<p>I was waitlisted at:
Choate
Hotchkiss
Peddie
Can a person be on all the waitlists or do they have to choose one?</p>
<p>you can be on multiple waitlists</p>
<p>yes, you certainly can be on more than one waitlist. The thing you shouldn't do is tell more than one of the schools that it is your "favorite" or first choice.</p>
<p>Go ahead and tell all of them its your first choice--they play games with you, you can play games back.</p>
<p>I wouldn't tell them all that they're your first choice- it's definitely not a good idea.</p>
<p>Oh, because they are all talking to each other????</p>
<p>No, because it would be a lie. Not a great example to set for your child, is it?</p>
<p>Oh, and the schools aren't "lying" to the hundreds they are waitlisting this year? Just an opinion. I guess I should have said, do what you think is right? Sorry but all the chatter about "misleading" notes and comments on the waiting lists have created a jaded effect.</p>
<p>Witness several of these types of threads over the last week "i was wait listed at DA, but i recieved a blurb in the margin stated that i was "high on the list." Is this child being misled? Many of us say "yes".</p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh, and the schools aren't "lying" to the hundreds they are waitlisting this year?
[/quote]
I'm sorry, but I don't see how the school is lying to the students by putting them on a waitlist. Even if it is true that there was a "blurb in the margin stating that I was high on the list...", so what? How does that constitute lying to hundreds of students? </p>
<p>Based on what I've read about the waitlist letters (which is all secondhand), the majority of the letters are not very encouraging, but are just saying ".... that at this time you are qualified to be a member of XXX school, but for whom we simply do not, at the moment, have room."</p>
<p>Additionally, why is it shocking to think that schools prioritize the waitlist candidates? They need to have some criteria to use when (if) they do pull someone off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Jenny RE: your post..."Based on what I've read about the waitlist letters (which is all secondhand), the majority of the letters are not very encouraging". This is incorrect. You may want to follow this further by reading dyer makers various opinions on waitlisting ("Something strange about the Andover Waitlist") including the current discussion about the "top 25" for the Andover wait list. The concern is that the schools should just have not waitlisted a "second tier" of kids in the first place possibly leading them to believe there is a chance they will be accepted, and thereby leading them to give up other opportunities. Several posters have had a huge problem with the schools alluding to different possiblities of admision via the waitlist. I was glad my S got two encouraging waitlist letters (one of the 25 from A, and SPS, for his sake, and I still don't trust this) but for the kids who just got regular waitlist letters, it creates more problems than it solves.</p>
<p>Localboy, I have read the threads, thanks. I still don't see how the school is "lying" to a child by putting them on a waitlist. I don't think the school has any responsibility to reveal how many waitlists they have created. If you read anything about waitlists (either at a day school, boarding school, or a college), you know that the chances of getting off a waitlist are slim to nil. As a parent, if my child received a waitlist letter, I would tell him congratulations for have the credentials to be accepted to the school, but for whatever reason, there is no room for you right now at this school...we can stay on the waitlist if you want, but now is the time for us to focus our efforts on contingency plan B. Just my opinion, of course :) </p>
<p>However, if newyorker's assumption is true that the 25 waitlisted students is actually more like 100...well, then, I think that would be a blatant lie, and I wouldn't think highly of Andover... But for having 2 or more waitlists, truthfully, I am not at all surprised. There might be a waitlist just for kids that are legacies or friends of VIPs (like Laxtaxi's child), where the child doesn't really fit (for whatever reason), but as a courtesy, are waitlisted rather than outright rejected.</p>
<p>How were your letters encouraging? Did they give your son a sense that there would be movement on the waitlist?</p>
<p>absolutely, they encouraged staying in touch, his excellent background, etc. The letter served to flatter him but in reality, who knows what criteria they really use. What we did was pick the best school of the waitlists, his first choice and decided to forward them additional information until April 8 or 9th. Then, he will call directly and say for the last time that he wants to come there. If they cannot give him any further indication of acceptance, such as a firm yes, then he needs to decide if he wants to go to his safety which really wants him, or stay at public school.</p>
<p>I wish more kids who were waitlisted but accepted at other school(s) would NOT agree to remain on the waitlist and would commit to one of the acceptance schools. Wouldn't you rather attend a school that values you in the first round?</p>
<p>In the long run it might cause the top schools to alter their waitlist practices...</p>
<p>tingting -- what I would suggest you do is tell each school that you would definitely accept an offer of admission is one was proferred. You can certainly tell that to multiple schools, since there is no way that all four schools are going to call you at the same time to offer you a spot.</p>
<p>As long as you are willing to take the first spot offered, you are not lying or being deceptive. If you are offered a position at a school, you would then withdraw your name from the other waitlists.</p>
<p>what happens if you accept your safety and then in June or July, your first choice calls you and offers you a spot/</p>
<p>I think it depends on when your safety's contract required you to pay the first installment of tuition. If it is before that date, then you can withdraw from the safety (an embarrassing conversation to have with the admissions officer of the safety, but you won't be the first) and all you have lost is the "deposit" made on April 10. After the first tuition instalment is due at the safety, then you are liable for it. I think if you had unlimited resources and could afford to pay both tuitions (or at least the first instalment of the one at the safety) you are not ethically bound to attend the safety, but as a practical matter most people can't afford that. There is another thread with someone asking how far a school will do to try to get the tuition from you after the contract date, and I believe, though I can't remember where I heard this, (I have various friends who work in BS admissions), that they will keep sending bills etc. but stop short of legal action, esp. if the safety fills your spot.
One of my admissions friends was very funny about the phone calls that come from parents withdrawing their kids because of a better offer--the parent always wants to go on and on with apologies and explanations and the admissions person just wants to get off the phone and start calling around to fill the now-empty slot. (Believe me, I know about this, our kid got off the waiting list TWICE in one year and we had to go through this ritual two times! But the end result was that he ended up at the school of his dreams, which it continued to be for his whole time there.)</p>
<p>Having unlimited resources doesn't give you complete flexibility.</p>
<p>At some schools, if you put down multiple deposits they have the right to withdraw their offer and/or treat that as a withdrawal (assuming, of course, that they learn of the fact...which isn't hard to do if they're in touch with the school you're coming from and someone there spills the beans that another school is asking for your records).</p>
<p>Just to clarify, we didn't have multiple deposits and I agree schools wouldn't like it and it seems a bit unethical. Our situation was serial monogamy, so to speak.</p>
<p>Understood. And, for the record, I was expounding on the hypothetical you raised about what someone, in theory, could do with unlimited resources. My "you" was intended to be in its generic form. Sorry about the confusion.</p>