I would urge all those who were accepted to multiple colleges to please send in your “no thank you” cards to those colleges you are sure you will not be attending as soon as possible. Remember that for every college you were accepted to, there are other students there on a waitlist, agonizing over how long to hold out waiting for the “A” school to possibly admit them, and having to decide when to accept the offer of the “B” school. This is especially import to those of you that were admitted to Ivy League schools. The sooner you say “no” the sooner someone else gets a “yes”! Thank you from the mother of a waitlisted child!
<p>i totally agree. unless you really are interested in a school and there is a large chance you will attend, you should inform the school that you will not be attending. its just the decent thing to do.</p>
<p>Not that I don't agree (I'm sending most of my reply back cards this week), but I heard that the waitlisted people all find out in May-June (from my harvard w/l letter). The school waits until everyone has decided, and they only know that until 5/1. They then go reevaluate all the waitlisted people and etc...</p>
<p>No, no, no - you misunderstand! The colleges accept way more people than they can admit, assuming that many will not come. Some schools have yields of 25% - meaning that for every 4 accepted, only 1 will come, and their enrollment management takes that into account when they send out acceptances!</p>
<p>There is NO one-on-one correspondence between people who choose to go elsewhere and people who get off the waitlist! In many schools, even after their 75% or 50% or 25% or 10% of extra kids say "No thanks," there is still no one taken off the waitlist.</p>
<p>PS and don't forget that a HUGE portion of people on the waitlist will never be accepted anyway, as they are part of the "polite rejection" pile - people put on the waitlist because the adcoms don't want to offend the schools, etc. There is a thread on the parents' board right now about schools that keep two or three waitlists - one of which is the "No way in he** will we take you."</p>
<p>Gee, that makes this waitlist thing even sadder for the people on it, doesn't it? I did know that they schools "estimate" how many may say no and that sometimes no one ever gets accepted from the waitlist. And, of course, I'm sure you're right in that there are different lists within the waitlist. It never occured to me that even if you got in from a waitlist that it wouldn't be until June. So, I guess everyone on a waitlist has to accept another school, or risk going nowhere!</p>
<p>well it really depends. Like I think in 2004 Columbia accepted 6% off the waitlist, but notre dame accepted 25%.</p>
<p>it really depends but usually ivies dont take people off waitlist because they estimate pretty well i know in 2003 the only ivy to even utilize the waitlist was cornell. duke stanford mit and the rest didnt use it either. most schools guess their yield and over-accept and waitlist is only used when the overacceptance falls short =P</p>
<p>Yep, the ivys have by far the lowest waitlist acceptances, generally. There is a student who thinks she has a good chance for getting the columbia waitlist, but the fact is, it is extremely unlikely</p>
<p>I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to michigan and nyu but i haven't decided which school i'm going to attend. On the reply card to the other schools, what should i put for "No, I will not be attending. I will instead be attending _____________"</p>
<p>I bet it doesn't matter which of the 2 you put down, as long as you know you won't be going to a particualr school. My daughter was accepted to 3 schools, and is trying to decide between 2, so she filled out the card for the 3rd, putting "Trinity, most likely." (I think they want to know for statistical reasons)</p>