To all the well meaning folks here saying “have your GC call the WL school” - I’m guessing this only applies if your kid goes to a private school or an elite well-funded public.
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Our GC’s don’t offer to do this, and I am pretty sure would decline to do this, I imagine that a student they “vouched” for could very well not enroll because of finances, a change of mind, parents deciding against paying, any number of things. The GC’s word would not amount to much in the future. I just don’t see GC’s staking their credibility on various kids as they pass through the school – does this really go on?
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I’ve read/heard that it does - at the private schools where GCs have close relationships with students as well as AOs.
Our school - probably more like yours. GC would probably say “nice try, but… no”.
But I also suspect that at the more “typical” public HS with a 200:1 or higher student to GC ratio the GC might well ask “and, who are you?”
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Last night I spoke to an acquaintance who is a college counselor at a small private school. She said the AOs (who she considers “friends”) won’t take her input anymore. She used to call and indicate who was likely to attend. Her words - she’s never seen anything like this in 23 years.
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Did she say what was the most surprising part of this year — was it waitlists, surprising rejections, the amount of applications….
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All of the above, really. Also, she was surprised that the AOs dropped the collaborative relationship they used to have. They would confer even before regular decisions came out on who was likely to come and thus help the college with their yield. She told the story that 12 students applied to the same T40 school. Eleven were accepted, 1 was waitlisted. She knew the only one that would attend was the one the college waitlisted!! The rest are all declining their acceptances.
She doesn’t know what to tell parents of rising seniors other than focus on ED, but at the same time she doesn’t like pushing that.
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This is consistent with what I’ve heard from a colleague who used to be an AO. There’s been a lot of scrutiny on what’s perceived as a far too cozy relationship between private school CCs and AOs. Apparently there have been recent articles highlighting the disproportionate percentage of private HS students admitted to T20s.
So, similar to other efforts by elite colleges to avoid looking like they favor the privileged (like reducing the importance of legacy, very high test scores and ECs that look like the result of a well connected family, etc) - AOs are reducing contacts with CCs/GCs.
The “GC and AOs conference” is exactly what they don’t want to have.
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I don’t know how I am always shocked about this kind of thing. I mean, that’s a GC interfering with other students he’s supposed to be advising and helping — basically sabotaging kids who may not have even told him how they really feel about a particular school — and kids often change their minds once a school becomes an option. I am very glad if it’s true that AO’s aren’t letting GC’s give them that information/influencing kids’ results. .
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Read an article today that suggested waitlists are being used to cherry pick full pay kids to fill in the holes in their incoming freshman class. Thoughts?
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Even at need-blind schools for college admissions, I think that most are need-aware when pulling from the waitlist. So if a full-pay student meets the qualities they’re looking to replace (male, tuba player, Nebraska resident, whatever) then I definitely think the full-pay person is receiving the call first.
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The colleges that provide the financial aid and the possible merit packages to the waitlisted hopefuls self select out early in the process if they can not afford it.
Absolutely okay with that decision. Very few colleges can afford to be need blind for every applicant. We’re FinNeedy for college and I’m 100% fine with any college’s decision to make sure their books are balanced enough. My hope is that they are proactive in ensuring some FinNeedy applicants are admitted, not all FinNeedy students, because that is financially unfeasible for the institution.
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That’s fine, as long as the institution doesn’t go on about how “you can afford!” their school on their web sites and in their literature. They want the applications, and the low acceptance rate, but do seem need aware in the end.
That’s true at most TopRanked schools. All those schools want the assumed-prestige that comes with lower acceptance rates, but few are willing to be need-blind for every applicant at every stage of the process.
IMO, it’s up to the applicants to be wise enough to realize that there are schools with higher admit rates that are just as good as the low-admit rate schools. Applicants should use that knowledge to help them craft an application strategy that includes low-admit rate schools, mid-range admit rate schools, and highish (70-85%) admit rate schools.
In my experience, once a student identifies the type of school he/she wants, it is easy to create an application strategy that includes many very similar schools from all admit-rate levels.
I hope you get the outcome you wish for.
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Some of you CC old timers will remember that back in 2016 my D was WL at three schools. She applied to twelve. She got off one WL on May 2. One school said in June they would not take anyone from the WL. She got off the other WL on July 3 and attended that school. But, she never expected that to happen. She wrote the LOCI, but bought the T-shirt for the school she deposited at, and assumed she would attend there.
More kids are getting WL because they are applying to more schools. Colleges want to hedge their bets in a time of uncertainty caused by two pretty crazy Covid admissions cycles.
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Was it hard for your kid to pivot from being all-in at one school and then switching? I wonder about this part of WL’s.
Personally, my D22 (who is my first) is having a hard time deciding between the 3 schools she’s narrowed it down to. We are visiting the 2 schools she hasn’t already seen, but what if she gets off the WL at the reachiest school out of this bunch….she hasn’t seen it in person and I imagine it would be a 72 hour panic visit (flight, hotel, etc…) and very confusing for a 17 year old.
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We are in the exact same situation… daughter is visiting few schools she got in and isn’t thrilled about. Waiting on her waitlist school to accept her… we are making a trip from east coast to west coast to see a college she got admitted in… she will pick the WL school anytime over this if she gets off the WL, which seems like a long shot… also she didn’t get in any we visited before and hasn’t seen any she is admitted to…
good luck to your child!!!
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Your D needs to put that college out of her mind. She can follow up with her LOCI, and maybe even a phone call from the guidance counselor, but she should not factor that in to her plans. Really. It’s really unlikely she will get off waitlist.
My daughter had to make a decision quickly because she only had a day or two to decide, which is typical. She’s pretty logical and made her final decision based on practical factors. The Short Term option of the school she chose, along with its more desirable location (in her opinion) were the factors that swayed her. I made her take the bumper sticker of the first college off the car, and that was that.
@UniversityMomma , I should add that many students who do get off WL don’t take the offer for the very reason you suggest. They get invested in the idea of the college they deposited at, maybe due to joining a Facebook group or similar, and when an offer comes, they are no longer dreaming of the WL school. At least, hopefully they aren’t.
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It might be difficult to substantiate, but a recent post in the Bates forum stated that a student was offered a spot off the waiting list around April 1st.
I would seriously discourage your daughter from doing this. It stops a student from moving on and getting excited about college.
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