<p>They often play mind games. Giving thousands waitlist offerers, knowing they'll only accept a few- usually those that 1) don't need financial aid 2) have SATs that are at least as high as the median for those already admitted.</p>
<p>Children of alumni have the best shot from the waitlist, followed by students who want to study a less popular subject, and minorities or members of a certain sex to help the M/F balance.</p>
<p>It's a mindgame? How?</p>
<p>Some students would find this a courtesy. You know the waitlist is not a promise, so you go ahead and make a decision based on outright acceptances. In the meantime, you have the privelege of saying you weren't rejected from that place--just waitlisted. Maybe at some places it's a "soft deny" but I fail to see how it's a mindgame.</p>
<p>I agree that it's a little game colleges play. They put people on the waiting list and then wait to see who is most pushy about getting into the college. This lets them figure out who is most likely to accept an offer of admission from them so they don't have to risk lowering their yield rate by accepting people who won't attend. This way they get higher yield rates and boost their rankings.</p>
<p>Yes, but that only applies to the high stat candidates they really want. They also put lots on the WL that they don't ever intend to take to not insult legacies, kids from certain schools and other "priority" candidates.</p>
<p>Not true.</p>
<p>It depends on what college you apply to. </p>
<p>My college has a waiting list where you are perfectly qualified but the major you did apply to was full, because a certain major in that school is extremely popular. As soon as one person drops, someone off the waitlist is admitted.</p>
<p>I'm sure you're right for your school, but for top schools in general, there are several levels of WLs.</p>
<p>
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They put people on the waiting list and then wait to see who is most pushy about getting into the college
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's not true everywhere.</p>
<p>waitlisting is a sof deny for most people. Columbia admits about 7% from the waitlist. Many people think it's a second chance, but do you really think that all 93% had an equal chance as the 7% who were admitted?</p>
<p>I think that percent admitted from the waitlist should be used, to a very small degree, in the US News rankings. For instance, 70% and above acceptance off waitlist would earn the maximum points with diminishing points given for increasingly lower percentages. Even if it was given a weight of only, say, 5% in the overall rankings, colleges would still change their waitlisting procedures so as to not mislead the huge number of people they routinely waitlist but know they will not accept. </p>
<p>However, I could see colleges accepting fewer people outright so then, when their class isn't full, they can accept more people off of the waitlist.</p>
<p>It really isn't misleading if you do your homework and know that chances of getting off the list at most good colleges are very slim.</p>
<p>but too many people consider it a "second chance" I can assure them it's not</p>
<p>I'm curious as to how you came by this theory. Are you an admissions officer? Do you know one?</p>
<p>I'm not trying to be harsh, and I apologize if it comes out that way. But the movements of college admissions committees are difficult to understand as an outsider, and I don't think it's fair to make such a sweeping statement unless you have an actual basis for the assertion.</p>
<p>fashionicon- what college are you representing?</p>
<p>I sure hope my waitlistings weren't just a courtesey. I'm not a legacy or anything, I just have really low grades- everything else is pretty good, and i think it was clear that the colleges were perfect for me, but my grades left some doubts.</p>
<p>I think a lot of legacies on the waitlist are there as a courtesy because they do not like to outright reject them, insulting the alumni. Waitlist is a bit gentler and allows them to save face, think things over, and get used to the idea of going elsewhere. Also kids who not going to be accepted but go to a school where a peer has been accepted that is not up there is stats is often waitlisted to spare some trouble from angered parents and pressured GCs. Those are often courtesy as well. Also kids who get great recs from someone associated with the college, or from a "feeder school" is waitlisted so it is not such a slap in a face to their testimonials.</p>
<p>Well, I am a fashion design major, and I recently applied to the Fashion institute of Technology, except I applied to the wrong program.</p>
<p>So the admissions office called me and basically told me that, I had been accepted but I had applied to the wrong program. And the program that I was elgible for (2 year program) was already full. So they could either reject me or put me on a waiting list. But the waiting list didn't even have 40 people on it yet, so I would have no problem getting in.</p>
<p>They also sent me a letter that started off by saying, "The committee on admissions has reviewed your application and has found it to be acceptable. However, we cannot offer you admission at this time because the major to which you applied is full.</p>
<p>We have placed your name on a waiting list. As vacancies in your major occur between now and registration, we will return to the applications on the waiting list......"</p>
<p>I assumed that FIT's waiting list, is used solely on a "is admitted but major is full" basis. Their fashion design program is extremely popular.</p>
<p>The thing is, even if the OP is an admissions officer, he or she cannot speak for all colleges.</p>
<p>I've sat in on a meeting last week where we discussed the waitlist, so I can tell you exactly what it means at my school. But I can't presume to tell you want it means at every other college which has a waitlist.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not a legacy, extremely high stats person, a person from a really competetive high school, or someone from a school where a person with lower stats was accepted. There's no way I was a courtesy waitlist.</p>
<p>Sure, it's a soft deny where some schools are concerned, but when I was an applicant getting dissed right and left, it was some comfort to me that I got a couple of waitlists -- that colleges were basically saying, "Good try."</p>
<p>There's no language you can put into a rejection letter to soften the blow, but when a college wait-lists a student, the message may actually come across that the college thought the student had something to offer.</p>
<p>Waitlisting gives the message "We don't really want you, but we'll be happy to take your tuition money and use you to fill our class IF we can't get anybody better, because you are not the absolute worst applicant this year".</p>
<p>Well, maybe I was unusual, but I found that less painful than "You suck -- f*** off."</p>