :P</p>
<p>Aaand as a VERY happy Scripps student who turned down bigger-name, tougher-stat schools, Pammeh, your post has me feeling similarly. When applying, I was flat out rejected from one of my safeties (I'd lost a lot of interest by the time this happened, but it had originally been my #1). These are small schools, and sometimes you just don't know or have what they're looking for. Good stats don't change that. Congrats, however, on your other acceptances.</p>
<p>I don't know stats, but I do know several freshmen who got in off the waitlist, so you have a chance.</p>
<p>I called Pomona yesterday, and they told me that around 10 people got off the waitlist last year out of hundreds who were waitlisted. I know it's different every year, but still...it's very depressing...</p>
<p>haha 10 out of hundreds?!?! thats ridiculous! they must waitlist ANYONE that is in their pool of possibilities...like anyone that isnt an autoreject is either waitlisted or accepted. they need to be more decisive!</p>
<p>btw i got waitlisted. luckily i was accepted at the other 6 schools i applied to. i think i will accept it since i can turn it down too if they offer admission. might as well, right?</p>
<p>Actually, waitlisting hundreds of people isn't that far-fetched. I'm not sure about the specific figures for Pomona, but I know that many selective colleges waitlist as much as 3 percent of all applicants. Besides, being waitlisted means that the admissions committee saw a lot they liked in your application, but due to a combination of objective and subjective factors they liked other applications more. The people on the waitlist are judged to be qualified for the school, but I imagine admissions decisions aren't as black and white, as clearcut as we applicants would like them to be. I'm not sure waitlisting is a matter of decisiveness.</p>
<p>Thanks chopsticks3092, you make me feel better about being waitlisted. Pomona is my #1, so I REALLY hope I get in!</p>