Simply put, your odds depend on the year.
While there are great advantages to applying R1, one of the big disadvantages is that schools put a lot of R1 candidates on the WL as they want to see what their entire candidate pool looks like before making final class decisions. They also want to see what their yield of accepted applicants is before they start pulling off of WL. However, do not give up hope as more and more schools are using the WL for this purpose.
There are steps that you can do to continue to enhance your candidacy and make sure that when they start to pull of the WL that your application is on the top of the pile.
Kimberly Plaga
Senior Admissions Consultant
Manhattan Review
Call for a free candidacy review.