Don't understand waitlist

Applying to College
1

I was just waitlisted by one of the universities I was very strongly considering and not sure how to act on it. I still have not got all my decisions yet, but I do have questions about waitlists and have not found a thread that explains them (probably was looking in the wrong places). My questions are the following:

  1. Do you still get financial aid if you were on the waitlist, and if so when would that happen?
  2. Can you be on multiple waitlists at once?
  3. Can you commit to a college and be on a waitlist at the same time, and if you do how does it work out if you're taken off the waitlist.
  4. The college says to send in updated resume/new grades/reccomendations for them to consider while choosing people to take off the waitlist and that they consider demonstrated interest, should I do this and maybe visit the college to show demonstrated interest?
  5. If taken off the waitlist is it binding to go to that college, and if so can you reject for financial purposes?

Sorry I’m just very worried and confused, thank you.

2

@Texasstudent827 I don’t know your list of schools or anything about your situation but, if you are accepting a waitlist spot at a high tier school, high probability you may not get off that list. I believe you may still get financial aid money but probably no merit/academic and you can be on multiple wait lists. I would suggest you start looking seriously at your next 1-2 options for schools. IF you get off a waitlist, it could happen very late (after graduation)…not prior to May 1. Consider going where they want you and to a school that may be giving you merit, scholars/honors, etc.

3

To do my best to answer your questions (hopefully I have this correct, I expect that folks will correct me if not):

  1. If you get off the waitlist, then it is possible that you might get financial aid. However, you generally cannot count on getting off the waitlist at all, and for schools that don't guarantee to meet full need financial aid might not be all that likely.
  2. Yes, you can be on multiple waitlists at the same time.
  3. You don't commit to the school that put you on the waitlist. You can commit to a different school. Since you might not hear back from the waitlist school until after May 1, there is a good chance that you will need to commit to a different school.
  4. I don't have much experience with demonstrating interest (whether on a waitlist or not).
  5. If you get off the waitlist, then typically you will have a relatively short period of time to decide whether to attend the school that took you off the waitlist. You are not required to go there, and can consider whatever financial aid offer they provide (if any). My understanding is that it is very common for students to need to consider the financial aid offer before they decide whether to attend.

My understanding of how this works is that schools accept a certain number of students, and put a few students who are “close but not quite” on the waitlist. If enough of accepted students decide not to attend, then they may have slots still available, in which case they may accept some students off the waitlist. This can very well happen after May 1, since the students that they accepted in the first place don’t need to respond until then, implying that the school might not know how many slots they have available until after May 1. This implies that you are likely to need to accept an offer somewhere else. If you then get an offer from a school that waitlisted you and if you accept this offer, then my impression is that you would lose your deposit at the first school.

For us, we put down housing deposits in addition to enrollment deposits prior to May 1. Thus you could lose both if you decide to accept a later offer at a different school.

I have heard of a few cases of students who decided that they would rather go to the school that accepted them with a good financial aid offer, and who therefore turned down being waitlisted.

4

thoughts:

  1. Look at the Common Data set for that school and see if many people have been accepted from the waitlist in the past. If they haven't, then don't spend too much mental effort on this.
  2. Start getting interested in the college you were accepted to...
  3. Some colleges will let you know your financial aid if they want to accept you off the waitlist...they basically only want to accept people who would definitely attend so you have to know the financial aid to do that.
5

^ Wait list admission varies a lot year to year. Don’t really on the data from past year as the yield rate would change all the time leading to wide range of variation. Nevertheless, you may get a relative idea by the number of students on the wait list. If a school put >10,000 on wait list, you know how small the chance it would be even if it ever happens. In general, don’t put hope on the wait list and just focus on the schools you have been admitted until you receive a notice. For schools that do not meet 100% need (most don’t anyway), late admission would have an even lower chance to get financial aid.