<p>We've tried to pester the AO's just enough to let them know we are still interested, not so much as to be annoying. DD wrote a lovely heartfelt letter. (And she brought her grades, which had slipped during the application process, right back up to where they should be.)</p>
<p>We've enrolled DD in the local public high school.</p>
<p>We've worked on our finances so we are prepared to put up our share (depending on how big, of course- we still need at least 75% FA)</p>
<p>And we wait... (for NMH, Concord and our first choice by a mile, Loomis Chaffee.)</p>
<p>I just saw on another thread that someone else was taken off the wait list at Loomis yesterday (a 9th grade girl, like my daughter). Which means either that person didn’t need FA, or my daughter’s chances just went to about zero. I didn’t realize how hopeful I was still feeling until now, when I suddenly feel devastated and hopeless.</p>
<p>Thanks, London. I know I need to just put this out of my mind…can’t help but wonder if I should pick up the phone and call, just to put myself out of my misery!</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any reason not to call, if you want, but I hate to say that it’s not going to put you out of your misery. The whole WL thing is like a domino chain. Some kid could get into Andover, or wherever, and decide that they don’t want to go to Choate after all, which then causes some other kid to get into Choate and not go to Loomis after all, and then suddenly a spot opens up. I think that starts to be less so once parents have to fork over the first half of the tuition bill (usually in July, I think), but up until then, they’ve just put down a couple thousand dollars and there are plenty of people who wouldn’t think twice about forfeiting that if their kid later gets off the WL at a first choice school. The whole thing is like pulling a bandaid off very slowly. It’d be better if you could just rip it off and be done with it, but that’s now how it works.</p>
<p>Not to be a debbie downer, but there are still people here who think there is a one-to-one relationship between spots declined and waitlist acceptances. To summarize from The Wait List thread (which says it all):</p>
<p>One student declining an offer of admission ≠ one student pulled from the waitlist.</p>
<p>The waitlist operates as a safety net for the school and, in a good year, it will never be used. The schools plan on a certain percentage of their offers being declined. If and only if the actual number exceeds that figure will there be movement on the waitlist due to inadequate enrollment, so to get off the WL, a school will have to have over-estimated its yield rate. Then, when a school does go to the WL, it is to replace the profile of a student who declined (male/female, foreign/domestic, boarding/day, grade, baseball player, FA match, etc.) I know this can be hard to hear when you are waiting, but it does help to explain why a school may not go to its WL even if you know kids who have declined spots or, due to a profile match, why one kid gets off the WL over another.</p>
<p>@jahphotogal: Keeping my fingers tightly crossed that your child IS that profile match for the next available spot at Loomis as they seem to have over-estimated their yield this year.</p>
<p>But there is presumably a one-to-one relationship between WL offers declined and WL offers made. In other words, if a school has already decided that they have an extra spot to fill, they make an offer to someone on the WL, and that student declines, then they make an offer to someone else meeting roughly that same demographic on the WL. I see know that my domino effect post was poorly worded, in that what I meant (but didn’t clearly say) was that if a student has already committed to school #1, then gets in off the WL at school #2 and decides to go to school #2, now school #1 has a spot that they thought was filled but is not and they will very likely go to the WL to fill that spot (unless they were actually over-enrolled and they’re happy to have a cancellation).</p>
<p>I think ChoatieMom is referring to Fiercehearted being taken off WL as opposed to some schools like SPS not going to WL.</p>
<p>Needing FA also makes it difficult as FA yield is probably much higher.</p>
<p>Big hugs to you JAH. Take mind off from WL and CC.
I’m sure however it turns out your D will have a wonderful education from you and other opportunities.</p>
<p>1.Some folks apply to schools for the first time throughout the spring. I don’t want to depress jahphotogal, but if a late applicant walks in the door in May and has skills/scores/etc that are a profile match, s/he could be offered a spot even though there are kids from March 10 still on the waitlist. I can’t speak to how common this is at LC. I know it happens at other schools.</p>
<ol>
<li>Kids who are already enrolled in the school will drop out or leave over the summer. Not tons, but a few will. This might cause a school to go to its WL for those seeking admission to 10th or 11th grade. Last year we lost a student late in the summer, and an offer was made (with hefty financial aid) to a student on the waitlist. Since they are both in the sport I coach, I think it was a case of finding a profile match. I don’t like to offer false hope, but sometimes, lighting will strike.</li>
</ol>
<p>Because if LC operates the way most schools do, they wouldn’t have to go their WL unless they had overestimated. For example, suppose a school wants to enroll 80 students and, historically, has an 80% yield. They will send acceptance letters to 100 applicants knowing that probably 20 will go elsewhere. They will not consider going to their WL until the 21st applicant declines and, even then, they may not use the WL if they were a bit over-enrolled the previous year or they’re just happy with 79.</p>
<p>@soxmom: I agree with your post #9. There is a one-to-one relationship among WL offers and rejections.</p>
<p>Albion, now I’m ready to stab myself. I’m not going to tell DD any of this. We’ll just carry on and decide in a few months whether to start the whole process over!</p>
<p>For a need-aware school like Loomis, needing 75% FA as noted above may make it more difficult to get off wait list.</p>
<p>Financial aid is generally used up in the regular admission round, and may be less likely for wait list candidates and in almost all schools is very unlikely for late applicants. </p>
<p>There are exceptions, fantastic candidates who were wait listed because of the financial aid budget, and then many promised awards are not taken, but would not bet on it.</p>
<p>If things don’t pan out I would have her consider reapplying next year if she still wants boarding school. My son’s school actually opens up more spots (enlarges their class) sophomore year so there are quite a few new admits that year! Plus you save 1 year tuition! :)</p>
<p>So it turns out that there was a late applicant to one of our schools that got accepted while we stayed on the WL - I assume they were full-pay (or I hope so!)</p>
<p>She definitely wants to reapply so we have to learn how to do it smarter this time. (Besides discovering a hitherto unknown rich aunt.) Our financial situation isn’t going to improve (actually the opposite as I am starting a graduate program) so she has to be really stellar to overcome the barriers!</p>