Yup. My sister got into Amherst waaay back in the late 80s off the waitlist before May 1, which really made her happy since her visit to the other place she thought was roughly equivalent had left a very sour taste in her mouth.
Amherst had over-yielded the previous year, so they under-admitted the year my sister applied, to be much more in control of the shape of the class. Which allowed them to start pulling from the WL earlier than usual.
I don’t think any of that experience is particularly relevant to this year, but it has happened in the long ago times.
A big exception is if the Pell-eligible student’s parents are divorced and uncooperative with financial aid forms and/or paying. Most of the “T40 USNWR schools” require both parents’ financials even if they are divorced.
Perhaps a better way to put it is that affordability, admissibility, and academic offerings that the student wants are the most important elements of “fit”. Obviously, affordability is a much greater “fit” constraint for a student with little money than a student whose parents can easily pay list price at any college.
Honestly, I kinda hope that all the schools that WL more kids than usual end up with crappy yields and a bunch of kids on the WL happy with the place that did accept them, and they end up under-enrolled.
It’s probably petty, but it’s mostly how I feel right now.
I am hoping they end up with the short end of the stick too. They created this mess with their aggressive marketing to increase applications and their yield games to manipulate rankings all while ignoring that these are actually young kids on the receiving end of the gamesmanship. These colleges are all talking about how concerned they are with the current state of the student bodies’ mental health, but how much does this process harm the mental health of incoming freshman?
If your kid takes a place at their WL school, it creates a space for someone at the school where they deposited who is on the WL there. Everyone who wants their WL school wins.
Remember, you don’t have to be on the WL anywhere! I strongly advise staying on the WL only at schools you know you would prefer to where you are currently enrolled.
Yes, many kids will. Every kid’s situation is different. Personally, I hope mine doesn’t because I feel she would be better off at the school she has chosen, but I would absolutely take her to visit if she gets in off the waitlist so she can see it for herself and make her own decision. And get the confidence boost that she got in.
I know in 2020 Notre Dame began pulling off of the waitlist in April, but that was due to covid. They thought kids might choose to stay closer to home and yield would be less. But as a result, they over enrolled that class by almost 150 kids. They aim for a class of 2050, but enrolled almost 2200.
This 150 extra might not seem like a big problem, but it was. There were not enough advisors. There were not enough classes. Not enough dorms. At a school where the freshman required writing & rhetoric classes have a max of 12 kids in each class, as well as the freshman required Moreau classes are maxed at 12, just to name a couple… that is A LOT of new classes/sections to open up and find professors to teach them.
The gender of the student is also an issue at schools like ND that have gender specific dorms (boy dorms & girl dorms… no mixing) and also have an on campus living requirement. It is 3 years at ND. In 2020, they allowed some juniors to move off campus to have room for the freshman.
Yes, we would have to. D22 would not give up Tulane for NYU without seeing it. And she honestly doesn’t care about the difference in rankings, only about their fit, so without a visit, she won’t accept the WL offer. But I think we would most likely be able to fly up quickly. Did your daughter commit to a school yet?
We are in CA and know kids getting off the waitlists already at UCI and SLO which hasn’t happened in the recent past before May 1st. Personally I think so many schools are using the waitlist extensively and we will see more movement than last year.