Cu2OH2CO3 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Hi all, I am on the wait list (for admission and financial support) of the PhD program at Wisconsin, and I was informed that they have sent out more than 100 offers this year while there are 25 on the wait list. Does anyone get admitted to Wisconsin from the wait list in the past years? What is the probability of finally getting admitted from their wait list? Do you know how to increase the chance of getting admitted? This is the first notification I've got this year...Thank you for your attention and response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Econhead Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Hi all, I am on the wait list (for admission and financial support) of the PhD program at Wisconsin, and I was informed that they have sent out more than 100 offers this year while there are 25 on the wait list. Does anyone get admitted to Wisconsin from the wait list in the past years? What is the probability of finally getting admitted from their wait list? Do you know how to increase the chance of getting admitted? This is the first notification I've got this year...Thank you for your attention and response! Check the results threads from past years. I'm sure people were admitted off the waitlist, but i'm not sure how many. Wisconsin is at the funny area of the ranking where people are applying to it as a "safety" for T10, a target (with hopeful reaches in T10), and as a reach (applying to t20). As a result, the large number of admits is to hopefully obtain some of the better candidates while already knowing that many of the individuals that they admitted were likely admitted someplace better. I'm not sure that Wisconsin does this, but it might be good to ask if you are "high" on the waitlist. As time draws nearer to 15 April, and assuming this is your only offer, you may do well by emphasizing that you "will attend" if admitted off the waitlist. Others from last year can probably comment better on this aspect than I. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arrm Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Looking over gradcafe results, I don't see any Wisconsin admissions in the last two years that look like they were off of the waitlist. Of course, this comes with the significant caveat that not even close to all decisions are reported on gradcafe. I do see a significant number of admissions to their masters program instead. This basically looks like an unfunded first year offer, with the option to transfer it to a funded PhD position if you do well in the first-year PhD courses. Quoting a gradcafe comment: But I do want to mention that you have the option to enroll in our Masters program. Given your credentials, we would expect you to enroll in the first-year PhD courses, and take the prelims in the summer, and if you pass both prelims with at least a B average in the first-year micro, macro, and econometrics courses, you could then transfer to the PhD program. We would not offer funding in the first year (and the university does not allow us to grant tuition waivers), but if you do succeed in transferring to the PhD program, you would have guaranteed funding for years 2-4. Since you are on the waitlist, I think chances are probably high that you'll get an offer like this at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Econhead Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Looking over gradcafe results, I don't see any Wisconsin admissions in the last two years that look like they were off of the waitlist. Of course, this comes with the significant caveat that not even close to all decisions are reported on gradcafe. I do see a significant number of admissions to their masters program instead. This basically looks like an unfunded first year offer, with the option to transfer it to a funded PhD position if you do well in the first-year PhD courses. Quoting a gradcafe comment: Since you are on the waitlist, I think chances are probably high that you'll get an offer like this at least. Unless I am reading this page (https://registrar.wisc.edu/tuition_&_fees.htm) wrong, the cost of the "unfunded masters" for the "first year Ph.D transfer" would be at least $25.2K for most individuals (non Wisconsin/Minnesota residents). Assuming you are not working, or barely working, you'd expect 12-20k additional (in loans unless you are independently wealthy) for these 9 months. I'm not making any judgement as to whether you or anyone else should make this choice, just highlighting the cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSLP Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I was initially on the wait list, and I was admitted as soon as I told the ad com that I got an outside funding and didn't need funding for the first two years. In that year the number of admission offer was 98 and 47 people was on the wait list. But the current situation may be different from my case as it seems most (all?) of first year students get funding (so funding may not be an issue for the admission of PhD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cu2OH2CO3 Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Thanks for your note! Very happy to get a response from a Wisconsin graduate student :) In the notification email the Professor says " If you are admitted, your offer will include five years of guaranteed support, most likely as a teaching assistant or a research assistant, provided you are making good progress. " And the numbers of offers (100+) and people on the wait list (25) seem to be a bit different from your year (2011?). Do you know the condition about Fall 2014 and Fall 2013 cohort? Thanks again! :) I was initially on the wait list, and I was admitted as soon as I told the ad com that I got an outside funding and didn't need funding for the first two years. In that year the number of admission offer was 98 and 47 people was on the wait list. But the current situation may be different from my case as it seems most (all?) of first year students get funding (so funding may not be an issue for the admission of PhD). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cu2OH2CO3 Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Thank you! I did not get any info about the master program in the notification email, while I will email to inquire about it. However, as Econhead said, the program costs so much that maybe I just cannot afford without some financial aid... Looking over gradcafe results, I don't see any Wisconsin admissions in the last two years that look like they were off of the waitlist. Of course, this comes with the significant caveat that not even close to all decisions are reported on gradcafe. I do see a significant number of admissions to their masters program instead. This basically looks like an unfunded first year offer, with the option to transfer it to a funded PhD position if you do well in the first-year PhD courses. Quoting a gradcafe comment: Since you are on the waitlist, I think chances are probably high that you'll get an offer like this at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cu2OH2CO3 Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Thank you for your nice reply! I have searched for "wisconsin+wait+list" in relevant threads, but only found very few useful results...Do you know someone who has such experience? I have emailed the professor who sent me the notification, while he said "There is no set order in which we'll consider people from the wait list; whom we consider depends who accepts the offers we currently have out. " Actually I do not quite understand the second sentence... Thanks a lot for your help:) Check the results threads from past years. I'm sure people were admitted off the waitlist, but i'm not sure how many. Wisconsin is at the funny area of the ranking where people are applying to it as a "safety" for T10, a target (with hopeful reaches in T10), and as a reach (applying to t20). As a result, the large number of admits is to hopefully obtain some of the better candidates while already knowing that many of the individuals that they admitted were likely admitted someplace better. I'm not sure that Wisconsin does this, but it might be good to ask if you are "high" on the waitlist. As time draws nearer to 15 April, and assuming this is your only offer, you may do well by emphasizing that you "will attend" if admitted off the waitlist. Others from last year can probably comment better on this aspect than I. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michalz Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 The second sentence, as far as I understand, may mean e.g. the following: they want to accept certain number of people interested in theory, so if mostly empirics-oriented guys accepted the offer they make, they will be more likely to admit theory guy from the waitlist. Obviously I have no idea if the criterion they take into account are interests, sex, nationality or number of "Z" letters in the last name... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Econhead Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 The second sentence, as far as I understand, may mean e.g. the following: they want to accept certain number of people interested in theory, so if mostly empirics-oriented guys accepted the offer they make, they will be more likely to admit theory guy from the waitlist. Obviously I have no idea if the criterion they take into account are interests, sex, nationality or number of "Z" letters in the last name... This makes the most sense to me also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cu2OH2CO3 Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 So there is no little that I can make a difference? :( The second sentence, as far as I understand, may mean e.g. the following: they want to accept certain number of people interested in theory, so if mostly empirics-oriented guys accepted the offer they make, they will be more likely to admit theory guy from the waitlist. Obviously I have no idea if the criterion they take into account are interests, sex, nationality or number of "Z" letters in the last name... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Econhead Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 So there is no little that I can make a difference? :( That's not exactly what Michalz is saying. Suppose there are 100 people, 25 each interested in (a) Macro Theory (b) Micro Theory © Econometrics (d) Applied, and suppose that on the waitlist there are 10 people interested in (a), and 5 each in (b,c,d). As people from the initial 100 reject the offer, they (may) look to replace them with someone of comparable interests from the waitlist. However, within these categories, that doesn't mean that there is not some type of "ranking." As stated before, if Wisconsin is really where you would end up if you were accepted, letting them know this could be beneficial as long you do it in a tactful manor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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