Wait List

[hp18]

Is everyone interviewed but not accepted are on wait list at UoT?

[In_Valid]

You can assume most, if not all people who did not receive acceptances will be placed on a ranked waitlist.

 

I could probably see them retaining a waitlist of around 120 people.

 

480 (interviewed) - 224 (accepted) = 256 (not accepted)

 

256 (not accepted) - 120 (waitlisted) = 136 (rejected)

 

To me this seems pretty reasonable. Of course, this is all speculation, however. I think most people use posts on this forum as an indication of how many people got waitlisted as compared to how many got rejected. However, we should consider that if you got rejected why would you bother posting on this board? Therefore, the sample is skewed and we believe that everyone got waitlisted, when in fact a large portion may have been rejected flat out.

[In_Valid]

But if on average the waitlist moves 70 spots. I think a 120ish person waitlist should more than suffice.

 

Also a few years back I know someone who was flat out rejected after an interview. She ended up going to U of T next year so I highly doubt she displayed qualities unbecoming of a physician. So I do think they flat out reject a number of people. Perhaps not 136 but, I would imagine a fair bit.

[Laika]

I was also rejected post-interview in a previous application cycle, but accepted this year. It can definitely happen.

 

I guess this time around I was able to hide my qualities which made me unsuitable for medicine the first time.

[vip_138]

i'm not sure if this has ever been discussed, but do you think there are quotas for categoried applicants, like 3rd years, 4th years, grad apps. And if so, would there then be 3 different types of waitlists, and depending on the type of person that declined, would then offer to that specific waitlist.

 

also, i disagree with 120. Think about it from the medschool's perspective, even if they would think they're safe with 120 ppl on waitlist, why not put them all on, just for their peace of mind that they don't end up burning through the whole thing. It may be difficult to predict.

 

As far as my own rough speculation, I think they offered 250 seats, assuming atleast 25 will turn them down (I talked to an admissions lady in person and she said they DO offer more seats than the actual class), and maybe rejected 50 or so. So assuming the waitlists moves another 50 (75 in total declined), that's a 50/180 chance of getting pulled from waitlist. But who knows ...

[In_Valid]

i'm not sure if this has ever been discussed, but do you think there are quotas for categoried applicants, like 3rd years, 4th years, grad apps. And if so, would there then be 3 different types of waitlists, and depending on the type of person that declined, would then offer to that specific waitlist.

 

also, i disagree with 120. Think about it from the medschool's perspective, even if they would think they're safe with 120 ppl on waitlist, why not put them all on, just for their peace of mind that they don't end up burning through the whole thing. It may be difficult to predict.

 

As far as my own rough speculation, I think they offered 250 seats, assuming atleast 25 will turn them down (I talked to an admissions lady in person and she said they DO offer more seats than the actual class), and maybe rejected 50 or so. So assuming the waitlists moves another 50 (75 in total declined), that's a 50/180 chance of getting pulled from waitlist. But who knows ...

 

Perhaps they do. I am applying out of "3rd year" (Actually my fourth year of uni but I switched programs in 2nd year). I would imagine they would view applicants with full degrees more favorably than 3rd years (though they say the do not). Who knows. I for one am not going to hold my breath for the waitlist. I already started my american apps. My application is much stronger in the states since they place a heavier emphasis on the MCAT, which was the strong point of my app. Actually, the MCAT is borderline worthless in Canada, its just a cut off.

[siobhansiobhan]

usually a school expects a bit of turnover, and will 'over-accept' by a conservative amount when they first send out acceptances... that does reduce the amount getting off the official waitlist. i'm guessing 40...

[DiscoDoc]

usually a school expects a bit of turnover, and will 'over-accept' by a conservative amount when they first send out acceptances... that does reduce the amount getting off the official waitlist. i'm guessing 40...

 

i can't see how that would be a good thing. If you were first on the waiting list, with that system, you'd be more like 41st.

[1234]

i agree that they overaccept, but not by 40 - maybe 15-20.

 

They simply cannot go over the quota. Governmental subsidization and high costs of funding med students really limits schools from risking accepting more than their quota of students.

[siobhansiobhan]

hi, actually, I was saying a prediction of 40 left on the waitlist, and overaccept by a lot more. in the u.s. even harvard and yale have to accept by about 1.8-2 (i.e. double their spots). canada may be less movement than that, or more... but even on the conservative side, it's safe to overaccept by 50% and that's way more than 20....

[vip_138]

hi, actually, I was saying a prediction of 40 left on the waitlist, and overaccept by a lot more. in the u.s. even harvard and yale have to accept by about 1.8-2 (i.e. double their spots). canada may be less movement than that, or more... but even on the conservative side, it's safe to overaccept by 50% and that's way more than 20....

 

US is very different from canadian schools because there are so many ppl with multiple interviews and offers. 50% is FAR over, considering they normally have 70ish ppl decline. If they did that they would be over the class size. I think the 15-20 estimate is more reasonable

[1234]

US schools have the opportunity to send out double the acceptances as number of spots because medical education in the US is not heavily subsidized by the government. As such, the entering student actually pays for most if not all their education. Additionally, private universities in the US have the resources to deal with a surplus of overacceptances.

 

Contrarily, Canadian universities are public and dont have near the resources that most US schools do. As such, they have a well-defined resource portioning provided by the Canadian government. Presumably, the Canadian government also has a reasonably strict budgeting scheme. As such, Canadian universities cannot run the risk of an over-quota medical student body because there simply isn't the resources to deal with that many students. As such, it is reasonable to presume that they are not going to send out double the number of spots of acceptances.

[siobhansiobhan]

most universities do not want a single extra person - lots of u.s. schools are state schools, and even the privates don't particularly like it, for their own reasons, accreditation and whathaveyou....

 

so that i'm clear on what i'm thinking, i'd say initial acceptances sent out were more than the class-size, likely by at least 20%, and that total number has acceptances now. My gut says that at the most 40 would get off the wait-list.

 

What is the 70 number being said? is it that 70 waitlisters have been given seats in the past? or that you guesstimate 70 total over the initial class-size?

 

i'd say that canada has an overall system that makes for a less diverse applicant pool, and therefore a lot of multiple interviews and a lot of multiple acceptances. that makes movement. i think that canadian schools on the whole see less turnover of their class than the states, but not much less than the 1.8 to 2 fold that i stated earlier. maybe down to 1.4, but certainly not down to the 1.2 or so that it would be if there were only a turnaround of 50 people.

 

i want to be clear about my opinion on this, just because i've been around on various boards over several years, wondering and searching about these things, and based on what i've learned, more heavily in the u.s. system, i can see similarities going on here - for instance, if you look in the faq post that is stickied at the top of this forum, you can see total accepted and it looks like fairly 'standard' numbers. for a while i used to think there was way more waitlist movement, once i knew turnover rates, before i realized exactly by how much it is standard to overaccept.... so in a way, i'm being conservative in the sense of how much waitlist movement to expect - i'd give a conservative estimate that quite a few acceptances have been given out already.

 

that's all from me on this one, but just for others who must do a lot of searching trying to figure out the system, this is my opinion, based on my few years of experience of trying to cull info from many sources - opinion, reports, etc.

 

some of the big differences i am seeing between am and can is the trend based on info on this board, that so many go on the waitlist - although that happens at many u.s. schools, just not so many. being a ranked waitlist is a bit different from the am schools i'm used to - that system is often not ranked and so there's terrible frantic stuff around having to write letters of interest, so that they know you are interested and will give the spot to you, knowing you'll accept, so that they keep their turnover stats down - which is another way that med schools get ranked and look at and judge each other. but the secrecy of the ranking order - i know that some schools are open about their rank, and i wonder why the secrecy about it. perhaps there is flexibility in there. also, can environment is interesting whenever there are big announcements of med seat expansions in the middle of an admission process when numbers of interviews are for less spots - i'm thinking when uoft went up by 100 spots one year - that would have been the year to have interviewed!

 

so - just trying to pass on what i know, with of course my spin which i hope i am clear about so you can filter for yourself.

[grinchsantlerdog]

I have it from a pretty good source at UT that the list should move about 50-70 people, and given the stats in http://www.afmc.ca/pdf/2008_admissions_book.pdf that seems about right.

[In_Valid]

I have it from a pretty good source at UT that the list should move about 50-70 people, and given the stats in http://www.afmc.ca/pdf/2008_admissions_book.pdf that seems about right.

 

Does your source know the size of the wait list?

[etbr]

sigh. i was waitlisted last year, and waitlisted again this year. this sucks. experience tells me if i don't hear any offers by early june, then i should forget about uoft once and for all.

 

i think last year, people who got accepted off waitlist heard back beginning may31....

[In_Valid]

sigh. i was waitlisted last year, and waitlisted again this year. this sucks. experience tells me if i don't hear any offers by early june, then i should forget about uoft once and for all.

 

i think last year, people who got accepted off waitlist heard back beginning may31....

 

my thoughts exactly.

[Jasx]

This is a stupid question, but for us on the wait-list, do we have to do anything to tell them we "accept" the waitlist? Thanks.

[etbr]

This is a stupid question, but for us on the wait-list, do we have to do anything to tell them we "accept" the waitlist? Thanks.

 

o how much i would love to be able to say "i reject YOU, uoft, i don't want your waitlist" haha... but too bad, i don't have an acceptance in other schools haha

 

 

so assuming they interviewed 480 people, gave out acceptances for 224 spots + 10 extra offers, that leaves 246 people in waitlist + rejected pile. now assuming again they reject only 20 people or so (no basis on anything haha), that leave 226 people on waitlist.

 

and the general guess is ~60 get off waitlist of ~226 waitlisters.... ow that doesn't look good :S

[grinchsantlerdog]

This is a stupid question, but for us on the wait-list, do we have to do anything to tell them we "accept" the waitlist? Thanks.

 

You don't need to do anything to accept a waitlist position if you aren't accepting other offers from Ontario schools. If you have an offer from another school and you decide to firmly accept you will be automatically removed from all Ontario med school wait lists. If you provisionally accept you will stay on the waitlist you indicated until June 13th, at which point all provisional acceptances become firm and you will be removed from all waiting lists.