Columbia is one of my top choices. Although frustrated by the waitlist, I would like to put in as much effort as possible to ensure that it’s not the end of the story. Besides accepting my place and constructing a LOCI, what else can I do to increase m chances of getting off the waitlist?
I have some brief ideas for the structure of my LOCI since I’ve already written several ones for the schools I got deferred from in the EA round. I usually start off by confirming my interest for the school and my intent to enroll, then I talk about updates in ECs, awards, and major coursework (I am excited to share some good news since I recently won a medal in the Scholastics Arts & Writing Awards, and that’s technically a national title). I end the letter by mentioning a few essential reasons why I see the school as a good fit for me and vice versa. I’m not sure how much impact my new updates will have on helping me stand out as a candidate, but I hope it is solid proof that I am still working to achieve goals associated with my major, even in the final stretch of senior year.
I understand it’s very hard to get off the waitlist for Ivy League, but I can’t find any accurate statistics online regarding how many students Columbia admitted from their waitlist in the past few years. I wonder if this year’s situation would be slightly different since their applicant number actually decreased compared to last year due to the US News scandal. I would really appreciate some advice, especially from people who were able to get off the waitlist and are current students there.
Send in the LOCI and then forget about it. Nothing more you can do to improve your chances.
Schools like Columbia use the waitlist only to fill any unmet institutional need. They don’t have an under-enrollment problem.
Therefore, it’s my personal opinion that at such schools the waitlist LOCI doesn’t move the needle in most cases.
So don’t stress too much about the LOCI. Submit it and focus on selecting one of your other schools. If you’re lucky you might get off the waitlist at Columbia, but you should keep expectations very low.
Columbia does not publish WL #s but other top schools WL between 10 and 30% of applicants. That’s right, applicants. Even if a handful get off you’ve virtually no chance.
So follow their instructions. Some have a form. Some want a letter. That’s it.
Then move on. In reality WL is a rejection. Not saying to be mean but people need to fall in love with a school that loves them back !! The WL is there in case Columbia falls short - it’s not there for your benefit.
Write your LOCI including the things you mentioned. You might reiterate how you will specifically engage with the Columbia community, which I assume you did in your supplemental essays, but it’s ok to highlight a few things again…like a class and/or research with a prof you’d like to be involved with and/or a club or two you would join and why. I would not presume to tell Columbia why they should see you as a good fit, rather show them with specific examples.
I believe you attend a private HS? If so, do your GCs call college AOs on behalf of waitlisted students to advocate for them? If yes, ask if they would do that…but only ask them to do that for one school, it’s not ok to ask your GC to call multiple schools telling them you will enroll if admitted.
After these activities, please deposit at a school you have been accepted to by May 1, and get excited about that school. Good luck to you.
Unless you have done something truly remarkable, a newsworthy achievement, it’s extremely unlikely that anything you do now will change anything. Do what you need to to stay on the waitlist, and then move on. Plan to attend a college which accepted you. Don’t waste your time on Columbia at this point.
For the latest reported period (2021/22), Princeton waitlisted 1,265 (essentially the same as the incoming class size), or over 3/4s of the number (1,647) they admitted that year.
Roughly 12% of the waiting list was accepted.
For 2022 admissions (class of 2026): admitted 5.7% (2,167 of 38,019) for a class of 1,500, so almost 70% yield. I don’t see the size of the corresponding waitlist:
In comparison to other colleges further down in popular rankings, students accepted to ONE of HYP may not have as many “better” (by perception) choices to “jump off” to - and those who are on the waitlist, may not also be on other “competing” waitlists.
So while down-list colleges need to have big wait lists to fill their lower yield among the accepted, they might also have a much lower yield from the waitlist itself (because of people being on multiple waitlists), further driving up waitlist size.
About 5-7 years ago there was a student who sent in a LOCI video. He flew from CA to NY and visited the campus and explained why he was a good fit. He eventually was accepted. But this is a rare situation. Let me see if I can find the video on Youtube.
