Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

Anybody have any advice? Yale is still my number one choice, are there any ways to get a favorable position on the waiting list? Also would like to know how many people generally get taken off the waiting list each year. I've also been accepted into Berkeley which would be my next choice.

By Kamili (Kamili) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 11:10 am: Edit

Yale tends to be a stingy school with the waitlist candidates, and unless you happen to be what they need to "fill the class" (ie. too few of a certain 'type'), from what Ican tell the chances are pretty low.

By Cuspidor (Cuspidor) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Richard Levin said in an article in Yale Daily News that they expect to get people off the wait list this year more than in previous ones :o

By Bunmushroom (Bunmushroom) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 03:07 pm: Edit

can you post the link for that please?

By Eliyale (Eliyale) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 05:46 pm: Edit

Avalon,

From this link (http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=25563), I would guess that there are more than 1000 who are waitlisted. Of this number, how many will accept to continue to be on the list? I don't know, but maybe 1/3. So, say, 400. Last year, Yale accepted 2014; this year, 1950. But remember that last year Yale had ED, unlike this year. Of course, going the other way is the fact that Yale wants a smaller class for 2008 than 2007.

If the yield of 2008 remains the same as 2007, then 1297 people will accept Yale's offer, and 13 people on the waitlist will be accepted. But, due to the ED/EA switch, I think that the 2008 yield will be less than that for 2007, so more than 13 will be admitted of the waitlist. My uneducated guess is that 30-50 more people will be admitted.

By Avalon04 (Avalon04) on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Hmm, doesn't sound like the odds are in my favor. Oh well, wish me good luck!

By Eliyale (Eliyale) on Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 02:58 am: Edit

If you have done something extraordinary/unusual this year and for some unexplained reason you haven't told Yale this, then now is the time. By this, I don't mean your grades, because this won't make you stand out. Try to look at this from the adcom's perspective. Assuming that my analysis above is accurate (and thus Yale will be accepting some people off the waitlist), how will you stand out among the assumed 400 that they will look? If you can objectively answer this question, and can demonstrate this to them, then you may have a better shot now than a RD applicant to Yale this year. Remember that for RD, the adcom had to look over 16-17K applicants over a 3 month period, and thus not a lot of time to look over each one. Now, the pool is much much smaller (400), and thus, an applicant's chance to shine and stand out is greater. Make the most of your chance. Good luck.