<p>Barnard is my DREAM school, unfortunately I got waitlisted. I desperately want to attend and I was wondering if anyone could PLEASE PLEASE give me any tips on trying to get off the waitlist. I’m currently writing my letter of continued interest to send and I was wondering if there is anything else that might be helpful. </p>
<p>Any tips would be much appreciated. In addition, if any past accepted waitlisted students could speak about what they had done to get off the waitlist please share your story.</p>
<p>Something else that might help is getting more recommendations and sending them to Barnard. A friend of mine was waitlisted to Yale, he gathered more letters of rec and sent them to the university, and it all worked out, he graduated from Yale a few years ago!</p>
<p>I think the best thing is to show your continued interest and also point out to them your many strengths, perhaps emphasizing things that weren’t at the center of your application. Its very possible there is another aspect of your resume that will get you through the door and they just need to hear more about it! Maybe try and show them a different side of yourself. But definitely get more letters of rec, that’s what got my friend into Yale. </p>
<p>If there is anything specific about Barnard/Columbia that pertains to your future goals that would be good to mention (perhaps something further you have discovered since being watlisted and doing more research on the school). </p>
<p>I have emailed my letter of continued interest and I did hit many of the points you mentioned. I will definitely try to get new letters of recommendation, my only issue is that I’m on Spring Break! So I’m going to have to wait a while.</p>
<p>But thank you so much for your help! If anyone else has anything to add, please feel free. I need all the help I can get! :D</p>
<p>Oh yes, I forgot about spring break! Well, at this point I don’t think letters of rec necessarily have to be from schoolteachers, either. Maybe coaches, music teachers, ect… I’ve even heard of letters from a friend who goes to the school (if you know anyone, I don’t actually!) especially since you are trying to show your uniqueness. </p>
<p>Keep us posted and don’t give up! Do you have acceptances to other schools you would be happy going to, just in case?</p>
<p>Lol, wow I’ve never heard of friends sending letters of recommendation! I don’t think I really have anyone else like that who might be able to send a letter. Hopefully it won’t be to late once I get back to school. Actually, I think when I called Barnard they said that anyone can send those letters, except friends!</p>
<p>:( I’m in a bit of bad luck I suppose. I have been accepted to other colleges, but their financial aid is not as good as even Barnard’s. I can’t afford to go to them. I have been accepted to a local college that is giving me full tuition as a commuter student, but I can’t feel like I ‘belong’ at that college. There’s also the option of community college. This is also why getting of Barnard’s waitlist is so important to me. Not only would I be going to my first choice, but it’s a matter of going somewhere I would truly be happy as well. I suppose you could say my situation is a bit desperate. This is why I’m pushing so hard to get off the waitlist.</p>
<p>You just have to keep at it. From what I’ve heard the waitlist is really about persistence, and by sending them as many things as possible (not literally as many as possible, but you know what I mean) you are showing them how much the school means to you. I mean, think about it logically, when the time comes to choose someone off the waitlist, they want to choose someone who is definitely going to come to Barnard and be passionate about the school. They don’t want to choose someone who wrote the school off as soon as they found out they were waitlisted, which does (understandably) happen based on some people’s circumstances. You just want to make it clear that you went above and beyond. </p>
<p>Perhaps you could find a way to emphasize some of your ECs more, or make a stronger point of some things that weren’t on or strongly dominating in your application?</p>
<p>Maybe if you’re a creative person…write a poem, make a presentation, something out of the box…from what I’ve heard (because I haven’t gotten there yet) Barnard gals are always witty. </p>
<p>Go back to any unique application essays that you wrote for other colleges that may say something about you from a different angle, see if you can include that. :-)</p>
<p>:) I wasn’t sure if sending multiple things would be acceptable or not. Are you saying that I should keep sending them updates and things? I’ve already sent my letter, so what else could I send? (Besides recommendations of course)</p>
<p>I really appreciate you helping out by the way. It means so much, really!</p>
<p>No problem , and I’m no expert but I have had (older, naturally) friends who’ve gotten off the waitlist. I know they say just to send your letter, and I don’t think you should overly inundate them with things, but I just think if you can do something unique to show them how much you love the school or show a side of yourself that maybe wasn’t in the application that much, it might help.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind, maybe just to give me a picture…what are your ECs like?</p>
<p>Eternaldream – what makes you believe that the Barnard financial aid would be enough for you? I felt Barnard was fairly generous with my daughter, but it was still a big stretch – she had to borrow the max allowed for student loans, and I borrowed about the same in PLUS loans. Keep in mind that meeting full need means “full need as the college defines it” … not necessarily the EFC on your FAFSA.</p>
<p>Also… I really believe that most colleges are *not[/] need-blind when it comes to their waitlist – I don’t think they can afford to be need blind at that point. I think that the colleges need to get some sort of budget report from their financial aid department and proceed based on that – so if the financial aid department says that they have enough funds available to provide aid to 3 more students, then the ad com would know there were only 3 slots available for students with financial need. If the financial aid department is running over budget, then there will be -0- slots for needy students-- and if by some stroke of luck there’s more financial aid dollars available than open slots in the class - then need wouldn’t matter.</p>
<p>I could be mistaken… but you might want to inquire about that before expending too much effort. </p>
<p>@calmom Yup, I did ask about the waitlist being need-blind beforehand and they did say they were.</p>
<p>I’ve also run the net price calculators on the Barnard Website. Even though mine will also be a bit of a stretch, the loans and money I would have to pay each year is no where as high as the other colleges I got accepted to. Those colleges don’t promise to meet 100% of need. I also have some things on my CSS that might lower it just a little more, but even it it doesn’t, Barnard will still be more affordable than the other colleges I’ve been accepted to and hopefully I would be able to attend.</p>
<p>Right now though, I’m just trying hard to get off the waitlist :)</p>
<p>Have you had any awards or recognitions or achievements since you sent in your original application? Make sure you let Barnard know about those. I would not just continue to say over and over again (albeit in different ways) how much you want to go there…you need to let them know new information. Significant achievements, etc.
Best to you! I hope you do get in, but I do think you need to consider other options in case it does not work out…</p>
<p>I’ve recently won two awards from my school given to the top five students in both Math and Science through the Honor Societies. Would that be worth noting? If not, what else could I put down?</p>
<p>Actually I think that’s referring to the transfer students. Spring.me implied in a previous post that wait listed students probably won’t hear until this week and maybe next week. There will also be some movement in June because some Barnard students get off the wait list at other schools and then go there instead, so that opens up more spots. </p>
<p>I just wanted to post back on here to retract my former statement about the waitlist being need blind as well. When I called in they told me that the waitlist was indeed need blind as well, but I believe the person either didn’t know or there was some confusion. I just found out that the waitlist is need aware and that news pretty much devastated me as well as took away that thread of hope I had.</p>
<p>As a result, my chances of getting off the waitlist are extremely low because of my small EFC. I will probably try to transfer next year, but my chances next year seem uncertain as well because Barnard is need aware for transfers.</p>
<p>I just wanted to sincerely thank everyone for their help here. I really do appreciate it even if I don’t/didn’t get off the waitlist.</p>
So I’m going to have to wait a while.</p>
, and I’m no expert but I have had (older, naturally) friends who’ve gotten off the waitlist. I know they say just to send your letter, and I don’t think you should overly inundate them with things, but I just think if you can do something unique to show them how much you love the school or show a side of yourself that maybe wasn’t in the application that much, it might help.</p>