Now that everyone has received all their acceptances and rejections and FA offers, Please remember that there are a lot of kids on waitlists to the school of their choice. Please urge Your kid to communicate their decisions quickly so that others can be done with the application process…
Really, no. The schools don’t usually go to their waitlist until after May 1 anyway. They accept a lot more students than they actually expect to have say yes – and until May 1, they don’t know for sure if they are ahead, behind, or on track for their projected yield. The only exception might be in majors where they accept only a few and move to the waitlists early. Musical theater, maybe music majors, maybe nursing. But everybody else, take your time and make sure you have it right. Typical waitlist activity heats up about a week after May 1, then there is another bubble a couple weeks later when kids “melt” away from lower ranked schools to higher ranked ones where they got off the waitlist. Usually it is mostly done by June, and colleges will email students to let them know that the waitlist is closed (eg, you aren’t getting in).
I see no reason to suck up to people you’ve never met who are on a waitlist. You have no obligation to them.
I do see good reason to submit your acceptance a couple of days early. The power could go out, a problem could develop with your Internet, the credit card you plan to use could be rejected because Dad maxed it out earlier in the day getting his car fixed, or the college’s Web site that accepts acceptances (there had to be a better way to say that) might be overloaded at the 11th hour. So don’t wait until the 11th hour.
I understand your anxiety but know that colleges would generally not go to a waitlist before the dust settles on or a few days after May 1. In addition, any one person declining an offer will have no impact on waitlist admissions since a certain percent of students declining offers is built in to the process.
Echoing what everyone else said–The schools give students till May 1 for a reason: to give them time to make decisions. Waitlists aren’t moving until all the decisions are in and after the deadline.
I’m looking for the communication to occur, once the decision is made - however long that takes. The 2 I know sitting on waitlists are pretty frustrated as they have to accept at the safeties and then wait.
Holly, waitlists are NOT a giant queue which are first come /first serve.
If your kid is on a wait list and really, really, really wants to get off that list, you need to be proactive.
1- GC needs to call the Adcom for your region to say, “If accepted, this kid will attend. no if’s, and’s or buts”.
(assuming this is true). Obviously, you can’t do this to more than one school.
2- Your kid needs to go over the application with a fine tooth comb and make sure that nothing material was left off. Your kid plays the bassoon but the application went in before your kid was named “Bassoonist of the Year” for your state? Update the Adcom. You don’t need to pester with every stupid book award (that’s annoying and you don’t want to be annoying). But if there is a specific hole which the college needs to fill once the acceptances are over and they know how many they are going to take from the wait list, your kid needs to be proactive in making sure they know what he/she brings to the campus which might not already be in the application.
3- Then you and your kid need to forget about the waitlist school and do everything you can to get excited about Plan B. If the waitlist materializes- terrific! If not, your kid is halfway through the process of falling in love with the “I’m going to college” school.
But blaming kids who are taking until May 1 to make a reasoned decision- that’s just irrational. Their decision timeframe isn’t what’s preventing your kid from getting off the wait list.
Someone asked a question about the waitlist at an admitted students event we attended. The AO said that they do not even think about it until after May 1st as historically, over 50% of enrollment deposits are not received until the last week in April. Forget about the waitlist and bond with the deposited school. If a waitlist spot comes through later on and they still want the spot, great, but the student should now consider themselves as attending their deposited school.
I am sorry for asking a silly question, I’m fairly new on this forum, but how does waitlisting work? From what I understand, my May 1st, a kid on WL for College A would still commit to College B that accepted him/her, and then pay a deposit, right? Say on May 15 s/he gets an acceptance letter from College A. S/he can decide to go to College A, and forego a deposit? Could s/he get the deposit back if the spot at College B gets filled by someone waitlisted by College B? Thanks!
May be an anomaly, but the U Chicago wl has already started to move, according to threads here.
You basically have it right. It is necessary to deposit at a school you have been admitted to. One should never count on getting into a school off of a waitlist.
Typically if someone is accepted off a waitlist they will be given a guaranteed spot and a certain number of days to deposit if they choose to accept. In the scenario you described, I would suggest waiting a until you get confirmation that the deposit has been accepted at College B before withdrawing form College A (usually takes just a day or two) just to be safe.
You won’t usually get your deposit back.
Maybe UC can already see that they overestimated their expected yield based on “early returns”. Most schools will wait til May to start, though. Usually someone starts a thread that just tracks all waitlist movement.
@typiCAmom The answer is No, you will not get your deposit back, even if they fill the spot
Thanks everyone, just out of curiosity, how much is that deposit typically (a range)?
Hollysmom–it still doesn’t matter when the communication occurs. Few, if any, schools accept off the waitlist before May 1. that’s been said here over and over. Students on it really do have to “wait.”
@typiCAmom Deposits at schools where my son has been accepted range from $0 to $1000. The average is probably $300 - $400.
@dscottvb, thanks, good to know 
@intparent , not to be cynical but I’m thinking UChicago under accepted on purpose so that they could announce their RD accept rate of “4%” (which I am assuming means 4.49%). This was per the Dean at accepted student welcome today BTW.
DD won’t be making up her mind until after her accepted student visits are done and that will be at least two more weeks.
@ihs76 not to be cynical but I’m thinking UChicago under accepted on purpose so that they could announce their RD accept rate of “4%” (which I am assuming means 4.49%).
hmm… interesting theory. Given Chicago’s stalkerish mail campaigns encouraging kids to apply, I have to agree that maybe you are on to something!
@wisteria100, When there is a game to be played, and the rules of the game are known, play one shall.