In March, I learned three slightly odd pieces of information: I was accepted to Williams College (yay!) and waitlisted by Northwestern University and Washington University in St. Louis (no!). All three of these schools have essentially the same acceptance rate (ranges in the mid-teens). Why is it that Williams accepted me, but Northwestern and WashU put me on a waitlist? Since I’ve gotten into Williams, the WashU and Northwestern decisions don’t matter that much to me, but I’m still very confused. My high school counselor suggested to me that some schools “mine” interest in applicants by sending waitlist notices to qualified applicants: Is that what’s going on here, or am I giving myself too much credit by believing in that notion?
Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated. I am just so stunned: And I don’t know what to think about my applications for other schools like Brown, Princeton, and Columbia, the results of which will be made available on March 31. If I was accepted to Williams, but waitlisted by Northwestern and WashU, does that mean I am unlikely to get admission to the more selective schools I’ve applied to?
Who knows! Be happy you got into Williams, which is an amazing school. Williams’ acceptance rate is slightly higher than the other two schools. When you are applying to super selective schools with acceptance rates below 20%, it can be a crap shoot. Each school has different institutional needs. Who knows if you will get into the Ivy schools you applied to or not, but you’ll know in about a week so no point in worrying about it before then. Regardless of the result, getting into Williams is a huge feather in your cap and would provide a wonderful education.
That is why college admissions are so unpredictable – an applicant may get rejected from Cornell, but accepted to Harvard. Every institution looks for something in an applicant given that the profile is deemed competitive.
I would advise you to stop breaking your head over this, because you will never find out why you were waitlisted/rejected by an institution.
Sometimes there is no “reason” – it is just that your package appealed to one admissions officer a bit more than another. Celebrate your Williams acceptance – at this point you are guaranteed a wonderful outcome.
“I was accepted to Amherst, WashU, and Northwestern. I dunno?” How does this comment help considering that there are people who were WL or rejected at all 3. This is not the week to critize someone for being concerned when you have 3 good choices any one of which most people would be happy with
I don’t know why I was accepted. They don’t know why they were rejected. The OP doesn’t know why he was accepted/rejected?
I dunno. We dunno. She /he dunno.
Nothing changes. I wasn’t bragging. I dunno. That’s the point.
Please I don’t have time for random arguments on CC. Please don’t follow me around on CC. I left the Northwestern place for good, and will not deal with me be harassed because I’ve been accepted to my schools.
My son was accepted at NW and wait listed at ND after they asked him to move his application from RD to EA. He was also wait listed at Chicago, rejected by MIT, and rejected by the Honors College at the University of Kentucky, of all places.
" Please don’t follow me around on CC. I left the Northwestern place for good, and will not deal with me be harassed because I’ve been accepted to my schools." Paranoid much? I have no idea who you are
@hzhao2004, the only ways NU seems to be doing any yield protection is by taking a ton of kids ED and by taking kids who really want to be at NU. If you look at the NU RD decisions threads, they’re clearly going for the kids that they like best who also do great on the “Why NU” essay.
You may quibble with their judgement, but that’s a different issue.
BTW, I like Williams, but is it really so shocking to contemplate that NU may be as equally tough or tougher to get in to than Williams?
In any case, as many people have stated, different schools look for different things, your apps are different to different schools, etc.
Admissions is subjective, that means results like yours happen quite frequently. Congrats on getting into the clear best of the three! (I’m a Williams alum haha)
Looks like yield protection to me. This isn’t likely to happen at the remaining schools you listed (Brown, Princeton, and Columbia), since they’re comparable to Williams. Northwestern and Washington U. aren’t. I know of someone who got into many Ivys and Stanford last year but was wait-listed at Washington U.