So I was waitlisted at a bunch of schools (10, to be precise). I just wanted to know how to proceed in case I get an offer in May or later. Not sure how the waitlist etiquette works and I can’t quite find anything about this on the forums.
So, for instance, two of the schools I was waitlisted at are Lehigh and UChicago. Let’s say on May 15th I get an offer from Lehigh. From what I know I will probably have 1-2 days to accept this offer, and since I prefer Lehigh to any of the schools I’ve actually been accepted to so far, I would accept it. But then let’s say a few weeks later I get an offer from UChicago, which I would of course prefer to Lehigh. Obviously I will accept that offer. What do I do with Lehigh now? Just send them an email saying I’m no longer interested?
Basically I just want to be sure that waitlist offers aren’t binding in any way. I can always back out later, right?
No waitlist offers are not binding unless it says so, like Carnegie Mellon’s priority waitlist. You would just have to forfeit the enrollment deposit and you would be in the clear.
Go ahead and join the waitlists, but keep in mind that Lehigh admitted just 39 of 1250 accepting waitlist last year. That’s lower odds than admissions to an Ivy. Most waitlist offers in this echelon of schools are really just polite letters of refusal, so the likelihood of a single offer, much less a cascading shower of them, is slim to incredibly remote. In other words, don’t worry about it. I hope the one you are really wishing for does come through.
You will lose your deposit, in any event. If you commit to a college you have been accepted into, you will lose that deposit. If you receive later acceptances into colleges you would prefer attending, you will lose each subsequent deposit. It is really up to you and your family to decide how many deposits you are willing to lose. You will also be at a disadvantage, in many cases, in terms of housing and - at some colleges - in course selection, as a late admit if you are still holding out though the summer. Am I correct in recalling that you have the sophomore transfer option at Cornell? If so, you will need to be especially careful about course selection, because - as I’ve inferred - that option is contingent upon fulfilling set requirements for your specific department at Cornell at your freshman college.
Waitlists offers aren’t binding; if you accept an offer on the waitlist you are not obligated to attend. Nor, for that matter, is regular admission binding. You can accept an offer, then change your mind later (like when you get off a waitlist). Colleges call this “summer melt.” What you aren’t allowed to do is accept 2 offers of admission at the same time with the idea that you’ll eventually decline one of them.
As @sltxdad points out, though, you’re probably worrying about nothing. At most schools the waitlist is largely about recruiting 11th graders. There is no rule that requires just putting enough kids on the waitlist to provide a reasonable buffer. So some smart college adcoms realized they could use the waitlist to have a stock of kids to cover any shortfalls. And they could use the waitlist to pass out “acceptances” that didn’t require actually enrolling the kid!! Parents and kids seem to view a waitlist letter as practically the same as an acceptance. This helps the college in the future; kids with similar stats will say “If Julie got in last year, I got a shot too” and apply. Colleges love this because the more apps they have the more selective they look. Thing was, Julie didn’t get in; she was waitlisted and somehow never made it off the list.
The 2014 Common Data Set shows Lehigh offered 3,691 kids a place on the waiting list and took 2!! That’s right, 2!! (http://www.lehigh.edu/~oir/cds/lucds2014.htm) They don’t need thousands on the list to cover unexpected shortfalls, but it is a great move on their part to have 3,691 kids spreading the news they were “waitlisted”. Similar things happen at most other schools.