I haven’t seen a thread for this, and I think it would help a lot of applicants really understand if they have a chance to get off the waitlist. If you guys know any acceptance rates for waitlisted kids, please list the college and the acceptance rate!
waitlist statistics can be found on section C2 of a college’s Common Data Set
Pomona, 2016-2017 CDS: 4.28%
Stanford, 2016-2017 CDS: 5.27%
The issue is that it’s generally not a stable number, and it will depend on the number of students who enroll:
To illustrate this:
CDS 2013-2014 Pomona Waitlist Admit Rate: 28.8%
CDS 2014-2015 Pomona Waitlist Admit Rate: 0%
CDS 2015-2016 Pomona Waitlist Admit Rate: 7.7%
The best tip for wait-listed students: stick with the wait-lists to the schools you want to consider, but don’t become emotionally invested in it until…well, you’re accepted. That way, if you do get off, it’ll be a pleasant surprise, and if you don’t, no chip on your shoulder.
Why not just, Google the Common Data Set instead of starting a thread? A few colleges don’t do the CDS, but many do.
Agree. Waitlist acceptances can very dramatically from year to year. This thread is not going to serve a useful purpose. Example: Notre Dame took 85 student off WL last year. In 2014, it took zero. Carleton College took 3 off WL last year. The year before, it took 16. Many colleges have similar, wild variation in WL acceptances, and especially at elite schools, the numbers are usually very small.
Trying to determine anything from this is a mug’s game because it is far too random. And, more students are submitting more apps every year, adding to the uncertainty.
Ah, I see. Maybe it would be better to just google colleges’ common data sets instead.
I’d stick with @nostalgicwisdom’s advice. While it might be entertaining to look at waitlist admit rates, the numbers will tell you exactly nothing about what to expect this year. WAY too many variables.
@ap012199 , a useful activity would be to research the trend over several years for a specific school. Go to the school’s forum that you are following and open a new discussion about the waitlist trend there. Way too much data to have a general discussion here.
As an example, here is data from one of my posts last year regarding Tulane’s waitlist. This helps you to see that MANY are waitlisted, and very FEW are admitted from that list, and often it’s ZERO or practically ZERO being admitted off the waitlist.
Fr Yr Enrollment # on # Admits from
waitlist waitlist
2006-07________<strong><em>882
2007-08</em></strong>____<strong><em>1324
2008-09</em></strong>____<strong><em>1560
2009-10</em></strong>____<strong><em>1502 3881 132
2010-11</em></strong>____<strong><em>1625 4617 105
2011-12</em></strong>____<strong><em>1642 3745 15
2012-13</em></strong>____<strong><em>1641 3483 0
2013-14</em></strong>____<strong><em>1609 2774 327
2014-15</em></strong>____<strong><em>1647 3152 0
2015-16</em></strong>_______1719 3413 0
And some schools (like Richmond) place an obscene number of students on the waitlist (like 30% of applicants). This is also informative about your chances of admission off the waitlist.
Last year Richmond had the following stats: (year over year they’re pretty consistent in terms of % waitlisted)
10,442 applicants
3385 admits
3209 waitlisted
815 enrolled (60 from waitlist).
Edited to add: schools use the waitlist to make sure their class is just the right size. It’s tough to be waitlisted as an applicant, but from an administrative standpoint you can understand why a school may rely on the waitlist so heavily - although 30% of applicants seems a bit much to me :-).