<p>Good reason to refuse a spot on a waitlist:</p>
<ol>
<li>You are already accepted at a college you are sure you would prefer to attend.</li>
<li>It is going to cost you financially and you can’t afford it.</li>
</ol>
<p>Bad reasons (IMO) to refuse a spot on a waitlist even though you know you’d rather attend that college:</p>
<ol>
<li> You don’t want to prolong your suspense.</li>
<li> You don’t want to be disappointed again.</li>
<li> If you weren’t good enough for them to accept straight away, you don’t want to go there- you’re afraid you might be the stupidest kid in your class.</li>
</ol>
<p>One thought about waitlist…
I know a young woman (now in grad school)</p>
<p>Who was waitlisted at a couple of preferred schools.</p>
<p>She deposited at one school…
when she was removed from a waitlist and offerred admission, She deposited at second school and declined first school (losing nominal deposit).
In the continuing “summer melt”, she was offerred a spot at another school, so she deposited and eventually attended this school…she lost her deposit on the second.</p>
<p>For her, the wait list process allowed her to move up her ladder and she ended up at a much better school for her program/major. </p>
<p>I think she applied to about a dozen overall. It worked for her. She always released the previous spot for another waitlist student.</p>
<p>In our house, our student had apps done for nine, and started out only sending/applying to three, with the early admit decision date being the tell tale sign if the other six would be sent.</p>
<p>@dbwes,
It all depends on schools. I have seen data from a school in CA that average is 10 with a few of these submitted over 40 of them. One submitted 56. I don’t know how it was done. College admission process is a zoo and an arms race. The bad new is that is can only get worse going forward.</p>
<p>Exactly. We’re not talking about kids who are exclusively doing RD and who find out the RD acceptances within the course of a week or so. We’re talking about kids who “bag the prizes” (Yale, Chicago, etc.) in EA … know they are going to pick that school above the others on the list (hence that’s why they applied EA) … and still want to hold out to see where they got in. If my kids had applied EA someplace, I would have wanted them to treat it no differently from ED. A little boost from getting down on one knee and declaring your love early … they loved you back … game over.</p>
<p>If D2 is so lucky next year, we will remember that. You are right, EA should be treated no different than ED. One of her top choices right now has ED, and the other one has EA.</p>
<p>My son applied to 14 and has been accepted to 10. We are waiting for all financial aid letters and then will make decisions. This process is very interesting to me. Some schools give your more than your EFC and some expect you to pay all. The ones that expect us to pay all, we will start politely declining next week.</p>
<p>Recently being accepted to my absolute dream school, I did not remove my applicants from all other colleges. That being said, what if I get a full ride to another college. Sure, I’ve wanted to go to UVA for the longest time. But 50k vs 0k… Is that my ego at work?</p>
<p>No, it is you who isn’t quite getting it. No one here is saying that if there is scholarship (whether it’s need or merit based) involved, applicants shouldn’t wait. There are schools where no merit aid is given and most applicants would know if they are qualified for FA. One of the reasons why people apply to so many schools is to compare FA from each school.</p>
<p>Every family is different. In our case, if D2 is able to get into her top choice, she wouldn’t consider another school even if it came with 50K scholarship, which we did forego for D1 4 years ago.</p>
<p>Exactly. We’re talking about - getting in early, knowing you will choose this place over all others and knowing you can afford it, and still waiting to “see how well you did elsewhere” only to then certainly turn those places down. If you’re comparing FA offers, then of course you’re not collecting scalps - you’re waiting for more information and your early school isn’t necessarily your school of choice.</p>
<p>I disagree with those saying EA should be treated the same as ED. My D applied EA to the 2 schools on her list that offered it. She did not apply ED anywhere because she had no clear first choice. She was deferred to RD on both of her EA apps, but even if she had been accepted she would not have made a decision that early on which school to attend. That is what EA for - like rolling admission, it gives you some early acceptances. </p>
<p>My S applied ED and promptly withdrew his 2 other apps.</p>
<p>I do think applying to schools you definitely don’t plan to attend ‘just to see if you can get in’ is sad. But once the EA/RD apps are in, I don’t think anyone should be pressured to withdraw them, as situations and minds can change later on.</p>
<p>Not pressured, and obviously if a specific school is still any kind of a possibility then I don’t see a problem with staying in the game. But if an applicant is keeping his/her application active solely for an “ego boost” as an earlier poster admitted – then common courtesy should dictate a withdrawal. And that’s common courtesy not only to other applicants, but to the school.</p>
<p>Again, THAT’s NOT WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT. We are talking about people who have clear first choices – get in through EA or rolling admissions – know they are going to choose that school above all others, and can afford to do so – and still wait around to see how they did at schools they have no intention of attending now because the first choice school is in the bag. If a school is still in consideration, then of course it makes sense to see if you got in.</p>
<p>Yes, we’re talking about kids who apply to 9 or 10 schools are in at choice 3 with workable finaid, waiting to hear from choice one or two, willing to go to 3 and continue to hang on to applications at schools 4, 5,6,7,8 and 9 (or worse kids who apply to more than 10 and are doing this)…really silly. We’re not talking about whether to ED or EA or anything else…we’re talking about hanging on for sheer self interest to schools that a student has no intention of attending. We’re not talking about a family for which a couple thousand dollars will change the decision to choosing school 10 for school 3. We’re talking about kids and families that have mentally and financially made a decision yet continue to keep apps in play.</p>
<p>There are schools filled with parents and kids who just collect. It is cultural. It comes from a sense of entitlement. The GC’s have to beg families to give up those “scalps”. I do think there are kids from these schools who do not get into any match schools and never a reach. These students get very little in the way of choice.
There are many school cultures. This is one that does exisit.</p>