Chances of getting in on a waitlist

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
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ender
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Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:17 am

Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by ender » Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:34 pm

Hey I was wondering if anyone knows what are the chances of getting in when wait listed. I'm wait listed at Rice and would love to go there... just want to know my chances. And if anyone applied to Rice and know they aren't going there please reject their offer!

Thanks

forecast8
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by forecast8 » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:47 am

ender wrote:Hey I was wondering if anyone knows what are the chances of getting in when wait listed. I'm wait listed at Rice and would love to go there... just want to know my chances.
I'd put the probability of acceptance exactly equal to the probability that you used the search function to find other threads on this topic before creating a new thread.

ender
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by ender » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:50 pm

Ok, let me respond to this by first saying that the probability that you and many other people on this forum (namely the assholes who try to be sarcastic and yet do not grasp the concept of sarcasm) are socially awkward and are boring approaches unity, not even commenting on the fact that it is highly doubtful that these individuals have found anyone of the opposite sex to tolerate them for more than a few minutes.

Let me try to moderate my post by saying that i'm not addressing the majority of posters on this website

Secondly, yes I did see other posts however there is not really any useful information on them, i posted in the off chance that a Rice graduate student or someone knowledgable about the program there may look at the forum and would respond.

forecast8
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by forecast8 » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:51 am

excellent post.

I suspect you are quite frustrated, both with the tough time you having getting into school and with my earlier post which might have embarassed you.

I'm sure by now you read enough to realize that virtually 99% of posters here have no real idea of how things actually work behind the scenes.

However, just this weekend I talked with the admissions chair at U Arizona. He very confidently told me he knew the exact number of applicants who would accept the outstanding offers, even if he didn't know the identities of the individuals. Thus the wait list is almost never needed. The sole purpose is protect the school in case of an unusual circumstance.

At any university only a handful of people trully know the numbers involved, rest assured that none of them will be sharing this information here.

Ender is a unique moniker. Since we are trading insults, did know you Orson Scott Card, author of Enders Game apparently believes the CFC's ban is a bunch of baloney since CFC never did harm the ozone layer? http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/ever ... 01-13.shtm Not someone I'd volunatarily name myself after.

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butsurigakusha
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by butsurigakusha » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:02 am

Well, it's a good thing he didn't name himself after Orson Scott Card. Ender is a fictional character in a novel that he apparently likes. Orson Scott Card is a person who has his own opinions. The quality of his books can be judged on its own, without regard to any subsequent actions or opinions of the author.

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will
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by will » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:01 am

^ own'd.

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dlenmn
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by dlenmn » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:28 am

Card has a strange set of views to be sure.

EDIT: I guess I should read all the posts before jumping in -- ender already confirmed my interpretation below.

On the surface, I agree that the original question seems sort of silly. However, what's really being asked for is info on Rice's wait list, not wait lists in general (I'd have phrased the question differently for that reason). Asking on this forum is something of a long shot, but it's not inconceivable that someone here might have some inside info.

ederer, maybe you should ask them straight up. If you can get a hold of them, I don't know why they wouldn't answer.

kah
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by kah » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:35 pm

Ender, I would say that you still have a shot. Last year, someone from my school was accepted to Rice after being on the waitlist. They informed her of their decision sometime in April. And the year before that, somebody else got into the graduate mathematics program at Rice after being on the waitlist. If you contact them, they should be able to tell you where you stand on the waitlist. The guy who got accepted in math started as number 3 or 4 on the waitlist.

Good luck!

ender
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by ender » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:58 pm

Thanks a lot kah, I'll email them and ask them where I stand on the waitlist

Butsurigakusha I appreciate your response for me. Ender's game has been my favorite book since I first read it when I was 9 or 10, thus the name, and I will agree Orson Scott Card has turned into a bit of a wacko/ or maybe always has been. There are quite a few writer/actor/directors/whatever whose work I enjoy, but just because someone spend a few months/years on something I enjoy does not mean that I follow their every thought or any for that matter.

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zxcv
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by zxcv » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:43 pm

@ender - I read Ender's Game 3-4 times under the age of 13 and for a long time it was my favorite book. A few years ago I read parts of it again and thought about it, and realized that there even if I thought I was a super-genius at that age, people like Ender don't actually exist. It's a really exciting book for 12 year old boys who like to imagine that they are smart enough to run the world, but when you eventually realize that Orson Scott Card actually isn't that great an author and that kids as military geniuses is laughable it's substantially less impressive.

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grae313
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Re: Chances of getting in on a waitlist

Post by grae313 » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:43 pm

zxcv wrote:It's a really exciting book for 12 year old boys who like to imagine that they are smart enough to run the world
And girls, thank you






but seriously, it is a story, with a protagonist that a lot of us can identify with on some level. who cares if it is realistic? realism isn't the point. card is a great storyteller and it is a fun read, and that's that as far as I'm concerned. pastwatch is also a great book.



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