<p>What exactly does being waitlisted mean?</p>
<p>depends on where you are waitlisted.</p>
<p>Being on a waitlist means that the school A sees you as a viable candidate but offered their limited spots to others ahead of you. However, there may be enough of those initially offered slots who decline their offer and new slots will open up. The adcom will then refer to the WL and try to fill those slots. Being on the WL carries no guarantee whatsoever and students are encouraged to give notice of acceptance/make deposit at school B to secure a space. However, if you're subsequently offered a slot, School B ususally lets you off the hook w/o much fuss (although you MIGHT lose the deposit).</p>
<p>Generally School A will ask if you'd like to remain on their WL. You can decline this of course.</p>
<p>There's no way to guage the likelihood of a person being offered a slot off any WL however.</p>