Andrei Neculau

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What-to-do if Reserve

2A - Admitted, and reserve

This scenario describes the situation when you have one programme marked with “Admitted”, and one or more higher-priority programmes are marked with “Res #”.

This is by far the trickiest situation yet, as there is no clear answer on what is the protocol on this.

Linköping University replied to me by email on this matter and confirmed my previous analysis, that you can read bellow.
– EMAIL EXCERPT - May 19 –

Hej,
Sorry I did not answer before but it is pretty hectic around here! If a student accepts a lower priority (say no 2) and later is admitted to a higher (prio 1) the second priority disappears and only the first remains. So yes he can reply YES for no 2 and still remain on the waiting list for no 1.

Even so, if we cool down and don’t fret or dispare, we can clear most of this out on our own.

One thing is that you shouldn’t daydream about programmes for which your position on the waiting list is higher than 20 on average (or about 50% of the exact number of students that programme allows). Maybe I should highlight that even if you are Reserve 50, in a programme with 30 students, you could still get in, but that is closer to playing the lottery than getting admitted.

Keep in mind that the waiting list has been built quite randomly - meaning Reserve 1 doens’t need to have a better MR than Reserve 2. Reasons for that are yet unknown, but the situation was confirmed by a university reviewer. That is why, people that are ahead of you on the waiting list might accept at the blink of an eye, if they make it. Which means that the available places exponentially become smaller by the number of each rejection. Try to play with a couple of puppet-soldiers impersonating their attitude as this might be heard to follow just in words.

You also need to consider that the only chance for you to get a scholarship is to stick with the programme that is marked “Admitted”, since if you are admitted in the second round, your application to the Swedish Institute is not taken into consideration.

My recommendation is to simply accept the first round admission, if you are not within the first 5 reserves for another programme that you badly want with all your heart! Or at least wait until the latest days until the reply deadline. In the meantime, we noticed that some programmes, while they slowly receive rejections from admitted students, they already notify reserves that they have been admitted, and they do not wait for the second admission round.

Just to be clear, if you accept your first round admission, and then you get admitted to a higher priority, you should be able to deny the later, if you want to keep your first round admission.

Options:

• if you are pleased with the programme where you got “Admitted”, even if is not the top-priority for you, you should accept it by clicking on Reply and checking the YES-answer box
• if you are placing your bet on RED (Res), you should wait until the latest days, with the hope that you will get contacted by a higher priority programme and be told that you have been moved from the waiting list into the admitted list. If not, just confidently reply with YES-answer to the first round admission and wait for the second admission round.
• if you do NOT want any of the positions after all, just be considerate and reply without checking any YES-answer box. This will make your position available for the reserves competing during the second round.

2N - Not admitted, yet reserve

This scenario describes the situation when you have NO programme marked with “Admitted”, yet one or more higher-priority programmes are marked with “Res #”.

So far, the assumption is that you are considered for all programmes where you are on the waiting list. Therefore you don’t need to do anything, and just wait for the second admission round.

Although it is weird, some people where still on the waiting list, even after the second admission round. It is unknown how that should be interpreted, but I guess you still have a chance. You need to correlate that chance with the time frame you have for getting the visa, if you need one. So, if you need a visa, I guess you could still keep your hopes up until mid July (one month for visa + school starts on September 1).

Options:

• just wait for the second admission round, or maybe for a notification before that

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