You prep a ton for the interview, you leave the interview feeling amazing, and then three weeks later, you get the dreaded email saying you are waitlisted. This situation has happened to many, many applicants. The first thought I'm sure most think is, "What did I do wrong?" I've many conversations with people in tears as they try to process and answer this question. My answer is not popular. In truth, you probably did nothing wrong....that's why you're on the waitlist. Most applicants that mess up their interview get rejected, not waitlisted. I've only had a handful of applicants get denied after an interview, which tells me that something went badly. Of course, I have no way of knowing what that something was, but if someone did something that eggregious, schools are not going to waitlist them.
Waitlists are part of the process. Schools need to create waitlists so they can strategically accept a few people at a time throughout the cycle. They can't over accept so early, so waitlisting is just a tool that allows them to do their jobs. Many, many strong applicants get put on waitlists, and many will get pulled off later.
Now, there are some schools (ahem, UCSD) that rarely pull from their waitlist, but most schools out there do accept a lot of waitlisted people. There's also a rumor that if you interview late, you are just interviewing for the waitlist. That may be true at some places, but even at schools where they suggest that, I've had candidates turn around and get accepted soon after their interview.
The thing is, schools are going to accept who they want at whatever time they need them. What does that mean? Let's say the priority at a given moment is to raise the average MCAT/GPA of the incoming class. That means the next few waitlisted applicants are going to be ballers in that regard. If the priorities shift and the need is academic diversity, our non-science majors may get picked next. If their gender count is imbalanced, they'll pull whoever they need that satisifes that. You get the point. They have the luxury of creating a class that is filled with all types of diversity, and they create a large pool of diverse people where they can select whoever they need. Everyone gets picked for their own special reason, which is why comparing yourself to others is so pointless.
Truthfully, we don't really know if or why you might be waitlisted or when you'll come off the waitlist. So much of that is out of our control, but prepping for interviews ensures that you at least get waitlisted and not straight up rejected post-interview.
If you end up getting waitlisted, try to stay calm. Write them back, thanking them for the status update and express your strong interest if that remains true. If you remain strongly interested in them, send interest emails every 30 days. If you are no longer interested, you can withdraw so that they stop considering you.
Hang in there friends. This is a long process.
Commentaires