“Should colleges have waiting lists with more names than make up a class of new students? Open letter to colleges calls practice cruel and says insanity needs to stop.’” …
Agree, agree, agree. This whole process is becoming gargantuan and thus inefficient, to say the least.
Some may find it cruel, others regard it as a soft rejection which recognizes the applicant’s accomplishments & abilities.
The one number we are missing from all of those stories is, how many students who were offered a spot on the waitlist accepted that spot? I have to assume that colleges only offer waitlist to kids they would love to have the space to admit, and those kids are highly likely to have gotten direct admissions somewhere else.
How many posts have I read in the last week saying, “You waitlisted me? Screw you, I’m going to (second choice college) and when I’m a billionaire you’ll be sorry.”
HYPSM can probably assume that a high percentage of kids that they offer waitlist to will accept the offer and still be willing to ditch their second choice college in May or June if chosen for admission. But go down half a tier and a kid who was waitlisted at, say, Brown probably got an offer for a college on an equal selectivity, or has been offered impressive merit at a very good school lower down on the USNWR rankings…
My kid was on three waitlists and got off of two. She never expected it or thought she would get off them. I don’t think waitlists are cruel. It’s about tempering expectations.
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I agree that the waitlists have reached insanity levels.
However, in the examples that @ninakatarina mentions above, wouldn’t the candidate just decline the waitlist if they have a better offer? My D received four (!) waitlists. She declined two, and is waiting on the other two. The remaining favorites require that updated transcripts / academic accomplishments be sent along with a “letter of continued interest” and another recommendation letter. So I would assume that only the candidates who are serious about the school would go through that effort.
Also we are FP, which means that we can afford to wait. I recognize that consideration of FA and opportunity for merit is heavily impacted by waitlists, which adds another wrench into an already cruel process $-wise.
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I guess I wasn’t articulating my thoughts well, @GMC2918
The number of people who are offered waitlist and the number of people who accept waitlist are two different numbers, but I couldn’t tell which number the linked article was referring to.
“We offer 2000 spots on the waitlist and we end up admitting 100 people” sounds more impressive than, “We offer 2000 spots on the waitlist, 200 people accept the spots, and we end up admitting 100 people”. Without that number in the middle, kids on the waitlist don’t really know what their chances of eventual admittance are.
Some of the WLs that we’ve seen STILL end up with 1000’s of kids, even after others have declined. For the random sample that I looked into, roughly half of the WL candidates opt to stay on the list.
To hedge against increasing uncertainty in admission, students expand their college lists. To hedge against increasing uncertainty in yield, colleges expand their waitlists.
It’s interesting that BC is cited in the article because BC’s class of 2021 is overenrolled by 100+ students. Housing is an issue - plans for housing 100+ extra sophomores for next year are still ongoing, if I understand correctly (using freshman housing - but where will they put 100+ class of 2022 freshmen? more triples?). If the article’s data is accurate, that BC took 100 kids off the waitlist last year, perhaps there wasn’t expected summer melt? From watching the discussions here at CC, I didn’t think they’d taken more than a handful. I confess I don’t understand how that works except that there is yet more uncertainty involved. Somewhere along the way, yield was underestimated, either in the admissions season itself or over the summer. The natural reaction to overenrollment in the case of BC was to admit 800 fewer students for 2022. Accordingly, I’d have to assume a sizeable waitlist for 2022. I’m in no position to opine that 5000 kids on a waitlist is too many and imagine that many accepted off the waitlist are likely to say no.
In the book by Duke admission officer (not recalling the name right now) she talks how Duke had 3 waiting lists. Only those in the first waiting list had any chance of hearing an acceptance. Second and third waiting lists were all about giving a consolation prize – for legacy kids who weren’t qualified but you wanted to give them an impression that they were seriously considered. Or for sending a message to a school from which you never admit that they are being considered.
The sad part is that a waitlisted applicant had no way of knowing which list they were on.
Another reason for having such a large wait-list is that every applicant falls in a box in a 3d grid. You can consider geographical area, major of interest, and racial group+gender as three dimensions. If the school did not get, say, as many women from engineering they will like and not as many acceptances from mid-west, certain applicants will be likely to be pulled and not others.
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For most students at most schools, WL is nothing more than rejection. One should just treated it as rejection. If something happens at the end, that would be a nice surprise. Do not put any hope into it.
D was offered a spot on the wait list for U of Chicago a couple of years ago. We really didn’t hold much stock in her getting off of it. After evaluating her actual acceptances, she withdrew her name. It’s sort of like holding a lottery ticket waiting for the draw. You know in your heart that your chances are slim to none to win the jackpot, but it’s still fun to dream for that little while. And for those lucky few, there will be a pay day.
I think many waitlists are unrealistically long! It’s not fair to students to string them out if their acceptance is virtually impossible.
After going through the process with my DD I am shocked at how widely waitlists are used. We know many who have received no denials, but 10+ waitlists! And plan to pursue all!! Feels like they are just prolonging the heartache. I have asked the school’s GCs to try and prepare students and families better for this inevitability.
But more troubling to me is the “guaranteed transfer” (Cornell, BU, Georgia Tech — any others?). A few in my daughter’s class are planning to go to an OOS Flagship with every intention of transferring. It’s bad for the kid who is not fully invested in their freshman year, bad for the OOS Flagship who will have first year attrition, bad for the kids on that waitlist who won’t get that spot! I sincerely hope this doesn’t become a trend!
Princeton is pretty bad for deferrals and waitlists IMO. I do think it is the soft rejection of legacies that make up a large portion of the numbers. Agree best way forward to have GC educate students on waitlists, since colleges seem additicted to big waitlists.
According to Princeton’s latest common data set (published 2016-17):
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list
1237
Number accepting a place on the waiting list
840
Number of wait-listed students admitted
18
Horrible…
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A short waitlist would be acceptable but double the incoming class number is outrageous. When a “top tier” school has thousands on the waitlist I kinda question how elite they really are when they have no confidence in their own accepted offers that they need that large of a buffer, makes me think less of you and now I’m kinda glad you’re ‘off the table’! Keep your participation trophy I don’t need one and I don’t drink kool-aid
@psywar Wait till you see UMich’s wait list. They offer WL to 11000 to 15000 applicants per year. Around 1/3 accept the offer on wait list but only around 20-50 accepted per year with the exception from last year.
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This may sound cynical, but it could be a hint that they will accept the student with the right donation or intervention from some influential,a coach, etc.
The WL numbers are even more outrageous considering that some schools have already filled upwards of 30-50% of their incoming class from ED. (https://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■/blog-0/class-of-2022-early-admission-rates)
For many schools, WL is clearly just a participation trophy. Does that really benefit anyone?
omg I thought I was the only unlucky one. Got waitlisted by 8 schools, which btw is more heartbreaking than the other 6 rejections.