How to: surviving the UChicago waitlist

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>(taken from a separate post of mine)</p>

<p>Firstly, don't be discouraged. Though statistically your chance of getting in off the waitlist is about 5%, the vast majority of people who get waitlisted at UChicago never do any sort of follow-up beyond checking the want-to-stay-on-the-waitlist box, thus severely diminishing their chances of getting in. </p>

<p>To have the best possible chance of getting in to UChicago off the waitlist (speaking as one who did), I'd advise the following path, no more -because more starts to look desparate- and no less.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Write a thoughtful, concise letter to the admissions office thanking them for the opportunity, and indicating that you still very much hope to go to UChicago. Include it with your response to the waitlist offer. Again, do not sound desparate (i.e. no "I haven't gotten in anywhere else help me!"). </p></li>
<li><p>Get two of the people who wrote you recommendations to send a follow-up recommendation. Tell them that you're on the waitlist, and that having them continue to advocate on your behalf would be extremely helpful. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>That's it. Of course I can't guarantee it'll work, but it worked for me. Expect to be informed (for better or worse) in mid to late May.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

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<p>Thank you for the advice :slight_smile: definitely working on that extra note for Chicago now. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but I can’t help it >.<. It’s good to know that someone actually got off the waitlist! This was pretty similar to what they told waitlistees to do on the Uchicago blog…
although, I think they recommended no addition recommendations.</p>

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<p>@UChicagoGrad:</p>

<p>How does follow-up recommendation exactly work? I mean, what do they need say more? I haven’t read my recs, but Im sure they pretty much wrote everything they could. Can I simply get a new teacher rec? (not from the two I’ve got already)</p>

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<p>well im confused because the blog said not to submit any other recommendations only a letter of interest so what are you saying? like should i be rebel and just submit a new letter of recommendation from another teacher anyway?</p>

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<p>Maybe a phone call instead of a letter? It seems like they really don’t want anymore mail…</p>

<p>maybe the key is that the letter provides new information? If I were an admissions officer, then I know I wouldn’t want to read the same information, just in a different letter. Maybe adding new information justifies the letter.</p>

<p>If you think about it, a letter of interest/update provides new information, and they want that.</p>

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<p>yeah they said additional recs were not recommended, but how will that have worked anyway? Do my teachers just email a 1 page update to UChig or what?</p>

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<p>I saw the post on the UChicago blog where they said that “additional letters of recommendation are not necessary,” but that’s certainly not the same thing as, “additional letters of recommendation will be disregarded.” I’m quite certain they’re trying to minimize the hell that everyone’s teachers/etc get put through as the application process winds down. And again, you’re not asking your recommenders to write you a novel - just to add a few more sentences, a few extra thoughts (or what ever else they want to do - if they’re teachers, they’ve probably been in this position before), and to put their signature on a letter that ostensibly says, “[It’s been several months since you’ve heard from me, but I want you to know I haven’t changed my mind about this person - the class of 2014 would be lucky to have him/her.]”</p>

<p>Regarding getting someone new to write you a recommendation, I’m certain that you should not throw any new recommenders into the mix. It’s far better to have someone who wrote you a recommendation go the extra mile to advocate on your behalf - it shows that they’re still invested in your success. </p>

<p>Most definitely <em>do NOT call UChicago</em>. Getting off the wait-list is about playing it cool, and not appearing bothered and desperate. That means do not keep calling them, or flooding them with emails, letters, or other sorts of correspondence. You have a good opportunity to send them one thoughtful, carefully-worded, concise, enthusiastic letter. Barring anything TRULY EARTH-SHATTERING (“I won the Pulitzer for my expose on the plight of midwestern particle physicists!”, “I’m LeBron James!”), that should be the last they hear from you directly.</p>

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<p>I meant a phone call from your recommenders, not you personally. </p>

<p>Please don’t call personally. People are doing that over on the emory board. That and sending a ton of emails to the dean of admissions. Don’t be that kid!</p>

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<p>@UChicagoGrad: I think saying you are LeBron James would actually hurt your admissions…remember this is not a college in Ohio :D</p>

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<p>i think thats what hes saying…lol</p>

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<p>I will take UChicagoGrad’s advice, and I will ask my two rec teachers to send a follow up. However, I’m also going to ask for one more new rec letter from my econ teacher (as I’m planning to study Econ) …</p>

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<p>Folks, while UChicagoGrad has offered some valid points and useful advice here, please do not feel the need to send in additional letters of recommendation, especially
We are not evaluating to see if your prior achievements make you a good fit for the college; as a waitlisted student, we have already said “yes” to your achievements and would have you here if we had enough space, but are waiting to see if we have enough beds for you to attend. What is most important is showing your continued interest in Chicago (without overdoing it- one thoughtfully worded letter will do you more good than 10 pestery e-mails or phone calls), not showing us that you’re a great student with great accomplishments; every student on the waiting list is a student we think would be great for the school, but we just simply don’t have enough space for all of you, and won’t know if we can take you until all admitted students have said their yes or no to our offer. Asking for additional letters of recommendation from your teachers will put undue stress on them to produce something that, frankly, will have little to no impact on you as a waitlisted student- by “aren’t necessary”, as we state on the blog, we really DO mean “aren’t necessary”, not something secret and read-between-the-lines-ey.</p>

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<p>To be clear on your response, from PSAC view, this is a pure math exercise. Once you indicate continued interest, your place on the waitlist is fixed and the only way you get ahead is if the people in front leave the list?</p>

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<p>how would we update chicago about are new grades and achievements? Do we use the online account, email our admissions counselor, include it in our letter of interest, or have an official document sent (for grades and official stuff)??? Is one letter of continued interest sent early to mid April plus one letter telling of more recent developments in my high school career sent at a later date (achievements etc) too much? And should we still email our admission counselor on May 1 telling them that were still interested? Thanks!</p>

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<p>I’m not wild about UChicagoPSAC’s advice, but of course they would know far better than I. </p>

<p>Perhaps one thing I should have said before is that I didn’t come up with the get-your-recommenders-to-follow-up idea. It was advice that was gifted to me by someone I trusted when I myself was waitlisted, seemed sensible, and it worked. Having people continue to advocate on your behalf is a common course of action when you’ve been waitlisted anywhere. And, at the risk of doing some more read-between-the-linesing, “little-to-no-impact” is far more than “no impact whatsoever”. </p>

<p>UChicagoPSAC does touch on something valuable to remember - you’re, ostensibly, done applying to UChicago. Being waitlisted is not a call to send a duplicate application, complete with new essays, SAT scores, etc. You absolutely want to do your best to make yourself stand out among the numerous students who have, unfortunately, been waitlisted, but there is a fine, fine line between “just right” and “too much”. I honestly feel like getting new people to write you recommendations falls into the “too much” category.</p>

<p>I’m still going to stand behind my assertion that, in addition to the note PSAC recommends, you should get your recommenders to continue advocating on your behalf, with the reminder that you are not asking them to send an equally lengthy/comprehensive recommendation as their first, or to start pelting admissions with phone calls. A thoughtfully worded “nudge” in writing is going to better than a sole continued-interest letter that you view as your last bastion of hope to get into UChicago. </p>

<p>The way that I presented it to both of the recommenders was a simple, “Hey Mr. [whoever] - I actually got waitlisted to UChicago and I’m really hoping that I make it in there eventually. Would you mind sending some sort of follow up to the recommendation that you wrote? You obviously must have done something right if I’ve made it this far, and I think a little extra nudge would really help. Thanks!” Just like you don’t want to make yourself look desparate to UChicago, you don’t want to make yourself look desparate to those who might be writing on your behalf either. </p>

<p>That said, who knows; perhaps when admissions looks back at your file in May with the two extra notes in them, they’ll say to themselves, “Ah, this one unfortunately took the horribly lousy advice of that guy on that message board. But <sigh> these recommenders did say some nice things, and we of course can’t penalize them for bad advice they’ve received from one of our own. They’re in!” ;-)</sigh></p>

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<p>I don’t understand, if the waiting list is unranked, then doesn’t that mean acceptances from the waiting list are all a game of chance?</p>

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<p>^ If they need an oboe player, then they will look for an oboe player in the waitlist.</p>

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<p>but what if they have 10 qualified oboe players?</p>

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<p>I’m almost positive that they will not say “We need an oboe player… this one looks good enough!” I’m also relatively certain that waitlisted folks aren’t ranked (especially because they simply don’t have time to rank everyone on a 1500-person waiting list). I’m thinking that they will go through everyone’s files and decide as they decide. I have no doubt that UChicago is not so cruel as to arbitrarily select people off the waiting list.</p>

<p>I hate to put it this way, but contrary to what UChicagoPSAC indicated earlier (in an effort to be kind), the only difference between you getting waitlisted and being accepted already is NOT the shortage of beds. In addition to that, the people already admitted are people that they simply would prefer go to UChicago over you. That’s of course not to say that you wouldn’t do great at UChicago, or that UChicago would not be happy to have you; you are simply not their top priority, or you would have been admitted already (hey, I was in the same boat). That said, being admitted is being admitted - there is no “waitlisted student” that shows up on your transcript. Every year, people are accepted from the waitlist and end up doing stellar in their college careers, with phenomenal relationships with their teachers and peers.</p>

<p>I truly believe that what I’ve indicated above is the best way to go about it - an enthusiatic, well-worded, non-desparate email, and then get the two people who wrote you recommendations to send some brief, follow-up advocacy on your behalf. Not full recommendations. Just a vote of confidence and a bit of a nudge in the right direction. It was recommended to me, it was what I did, and it ended up working.</p>

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<p>Correction - when I said email in that last paragraph, I meant letter. Sorry about that. </p>

<p>And keep in mind - you are still being considered! If they truly didn’t want you, you would not be on that wait list. I obviously empathize with the folks on the wait list, and, if you really want to go to UChicago, I certainly hope you’re admitted eventually.</p>