Why do schools put so many on the waitlist?

[tagore]

Hey all, I've been waitlisted to a few of my top choices (i.e, UCLA) and it seems like many of these school have waitlist from 300-500. Any idea why they keep a waitlist 10 times what they normally accept?

[queencruella]

They probably want to have enough people to fill in any demographic holes they get when they figure out what their class is going to look like. Still, I agree that it's ridiculous to have 3 levels of waitlist or 800 people on a waitlist for a 250-person class, but I think that many schools also feel bad rejecting people so they just put them on a waitlist instead. W&M tends to do that both at the LS and UG levels.

[h2xblive]

They probably want to have enough people to fill in any demographic holes they get when they figure out what their class is going to look like. Still, I agree that it's ridiculous to have 3 levels of waitlist or 800 people on a waitlist for a 250-person class, but I think that many schools also feel bad rejecting people so they just put them on a waitlist instead. W&M tends to do that both at the LS and UG levels.

Who does that?

[queencruella]

They probably want to have enough people to fill in any demographic holes they get when they figure out what their class is going to look like. Still, I agree that it's ridiculous to have 3 levels of waitlist or 800 people on a waitlist for a 250-person class, but I think that many schools also feel bad rejecting people so they just put them on a waitlist instead. W&M tends to do that both at the LS and UG levels.

Who does that?

Georgetown has a 2-level preferred waitlist last year as well as a regular waitlist, and Northwestern's was around 800 last year that it cut to 200-300 by the summer.

[SilentSwirl]

They probably want to have enough people to fill in any demographic holes they get when they figure out what their class is going to look like. Still, I agree that it's ridiculous to have 3 levels of waitlist or 800 people on a waitlist for a 250-person class, but I think that many schools also feel bad rejecting people so they just put them on a waitlist instead. W&M tends to do that both at the LS and UG levels.

Really? I Would have just thought it all in the nature of the process. Not everyone can get in. Maybe there are a few here and there that really spark an ad comm's heart, but I kinda think that's a rarity. Pure speculation on my part.

[h2xblive]

They probably want to have enough people to fill in any demographic holes they get when they figure out what their class is going to look like. Still, I agree that it's ridiculous to have 3 levels of waitlist or 800 people on a waitlist for a 250-person class, but I think that many schools also feel bad rejecting people so they just put them on a waitlist instead. W&M tends to do that both at the LS and UG levels.

Really? I Would have just thought it all in the nature of the process. Not everyone can get in. Maybe there are a few here and there that really spark an ad comm's heart, but I kinda think that's a rarity. Pure speculation on my part.

Oh to be a fly on a wall in the admissions office...

[nealric]

schadenfreude?

[h2xblive]

schadenfreude?

I hope not.