Advice for waitlisted students

<p>We know many of you are wondering what you might be able to do after receiving a waitlist decision. Here are some (hopefully helpful) tips and bits of information I have for waitlisted students wondering “where do I go from here?”</p>

<p>This should cover most commonly asked questions about our waiting list, and I encourage you to ask any further waitlist-specific questions on this thread rather than starting a new thread. </p>

<ul>
<li> The only thing you need to do to be considered part of our waiting list is to accept your place on the waitlist through your UChicago Account. And, it’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to remain on our wait list! If you have been accepted to a college you would prefer to attend, it is OK to decline your place on the waiting list, too, and this can also be done through your UChicago account. </li>
<li> We do hope to be able to admit students off of the waitlist, but do not know how many students we will be able to admit. In past years, our ability to take students from our waiting list has ranged widely, from zero to many dozens of students.
o Remember, our ability to take students off of the waitlist this year is independent of our ability to do so in past years—when we know we will have more beds in our dorms than admitted students deciding to attend to fill them, we offer those places to students on our waiting list. </li>
<li> Our waitlist is not ranked, meaning that no priority or placement is given to certain students on our waitlist vs. other students. You have a place in a pool of students who have been waitlisted rather than a ranked position in a line. </li>
<li> We do not yet know if or when we will be able to extend offers of admission to students off of the waiting list. Therefore, it is imperative that waitlisted students accept and secure a place at a school to which you have been accepted by May 1, the national reply date for all colleges. We strongly encourage you to look carefully and thoughtfully at your options, and to find a place at a school that will be a good intellectual, social, and financial fit for you should UChicago not become an option. </li>
<li> You may wish to indicate your continued interest in UChicago by emailing your regional admissions counselor. It only advised to send a brief email indicating that UChicago is still a top choice for you, and it’s ok to wait to do this—we strongly encourage you to wait, consider the other options you have as further decisions roll in, and then decide whether or not UChicago remains your top choice with knowledge of your other amazing possibilities. Submitting other additional material such as recommendation letters, additional essays, etc is not necessary, nor do we recommend doing so. </li>
<li> We strongly discourage waitlisted students from visiting campus. Your likelihood of admission from the waiting list is not affected by a campus visit, and we won’t be able to offer you any additional information here that we couldn’t otherwise offer you by phone or by email. We want to encourage you and your parents to use your time, resources, and energy to visit schools to which you have been accepted, so that you can determine which of your (likely awesome!) options will be the best fit for you.<br></li>
</ul>

<p>Could you elaborate or explain what is meant by the “voluntary gap year” option? If admission guaranteed after the gap year?</p>

<p>The voluntary gap year reply option is available for students who have already been planning on or who are considering a gap year to let us know of their plans. It can be helpful in our planning to know who was otherwise considering a gap year. We do plan to be able to admit waitlisted students who are not interested in a gap year. </p>

<p>would picking the voluntary gap year option allow for us to be considered for admission this year and next year, or just next year? </p>

<p>my daughter has a friend who is taking her gap year now…and was accepted to chicago before she started the year…its an intriguing way to have the confidence of knowing that you’ve been admitted but having a year to experience life and make some money. </p>

<p>xyscholar, this would allow you to be considered for admission for both this year and next year. </p>

<p>Would selecting the voluntary gap year option increase our chance of admission?</p>

<p>Thanks for this thread! Where might I find the contact information for my regional admissions officers?</p>

<p>@MrHopp you can find contact information for our counselors online at <a href=“Contact | College Admissions”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/contact&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@cutiedida, as noted earlier this is an option you should only select if you would be truly interested in taking a gap year. At this time we are not certain how this will affect a students’ likelihood of admission off of the wait list, as we need to see how many students are interested in either option and how much space remains in our class after our admitted students have replied yes/no to their offer. </p>

<p>hi @UChicago, I was waitlisted, so when can I expect to hear my final decision? Thanks for making this thread.</p>

<p>Hey Grace, what percent of applicants were waitlisted? If not from this year, how many were last year?</p>

<p>They are not providing the percentage of wait list for this year or previous years. </p>

<p>Why not?</p>

<p>Any information on wait list statistics ?</p>

<p>As an international applicant asking for aid, what are my chances of being admitted off the waitlist?</p>

<p>@UChicago, this might be a silly question, but are students who are not admitted off of the waitlist notified of their application decision, or are only admitted students contacted by admissions?</p>

<p>@aribman, once we know that we will no longer be able to make offers of admission off of the waitlist, we will contact remaining students in our pool to let them know this. </p>

<p>@goodsam, I’m sorry but I am not able to provide helpful information regarding this question, it simply depends on whether or not we have international students with aid who decline their offer of admission. </p>

<p>According to one of the parents on the thread below, his son got off from the WL.</p>

<p><a href=“Near shut out - Gap year or transfer? - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>Near shut out - Gap year or transfer? - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums;

<p>Grace, is there anything I can do for the admissions office to demonstrate that UChicago is still my top choice besides emailing them?</p>