<p>Hi all,
Last year one of our admissions counselors, Daniel Follmer, posted quite an informative note on our blog for waitlisted students; all of the information still applies to this year, and I think it is a concise, clear, and accurate way to answer many of the questions from waitlisted students I'm seeing here. If you are a waitlisted student, please have a look through it before asking me or our rep UChicago further questions about the waitlist- not that we don't love answering your questions, just that most commonly asked questions are addressed quite clearly here.</p>
<p><a href="https://blogs.uchicago.edu/collegeadmissions/2009/04/advice_for_waitlisted_students.html%5B/url%5D">https://blogs.uchicago.edu/collegeadmissions/2009/04/advice_for_waitlisted_students.html</a></p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Grace</p>
<p>uchicago, typically how many students are accepted off the waitlist? i know it varies, but on average? </p>
<p>also, how do they determine who gets in based off of the waitlist? do they look over everyone’s application again? </p>
<p>so many questions. thank you for your time.
-sincerely, wheat</p>
<p>@Wheatbread- we do not keep an average statistic on how many students are admitted off of the waitlist because it can change drastically from year to year. Some years we have openings for many students off of the waitlist; in other years we may take no students off of the waitlist. We will wait until we have a clearer picture of how many admitted students decide to attend, and how many waitlisted students choose to remain on the waitlist, before we know what the outlook is for this year’s pool. </p>
<p>Also, I cannot comment on who gets in off of the waitlist at the moment, but I will see if UChicago can comment on it or if we can pull together a more comprehensive blog post on the waitlist for this year.</p>
<p>how can we accept a spot in the classs of 2014 at Uchicago if that article tells us to make a deposit at another university by may 1??</p>
<p>Cacciato, we notify students who have chosen to remain on the waitlist if we have place for them in the Class of 2014 AFTER the May 1 reply deadline for other schools, because we need to know how many students accept their offer of admission here before we know if we have space for any/some/all waitlisters. Therefore, it is very important that you deposit at a school that you would otherwise feel comfortable attending, with the knowledge that it is very possible that you will attend that school. Should you be admitted off of the waitlist at UChicago and decide to attend, you would need to alert the other school that this has happened and will likely forfeit your deposit there (depending on their policies).
It is VERY IMPORTANT that you deposit at another school should you decide to remain on the waitlist here; we have no idea how many students, if any, will be accepted off of the waitlist this year, and we do not want you to simply assume that you will get in off of the waitlist and then not accept a place at another school and have nowhere to go next year. That would… suck, for lack of a more official word. It is important that you have a solid, second choice that you feel comfortable attending, and have taken steps to attend, should you not be offered a place off of the waitlist here.</p>
<p>do you release data for how many waitlisted students you accept? how many did you accept last year, etc.?</p>
<p>When would you suggest sending in our letter or intent? Mid April? Or earlier?</p>
<p>Also, most of the reasons I want to attend Chicago were written in my “why chicago” essay (I spent weeks writing it, and every reason I wanted to go was portrayed), is it okay if I just paraphrase and re-articulate these reasons, or do I need to come up with new reasons in my letter?</p>
<p>@Handala92- no, admissions counselors will not discuss the particular reasoning behind decisions (waitlist, accept, or deny) with any applicant.</p>
<p>And @charlieharper, also no: since our ability to accept students off of the waitlist changes drastically from year to year, and is independent of any prior years’ ability to do so, we do not release these statistics, and frankly (as much as it seems nice and reassuring to be able to look at a number for something) those numbers won’t be able to tell you anything about waitlist prospects for this year.</p>
<p>Also, we will have an updated blog post with some more specific information regarding the waitlist up today or tomorrow, so hang tight for answers until that is posted- we’re trying to get more commonly asked questions addressed there.</p>