I got 8 waitlists, is this normal?

Applying to College
1

<p>Before all decisions started coming out I just thought I would either get rejected or accepted.
Either I was a fit or I wasn't.
I got rejected to all my reaches (that I expected, because I knew my scores weren't good enough).</p>

<p>But I got waitlisted at 8 schools:
Brandeis
Drexel (this I wasn't expecting)
U Michigan-Ann Arbor</p>

<p>Bucknell
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke
Macalester
Connecticut College</p>

<p>BUT I did get accepted to U Richmond, Kalamazoo, Stony Brook, and Binghamton.
I come from a low income family. I did get enough FA for both U Richmond and KZoo though which is a relief.</p>

<p>SAT: 2000 (WR 670 CR 620 MA 710)
SAT 2: Chinese 750 Math 1 640 (yeah I know the math is below average, I only submitted it to schools that required 2 SAT 2's)
GPA: 90ish out of 100
Rank: 4/70
EC/Honors: </p>

<p>1)Youngest Moderator for Sina.com (largest Chinese infotainment portal),
I also publish writings regarding Astrology on Sina and my work has made the front page many times with an average of over 100,000 hits and 500 replies. (2 years)</p>

<p>2)Vice Class President (2 years)</p>

<p>3)Outstanding Student (3 years)</p>

<p>4) National 3rd Place for an English Competition
Regional 2nd Place also for an English Competition</p>

<p>5) Teacher's Helper (I think that's what you call it, 3 years)</p>

<p>6) Tae kwon do (2 years)</p>

<p>I'm an American citizen that's currently living/studying abroad in China.
I would give my essay a 9 out of 10. It was definitely unique and I had 3 people read it for me (a professor, my cousin who's an accountant, and a current college student). They all loved it.
My reccomendation letters were at least above average.</p>

<p>Please chance me?
I really want to know my weaknesses and what I would need to improve if I want to get off the waitlist (I really really like Moho).</p>

<p>And how would I know if these are just "polite" rejections?</p>

<p>Thank you!!</p>

2

<p>There is no way to know if these are “polite” rejections. They were in “match” range for you, so it is normal to be rejected or waitlisted by some. The only places where you can be dead certain of admissions are your dead-on safety schools. None of these are in that category.</p>

<p>As for staying on the waitlists, which of these would you choose over Richmond or Kalamazoo provided they offer enough financial aid? Send an email to the admissions office(s), and tell them that you are still very interested in that institution, that you hope to be reconsidered if space opens up, and (if there really is only one) that you would definitely attend if admitted with an aid package that makes it possible.</p>

<p>As for the institutions that you wouldn’t choose over Richmond or Kalamazoo, send them notes saying that you appreciate the offer, but that you don’t wish to remain on the waitlist.</p>

<p>Then, make your decision between Richmond and Kalamazoo so that you can make a commitment by May 1. </p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

3

<p>From the posts I’ve seen this year it seems like it was another banner year for selective schools and there have been a lot of waitlists.</p>

4

<p>I don’t know if any of these schools consider demonstrated interest or not - that could possibly be a reason? If they have applicants who REALLY want to attend their school who have demonstrated interest, they might be more likely to admit that applicant. They might waitlist a qualified applicant who hasn’t demonstrated any probability that they would attend.</p>

5

<p>@sourpanda
Drexel will not be a problem. You will definitely get into that. U Mich is not a sure thing but chances are high that you will get into it. If you can mail me your common app, LORs, SOPs and Essays it would be of great help. My mail id is <a href=“mailto:gaurav@dynamix.co.in”>gaurav@dynamix.co.in</a></p>

6

<p>^lol. 10 char</p>

7

<p>I got 6 waitlists and 6 rejections. A friend of mine, who has better stats, got 11 rejections.
It happens. A lot more to internationals.</p>

8

<p>Yes for Drexel he may have a good shot of getting off the waitlist but he really has no shot at Michigan. Last year, 42 students were accepted off the waitlist… 4300 were placed on it.</p>

9

<p>Admissions are independent of other institutions so you cant really call 8 waitlists ‘normal’ or ‘weird.’ it just happens.</p>

10

<p>lol…how did you get waitlisted at drexel</p>

11

<p>@happymomof1：
I actually thought that Drexel was a safety =[
There was this PDF attached regarding waitlist questions and stuff,
the first question was “Why was I waitlisted?”, the answer was somewhere along the lines of “Because your SAT scores were probably below average”.
That really left me bummed.
The only match that I got rejected to was Union…
All my other matches waitlisted me (except Richmond)…</p>

<p>@College_Query:
I think that that’s it! My why essays really sucked =/
Maybe that’s a little dramatic…
But they really were pretty average.</p>

<p>@Iwannadie: Just curious, which schools waitlisted you the most? Your reaches, matches, or safeties?</p>

<p>@Concretepencil: I seriously have no clue. I was like ***??! Maybe it’s because they have rolling admissions and my application was complete around Feb. 2nd…</p>

12

<p>i’m an international student and my friend got 15 waitlists.
maybe it’s because of the selectivity of the schools, but I got 15 rejections.</p>

13

<p>sourpanda -</p>

<p>Since you are currently living and studying outside the US, your situation is even less predictable than it would be for someone who is in high school here. Other than an open admission community college, or a college/university that not only publishes the minimum GPA and/or test scores required for admission right on its website, but also extends that minimum requirement to include students in foreign schools, you really don’t have a dead-on safety. If your school often sends students to study in the US, your counselors might be able to give you a decent estimate of where you could get in, but as admissions becomes increasingly selective at many colleges/universities students are being rejected or waitlisted by places students from their high schools got into only a year or two before. Of course, if your school has never sent anyone to college in the US, no one there would have the expertise that you need to help you with the safety school issue.</p>

<p>All that said, you do have a couple of good options to choose from that have offered you the aid you need. That is like winning the lottery twice!</p>

14

<p>Sourpanda, the reason that you received 8 waitlist decisions is due to the fact that you applied to high caliber colleges. Also, you really didn’t have a true “safety” on your list of colleges. The University of Michigan had a banner year for admissions and waitlisted a lot of students. Also, I live in Michigan currently and Kalamazoo College or K College is a great college. If I had to guess, it is probably a better option than Richmond, but I don’t know that much about Richmond. As for admissions for international students it really depends on the college. In Michigan, MSU is very “friendly” for admissions for international students along with my alma mater Grand Valley State University (GVSU also gives scholarships for qualified international students) while University of Michigan is not as “friendly” in admissions for international students.</p>

15

<p>If you want to try a unique way of getting off the waitlist, you might want to try the strategy one of my fellow freshmen here at Swarthmore did. She was only one of 10 people to get off the waitlist in our year. She did [an</a> interview](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2012/04/09/waitlisted-what-do-i-do/"]an”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2012/04/09/waitlisted-what-do-i-do/) about that and the story got picked up for a [recent</a> Wall Street Journal article](<a href=“College Waitlists Offer Little Hope - WSJ”>College Waitlists Offer Little Hope - WSJ) - she had a pretty interesting strategy.</p>

16

<p>@happymomof1：I attend a regular Chinese public school. We do have a department that sends students abroad for college. But that’s to Canada not the US. We don’t really have a “counselor”. I think the best college that one of the students from our school has gotten into is Oxford. That was a couple of years ago though. The schools I applied to were my own selection (except for Binghamton and Stony Brook which my parents made me apply to). I’m just wondering if there’s any difference between the waitlist acceptance rate of a LAC vs. a Public School/University?</p>

<p>@yoursky: Wow… 15 waitlists? I’d probably go insane…</p>

<p>@Gvnee89: I’m sorry… But what is a “banner year”? Does it mean that there was a huge rise in applicants? </p>

<p>@Starfruit: Thanks but I can’t seem to open the interview =[</p>

17

<p>^ It should be working now!</p>

18

<p>Sourpanda, there was a 5% or so increase in applicants, it is published somewhere but I want to say UMich is at 43,000 applicants. Furthermore, this year University of Michigan has said they will decrease the size of the freshmen class but they say that every year.</p>