Another Wait List

This one is from U of Maryland. The tone of this email was not as promising as those from Michigan and UNC (not even close), and I was told that my prospects for a funded place are not that good.

I must say that I am a bit surprised about this one. Maryland was somewhat of a 'backup' school for me. (I'm not the only one in the dept who has received offers from a good school and been wait listed at a backup.) As we go through this process, the lottery aspect of the whole process is becoming more evident to many of us who are waiting on applications. There just seems to be little rhyme nor reason to many of the decisions. In addition to the phenomenon of getting offers at good schools and not getting offers at lesser schools, many of us have applied to programs in common, where one of us (X) gets in and the others (Y & Z) don't, but then Y and Z may get in to equal or even better schools whereas X will get turned down. The rank and prestige of one school where you receive an offer (or a rejection) is not at all a reliable indicator of how you will do at other schools.