<p>One interesting thing which I had not appreciated until this year, is that so many kids on CC seem to be reporting that they are on three or four, or even seven or eight waitlists, after applying to a dozen or more schools. </p>
<p>Consider a kid waiting for a group of waitlists to open up while choosing housing, planning orientation, etc at a school where she is definitely accepted. I think this is different than waiting for one waitlist. What if you are waitlisted for your previous number 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 schools (ordered by preference)? Do you leap if number 5 calls? What if number 3 calls the next day? What if number 2 calls the next week?</p>
<p>I suspect that our hypothetical kid says yes to each college in turn, thinking that she will move up in her heirarchy. Now four colleges think she is coming! And each college thinks they are so clever about optimizing yield!</p>
<p>If she backs out at number 5 and number 3 after accepting off of the waitlist, do the colleges report this in yield (I suspect not!). Do the colleges call someone else a week or two later to take the spot they thought she was going to take? If so, that's quite a game!</p>
<p>I'm just thinking that the Ivys and their peers have ED, then RD, then the waitlist, to optimize yield. But when do the many opportunities for a student to get accepted become so blurred that the admisisons process transforms into one long rolling admissions nightmare, with a hard stop in late August?</p>
<p>Mominva ~ That's not really where I'm headed. In my scenario, when the schools are down to the last 60 days and "working" thier waitlists, I think the kids just say "Yes" or "No" and are supposed to send in the money...just think about the timing. I doubt the admissions office is asking for credit card billing info during the call! Although it is sort of a hilarious mental picture...</p>
<p>My thought is that the colleges may not be expecting to compete for kids form the waitlist...I think they assume that kids are only on one waitlist - theirs - or that at least the kid will only get one call. I'm not sure this assumption is going to hold any more.</p>
<p>I'm thinking the waitlist months (June and July) are becoming rolling admissions...</p>
<p>Well, I'm guessing that just as acceptances ar given with an expectation of yield, so are waitlist invitations (if the school needs to go that route). These school know that by the time a late invitation is offered some kids will have fallen in love with their deposited school. I really don't think they use the waitlist one student at a time. They offer a cluster with an expectation of % yield. If then they fall short, fill the seats in January.</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure what you are getting at, but it past years it generally has been the case that very few waitlist spots, if any, open up. The top colleges aren't trying to play a rankings game over yield - they are just trying to protect themselves to make sure they end up enrolling a full class of entering students - and at the same time they want to avoid over-enrolling the class. So they make a guess based on past yield figures and leave themselves a little wiggle room. </p>
<p>But the odds are very much against most kids getting off even one wait list, much less a series.</p>
<p>Also, don't discount the psychological shift once you've put your deposit down, chosen housing, talked to people on facebook or my space, maybe even made some friends, etc. By the time you get the call off the waitlist, you may already be so invested in the school that you've been looking at that the #5 school is no longer #5, and the one you've been planning for has moved to #1. It's really hard to turn on a dime and change directions like that.</p>
<p>This in fact happened to me. I was waitlisted and selected another school. I had told people I was going there, I had put down all the money, etc. etc. By the time I got into my waitlisted school, I was already psychologically enrolled at my chosen college. I made one last visit to the waitlisted school, and said no. I continued on my path and went to the one that didn't waitlist me.</p>