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MIT staff blogger Matt McGann '00

The Waitlist, 2009 by Matt McGann '00

Within the next few days, we plan to make waitlist offers to complete the Class of 2013.

For the fourth consecutive year, we will admit students from our waitlist. Within the next few days, we plan to admit approximately 60 students from the waitlist.

When our waitlist decisions are finalized, we will notify the admitted students, informing them that they have been admitted from the waitlist. Financial aid will follow up shortly thereafter with aid packages. Admitted students can then choose to accept our offer (it is an understood part of admissions that some people will shuffle around during the waitlist period; you will lose your deposit at the other school, but it is a standard practice to consider accepting a waitlist offer) or decline it.

Also, we will begin notifying some students on the waitlist that we will not be able to offer them admission. We offered a spot on the waitlist to 454 people, in the possibility that we needed to go very deep into our waitlist, as most schools must do from time to time. But now, as a high number of admitted students have chosen to enroll, we know that we will need to enroll only a relatively moderate number of students from the waitlist. As such, it isn’t ethical to keep all of those people on the waitlist at this point, so we will notify hundreds of students that they will not be admitted from the waitlist, and wishing them the best of luck at the college they’ve chosen.

We also will keep some students, approximately 50, on the waitlist for another few weeks until we are fully satisfied with the class. Last year, we admitted students in two rounds of waitlist admissions; two years ago, we were satisfied with the class after one round of waitlist admissions. We’ll know more about how this year looks in a few weeks.

The waitlist committee has been working hard since May 1 to determine how many students, if any, could be admitted from the waitlist, while in parallel working to make admisions decisions. The waitlist admissions process will continue until we fully determine who will and will not be admitted, at which point we will notify students. I don’t yet know what day we will notify students. We’ll keep you up-to-date.

49 responses to “The Waitlist, 2009”

  1. Patrick A says:

    Yay! More good news! This seems relatively large compared to the last three years! =D

  2. BJ says:

    good news, cross my fingers.

  3. Anonymous says:

    how many people have accepted to be on the waitlist from that 454?

  4. Good luck to those who were wailisted. Hope to see you in the fall!

  5. Jack says:

    @anonymous: In past years, up to 80% returned the postcard to accept a waitlist position. I don’t know this year’s statistic.

  6. Waitlistee says:

    :O

    That’s amazing!!!

  7. Jimmy says:

    Ah, seems I need to E-mail my update letter in addition to mailing it. Hope it’s not too late to make a difference.

  8. Nick says:

    Thanks for all of the info. Cant sleep!

  9. NathanArce says:

    Oh? Coolio, it was only 60!

  10. sweet! the waiting is almost over!! I’m ready to lose that $100 deposit for MIT. Good luck waitlistees smile

  11. I second Samuel’s encouragement :D

  12. Thank you, Matt! Thanks for this exciting update.
    So, wish myself best of luck.

  13. Anonymous says:

    How will we find out? Is this an e-mail or a phone thing? I’ve been frantically checking my e-mail since this has been posted :—–
    COMMENT:
    AUTHOR:
    EMAIL: [email protected]
    IP: 41.233.86.123
    URL:
    DATE: 05/15/2009 08:35:22 AM
    COMMENT_BODY:
    Guys, how do you know whether you are a waitlistee or not? Are you emailed or something? I applied as a transfer applicant and I was not accepted.. Do I have a chance to be in the waiting list or that is the lase decision?

    Plz answer me !!

  14. Any idea if there will be any international students given an offer from the wait list?

  15. Mak says:

    Hey Matt,

    well I wanted to ask few questions like –

    approximately how many indian students do you all give admission to , for the doing Masters ?

    – Is a transferred student given less preference over a freshmen ?

    – Does the financial aid stuff changes for students who wish to do Masters from MIT ?

    waiting for ur reply……………..

  16. @ Anonymous

    The admissions decision will tell us if we are admitted, not admitted or wait listed.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Not Admitted/Accepted = Not wait listed either. Sorry

  18. Me says:

    I just got an email! I got in!

  19. Anonymous says:

    Can someone please tell me if this means that they have chosen the first 60 or a portion of the 60?

    Hello, from MIT Admissions. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience whilst on our waitlist, and to ask for just a little more time from you. We have admitted a very small number of waitlisted students in our first round of deliberations, and we sincerely hope to admit more students from off of the list at a later point. We will know much more towards the end of May, and we’ll be in contact with you shortly.

    We understand that there is a great deal of uncertainty you might be feeling now. But hold tight! In the meantime, you don’t need to do anything, unless you don’t wish to remain on the list.

    Please feel free to contact us with any questions you might have, and again, thank you kindly for your patience.

    Yours truly,

    McGreggor Crowley

  20. Patrick A says:

    @ Anonymous

    I was in contact with them and they said they did accept approximately 60 students today.

  21. Anonymous says:

    @ Patrick A
    Thanks for responding. Do you know if anyone actually got a definite rejection?

  22. blaalb says:

    @ Me

    I got in too!!!

  23. A says:

    Your waitlist letter of rejection is written with such indifference that honestly you could have just sent status:deny as the body of the email. “Hello, from mit admissions”, that is not even a complete sentence but rather a fragment. I am more than ready to move on to current choice of a school, however a little more thought could have been used.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Still can’t believe I got accepted! I’m having an issue with myMIT tho. When I log on there is no reply option.

  25. Anonymous says:

    Not accepted from the waitlist.

    Honestly, I’m extremely disappointed in MIT. I applied early, with a perfect GPA at one of the top schools in my state and a well-rounded application, and got deferred. Sent in an update about winning a national competition in math and got waitlisted at RA. I sent in an update and got rejected.

    I’ve been working hard for the last three years, and I guess the school I wanted so badly to spend the next four years at has decided there’s just no room for me. And frankly, I’m not too convinced that it was for the right reasons.

    Good luck with your class of 2013, and good luck to everyone in it. I guess MIT will just be one of those things that could have been.

  26. Deeni says:

    Accepted! I can’t believe it! Thank you soooooo much!!!!

  27. Deeni says:

    Thanks Matt. :D

  28. Deeni says:

    How come my myMIT account doesn’t say anything about my getting accepted? How am I supposed to respond to the admissions offer?

  29. Anonymous says:

    I was not accepted, and I can not deny that I was disappointed, but I have to admit that MIT’s admission office and procedure is a very respected one among all that I have seen before.

    Special thanks goes to Emily, for sure.

  30. NathanArce says:

    Congrats to waitlistees who have been accepted! If it hasn’t already become accessible in your myMIT page, make sure to sign the Guest Book in your home page as soon as you see one.

    After you sign the guest book, you can join the facebook group for our class at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=41040127333&ref=ts ^_^

  31. Anonymous says:

    Why is the letter so confusing??????

  32. Anonymous says:

    Why is the letter so confusing??????

  33. heinsolid says:

    Yes. MIT really treats admissions affairs seriously. In contrast with MIT, Caltech messed up my transfer admission (about the entrance exam) and denied me much earlier than the planned time.

  34. Anonymous says:

    Congratulations for those new accepted applicants,
    but guys, I want to be in touch with any of you to give me a wider picture of the criteria.. I was not accepted and I wish any of you, kindly, respond to me…

    my email is [email protected]

    Congratulations again… I am really happy for you!!!

  35. Matt '00 says:

    @Anonymous: The letter you reference means you are among the ~50 students still on the waitlist, as referenced in the 4th paragraph.

    @Me, blaalb, Deeni: Congrats!

  36. Anonymous says:

    @anonymous: hey i’m from egypt too, but wasn’t accepted, which school are you in?

  37. Anonymous says:

    @anonymous I am from American university in Cairo, which school is urs?

    it is better to contact by email as we may have longer discussion..

  38. NathanArce says:

    Guys, don’t worry, your myMIT portal will have all of the correct updates within the week! It took about that long after the EAs were accepted for us, and a little less time for the RAs back in March.

    Don’t worry, you’ll be given ample time to accept your offer of admission ^_^

  39. Anonymous says:

    So how will the “extended waitlist” work? I’m assuming that of the 60 you admitted, you’re expecting a certain yield, along with the expectation of some students who switch colleges due to getting off of other college waitlists. How many below the target number (1075 students) will have to be enrolled at MIT following this first round for there to be people drawn from the waitlist again? Or will you just keep the number, even if it’s below your target?

  40. Anonymous says:

    -^- I second that.

  41. heinsolid says:

    That seems like a geometric series.

  42. Congratulations to all admitted waitlisted applicants! I hope you all enjoy and value your future MIT experience as much as I have thus far.

    Best,
    Ken Haggerty ’11

  43. Anonymous says:

    I’m not the same person but i have the same question.
    “So how will the “extended waitlist” work? I’m assuming that of the 60 you admitted, you’re expecting a certain yield, along with the expectation of some students who switch colleges due to getting off of other college waitlists. How many below the target number (1075 students) will have to be enrolled at MIT following this first round for there to be people drawn from the waitlist again? Or will you just keep the number, even if it’s below your target?”

  44. Anonymous says:

    how many people were admitted in the 2nd round last year?

  45. Patrick A says:

    @ Anonymous

    There were 10 students admitted in the second deliberations of the wait list according to Matt McGann’s blog post last year.

  46. Jennifer says:

    Hi, Guys! Is any already-enrolled student here? I am wondering if my son would be good enough for MIT enrollment.

    Junior; His GPA: unweighted 3.97; weighted: 4.2

    His high school is a small sized one in the mid-west. He has taken a few math contests and got No. 36 and No. 17 among 3500 and 1700 participants in our state. He is going to take SAT and ACT and the estimated score would be around 2100-2200 for SAT and 33-34 for ACT. He has taken AP tests for math, physics and chemistry and has not got results.
    He is a member in a club and did some service in the church.

    I would appreciate info from anybody.

    An anxious mom

  47. Anonymous says:

    @Jennifer

    Obviously, he should apply! Never hurts to try…

  48. wendy says:

    Of course I’m in that 50. Story of my life!=]