UCB MFE vs GAtech QCF

[Rahul Budhadev]

What are the chances of conversion of UCB MFE waitlist to admitted status? I currently have a GAtech QCF offer. Should I take it or wait for UCB?

 

[Soccent]

Here is a stratagem that I was told worked to get one off the waiting list, at least in the old days, at least for law and MBA programs. I do not know if it actually worked then (but it makes sense) or if it still works now.

Show up on the day everyone reports. At least for MBA and law programs, which have at least 100 students in a class, someone ( perhaps many someones) who said he was coming changes his mind and does not show. (He forfeits his deposit.) Maybe he said he was coming and got in at the last minute off the waitlist to a school he preferred. Or may be he decided to spend the year surfing. Who knows?

The admissions office has a problem. It wants to fill the class. If you are on the wait list, you are qualified. Do you think the admissions office wants to spend the day frantically calling the number one guy on the wait list, the number two.

When someone steps up and says, I am on the wait list and I am here now, ready to go, what do you think the admissions personnel are going to say. No, you are 23rd on the list. We want to frantically hunt for number one and two. No, you are there. Their problem is solved. You are in.

(This might work less well in this age of cell phones, but the logic is still pretty good.)

 

[MrBigChest]

Wait so you are recommending Rahul to wait 10 months (while he has an offer from a good school, which will definitely be long gone by then) just on the off-chance that somebody will not show up AND that person will not inform the school that they are not coming beforehand AND the admissions office will simply let Rahul tag along? Solid advice.

 

[Soccent]

Well lets be hystrionic. Wait. I am not recommending anything to anyone. I am sharing a stratagem that has supposedly worked in the past. And where does 10 months come from. It clearly works less successfully if the two schools are as far apart as Berkeley and Atlanta.

In my business school class, we had at least three students who had paid a deposit to Harvard and were in the picture book of incoming students at Harvard and got in to our school fairly late off the wait list.

If I am a young person with an issue, it is useful to be exposed to a variety of possible solutions. You can always reject one. You cannot accept or reject an options of which you are unaware.

And wait. Nowhere did I suggest he turn down the offer.

 

[MrBigChest]

Well, Berkeley starts on March next year while Gatech starts this August. So your stratagem might not be completely applicable to this scenario but fair enough, as you weren't aware of the dates.

 

[Soccent]

Yes, was unaware UCB began so late.

But, depending on how bad he wants to go to UCB, he could sign up with GT and keep on the waitlist. And go to UCB, forfeiting his GT deposit, if he gets off the waitlist, if he gets off the wait list early enough.

 

[idkmyname]

Go to GAtech. As far as I know, UCB has a long waitlist, and I know many people are on the waitlist for 2020 with a guarantee for 2021, and they need to reapply, pay the application fee again, just so weird.

 

[Rahul Budhadev]

@Soccent Thanks for the suggestion. As pointed out, the stratagem would be applicable if the courses commenced at the same time. But QCF starts in Aug 2019 and MFE UCB begins in March 2020.

Can someone throw some light on how likely it is to convert from a waitlist?

 

[Rahul Budhadev]

Go to GAtech. As far as I know, UCB has a long waitlist, and I know many people are on the waitlist for 2020 with a guarantee for 2021, and they need to reapply, pay the application fee again, just so weird.

Yes, as of now I am inclined towards that as well. Better to go for it now than wait in uncertainty!