<p>Shaun0203, it was over 20 years ago that I worked in that admission office, but it was indeed a school that had a “need-blind” policy. </p>
<p>This wait-list acceptance process I described took place in mid-summer when pretty much all financial aid funds had been committed, as I recall. I must add that the clerks were not pulling out files for immediate acceptance off the wait list, they were bringing them to the admission committee for additional consideration.</p>
<p>There can be a lot of reasons to choose particular students off the wait list. Maybe some schools have an actual list, and applicant #12 would get in sooner than applicant #13. Other schools might need more tenors or legit sopranos, or tuba players. Tiny details can make a difference, like the presence in the file of a very nice thank-you letter telling them that this is your number one choice of school, and why.</p>
<p>Here’s another example: An admissions director is looking through wait-list files on her desk. She notices a high school name that she doesn’t recall ever seeing before. She consults the database and sees that no student from that high school has ever applied to that college before. “Hmm, interesting,” she thinks, and the decision is made.</p>
<p>Or maybe the admissions director who is looking through the wait-list files is particularly charmed by an essay. Or annoyed by too many spelling errors. There can be so many factors. A “pet peeve” in the office where I worked was the large number of students who wrote on their applications that they wanted to major in “business.” That school did not offer a business major.</p>
<p>All you can do is make sure your application is as strong as it can possibly be, when you are applying. You can’t go back and fix your freshman algebra grade, but you can proofread your essays really well. You can’t retroactively make the drama faculty love your audition any more, but you can make sure they know that if you are offered admission off the wait list, you would absolutely accept immediately, therefore preventing them from having to go through the whole process again (lots of wait list admits have already made their plans and decide not to change them).</p>
<p>It’s true that students have to apply for financial aid to qualify for loans. I believe they have to apply for financial aid in order to get a work/study job as well.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I believe the financial aid issue had an impact on one of the acceptances my S received. They specifically inquired during his audition as to whether he had been admitted into the school yet and whether any academic merit aid had been offered. When he said yes and told them which academic scholarship he had been offered they commented on what great news that was. His admittance to the program then obviously came with no departmental offer of scholarship. May be coincidental, but my guess is that having a student they are interested in who will not require potentially limited departmental money weighs into the decision if it comes down to choosing among equal talents. Just a theory - may be totally off base. Just found it interesting that was a specific question during auditions.</p>
<p>And I could be wrong but I do think that there is (and should be) an attempt to coordinate academic merit awards and talent awards. A school wants to make its program as accessible as possible to the students that they want. Loading up a student with talent aid that has already received a generous academic merit package would not be sharing the wealth. My guess is the question was related to that and they didn’t take your son because he already had merit, they wanted him anyway but also wanted to know if they needed to sweeten the pot to get him or not.</p>
<p>Depending on the school, it may also be a case of one or the other but never both. That was the case at CCU when my daughter was accepted. The academic merit award was more, so she accepted it. It wasn’t a case of the department not wanting to give her talent money on top of that. It was that by school policy they couldn’t.</p>
<p>This must just vary from school to school - some have offered either merit OR departmental and a couple of others have offered both. I agree spreading the wealth around is the ideal for sure!</p>
<p>My daughter was offered a work study program and we had not applied for any financial aid, so I think it may be up to the school.</p>
<p>I agree that if a student already knows that they will not accept the offer of admission from a certain school, they should reply as soon as possible. Obviously, they have the right to wait for all offers to come in, as well as financial aid packages. </p>
<p>I agree with Ada Quince, however, that many schools and programs admit more applicants than slots available, as they know that not every accepted student will attend and so plan on a certain yield. In other words, just because an applicant doesn’t accept the offer of admission, doesn’t then imply that a kid from the wait list will be accepted. They only go to the waitlist after they determine their yield, which in many cases, cannot be until after May 1. Yes, there are some particularly small programs that only accept the number they wish to yield, such as Carnegie Mellon, which has a “priority waitlist” they use for spots that are not taken by the yield. And Otterbein is like that as well. But most programs already have built in some extra students in the acceptance pile knowing that not every accepted student will matriculate since most students have more than one acceptance in hand.</p>