Hey guys,
FYI, HLS officially announced yesterday
that the upcoming fall semester would be online and it would offer an
additional deferral option to the current admitted students (June 15 through
19).
https://today.law.harvard.edu/harvard-law-school-expects-robust-high-quality-online-program-for-the-fall-2020/
In fact, more than a half of the current
admitted students have already decided to defer their enrollment as of the end
of May, which was even before that official announcement. Obviously, a
substantial amount of the current admitted students who had not exercised their
deferral rights upon the initial period are likely to exercise their rights
this time.
I have absolutely no idea as to how many
people are waitlisted for 2020-2021. However, it would be a reasonable guess
that the number should be smaller than a half of the current admitted students,
in light of the fact that HLS has never made any waitlist offers in recent
years and that HLS did not precisely foresee the devastating impact of the
coronavirus outbreak in the US when it determined the size of waitlist pool in
early March (because of this, HBS, another most popular grad school was failed
to maintain its original enrollment plan and suffer from more than 200 students
short).
https://poetsandquants.com/2020/06/02/harvard-business-schools-next-mba-class-will-be-more-than-200-students-short/
Based on the foregoing, I personally expect
that HLS will make waitlist offers to all of the waitlist nominees (or at least
"almost all", in light of the appropriate balance of the ethnic and background
diversity) maybe sometime after June 19, the deadline for the additional deferral
request (this timing would be stressful but let's hang on there). This expectation might be too optimistic, but I believe that the issue we have to
discuss here may be whether we should accept the non-deferrable offer, pay $65,000
tuition and take online courses with distant classmates (and possibly, in the absence
of any in-person social events held by the school during the entire semester...).
Although I am inclined to accept the offer for some reason, but it would be far
from the full-on HLS experience that we originally expected and dreamed. Anyway, let's wait and see until the deadline.
I really hope you're right, but part of that HBS article makes me less optimistic. As someone noted on the GMAT club forum:
"Bad news, looks like Harvard is not going to pull many people off their waitlist. Over 200 students deferred but instead of pulling many off their waitlist they are going with a smaller class. They estimate only pulling 20 ppl. So I don’t think there is going to be as big of a ripple on waitlist as originally expected. "
I would have thought they would fill as many seats as possible from wait-listed candidates, but I guess that's why I'm not an admissions officer.
By the way, could I get a link to the WhatsApp group as well?
[Edited by WaitlistPurgatory on Jun 12, 2020]
[quote]<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US">Hey guys,</span></p><br>
<br>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US">FYI, HLS officially announced yesterday<br>
that the upcoming fall semester would be online and it would offer an<br>
additional deferral option to the current admitted students (June 15 through<br>
19). <o:p></o:p></span></p><br>
<br>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://today.law.harvard.edu/harvard-law-school-expects-robust-high-quality-online-program-for-the-fall-2020/">https://today.law.harvard.edu/harvard-law-school-expects-robust-high-quality-online-program-for-the-fall-2020/</a></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText">In fact, more than a half of the current<br>
admitted students have already decided to defer their enrollment as of the end<br>
of May, which was even before that official announcement. Obviously, a<br>
substantial amount of the current admitted students who had not exercised their<br>
deferral rights upon the initial period are likely to exercise their rights<br>
this time.</p><br>
<br>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US">I have absolutely no idea as to how many<br>
people are waitlisted for 2020-2021. However, it would be a reasonable guess<br>
that the number should be smaller than a half of the current admitted students,<br>
in light of the fact that HLS has never made any waitlist offers in recent<br>
years and that HLS did not precisely foresee the devastating impact of the<br>
coronavirus outbreak in the US when it determined the size of waitlist pool in<br>
early March (because of this, HBS, another most popular grad school was failed<br>
to maintain its original enrollment plan and suffer from more than 200 students<br>
short).<o:p></o:p></span></p><br>
<br>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://poetsandquants.com/2020/06/02/harvard-business-schools-next-mba-class-will-be-more-than-200-students-short/">https://poetsandquants.com/2020/06/02/harvard-business-schools-next-mba-class-will-be-more-than-200-students-short/</a></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText">Based on the foregoing, I personally expect<br>
that HLS will make waitlist offers to all of the waitlist nominees (or at least<br>
"almost all", in light of the appropriate balance of the ethnic and background<br>
diversity) maybe sometime after June 19, the deadline for the additional deferral<br>
request (this timing would be stressful but let's hang on there). This expectation might be too optimistic, but I believe that the issue we have to<br>
discuss here may be whether we should accept the non-deferrable offer, pay $65,000<br>
tuition and take online courses with distant classmates (and possibly, in the absence<br>
of any in-person social events held by the school during the entire semester...).<br>
Although I am inclined to accept the offer for some reason, but it would be far<br>
from the full-on HLS experience that we originally expected and dreamed. Anyway, let's wait and see until the deadline.</p> [/quote]<br><br>I really hope you're right, but part of that HBS article makes me less optimistic. As someone noted on the GMAT club forum:<br><br><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 235);">"Bad news, looks like Harvard is not going to pull many people off their waitlist. Over 200 students deferred but instead of pulling many off their waitlist they are going with a smaller class. They estimate only pulling 20 ppl. So I don’t think there is going to be as big of a ripple on waitlist as originally expected. "</span><br><br>I would have thought they would fill as many seats as possible from wait-listed candidates, but I guess that's why I'm not an admissions officer.<br><br>By the way, could I get a link to the WhatsApp group as well?
