I still think it’s considerate to all of the kids on waitlists that if a student has already decided they won’t be attending a school that took the time to evaulate their application and offer them a spot, that they take a minute to send an email declining the admission. This way schools can reach out to others who would love to attend before they commit to somewhere they didn’t want to go. I think it’s especially important to do so if the school awarded them a scholarship!
Maybe I’m just really old school, but I think it’s a teachable moment for our kids to take the time to think of others and at the same time maybe thank an instuition that offered them placement. It’s a good life lesson
Certainly there’s nothing wrong with declining the acceptance, and I agree that it’s an opportunity to handle the situation professionally and thank the school for the opportunity. I’m just pointing out that most students don’t bother, especially if the school doesn’t give a straightforward way to do it. As far as waitlists go, the school is not going to invite a waitlisted student every time one declines. They already over-invite to get the class size they want given the yield that they expect. Except in cases of much lower than expected yield, schools will wait until close to or after the deposit deadline to examine all the data and see if they have room to admit more students from the waitlist.
Who else will be attending? S19 waited until last weekend but we finally paid the deposit. Does anyone know when more information will come out? I’m curious how housing will work.
Is there a student IG or other account he can join? D18’s college had an unofficial account where students posted bios and started getting to know each other.
Our S sent a brief email to the admissions offices of the schools he opted to decline. For the two declines, schools that had been in the final running , he sent a little more info on where he’d opted to go and a main reason why. Some of the schools he was accepted to ‘went the extra mile’ in terms of their contact throughout the whole admissions cycle and it seemed appropriate to finish the job with an email stating his decision.
He got some VERY nice, personalized responses to his emails - which surprised me. Three schools made a point of saying that they’d be happy to hear from him in the future if his plans should change.
*Only one school had a place for a student to decline on the admissions portal. It made the process of writing a little more time consuming but I can understand that schools may be reluctant to put “Yes” and “No” options on the same portal for fear of human errors.
@Aug2019 - I was surprised to see just about every school respond, thanking him and wishing him well. I never thought of that - that probably is why more schools don’t have a yes/no. What a horror that would be to be meaning YES but clicking NO by accident!!!
@Aug2019 and @familyfromLI - Some grad schools have that Yes/No button. My oldest was accepted to one school in particular who told students in their acceptance letters that if they hit No on that page, an invitation is immediately sent to someone on the waitlist and they cannot get their position back. It was terrifying. I’m glad undergrad schools don’t set it up that way.
D got a voicemail today and got off WL today. No news on aid/scholarship yet. We are probably going to say no. We didn’t send LOCI or anything. So was surprised they got back to us.
Just got off the waitlist. Not sure what my son will do. He is pretty sold on uconn and Lehigh came in very late. He is going to think about it this weekend but seems like Uconn will be the choice. Open to anyone to help us choose.
My daughter did as well. She turned it down as she is excited for the school she committed to. Lehigh was her first choice but the waitlist was a huge disappointment.
