<p>From what I have heard not everyone is competitive. Some time people referred by alumni’s and big people are waitlisted. this way they don’t get a straight rejection and then when it comes to late may, MIT (or any other institution) tells that alot of people accepted the MIT offer so not many waitlist people got in. </p>
<p>Its for some a politer way of rejecting them.</p>
<p>eh, really the reason we have such a big waitlist is that a large number of students on the waitlist choose to go elsewhere even if we take them off the waitlist (because they’ve already found somewhere else and sent in their deposit etc). </p>
<p>it is a big number. i realize that it seems annoying or pointless. then again, i was taken off the waitlist (not at MIT, but at my alma mater), and i wouldn’t have it be otherwise.</p>
<p>eh, really the reason we have such a big waitlist is that a large number of students on the waitlist choose to go elsewhere even if we take them off the waitlist (because they’ve already found somewhere else and sent in their deposit etc). </p>
<p>it is a big number. i realize that it seems annoying or pointless. then again, i was taken off the waitlist (not at MIT, but at my alma mater), and i wouldn’t have it be otherwise.</p>
<p>This is in response to a deleted post (sorry, I’m a mod and I’m incurably nosy) – I’ll post the question, but the author can choose to identify him/herself or not. :)</p>
<p>
The predictability of the yield changed in a significant way – several of the schools that compete most highly with MIT changed their early admission policies to do away with early action (Harvard), or with early decision (several schools). So it’s tougher to predict whether a certain number of admitted students will come to MIT or attend another top school, where previously many of those admitted to other top schools would not even have applied to MIT given their early applications elsewhere.</p>
<p>Also, for many years, no one was taken off the waitlist at all. Recently the waitlist has gotten larger, but the number of students admitted from the waitlist has also risen.</p>
<p>If you want to see the number of applicants accepted from the waitlist in the last few years, you can usually find that information in a blog post from mid-May in Matt’s blog. The information is also in the Common Data Set, but is a few years out of date.</p>
<p>That was me - thanks for the reply (didn’t know deleted was a relative term here ;)).</p>
<p>I promise that I try to use my mod powers only for good. 
But incurable nosiness is an occupational hazard – it is, after all, what scientists get paid to be good at.</p>