For Them Waitlisters

[premed989]

Is it just me, or does it feel like McMaster is behind on their waitlist offers.

[greensurR]

It does seem weird I was hoping for lots yesterday. Also though I've datamined 2015 and 2016 (because I'm crazy lol) and it seemed like waitlist offers were actually pretty spread out. In 2015 there was a spike the day after initial acceptance decisions were due (so that would have been yesterday for us) and in 2016 there was actually a spike before decisions were even due. In 2015 people getting off spanned May 21st-June 5th (with initial offers going out May 12th) and in 2016 offers spanned May 18th-June 10th with initial offers being May 10th. Obviously I've missed stuff here so take all that with a grain of salt but I think waitlist offers may be more spread out than we would hope for in an ideal world. Also I'm sure there's tons of people that just don't post on here.

[greensurR]

Also in both 2015 and 2016 over 20 people posted about getting offers off the waitlist and this year I think only 4 people have posted so far about getting off so far (+2 more that said they'd be declining) so hopefully that means there's more to come 

[premed989]

Inb4 massive wave of offers today and everyone gets in.

 

But in all seriousness let's hope for offers today or tomorrow. The wait is killing me.

[osteogeek]

Just wanted to let you know that the class of 2017's graduation ceremonies are today, so all of the admin staff will be out of the office at that for the majority of the day. Not sure if offers tend to go out on graduation day or not, but hopefully knowing that helps a few of you stress less today. 

[premed989]

Holy! Shit! I got off the waitlist to Hamilton campus! Today, 2:51 pm (literally moments ago). 

​I don't think I've ever felt such a feeling of relief. I had to endure 2 weeks of waitlist and it was horrible. I really hope the waitlist is swift for all of you, and will be praying for you guys until the class is full.

​I've updated my post in Accepted/Waitlisted/Rejected, if you want my stats:

http://forums.premed101.com/index.php?/topic/610-acceptedrejectedwaitlisted-for-current-applicants/?p=1047262

[greensurR]

ugh that must feel amazing congrats premed989!

[premed989]

Don't fret yet greensurR. Based on what's been posted here so far, the waitlist offers are not even close to halfway done (I think we're at 7 of the typical 21 or thereabouts). And (in my neuroticism), I know there are enough waitlisters who are monitoring this thread, so it's not that people aren't posting. Keep on waiting and hoping for the best! Most of the waitlist offers have yet to come!

[greensurR]

I hope you're right!

[Bridges]

Just been accepted to Hamilton Campus, 2:59pm EST. Given that it's been so quiet in the past few days, I have a hunch that the waitlist movement had just begun.

[Bighamster]

Any offers today?

[futuredoc28]

Guys is there any hope for us wait listers??? I am starting to get very concerned :S Are people just not posting that they got off the wait list or is it just moving very slowly??

[Hammmmmy]

https://ibb.co/hgru5v

 

 

 

If you look at last year's cycle, they interviewed 552 people. Out of those 552 people, they gave out 336 offers. That is about 61% of the cohort that was interviewed. So essentially, 61% of the cohort (people who got an immediate offer + waitlisted people who got an offer) will get something. Based on what I've seen from other medical schools in Ontario in this particular statistical category, McMaster offers the highest percentage of offers relative to their interview cohort size. 


If you didn't completely bomb your interview and were in the 60th percentile for your interview, then you're likely to get an offer. Now the issue is that nobody knows how they did except for McMaster themselves so that should really be the only anxiety riddling thing about this whole process.

[011235813]

Happy Monday, people! How's it going? Anything exciting? Any offers? I know it's stressful being on the WL, believe me I'm in the same boat, but let's at least have some fun! Anybody seen Pirates? I went, and it was ridiculous. But to be expected, honestly, that franchise ran out of steam in the mid 2000s. 

 

In other news, I'm currently composing an email to Loma Linda Medical School (The religious Seventh Day Adventist Med school in California), trying to see if, as a religious Jew, I might be admitted to their school, as Jews and Christians share similar morality. I know it's a long shot, but might as well give it a try. Anybody else doing anything fun?

 

 

Stay strong, fellow Waitlisters!

[011235813]

And the email is sent! Let's see if a Christian University will accept me as a non Christian! This will be exciting!

[Ruby]

I'm guessing they won't accept you.

 

I've heard nothing

[bearded frog]

Happy Monday, people! How's it going? Anything exciting? Any offers? I know it's stressful being on the WL, believe me I'm in the same boat, but let's at least have some fun! Anybody seen Pirates? I went, and it was ridiculous. But to be expected, honestly, that franchise ran out of steam in the mid 2000s. 

 

In other news, I'm currently composing an email to Loma Linda Medical School (The religious Seventh Day Adventist Med school in California), trying to see if, as a religious Jew, I might be admitted to their school, as Jews and Christians share similar morality. I know it's a long shot, but might as well give it a try. Anybody else doing anything fun?

 

 

Stay strong, fellow Waitlisters!

They can't say they wouldn't accept you based on your religion, but why would you want to go somewhere where you have to put up with mandatory weekly chapel visits, and punishment for fraternizing with the opposite gender, even off campus.

 

In any case, when presented with more applicants than spots, why would they choose someone who tolerates their values over another candidate who embraces them?

[011235813]

They can't say they wouldn't accept you based on your religion, but why would you want to go somewhere where you have to put up with mandatory weekly chapel visits, and punishment for fraternizing with the opposite gender, even off campus.

 

In any case, when presented with more applicants than spots, why would they choose someone who tolerates their values over another candidate who embraces them?

As an international student, with limited options, I need to apply to as many schools as I can, and Loma Linda is very non-US citizen friendly. They took 10 International students last year, making them one of the top schools for internationals. I guess the mandatory chapel visits and restrictions on fraternization are an opportunity cost of the MD if I end up matriculating there. Your last point is unfortunately true. My hope is that the rest of my application is strong enough to get accepted over someone who embraces their values. 

[greensurR]

I haven't heard anything either sadly 

[011235813]

I haven't heard anything either sadly 

Sorry. Same here. What are your plans for the upcoming cycle? Applying to Canada only or the US as well? 

[greensurR]

Probably just Canada one more time at least! Then I'd branch out to US. Honestly thinking about it gives me a headache. 

[011235813]

Probably just Canada one more time at least! Then I'd branch out to US. Honestly thinking about it gives me a headache. 

Yeah. I understand. Hopefully we get in off the waitlist this year. And it would be REALLY helpful if it would be before I submit my AMCAS! 34 schools don't come cheap!

[premed989]

For what it's worth, I've been watching the stats closely. Take this with a grain of salt, as I don't want to spread false hope, but this is my analysis. The waitlist movement for medical schools is actually pretty predictable from year to year. While it is true that previous year movements cannot predict future waitlist movement, and medical schools don't want to tell candidates about their position for that reason, admissions also knows movements tend to be consistent. You can see this by looking at the AFMC 2017 document, not just for Mac over the last two years, but for all med schools in Canada (there's probably some underlying reason in the admissions environment that we premeds don't yet understand). They're always surprisingly consistent to like 5 or 10 percent. At mac, the decline rate is 120 probably +/-15. That's a very narrow variance.

 

Admissions is sure enough about this consistency to "over accept", a risky thing to do. It also means Mac is able to keep their waitlist small, because they're reasonably certain they won't overrun the waitlist. This means good odds for you. From analyzing previous year stats, about 70% of waitlisters get offers, that's dangerously high unless your waitlist movement is predictable. I don't think we're there yet (I don't feel like we've reached 50%), I have an idea of how many people are following this thread and how many have gotten offers. It's not over until it's over, and it's definitely not over. There's a second wave coming.

 

Lastly, if you don't get off the waitlist, then based on the above you must have ranked very slightly below the cutoff, by probably not more than 30 spots, out of 5500. It is my belief that if you were this close you were simply unlucky rather than inadequate. I was lucky enough to rank highly on the waitlist and get an offer, but I don't believe that the ranking difference for waitlisters is significant. It takes a bit of luck to get into med school and I was lucky, not that I did significantly better. If you don't make it, there's every reason to be disappointed, but no reason to be too hard on yourself, nor to be discouraged. 

​Hope to see you guys at Mac.

[011235813]

For what it's worth, I've been watching the stats closely. The waitlist movement for medical schools are actually pretty predictable from year to year. While it is true that previous year movements cannot predict future waitlist movement, and medical schools don't want to tell candidates about their position for that reason, admissions also knows movements are consistent. You can see this by looking at the AFMC 2017 document. At mac, the decline rate is 120 probably +/-15.

 

Admissions is sure enough about this consistency to "over accept", a risky thing to do. It also means Mac is able to keep their waitlist small, because they're reasonably certain they won't overrun the waitlist. This means good odds for you. From analyzing previous year stats, about 70% of waitlisters get offers, that's dangerously high unless your waitlist movement is predictable. I don't think we're there yet (I don't feel like we've reached 50%), I have an idea of how many people are following this thread and how many have gotten offers. It's not over until it's over, and it's definitely mot over. There's a second wave coming.

 

Lastly, if you don't get off the waitlist, then based on the above you must have ranked very slightly below the cutoff, by probably not more than 50 spots. While this can be discouraging, it is my belief that if you were this close you were simply unlucky rather than inadequate. I was lucky enough to rank highly on the waitlist and get an offer, but I don't believe that the ranking difference for waitlisters is significant. It takes a bit of luck to get into med school and I was lucky, not that I did significantly better. Even if you don't make it, there's every reason to be disappointed, but no reason to be too hard on yourself. 

Thanks premed989! Congrats on your offer, and well done! Thanks for your post. I agree with your analysis, and I'm really hoping that all of us on here made the cutoff. It's a good point about the validity of disappointment, but not being to hard on ourselves. Just making the interview cutoff means that we are competitive applicants, and we even had to pass a semi-MMI to get here (CASPER). It does suck to come up a little short, but I think that this experience, whether we get off or not, is really character building. I remember one year that someone who didn't get off the waitlist mentioned that he/she felt the desire to get in was strengthened by the period that he or she spend on the waitlist and I feel the same. I hope all of us do. As one of the most influential philosophers (in my mind at least) famously wrote and was then plagiarized by Kelly Clarkson, "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger." And that's my view of the waitlist, It's an experience that will only strengthen our resolve and make us better people (and hopefully physicians!). Well, that's my waitlist rant. Congrats again! You've earned this! And we enjoy your company, so don't abandon the waitlist thread! Keep posting!

[Side road student]

Good morning all! I just wanted to post for reference and to expand the database. I was waitlisted for McMaster and just received an offer of admission to the Waterloo Regional Campus yesterday at 7:50am.

I wish you all the best of luck and hope to meet you in the fall!