I just wanted to wish you all congratulations on your commitments and good luck with your WL’s in the coming weeks. On that note, now that commitment day is here, where did your kid commit, and what WL would your kid take over the school they committed to? My D22 committed to Tulane, and would have to visit NYU before taking the offer, so my answer to that is — I don’t know — I don’t think so, but she would want to see it for herself.
3 Likes
My girl committed to DePaul and probably wouldn’t consider any of her waitlist schools. But I would urge her to at least think about Cal Poly SLO and Northeastern…if those waitlists should happen to offer a spot.
5 Likes
I can say that we did not even consider the waitlist other than #1 choice.
That was probably the best advice obtained from this site was to not expect much from waitlists. Because it made it much easier to simply kill candidates literally lifelong dream to go to that #1 choice school.
We did encourage her to send an LOCI and to email to someone there who has a connection to her EC hook, and basically that individual did not even send back a “Thank you I’m sorry I can’t help you,” which is something that, as a child of an alumni (who does donate, but not massive amounts), you would expect as part of "post degree alumni engagement. That made things very clear. Candidate then was able to move on from her dreams and move on to making a new dream. That means visiting the schools she was accepted to. At first it was very much “well, this isn’t soooo bad” to finally visiting the school that was only on her application list because the valedictorian at her HS chose it over Ivy because of the Benequisto scholarship. He showed her around campus, gave her the 411 on the pre-med situation, and after that basically after that she stopped with the “my life is over” drama.
The importance of the in-person visit can’t be overstated. It is particularly good when it’s done as part of a whole admitted student day. You look left, you look right, and see just how you fit in with your classmates. That actually helped rule some places out, or move them lower than where one would have expected given the slant toward highly ranked schools that applicant had insisted on when applying (probably to too many Ivy’s). Anyway, hopefully you / your D can find somewhere that your candidate will be able to build up a new dream around. I think is a strange way it worked out well to save the visits of the “not up to my standards” schools until after Ivy day. Because before Ivy day they would have been met with some disdain even if they had rolled out the red carpet and brought in the brass band.
7 Likes
My daughter did commit to University of Tampa as they did offer her a nice scholarship but she has also chosen to stay on the Tulane waitlist with hopes they just maybe she will be still considered. We have not visited as Tulane is far and she was told that a visit would not increase her chances of getting off the waitlist. And, just like you, if she is given a spot a lot would ride on scholarship and a visit before changing her acceptance. This most certainly has been a tough tough application year!!!
5 Likes
Ultimately a small price to pay for the 4 years at the right school! But a crazy ride!
1 Like
My kiddo was admitted off the WL at Pitt on Friday so there is movement at some schools. We were surprised as only 16 kids were accepted from the WL last year (out of about 1,000). Although he has committed at one school he is going to visit Pitt early next week to see if he’d prefer that. They gave him 2 weeks.
22 Likes
Congratulations!!! And I think it’s great they give them 2 weeks!
2 Likes
So far there has been no mention that Northeastern, Boston College or Boston University have gone to their waitlists. Despite their historically low acceptance rates this cycle.
1 Like
Is that unusual at this point? Is this the week when they usually go to their waitlists or do they historically use them before commitment day?
If commitments were running below expectations colleges may go to their waitlists in April.
1 Like
I have a feeling that kids are going to be holding onto their acceptances to this tier of schools because they were so hard to come by!
1 Like
I got waitlisted at Tulane😭 I really want to go!!
Right. But most colleges take a few days / couple of weeks to assess deposits and determine where the gaps are (if any) that need to be filled. So not seeing WL movement on day 2 isn’t necessarily an indication of how things will turn out, IMO. It’s too soon.
6 Likes
Waitlist acceptances can come at ANY time before college starts. I would guess that the bulk of them are going to be offered in the next 2-3 weeks, then there will be a trickle down effect that could last well into the summer.
As mentioned previously, my child got a WL offer in July, and there have been occasions when a student has been offered a spot just a few weeks before college starts. Those are pretty uncommon scenarios though, so people should proceed as though they will be attending where they deposited.
5 Likes
I know of multiple students in NYC who are not going to BU and NEU. Letting their acceptances expire rather than withdrawing. Ivies too (Brown, Penn). Michigan too.
1 Like
Headed to Rochester, then?
So much for their predictive algorithm and only making offers to those they believe will definitely attend 
2 Likes
BU “showered” DD’s public school with acceptances. Many with generous aid packages. When it came down to it, the kids picked the schools with the best financial packages. Some took BU over NEU. Others took NEU over BU. Others could not afford Michigan or top SLAC. Some were in enviable positions - choosing an Ivy over a top SLAC. Top SLACs over “public” ivies (UVA, UNC). A very small handful chose SUNY honors college because going for free.
My theory is that the AOs took our very high median GPAs at face value and they went deep into the class. One’s ECs got one in.
Another public nearby did very well - few needed FA so had kids going to all the SLACs favored by NYC kids.
Exactly how DD felt at the end.
1 Like
They expect a 30% yield. They do not want to make offers to students who are using them as a rock bottom safety.