So I’ve been waitlisted for engineering at 2 schools (RPI and VT) so far in my college process.
I was wondering, do everyone who’s waitlisted go through committee?
It’d be kind of comforting to know that some AO’s fought for me to get waitlisted, and not just flat out rejected, in the committee?
Waitlist is tough. At a lot of schools, the waitlist is a soft rejection.
Look at the common data set, and it will show you how many kids for each school get off the wait list. It looks like for VT, that number was 0.
https://www.ir.vt.edu/data/cds.html
For RPI, they took 3 kids off the waitlist (out 3,845).
https://provost.rpi.edu/sites/default/files/2018-2019%20Common%20Data%20Set%20Final.pdf
It’s probably a good idea to move on to some other options!
Waitlist activity can vary widely from year to year at a given school, but many schools are getting much better at predicting their yields which has decreased waitlist admissions. Further, most schools are need aware when going to the waitlist, and with financial aid budgets typically fully spent by that time, full pay waitlist apps have an advantage.
Whether you accept the waitlist spots or not, make sure to put down a deposit at a school that accepted you by May 1. You may lose that deposit if you do get off the waitlist and choose to accept. Good luck.
Most waitlist students, if not all, in the selective college group where in committee already. That’s where they decided to waitlist.
Coming off waitlist is a different animal. It depends on actual acceptances after May 1 and institutional needs.
It’s generally not a stack ranked process.
All waitlist students are deemed qualified.
Good luck. It really stinks to have to wait.
But you are clearly talented, so focus on that and what you can control. Like focusing on choosing from your acceptances. Go revisit if you can or take the student led video tours and day in the life videos on CollegeReel.
One thing you can do is to act as though the wl schools were never applied to by you , that’s what my d tried.
And she said no thanks to a couple.
Taking back control made her feel more empowered. And she focused on the yes schools and it became fun again.
It was a good way to just move on.