<p>@GMTplus7, this could also explain,
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<p>If a less selective school can see that your son’s scores were high in their applicant pool, they might waitlist him. If students who score above a certain score are not likely to enroll, the admissions officers could rationally decide to aim for a student whose scores fit in the enrolled pool.</p>
<p>Now, if parents wouldn’t care so much about selectivity and yield, things might be different. :)</p>
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<p>It’s this presumption that drives me up a wall. How can they know what a family will decide, and how can they be so sure that the higher than normal applicant will even be admitted to the very selective schools? They should know better than to assume that anyone is guaranteed a spot in the schools with <20% acceptance.</p>
<p>@neato: It may be that historical practice hasn’t adapted to the new admissions environment. After all, applications are up substantially over the past decade.</p>
<p>Hi neato!</p>
<p>Experience? They’re in the business of predicting, after all. I’m sure they don’t assume that a high scoring student will be accepted by the highly selective schools. Their responsibility is to their school, though. If they accept too many students, and they all enroll, the school’s budget could be threatened. If they accept too few, they may be scrambling to find students. </p>
<p>I think students with high SSAT scores (and their families) must make clear to less selective schools why they like the school, and why they would choose it over others. If an AO likes your child, but knows that Big Name school would like him too, and 5 times out of 8 Big Name school wins, he has to weigh the odds. I’m sure the admissions officers want to create as strong a class as possible. On the other hand, they want to have the majority of the class committed by April 10th. They don’t want to have to go out and recruit applicants in April. </p>
<p>And…in the internet age, if a school were to turn to its waitlist for a large number of spots, it would show up on CC. And all the armchair critics, like us, who don’t really know anything, would be glad to give opinions. </p>
<p>I agree with kraodrawoh, the schools seem to be receiving more applications.</p>
<p>Not a guarantee to override that tendency - but I do think it helps if the student explicitly states - during an interview - that the school in question is their top choice. </p>
<p>My daughter was adamant in interviews that Exeter was not on the top of her list when she was interviewing at rival schools. It became a running joke when Adcoms then questioned me about that development and I confirmed D had “overruled me” and I was not allowed a vote in the matter. I suspect that helped make a tiny bit of difference.</p>
<p>oops great minds think alike. Too late to delete my post. Nice job @Periwinkle.</p>
<p>Its not all about perfection. She probably didn’t have a good interview.</p>
<p>I don’t like the pressure on kids to name a top choice when they don’t even know if they will indeed have any choices! We tell our kids not to get too attached to any one school for fear that they won’t be selected at that schools. Instead, we assure each school that she didn’t apply to any school that she wouldn’t be thrilled to attend. It’s annoying that such candor is not trusted. I understand that the responsibility is to the school. I really do. Sometimes, it just seems like you can’t win, especially by being honest.</p>
<p>Neato, I agree. I think it’s unfair to ask an applicant who has had limited contact with these schools to determine a first choice before the revisit. In our son’s case, that inability almost certainly moved him from an “accept” to the wait list. Based upon the guidance counselor’s conversation with the AO in early March, he was certain our son would be/had been accepted. </p>
<p>It worked out well, though, as our son was accepted to his first choice, but given how
competitive the admissions process is, it would have been nice to preserve the option.</p>
<p>The whole discussion here made me more confusing.
I heard people suggested cast a wider net so it can get more chance to get in a school.
In this thread, Some said applying many schools is selfish action that reduce other applicant’s chance.
It also implied the safety schools you applied probably think you are not going to attend anyway so school waitlisted/rejected you.
However, I think biggest issue is you never know which school is your ‘reach’ school or ‘safety’ school until March 10. 95% SSAT could be rejected at any school if you add FA in this game.
Wise parent like Neato had great experience still wondered what happened this year.</p>
<p>Honestly, I would suggest more focus on how to prepare best application material and found out the “fit” schools. Other than those are out of our control.</p>
<p>I thought yield protection is a game played by the highly selective schools. Why do the schools less selective care about yield? Shouldn’t their focus be on finding the best students they can get onboard, even if it means sometimes their offers won’t be taken? It’s a competitive market. On the other hand, if one has decided one or more less selective schools are better fit even though the student has great stats, to avoid the “Tufts Effect”, just don’t apply to a bunch of selective schools. In the mix of schools, one or two that are way more selective than your “target safety” may be OK but if there are a bunch then you can’t blame the AOs of the safety think those selective schools are what you are really interested in.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s selfish to apply to a lot of schools (you can hit the law of diminishing returns, but selfish? - no)</p>
<p>I agree (or is that hope) that it helps to be able to look the AO in the eye and tell them why you like their school. You don’t have to say you like it more than another one, or less, or trash another school to boost the one you’re at. But if there is something they do well, or differently, or uniquely - and you genuinely like that - then say so. </p>
<p>Someone said, don’t apply to a school you wouldn’t want to be at - I think that covers a big part of the game. </p>
<p>I would also (and I think there was a thread a few weeks ago where this thought didn’t fly so well, but I’m going to try again) try not to apply to all the same kind of school. All big name? All Connecticut? Why not look at something different, if only so you know for sure why you’re applying to St.Grottlesex, or Acronym 1, or Acronym 2…or whereever. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, we were up front with every school about where we were applying (both kids applied to a wide range of acronyms and roads less travelled), and told them the reasons why; in return, I did’t sense any gamesmanship on the part of the schools - the results seemed pretty straightforward. </p>
<p>This doesn’t really answer the question at the beginning of the thread - why would a package of great scores and activities get WL. Don’t know - wish we did, because it would probably make a lot of people feel better. But keep trying - decide which are the place or places where you can say, with your hand on your heart “I love what you do, take me”, write a letter to the WL schools to say that, while looking for some more schools which might be able to offer you the thing you love, and then see what happens.</p>
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<p>You won’t be able to figure it out as it is a black box process with AOs inside it with different degrees of wackiness, some would want you to smile when they kick a puppy, others would want you to be sad, yet others want you to be stoic, …hope you catch my drift. 
:D</p>
<p>Chosen Deerfied, pulsar?</p>
<p>@ryork15: A few factors that may influence the decision.</p>
<p>Diversity: Only a handful of applicants will be accepted from the Chicago area. Did other students from your class also apply?
Economics: More students are applying to boarding schools.
“The North Shore”: Since most of the north shore is a wealthy area, schools will know that she has had better opportunites than other applicants. Did she take the hardest classes available?</p>
<p>@ryork15: You stated,</p>
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<p>Her score might not have improved. </p>
<p>I think it’s easy to lose track of the depth of the competition, and its variety. On a revisit to one school, we started chatting with a father whose son played the same instruments, and had the same academic strengths as our son. </p>
<p>I’m not certain how the AOs can differentiate between the soccer-playing piccolo player from Chicago, the lacrosse-playing piccolo player from Wisconsin, and the runner/piccolo player from Georgia. I would bet that once the pool of applicants reaches a certain size, “twins” (or triplets, etc.) show up in the pool. They would all love to go to boarding school.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Yay! She got off the waitlist for Taft and will be going there this fall!</p>
<p>@MaterS: Yes, other students in my class applied to boarding schools but not the same schools. One girl applied (and is going to) Brewster Academy. One boy applied to Avon and Salisbury and is going to Salisbury. 2 applied to Loomis, one got in but isn’t going there and one hasn’t heard back from them yet (he applied late I think). It’s a very common thing at my school to go to boarding school, and in the North Shore in general it’s common to go to Boarding school. Also, at my school classes aren’t leveled off until high school, except for math. We’re both in Algebra but she’s in Honors and I’m in regular, and there’s also pre-algebra. The difference between Algebra and Honors isn’t very big. The two teachers just teach differently, and we’re actually ahead of honors in the book right now (same textbook).</p>
<p>ryork15 - Taft is absolutely awesome. My daughter loves it there. Tell your friend “Julia” congratulations.</p>
<p>And three cheers to Taft for taking at least three CC students off waitlist so far.</p>
<p>I’m telling ya - it’s Hogwarts and the staff are working all kinds of magic this year.</p>
<p>Congratulations to Julia.</p>
<p>Looks like the yield prediction at Taft was quite off, or a high concentration of Taft waitlisters happen to be on CC. Thacher’s WL movement is a little suprising too.</p>