Fair points, @sushiritto. I wasn’t really comparing UM to MIT–just noting that at least at UM there’s actually some significant number of students admitted from the waitlist. But I still don’t understand why–to use the metaphor of musical chairs–UM would keep more students than their entire freshman class waltzing around the circle when there’s likely only going to be a chair for 1/15th, 1/20th, or even 1/100th of them.
My only point was that they might just as well have rejected at least a few thousand of the 14,783 they offered a waitlist spot to last year. I can imagine that even UM can’t predict the craziness of the “admissions churn” and the way it changes every year, but surely they have algorithms for waitlist acceptance just as they do for the rest of the process.
Maybe they feel that it’s kinder to let those students feel that they had all the qualifications to get in but there just wasn’t room, and maybe the waitlist really isn’t ranked in any way… but surely they could identify a few thousand who have zero chance of getting in and just tell them that in April or March or maybe even back in December. Then those kids can really put their energy and enthusiasm into their second choice and start applying for housing, finding a roommate, and buying college gear.
@TwoHearted I don’t disagree with you, almost 15,000 (of 66,000) on a waitlist is a lot, but just offering a guess at UMich’s thinking.
Not that it’s pertinent to the discussion of the size of waitlist, but the one thing to think about is that Cal Berkeley (similar size, prestige, public school) will release decisions on 3/28. Waitlist offers and rejections go out then.
UMich releases (or will) decisions on 12/19, 2/1, 3/1, 3/29 (est.) and 4/19 (est.). We can all guess about the %, but the majority (greater than 50%) of the acceptance decisions have been made a month or months earlier than say like a Cal. Maybe it has something to do with UMich’s admissions methodology?
I’d ask which admissions methodology would you prefer? Getting the bulk of the admission decisions (acceptances, deferrals, waitlists, rejections) out to students/parents much earlier with waitlist offers and waitlist acceptances beginning about the same time as Cal (or earlier in the case of the 3/1 wave) or just waiting it out until 3/28 like Cal and then potentially starting the wait around 3/28?
Personally, I like the UMich method better. Seems like there could be more churn due to the multiple earlier release dates, but I’m just spitballin’ here. :-??
so, have there been any rejections to this point? I dont really want to search through this thread that veers off and on topic to find the answer. If anyone knows, I would appreciate knowing too
Did anyone deferred have an interview? My son just had one this weekend and was surprised how late it was offered. Is this typical? He is OOS and applied to school of engineering.
@janyon. Interviews are for the applicant to get more information and to show continued interest. They are also to appease the alumni doing them. They don’t mean much either way but doing them does show interest, which is a good thing.
My S has quite similar stats to yours, @janyon (and was also rejected by MIT). He applied EA to COE, got an interview, and was deferred (and is still waiting). I’m not sure what it means that your son just got an interview, but it’s at least hard to see how it could be a bad sign–I doubt they would set that up if they had already decided not to consider him for acceptance.
Here’s hoping there’s still lots of spaces to fill in the COE!
Thank you @TwoHearted - I am hoping it is a good sign! Was a rough week last week as he received rejections from GaTech and MIT (especially hard hit since his dad is MIT alumnus and has grown up hearing about his great experience there). Here’s hoping for good results for everyone waiting :-SS
@janyon The interviews were just for COE I believe. My son was deferred from EA and just had his interview a little over a week ago. It looks like our sons have almost the same college list. VT, GT, MIT, and U of M. He had the same MIT let down, like most of the world. Any others you are waiting for?
S is still waiting on BU, Cornell, Carnegie and Brown (not sure why this one made his list ?) - all reach based on results so far! Did your son get in VT?
@janyon Yes on VT, that is in state for us. He was also turned down from Hopkins but is still waiting to hear from Carnegie, UVA, and Princeton (another real stretch).
Hi everyone I’ve been following this thread for awhile but made an account to ask a question. My friend and I applied EA. I was accepted and he was deferred. We’ve been checking his portal frequently and today we noticed that it says his fall application is “no longer active”. They also added a summer application with the date 3/19/2019 and a different application number. Does anyone know what this means? He didn’t apply for the summer term.
