At some schools, the GCs have established relationships with the Deans and AOs because they send students regularly to their schools. It makes sense that if a good student finds herself on the losing side of the musical chairs game our kids are playing, a GC can call and ask to get her in off the waitlist. The AOs want to keep that GC happy too so they keep the pipeline going.
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If misery loves company, we will be fast friends. My daughter is now at 10, yes ten, waitlists!!! Fortunately she has received a few acceptances as well but what a strange year.
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Met a family today with 1 acceptance 7 waitlists and nothing else. Now waiting on Ivies. Itâs heartbreaking.
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This application season I had no idea where the floor was for my son â i.e., what the safety was. I wasnât sure if our local public school would even be a safety. So we started at a T5 and ended at a T75 or so, with colleges roughly in each 5 rank bucket. Ranking fuzzily either a rank by major, or a general USNews rank. It loosely worked out. There are obviously other considerations also for picking them apart from trying to be in each 5 rank bucket. Many rejections, and some acceptances.
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No one knows of course, but this is a good possible answer. The Why This School essays arenât terribly exciting to write but are very important. The schools want to accept students who will then more often than not turn around and accept them back.
To answer a single 250 word âessayâ a student spends hours combing course catalogue, understanding Gen Ed and major requirements and finding minors or certificates that would be a great fit and looking at student clubs. And they do this for every school. If you have 12 schools it can take two weeks!
My own student removed two schools from her list during this process because she learned they were not a perfect fit for her. So it does have a purpose.
But waitlisted as others have said is not rejected. You may be surprised and find your student comes off more than one waitlist.
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I completely agree with this. Back in the old stone age, I didnât have to write âwhy usâ essays. But I could have because I had mapped out what 8 semesters looked like, and seen what particular study abroad options they had, and clubs, and special dorm options, etc. I think there are students who donât do much more than just see a name on a list and then verify that yes, itâs a good school, and then apply and hope for the best. Then itâs not until after acceptances start rolling in and then they look deeper into the school. If a deep dive had been done ahead of time (summer before senior year is an excellent time), then it would be easier to get to know all the schools and which ones are more interesting for oneself. And, it would help to create a balanced list of schools because youâd have time to find out all the interesting things about schools that are more likely to provide an acceptance.
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While I donât disagree with you in normal times, due to Covid, not everyone had the opportunity to do a lot of visits this admissions cycle, nor were all schools actually doing regular in-person visits.
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Although I did visit many college campuses, that was not the type of research I was referring to. Iâm dating myself, but I had at least a shelf of college books (it was a hobby for me) with the big fat Petersonâs Guide to Colleges (or something similar) with lists of all the majors and types of clubs, and the Princeton Review guide with its descriptions, and the Fiske guide (or something similar) with its descriptions and various editions of USNWR and Money on the best value colleges and honors colleges, and the viewbooks and course bulletins/catalogs from the colleges and departmental flyers etc on the departments whose majors I was interested in . And, Al Gore had invented the internet 
so I was also checking out the collegeâs websites, usually at the library because at home was a dial-up connection.
Iâve checked out the various college books from our local library (Fiske, Insiderâs Guide, Colleges That Change Lives) and there is an abundance of information online as well. All of that remained available during Covid for students to do their research, even if they werenât able to step on campus to assess the vibe.
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Thatâs why I said I agree with you for the most part. My D22, however, is one of those kids who still has no idea what she wants to major in. She also wasnât able to do enough visits to really figure out what it is that she wants in a school. My older kids had a much different experience with college visits ⊠they each found a school that wasnât even on their original list.
Thanks again for the encouragement through all the waitlists. Final tally was four acceptances to top schools with merit+FA, two rejections, and ten waitlists (plus the acceptance to the âlikelyâ). DD is happy with the outcome and will probably take herself off all the waitlists except maybe one.
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4 acceptances to top schools is terrific! Lots to think about!
Congratulations! Now your daughter is in the driverâs seat and can take her time figuring out which of her FOUR! acceptances she likes best.
In a challenging year, 4 out of 16 is something to celebrate!
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Congrats to her! Please keep us posted on her decision. 
Congratulations!!! 
Timing is everything, isnât it? If the acceptances to top schools had come in first, the day of wait lists would have been so excruciating. Iâm so happy for you both. Now you can get on with your lives and start planning for happy days ahead!