Bunch of Crazy Questions re. Waitlist

[Guest michca]

Is it possible for someone to get off the waitlist at Western and receive a Schulich scholarship? Or have they all been given out to first round acceptances?

Also, seeing as how the board is tragically down, does anyone have the admissions stats for last year (i.e. how many total offers made)- I'm hoping to pass time in the next few weeks by doing the same probability calculations over and over again (jk)!

Finally, the wait list email says all waitlisters must respond by June 20- does this mean they won't be sending out the 'second round' of offers until at least then? Or can we expect wait list movement around June 14? Will this second round of admissions be done by email first and then letter- or just a letter (like they have done in previous years)???????

Thanks!

[Guest Scared in the Woods]

I had a conversation with financial services about the Schulich scholarships before acceptances were sent out. I was told it is possible to receive a Schulich scholarship off the waitlist, but unlikely as they are all offered to the first round folks. Too bad, its a lot of money!

[Guest Pthalo]

I'm surprised that financial services said that, since I definitely read somewhere that a certain number of the Scholarships will be held until the waitlist is closed so that everyone has a fair chance of receiving one...does anyone elso remember reading this? Although I guess UWO also stated that they would never send acceptance/waitlist/rejection info over email, yet this clearly didn't hold true.

[Guest 0T6]

I remember one of the current UWO med students (maybe Dr2005? ) mentioning that a small number of them are reserved to be given to people coming off the waitlist.

[Guest michca]

I really hope that's true re. reserving a small number of scholarships for people on the waitlist!

Any thoughts on when waitlisters might first be notified?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Yeah, it wasn't me who spoke about Shulich scholarships. Since my last year was the first year they were offered at all, my knowledge surrounding the Schulichs is pretty bad!

 

I have no clue how financial services administers them. But from 4 years of dealing with financial services I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be dealt with efficiently or fairly.

 

Just a personal bias.

 

My GUESS (and it's just a guess) is that they've decided to try to use the Schulichs as a recruiting tool by giving them out based on the first round of offer stats (ie who's in the most need for the first 133 offers) which might not be the most in need in the final number (see below.)

 

I'm not sure if that might be corrected in 2nd year. . . are these scholarships offered X 4 years? Or are they offered for each year.

 

Honestly - since my class was only offered them for one year at all, you applicants would know this detail better than me.

 

As to your next question. . .

 

does anyone have the admissions stats for last year

 

No, I don't. But I DO have them for my years and things fluctuate enough year to year that the stats for the class of 2005 might be as useful as 2008. . .

 

We had 189 offers for 118 spots. That means there were 71 offers BEYOND the waitlist.

 

I don't remember the exact stats for 2006, but I do remember they were well over 200 offers for 133 spots, and the ratios were similar.

 

I'm going to go WAY OUT ON A LIMB and try and break the numbers down for you.

 

This is complete SPECULATION and more for entertainment than to gauge your chances of getting in. DO NOT make life plans based on my numbers.

 

Our year they interviewed roughly 370 or so (I think 400 offers for interview, 370 showed up or something like that)

 

That means there were 252 people left after the initial offers were made.

 

71 of 252 of those were eventually pulled off the waitlist (28%)

 

But I'm missing a fair bit of info. . .

 

How many of the 252 were rejected? I honestly don't know. That's one of those admissions things they won't divulge. But I do know 100% people get rejected after the interviews.

 

How many of those 252 were accepted or on waitlists at other schools?

 

Probably a fair number! You might have noticed there is some, but not a lot of overlap to people getting into OMSAS schools. A large number of those 252 may have had first round offers at Queens or U of O or Dal or U of A or U of T. A number of others might get pulled off the waitlist to these other schools.*

 

So in the final breakdown, the total number of applicants actually on the UWO waitlist for the class of 2005 was a lot less than 252. I just don't know how much less.

 

So. . .

 

You'll notice our attitude towards the waitlist is kind of neutral. YOU ARE NOT BEING STRUNG ALONG WITHOUT A REALISTIC CHANCE OF GETTING IN. Many, many current UWO med students (and grads!) were on the waitlist and got in. Those who were eventually accepted bore no less respect from their classmates on acceptance.

 

But unfortunately, many people do sit on waitlists for the whole summer and not make it. I CAN'T SAY WHICH OF THESE TWO GROUPS YOU WILL BE IN.

 

My advice would be:

 

a) start thinking now about what you might do come September if you're not accepted. But, at least for this month, DO NOT finalize any plans. . . especially any you can't get out of!

 

if you haven't had an offer in mid-July or early August, start working on plans for September. . . but be aware students have been pulled off the waitlist as late as the first week of September (though this is rare!)

 

Good Luck. This post is entirely speculative, but I hope it helps.

 

* I will caveat by saying IF YOU GET AN OFFER AT THIS POINT ANYWHERE - take it!! Do NOT wait for your chance to come off the UWO waitlist in August. . . it might not come!

[Guest JSS02]

For the 2006 class it was 234 offers in total for 133 spots. Offers went out from 2 weeks after the first round until just a few days before orientation...

[Guest Twin Tulip]

Okay, so long as we're discussing crazy questions about the waitlist....

 

Suppose that 200-odd offers are given for 133 spots....so the waitlist went 70 people deep. I've seen some posts that calculate stats as 70/total number of waitlisters.....

 

But it seems to me that a waitlister's chances are better than this? If, say, someone was at the top of the UWO and U of T waitlists, then gets in at U of T and accepts...the total waitlist pool grows smaller for the rest of us still waiting on UWO. So our chances are greater than it seems on the surface...

 

Any thoughts on the reality and impact of this? It makes sense that it would happen, and I'd love to believe that with so many other med schools, its impact could be considerable....am I missing something? Of course, I might be just desperately looking for anything that improves my chances ! Any ideas out there?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

As noted above Twin Tulip, I think your analyses is correct.

 

But. . . THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO KNOW HOW THIS AFFECTS THE NUMBERS.

 

Good luck and just remember that a waitlist does not mean the game is over.

[Guest Twin Tulip]

oops - sorry UWOMED2005, should have fully read all of your post!

 

thanks again and good luck to everyone waiting!

[Guest TimmyMax]

Hey,

 

The way that things have worked in recent years is that, when you do the math, you have about a 50% chance of being offered admission (in one form or another) if you interviewed at Western. You can look up the stats from past years for exact numbers, but from our year, the chance of admission was 233/417 = 56% chance of being offered admission, which is pretty good, when you think about it, and I'm sure that that is roughly the case at the other schools. Hope this helps!

 

Best of luck!

Timmy

[Guest makdaddy08]

You didn't get your last q answered.

 

Your reply is June 20 for waitlist, but it is very possible to get accepted before your reply even gets back to the university. This was my case, as I sent out my reply form and one day later got an acceptance package.

[Guest ploughboy]

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Not wanting to put words in anybody's mouth, but I'm 99% sure that it was aneliz who posted about a month ago that some Schulich scholarships are held in reserve for second-rounders (drat ezboard's lack of timely backups!). I'm not sure if she was speaking ex cathedra or not, but even if she wasn't I would trust her speculation. As my understanding is that Mr. Schulich's motivation was to help less-well-off students attend med school, it would make sense that not all of the scholarships would be given out with first round offers -- it wouldn't be equitable to do it any other way! Of course, as '05 pointed out already, "make sense" might not apply since the UWO Registrar's Office is involved.

 

Another factor to add to '05's speculative analysis (his caveat applies: don't plan your life around these numbers!) - since UWO offers interviews based on having one year's GPA above 3.70, there will be a small number of people offered admission and/or on the waitlist who *cannot* meet the pre-req of having two full years above 3.70 (i.e. they were interviewed on the strength of having one good year, and either weren't in school full-time this past year or didn't quite make the cut-off with this year's GPA). My back-of-the-envelope guess -- based on a few posts made around interview time, and some conservative assumptions which I won't get into here -- is about 20-25 people might fall into that category, which makes the odds marginally better for the rest of us.

 

However, as a wise man once said: individuals on the waitlist will either be 100% in the class come September or 100% out of it. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to calculate odds (guilty as charged!)

 

Aside: is anybody else getting tired of explaining the waitlist to non-meds family/friends/neighbours/co-workers? I was up home this weekend, and I think I must have given my "waitlist speech" about 50 times!

 

Cheers,

 

pb

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[Guest avarrin2001]

Ploughboy, I know EXACTLY what you mean. I am as tired of explaining the waitlist procedure to family members etc, as I am of explaining why I am not already accepted when there is such a shortage of physicians. :\

[Guest ploughboy]

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avarrin,

 

Ah yes, I get the "shortage of doctors" question about half the time as well! That leads to my other canned speech about med school seats being the limiting factor, 1700 applicants for 133 spots, blahblahblah... I can do the whole 'spiel on autopilot now ;-)

 

Good luck with the wait!

 

pb

 

 

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[Guest michca]

Maybe we should start a UWO waitlisters support group

"My name is michca and I am a wait lister....when I try to explain to my friends and family about the wait list, they just don't seem to understand.."

Seriously, yes, the wait list speech has been well used by myself in the last few days :b

 

Thanks to everyone for their replies re. the wait list and Schulich scholarship info- UWOMed 2005- the scholarships are offered X 4 years, as far as I know. I hope Western isn't just using them as a recruitment tool, since as ploughboy pointed out, these scholarships were generated to help less wealthy students attend med school (regardless of whether they were accepted immediately or off the wait list). Thanks also to Makdaddy08 for your info on past wait lists- hopefully the wait list will indeed begin to move before the 20th.

 

Good luck to everyone still waiting! May the wait list move to your liking!

[Guest ploughboy]

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This is more for the benefit of people stressing out over the waitlist next year at this time than for anybody still caught up in this application cycle...but for the record it is possible to be offered a Schulich Scholarship when you come off the waitlist.

 

Cheers,

 

pb

 

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