One of my kids was waitlisted to a very nice school. She already committed to a school, but she just got the waitlist tonight, and asked me if that is what it “really” means.
Depends on the school and the year. At some places, chances are decent at getting in off the waitlist. At others schools and times it can be literally 1 in a 1000 chance.
We took them as nice “no’s.”
Indeed, it depends. And do you need fin aid?
Generally, assume no.
Even at colleges where wait listed applicants could be admitted, that depends on the college having an under yield both overall and in students similar to the wait list applicant in some way the college cares about (e.g. intended major, demographics).
I think it depends on the school and whether or not you applied for financial aid.
There are lots of reasons for WL. The only thing one can do is wait and see. Just enjoy it for the “maybe,” rather than a rejection. It’s an endorsement.
For some applicants, such as legacy kids, the WL is a soft no. For others, it means "we liked you, but not as much as your doppelganger ". In the latter case, should the doppelganger not choose to come, it’s possible that the WL spot could turn into an acceptance. As to which you are, who knows?
While the general advice, and it is good, is to move on, there is no harm in staying on the WL if you like the school better than the one where you are depositing. We know from experience that in some years at some schools, those WL positions do indeed get converted into acceptances.
Boston University a few years ago admitted that they actually admit certain kids, but offer NO financial aid beyond loans, hoping the kid gets the message that they really don’t want them. Blunt but refreshingly honest.
Waitlist is a kindler gentler ‘no’.
My older daughter was WL at 2 top 20 schools and she got off both of them with a lot of work. We have a distant relative who also got off 3 WL schools the same year by doing the same.
WL can be a courtesy, but it is also a way for school to manage their yield. A lot schools (including top tier schools) only take applicants who are full pay by the time they get to the WL round. A strategy in getting off the WL, assuming a spot is available, is to let the school know you are willing to attend if offered.
My experience, based on the local group of applicants I know:
It is safest to assume that a waitlist means “no.”
But occasionally it doesn’t. For example, one of my acquaintances was accepted to MIT from the waitlist, when no students had been accepted from the waitlist in the previous two years. About six months later, I met another student who was admitted to MIT from the waitlist in the same year.
Does it mean that the university doesn’t want the applicant? Well, they don’t really know whether they want the applicant until they’ve actually seen the applicant! In one case mentioned above, the student had an outstanding undergraduate career at MIT, did undergraduate research, had at least one publication from it (maybe more), was an undergraduate teaching fellow for multiple classes, was active in student government and was credited by other students with actually accomplishing something via student government, had two excellent internships, based on one internship performance was flown by corporate jet to meet the CEO of the company, and won an extremely competitive national fellowship for graduate work (more competitive by an order of magnitude at least than National Science Foundation Fellowships). So would MIT have wanted this student had they been able to guess accurately how it would all turn out?
If a student is happy with a different university, I think it is best to view the waitlist as meaning that the student was still in contention toward the very end of the admissions deliberations, and probably had one or more advocates on the admissions committee, but just did not make the final cut–but that may well say more about the percipience of some members of the admissions committee than it does about the student. So I’d call it “nearly,” rather than “no.”
If the waitlisting university is much more desirable to the student than the nearest alternative (taking into account the fact that a student can’t really accurately predict what a university will be like without going there, any more than the admissions committee can accurately predict what a student will be like, without admitting the student), but in any event, if the waitlisting university is much more desirable, then it may pay to put in serious effort to be admitted from the waitlist.
Without being obnoxious about multiple contacts to the university, the student might take stock of any new accomplishments since the application was filed, and let the admissions committee know about them. If there is any significant “angle” to the applicant that somehow was not revealed in the application package, there may be teachers or other community members who could address that. If the student has a staunch advocate locally, that person might step up to help, upon hearing of the waitlist.
In your daughter’s case, AbsDad, it sounds to me as though she is happy with the university to which she has committed. Then I would definitely interpret the waitlist as “nearly,” rather than “no,” and suggest efforts to get admitted from the waitlist only if the waitlisting university is super-desirable.
- Assume you will attend one of the colleges you HAVE gotten into. Accept their offer of admission. Start reading all the info.
- For the WL school, tell them that you would like to remain on the waitlist. If you have won any awards or improved grades, send a Letter of Continuing Interest .
- If one of those WL schools is your top choice, let them know. Tell them that you would enroll if admitted.
- Sometimes you don’t get as much financial aid if admitted off the waitlist. Sometimes you do. Make sure you understand your family’s budget.
- Look on the Common Data Set in Section C2 to see if many students are admitted off the waitlist. If it is usually less than 10, don’t get your hopes up. If it is 400, then that is something else.
- If you are admitted, then they would probably ask you if you would enroll if admitted. If you said yes, then you would be admitted.
- After you put a deposit down on the WL school, Let the other school know you will not be attending. You may not get your deposit back.
- Sometimes schools start taking kids off the WL in late April…but often it is after May 1.
Thanks all.
My son was waitlisted at Seton Hall and then admitted a few weeks later, with a scholarship. He also had two other waitlisted decisions, which he hasn’t heard back from as of today.
Congratulations on Seton Hall! Was that his first choice?
Some schools have 3 different levels of the waitlist: 1) real waitlist 2) waitlist but no 3) courtesy. For instance Duke. This has been detailed in the book by Rachel Toor.
Not sure if this still exists at Duke, but I find this to be a horrible way to treat kids and parents. If the answer is no, then just say so. Waitlists are just more anxiety provoking, and offer a false glimpse of hope.
@sgopal2 I read that one year Duke waitlisted over 5000 applicants, more than they accepted!
As stated before it depends on the school and the year. In 2017 Northeastern was overenrolled by 300 students. There was a housing crunch on campus and no one was accepted off the waitlist. In 2018 they took a conservative approach to admissions and did accept students off the waitlist.
It all depends on the school. In some cases it’s a real opportunity if spots open up and in other cases I believe they are being “polite”.
It definitely is not just a polite way of schools saying no to you. Plenty of kids get off of waiting lists and get offers from those schools. There are always kids that don’t take the inital spots that are offered, so they are opening up spots for the wait list kids.
My niece was a strong student (3rd in a class of 600) double legacy at Harvard, interviewer wrote a personal letter to her when she was rejected about how disappointed he was. My SIL used to grumble that Harvard was never getting another penny from them and they could at least have waitlisted their daughter. I said, nothing, but I never thought a courtesy waitlist was a preferable thing myself. (I had one kid accepted, one rejected, neither attended.)