Exeter Waitlist

<p>It's pretty embarrassing just to post this in the first place..but I got waitlisted at Exeter.>.<
It's really humiliating to look at all the people here who got accepted :P
I know I should probably take it as a soft rejection, seeing as there are about 600 people on the wait list, but I was wondering if it was possible to come off? I know that Exeter has been scrambling a couple of times after underestimating their yield, so I probably don't have a chance at all. I just wanted to know if anyone got off the waitlist by some hit-by0lightning odds miracle.
Yeah, I'm a hopeless depressed little child right now.</p>

<p>Purpleswirl - first, don’t be embarrassed that you received a waitlist. It means that the school felt you met their admissions requirements, but that there were just not enough spaces for everyone who would be a good match for their school.</p>

<p>Go to the “WaitList” thread which is posted at the very top of the main Prep School Admissions page. Read through it all (it’s a LONG thread) and you will gain a lot of good info.</p>

<p>Plus, here’s a link to another waitlist thread from a while back:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1093284-anyone-have-waitlist-story-happy-ending.html?highlight=waitlist+happy+ending[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1093284-anyone-have-waitlist-story-happy-ending.html?highlight=waitlist+happy+ending&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Thanks-I didn’t notice that thread.
Also, someone said PEA has SIX HUNDRED people on the waitlist on average each year. Is that true? That’s…well, that’s a bit overkill since it’s almost TWICE the actual admit rate.</p>

<p>The schools use their waitlist to their own advantage. When schools “build” a class, they try for a mix of students girl/boy, day/boarding, different states, different countries, full-pay versus requiring financial aid, different sports, different ECs, etc.</p>

<p>So, if a someone who was admitted decides to decline a school’s offer, they will most likely go to the waitlist to select someone with similar attributes.</p>

<p>For example: a potential Exeter 9th grade boy, who is a great football/baseball player, from California, and is also an award-winning debater, decides to accept an admissions offer to Deerfield instead. Exeter would go to its waitlist and try to find another student with similar attributes. Which, of course, doesn’t help you if you are a potential 9th grade girl, who swims and also plays soccer.</p>

<p>That’s why the waitlist numbers are SO huge - a school can’t easily predict which students will accept versus decline their admissions offers, so they keep a LOT of potential students waiting in the wings, so that they have options to fill any slots that do open up.</p>

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<p>I was wondering what your Exeter admissions letter said if you were WaitListed? I’m a bit confused with mine.</p>