So I just got waitlisted at UMich, but one of my friends got accepted in the early action round to the College of Engineering. I applied for CoE too. We go to the same high school, OOS, but she committed to another college. Does that mean there’s automatically a spot for me on the waitlist? We didn’t go for the same engineering major, but I know that all first-years are admitted into the same program.
Should I email my regional admissions officer?
Thanks
*edit - I’m already on the waitlist, I meant, is there a spot for me in that college potentially?
No.
Not about your classmate not attending and that spot being earmarked for you. You can send a LOCI/extra materials thru whatever means Michigan has requested.
Get excited about the school that you will deposit/enroll at by May 1. Put any waitlists on the backburner. Hope for the best, prepare that you won’t be accepted off any waitlists.
Ditto. Another student’s decision to enroll elsewhere will not influence your spot on a WL. Some schools have long waitlist and go deep into them. Some schools have long waitlists and barely touch them. It varies from year to year. Check to see if the schools you are waitlisted on accept a letter of continued interest or any updated information about additional honors awards, etc. Definitely accept another admission to enroll, but there is no harm in staying on a waitlist. There are several excellent threads here on CC about waitlists. You are being told that while they feel your application qualifies for acceptance, they cannot offer you a spot at this time. See it as a positive acknowledgment from the school. It is not a rejection.
Every school has a yield. I don’t know Michigan COE’s yield but last year 47% accepted their offer. Presumably a higher percentage picked in state and less OOS given the cost. They don’t break that out either.
So they expect declines. So just because someone turns them down doesn’t mean a spot opens up.
But they may guess wrong so they waitlist kids. They have not accepted you. People get mad I say it but in truth they have rejected you but are using you as a hedge in case they erred in guessing who will come at each school.
So in the 2024-25 CDS, they show they initially accepted 15373, of which 7278 accepted.
How many did they WL ? 24804 or one if every four students that applied - think about that. They WL far more than they accept - so they are using your emotions for their benefit. Yea nearly 1k came off. No all didn’t attend. They likely had to go that deep to get enough to accept to fill their holes, however many they had. Their yield is likely low on the WL. And you don’t know which holes they filled - i.e which college had room.
So there’s nothing to do here. And your logic is wrong. They expect declines, especially from those needing to pay $85k.
So fall in love with your top choice amongst acceptances. Get to the point that if somehow a WL does come through that you are so happy with where you are attending that you decline the offer.
Good luck.
Each admitted applicant who resembles you in admission profile who goes elsewhere does increase the chance of waitlist admission for you, but whether waitlist admission (if any) gets to you depends more on the aggregate non-matriculation of admits who resemble you than any one individual.
For undergraduate admissions, universities typically overbook. They have a pretty good idea of what their yield is likely to be. Thus if they have let’s say 8,000 freshmen, and typically have a yield rate of 50%, they might accept 12,000 students or more (out of more than 100,000 applicants – these are very rough numbers and might not be exactly accurate). They expect some students to turn them down. I am pretty sure that Michigan accepts by major, so the numbers specifically for engineering might be smaller numbers, but the idea is that they accept somewhat more students than they have spots still applies.
For a university of the size of the University of Michigan, one student turning them down and going elsewhere is really not that surprising (for example at least someone somewhere might have gotten into both Michigan and Stanford). By itself one student going elsewhere will not open up a slot on the waitlist.
They are very likely going to be waiting until way closer to May 1 to see what their yield is going to be this year. I would not expect to hear anything for a while. At this point admissions at Michigan probably just does not know whether they will end up accepting students off the waitlist.
I think that you need to wait and try to be patient. Also, get excited about a school or a few schools that do admit you. Getting in off a waitlist does happen, but tends to be rare. There are a lot of universities that are very good for engineering.
Also, Michigan had more than 100,000 applicants this time around. This is a reach school for most of us.
I think that overbooking tends to be less aggressive for graduate students, but this does not apply here. As one example some small doctoral programs might not overbook at all.
All very good points. Data analytics have really helped colleges better estimate yield, but there are things that happen that can be unpredictable, like last year’s massive job layoffs and concerns about Visa availability for internationals that affected admissions. And this year, if the stock market continues it’s decline, that could affect funding for families, especially who are full or almost full pay. So strategy is acceptance to another school and then hang tight if Michigan really is your top choice. There’s an old expression “he who expects nothing will never be disappointed“. Don’t live like that, but that said, be realistic. You are sort of like on a person‘s “B” List for a wedding. You’re on the invite list but there is not enough room for you right now unless others decline. But you are on the list. How far down or wether or not you receive an invitation is unknown at this time.
Yield chance is likely individual for each admit, since admits who were reaching for the college are more likely to matriculate than “overqualified” applicants who are more likely to have other attractive admission or scholarship offers. Demonstrated interest indicators, even if not used to determine admission, may be used to determine yield chance.
However, whether an admit is counted as (for example) 0.1, 0.5, or 0.9 of a student when admitted, they count as 0 or 1 student once they tell the college their decision.
Yes, all of that should be calculated in the Now quite sophisticated prediction models. And as you know, there are lots of additional things that can happen even after a student accepts an offer of admission. We are all pretty familiar with the “summer melt”.