<p>Does anyone have suggestions for waitlisted students? My D just found out she was waitlisted at her top choice, Northwestern, She is in at UCSD, Northeastern and 2 Cal States and deferred for Univ of Mich. She is still waiting for a few others but the Theater Dept at Northwestern is where she sees the best career opportunities for Arts Mangement. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Sorry about the waitlisting, WaitingMom, but there is hope. Last year, Northwestern accepted many students off the waitlist. Along with the card (or form --whatever it is) accepting a place on the waitlist, your daughter should send a letter letting NW know that it is her top choice and that if she is offered a spot off the wait list, she'll definitely attend NW. In the letter she should also update her resume -- let NW know about any academic honors she's received and noteworthy activities she has participated in since submitting her application last fall. Good luck.</p>
<p>Good advice from wjb - treat the letter as one more opportunity to write a convincing essay stating the college as your preference and giving reasons why you and the college are great matches.</p>
<p>I'd add a letter of recommendation if she's done something very well in her senior year.</p>
<p>thanks goodness she has other good choices</p>
<p>You might check out the service that the owners of this site offer to help kids get off the waitlist - It's about $600. Sally Rubenstone and Dave Berry are good people and may be able to help.</p>
<p>Thank-you! We will try everything we can. We even joked about her Grandmother writing a letter saying how wonderful it would be to have her oldest grandaughter follow in her footsteps 50 years later and also get a degree from Northwestern!</p>
<p>Also ask her GC to call Northwestern on her behalf.</p>
<p>Fall 2004</p>
<p>From an article in "The Daily Northwestern" May 12, 2004
[quote]
Dixon wrote that university officials expected to dip into its pool of wait-listed students this year, which was almost twice as long as last year's.</p>
<p>"Since our recent history is one of overshooting the size of the class, we did admit somewhat fewer students than in previous years with a strong hunch that we would use the wait list," Dixon wrote. "So, the plan seems to be developing just as we had projected."
[/quote]
Article indicated they needed to get 25 more students from a wait list of about 500 students.</p>
<p>Link to Full Article
<a href="http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/05/12/40a1e160bcf63?in_archive=1%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/05/12/40a1e160bcf63?in_archive=1</a></p>
<hr>
<p>Prior Years:
Fall 2003
Qualified Applicants Placed on Waiting List..776
Number Accepting Place on Waiting List.....330
Number of Wait-Listed Students Admitted..102</p>
<p>Fall 2002
Qualified Applicants Placed on Waiting List..700
Number Accepting Place on Waiting List.....350
Number of Wait-Listed Students Admitted......1</p>
<p>Fall 2001
Qualified Applicants Placed on Waiting List..600
Number Accepting Place on Waiting List.....300
Number of Wait-Listed Students Admitted.....11</p>
<p>Fall 2000
Qualified Applicants Placed on Waiting List..725
Number Accepting Place on Waiting List.....395
Number of Wait-Listed Students Admitted......5</p>
<p>Source for stats Common Data Set
<a href="http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/%5B/url%5D">http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/</a></p>
<p>Waiting Mom - Northwestern is a great school and I wish your daughter the best in her efforts to get off the waitlist.</p>
<p>However, there are lots of different ways to get to arts management outside of Northwestern. It is a good choice based on its location, where a wide variety of arts organizations may provide oppportunities, its strong theatre department and its overall academic strength. But internship experience, volunteering and willingness to work the phones in the ticket office, or backstage for next to no money are all going to count for more than a Northwestern degree, at least on the administrative side. There should be a decent path for your D from wherever she ends up.</p>
<p>reidm-Thank-you for reaffirming that her volunteer work is also the right direction to go. She has been involved in community theater since she was 6 as a performer but about 3 years ago shifted her focus and even did her Girl Scout Gold Award organizing the props and costume shops for a local children's theater group and earned the Congressional Award for her service in bringing theater to children in the community. This year she has spent time volunteering to do the 'non-glory' jobs for another local group. I know that she will end up excelling in whatever she does. We'll support her in trying to get off the waitlist but you are right she can get wonderful skills at Northeastern, UCSD. She is still waiting on NYU, USC and CMU.</p>
<p>THANK-YOU rich73cas.... I am really glad that my D introduced me to this site!</p>
<p>I agree that the waitlists for 2004 and 2005 seem to be longer than they used to be. In many cases, we have to adopt a new mindset about the waitlist, and not automatically consider it a lost cause. I have a colleague whose son was waitlisted at CMU last year. When she first told me about it, she seemed hopeful - and I was ready to give her the "forget about it" speech, but bit my tongue while feeling sure that there wasn't a chance for her son. Sure enough, he was admitted off of the waitlist. We've heard a few of those stories on here, as well. </p>
<p>This really is a hard situation because you have to put forth extra effort to really demonstrate interest now, while also beginning to disconnect oneself from the hope of being admitted. </p>
<p>I agree with others - bring Northwestern up to speed on any new accomplishemnts and have the GC place a call.</p>
<p>Some schools tell applicants how high they are on the waitinglist. It makes decisions somewhat easier to arrive at.</p>
<p>WaitingMom,
sometimes these waiting list decisions take a long time - so even your d's final grades might count! </p>
<p>Momsdream's comment "This really is a hard situation because you have to put forth extra effort to really demonstrate interest now, while also beginning to disconnect oneself from the hope of being admitted." is very much to the point. This is all a gamble in terms of time and emotional energy - if your D can deal with the uncertainty - let the dice roll by all means! Soothing tea for mom!</p>
<p>momsdream-you are right about the disconnect part! It is hard when NU is her where her Grandmother received her BA but her Grandmother also got her MA from USC (still waiting) and her Grandfather's EDD is from NYU (still waiting there too). Her dad attended Northwestern for 2 1/2 yrs but couldn't take the winters and transferred to UCI. We visited in Feb but it was clear and no snow in sight!
She is now talking about visiting Northeastern (accepted with a nice scholarship pkg) and is driving to UCSD for spring break and will be staying with a friend...As a theater parent this process seems alot like what happens when a kid auditions and doesn't get the part she wants and is cast in a different role-it is harder for parents to put it behind us and move on then it is for the kids. They always wrap themselves into the new role and excell while we always think "if only"</p>
<p>She has already began gathering information to send to Northwestern because "what does she have to lose"</p>
<p>Thank-you again to everyone! This process isn't easy but when we do this again in 2 years I'll have a better perspective of admissions...wow it is very different from when I applied for the fall of 1971 (gasp-it couldn't really be that long ago)</p>
<p>I've been waitlisted by Caltech. Besides sending in more recs/ getting my high school principal to call the admissions office, what else can I do? Would sending in another essay or telling them about my new job help in any way?</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>sucharita-One suggestion that I was given by a friend who has been through this process is to write a letter indicating why the school is your first choice (best fit for your goals etc,) and that although you've been accepted at Univ of XYZ you would attend Caltech if you are offered a space. Telling them about a new job would be great especially if it in some way relates to your ultimate career goal.
Good luck! Caltech is a great school but as a Southern Calif Resident I might be biased!</p>
<p>waitingmom - make sure that she continues to send them written notice of every award (e.g., end of year senior honors, AP scores), final transcript, new events in the volunteer arts management arena, and perhaps an extra letter of recommendation that would add something to the file. I think that keeping the file active with legitimate 'garlands' is the strongest indicator that she MEANS BUSINESS. For you, a suggestion might be to enlist her in the excitement of the selected college, urge her to IM and email the people, get into choosing a roommate, take her shopping for the sine qua non of freshman attire, etc. Build up the alternative with genuine excitement, while still holding in mind the possibility of the first choice.</p>
<p>It has been said many times on CC - it is soooooooo hard for these motivated and bright kids to hit a wall, when for most or all of their lives, intelligence+effort has always resulted in success. Heck, it's hard for anyone. I happen to be very goal-oriented and once my will is set to achieve something, I will move heaven and earth to achieve it, leaving no stone unturned (and other appropriate cliches), and either succeed or 'know the reason why.' (Luckily, I have taught myself the 'detachment strategy' over time, as the best response to failure. It just took many years to get there).</p>
<p>It does look like selective schools are now using the waitlist as more of an active vs passive admissions strategy. Once more data is out on this cycle, it would be productive to do a 5-6 year comparison of waitlist admits at selective schools.</p>
<p>D was waitlisted at Smith but having been accepted at several UCs and a LAC she is not interested in taking the decision process past next month. She has three more schools to hear from and then she will make a decision. This was the result of creating a list of schools that were all acceptable to her, so a rejection or a waitlist was a disappointment that could be undone by an acceptance someplace else. To future applicants I urge you to invest time in selecting several colleges/universities that are safe and match before you get overly attached to your reach schools. The safety school (academic and financial) has to be a school that you would love to attend. It is a vaccination against rejections and waitlists elsewhere.</p>
<p>D has three more schools to hear from and then will decide and she already feels bad about turning some of the colleges down.</p>
<p>Waitlisted students - write your best letter, include your recent achievements and maybe find another rec from someone who knows you and the school, but then move on. Colleges are putting together a play and they select their cast...sometimes a great actor isn't quite what the director is looking for..rejection hurts but try your best to reduce how personal you take this.</p>
<p>Your daughter should definitely send in the letter or envelope that says that she will still like to be on the waitlist for Northwestern University. In addition, she should definitely write a letter to Northwestern to tell the admissions officers that Northwestern is still her first choice, and that if taken off the waitlist, she will definitely attend.</p>