2006 med schools, no rejections, 400 on waitlist, WHY!

[Guest Stevie Boy Wonder]

From the rumours and official e-mails found on this board it seems like the ontario medical schools are putting all interviewees on their waitlists. Frankly, I hate this new system where EVERYONE get's waitlisted. How can i go through the summer hoping for a spot when I might be person 399 on the 400 long waitlist. At least with a rejection, I can move on and use the failure as a motivator for next year's application! This way, I have no idea how I did this year. Did i do well enough to make it to the waitlist, did my essay/interview strategy work as I planned?

 

Anyone know why the medical schools decided to throw everyone on a wait list this year?

 

From what i hear, some students in the prairies are using the freedom of information law to demand to see their files...cunning maneuver...who want's to bring it to ontario with me? lol

[Guest daryn]

I know what you mean, but honestly though, I'd rather get a waitlist than a flat out rejection.

 

Of course it would be better if they would tell you if it's good waitlist or bad waitlist.

[Guest Scholastica]

Steve,

 

I'm interested. lol. But I'm serious. What the heck is wrong with Ontario? How can disclosing the number harm us instead of helping us????? I don't see any logic at all.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

There are a number of reasons why schools might not wish to divulge waitlist positions. For one, it relieves them of the burden of having folks calling often to see if they've moved up from spot 2 to spot 1 yet, etc. Secondly, it erases the possibility of waitlisted applicants to gauge their positions relative to one another. If they did know their ranks, minimally, it could cause applicants to harbour resentment against one another, and in extreme cases, possibly end up with extreme measures being used to supplant waitlistees occupying higher spots, e.g., bribery, etc.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest jgray2]

utoronto says:

 

10) Why can't I find out my position on the waitlist?

 

It is our policy not to disclose an applicant's position on the waitlist. Knowing your number on the waitlist will not help you and may indeed hurt you as you plan for the coming year. Since we do not know how many additional offers may be made or when, nor do we know how many individuals on our waitlist may accept an offer elsewhere and withdraw from our consideration, knowing your position on the waitlist at any given time is meaningless.

 

there is some truth to that statement because some of us might hold off from applying for full time jobs or grad programs etc hoping to make it in off the waitlist (and never make it in). however, the opposite effect is just as true too, so i'm not too sure.

 

i do agree tho that a 400 person waitlist is a bit much ...

[Guest JewelLeigh]

I completely understand and agree with your frustration. It is rather selfish of medical schools to keep waitlists longer than they will ever need without telling position. Applicants' lives have already been in limbo for long enough!

 

I think the Ottawa good waitlist/bad waitlist idea is a very humane way that avoids some of the potential problems mentioned above.

 

That being said, Dalhousie tells all waitlisters their position as well as the average statistics regarding the number of waitlisters offered acceptance in the past. (Eg. "You are position 5 of the waitlist. In the past, the waitlist has typically moved 10 places.") This seems like the most applicant-friendly method. In fact, Dalhousie's entire application process is significantly more humane than the Ontario schools I applied to - this was one of the major reasons I chose Dal

 

Anyway...much luck to this year's waitlisters. I strongly encourage you to voice your concerns to the medical schools (in a very polite and respectful manner of course) as I do believe it is unfair of them to expect 400 people to sit on pins and needles for 3.5 more months.

 

JL

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[Guest aneliz]

Dal is a bit of a different story than Ontario... I think that many people that are sitting on Dal's waitlist are likely to stay on it until one of the following happens:

 

1. They get in

2. The class is full.

 

I wouldn't expect that Dal would lose 100's of people off of their waitlist to other schools...

 

However, this is what happens in Ontario.

 

As an example, let's imagine that UWO for example, sent out an email to an applicant telling them that they were #212 on the waitlist and that there are usually ~100 offers made from the waitlist.

 

However, many people on that waitlist will also have received offers (sometimes multiple) from other schools and are also sitting on other schools' waitlists...

 

So, lets assume that come May 28, when people have responded to first round offers and withdraw from waitlists at other schools, the following happens.

 

Waitlist positions 1-120 - all got in at another school and are dropping off the waitlist.

 

So... less than two weeks in, you have moved from #212 to #92. If there are usually ~100 offers made from the list, you have moved, in less than 2 weeks from being 100+ spots outside of the range to within the range to potentially be made an offer. However, there are never any guarantees, and last year at UWO, they only made ~80 offers from the list. So, being #92 does not mean that you will get an offer...

 

Part of the reasons why the schools don't give you a waitlist rank is because it is meaningless (as you can see from above, it can change very quickly... and knowing the number and past performance is no prediction of what is going to happen this year). They cannot keep everyone on the list updated when the list changes. And, they also know how obsessive med students (and applicants) are and know that people would call every second day to find out what number they were at, how many seats were still left and when the next offers were going out. The offices just cannot deal with that.

 

Yes, I agree... it sucks to have to keep waiting. Maybe the good waitlist and the bad waitlist are a good idea...

[Guest marbledust]

In an effort to relieve some of the stress and tension the acceptance and waitlist letters are causing, and to answer why people on the waitlist aren't noticed of their place:

 

Try and get your hands on the movie "Getting In." I think it was made around 1995. Matthew Perry is in it--this was just as Friends was starting so he has very bad hair. It's about a black comedy about a desperate medical school applicants who finds out he is number 5 on a waitlist. So he sets out of track down and, uh, "eliminate" the people ahead of him. I rented at an independent video store which I am guessing might be a better bet than any of the big chains.

 

It's worth a watch...just don't get any ideas from it

[Guest pappy mckeys]

Hi,

 

I have been waiting for waitlist or rejection from Mac, and this is the first I've heard of this. I haven't really been checking other schools' threads, could someone direct me to where I can read about this? I have to say that it is pretty disheartening, I thought I would at least be getting some direction for my life this week...

[Guest ct401]

not divulging waitlist position is fine, but there is no excuse for putting EVERYBODY on the bloody waitlist when they rarely run out of people on their waitlist in the past

[Guest 0T6]

marbledust! I was gonna post about 'getting in' when I read the first few posts, hahah its hilarious, and shows exactly WHY positions shouldn't be revealed.

 

Med School - the price of admission is murder.

 

www.imdb.com/title/tt0109893/

[Guest ploughboy]

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Hey ct401,

 

I appreciate your waitlist frustration, cuz I was right there last year up until the 7th of July. However, rumour has it that some schools (*cough* Mac, *cough* Queens) have exhausted their waitlists in the not-too-distant past, and had to resort to calling people whom they had previously rejected and offering them places. I'm sure you can see why the schools might be motivated to avoid repeating that embarrassing situation.

 

Best of luck!

 

pb

 

 

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