<p>Is it just my school or does WashU wait list ALMOST EVERYONE they DON'T ACCEPT? Everyone at my high school who applied and was not accepted were wait listed. Is this common everywhere or is our school a special case? So far, I have only heard of "wait listed" or "accepted", never "rejected". I don't mean to be too grim, but if everyone is wait listed, then the chances of people being admitted is pretty slim right?</p>
<p>Do a little search...</p>
<p>About 1000 were put on the waitlist... many more were rejected.
Also, a few people who claimed they were waitlisted may have just been rejected but didn't want to share.</p>
<p>Every year about 200 accept the wait list, usually about 10% gets in, I don't see that number as a "massive" in more than 20 thousand applications. Last year by now at least 50 people were already called, I hope for you guys same thing.</p>
<p>I know many very qualified applicants who were rejected. For one school in particular that I have knowledge of, approximately 9% of the applicants were accepted, 9% were offered a spot on the waiting list and 82% were rejected.</p>
<p>I agree with Johnson181 that if many people in a particular school are waitlisted, those rejected may not admit it, claiming to be waitlisted instead.</p>
<p>I have seen admit/waitlist/rejection rates for Wash U for a number of high schools over the years and have never seen a huge number of people waitlisted. Slightly more than some other colleges/universities, but definitely not a massive number.</p>
<p>Thank you CCpost, I found a lot of reassurance in your response. </p>
<p>I read in another WashU waitlist-thread that someone just got pulled off... this makes me very nervous. Does anyone know how they choose people off the list? Is the list ranked? If not, is it by region or by whoever "fits" the best?</p>
<p>uxnaitoahz, I dont believe that the waitlist is ranked, but I want to make it clear that I do not have any insider information on the Wash U admissions committee, just an idea of how many schools do it. Since all schools accept more people than actually decide to attend, if they are under their target class size, many schools use the waiting list to round out their class based on who they have so far. If they need more men or women they might take that into consideration, if they are short on people from the South, for instance, they might pull more heavily from that region, if they need a tuba player, they might call that person. It is a very effective tool for them to get a balanced class with exactly the right number of people they have room for. </p>
<p>As for how many people they pull from the waiting list, that depends on how many people accepted an offer of admission, and it varies year to year. If more people accepted than they projected and they have exceeded their target class size, they dont pull anyone off the waiting list as happened a few years ago. If less than the target accepted, they will call people until the class is full. I believe that once they are done accepting people from the waiting list, they will let you know. Good luck.</p>
<p>uxnaitoahz</p>
<p>It's not just your school. Schools in my county similarly see the vast majority of students who are not outright accepted placed on the waitlist (typically 4/5 waitlisted, 1/5 rejected). This has been pretty standard for WUSTL for a long time. Their stealth admissions policies, refusal to release detailed admissions data, are appropriately infamous.</p>
<p>Check scattergrams on Naviance for your own school and for those in which you have friends and can access historical info. This CC link provides access to a diverse group of HS's around the country. Check out the numbers yourself and draw your own conclusions.</p>
<p>May 8th... one week after the deadline. They should be calling by now right?</p>
<p>wbwa, I have to question the data you posted. I’m assuming it is an error. If 1/5 are rejected and 4/5 waitlisted at your school, according to Naviance, is no one ever accepted? The problem with Naviance, if it is the same system our county uses, is that the data, at least in our county, is all self reported by students. Because of this, we have found it to be highly inaccurate. Those accepted or waitlisted at schools are much more motivated to enter their data for that school than those they are rejected at resulting in highly inflated figures for those categories. Those rejected often list themselves as waitlisted even if they are not. Those actually offered acceptance off the waitlist rarely update those results either. </p>
<p>Even if Wash U does waitlist more students than other schools, although, again, I would dispute from first hand experience that the number is “massive,” I’m not sure why some people are so outraged by this. It allows Wash U to compile a well-balanced, highly talented student body. Absolutely no one is obligated to accept a place on the waitlist, so if anyone finds it offensive, they need not accept a spot.</p>
<p>In reading these posts over the years you will find that some people, and I suspect they are those who were not accepted at Wash U, accuse it of all sorts of things, including having a “massive” waitlist, wait listing “overqualified” students, etc. yet most of those who are actually going to the school have few complaints. In fact, the majority of students appear to be so happy with the school, that many from the outside describe students as having almost a cult-like devotion. Again, while some people on CC describe Wash U as doing one thing or another wrong in terms of admissions, once a student is there, the administration is very responsive to the students and works harder than I have seen at most schools to make it the best experience possible for them. That is not to say that no one has a complaint here or there, of course they do, but most students and parents seem to be very pleasantly surprised by the school once they are there.</p>
<p>I'm not accusing WashU of anything nor have I had any complaints. The only thing I am interested in is attending. This, as a result, prompts my questions such as WashU's wait list size and what my chances are.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Every year about 200 accept the wait list, usually about 10% gets in, I don't see that number as a "massive" in more than 20 thousand applications. Last year by now at least 50 people were already called, I hope for you guys same thing.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If 50 people were already called by now of last year, that's more than 10%...more like 10% yield? Maybe only 20 accept the offer of admission. Unless you mean 10% of the original 1000 (therefore 100, get in)? 50% acceptance rate from kids who accepted waitlist is a little high but probable cuz it is WashU.</p>
<p>Best of luck to waitlist kids.</p>
<p>uxnaitoahz, I was not referring to you at all in my previous post. I’m sorry if that was not clear. Complaints about being on a waiting list in general are very common this time of year. It’s stressful and people want to know how many others are on it. I don’t really blame them. Good luck on getting in.</p>
<p>Thank you CCpost. I need all the luck I can get.</p>
<p>CCpost</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Re: your question about my math: In my county "...the vast majority of students who are not outright accepted (are) placed on the waitlist" - i.e. 4/5ths of those NOT accepted are waitlisted, 1/5th are outright rejected.</p></li>
<li><p>As for your claim that maybe "Those rejected often list themselves as waitlisted." Please. Example. Check the first posted Naviance link (Weston HS, upper middle class Ct. suburban HS). Compare Wash U results to other schools in the region:</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Wash U - 26 students waitlisted, 2 rejected<br>
Oberlin - 0 waitlisted, 10 rejected
Northwestern - 4 waitlisted, 19 rejected</p>
<p>The proportion of waitlisted/rejected students by Wash U is DRAMATICALLY higher than among peers. Or are you still arguing that students only selectively "lie" about rejections from Wash U.</p>
<ol>
<li>The other comments on this board about "1000" people being waitlisted is based on pure hearsay. The best indirect data out there based on Naviance and inumerable observations from people like the OP suggests the numbers are thousands greater. As I said earlier, until Wash U stops hiding its admission data from the public, these numbers will never be accurately known.</li>
</ol>
<p>Wash U is a wonderful academic institution. It's time the admissions office stopped playing these ridiculous games. It's also time to stop defending these games. It's only continuing to hurt the school's reputation unnecessarily.</p>
<p>wbwa- i agree with you 100% that washu needs to start releasing admissions info and stop playing games. i think it would be helpful for everyone. hopefully we'll see a change soon!</p>
<p>I am with wbwa and I didn't just look at WestonHS, I looked at few more HS in that thread and <em>all</em> of them show very few rejects but lots of waitlists for WashU while for other colleges, it's more like what you'd expect--way more rejects/admits than waitlists. When WashU says they waitlisted just 1000 people (around the same ballpark as many other peers), I find it highly suspicious because they would mean the reject:waitlist ratio is about 15:1 but those scattergram seems to be closer to the other way around instead. Are those scattergrams just somehow wacky and not representative for WashU but not other colleges? Even the decision threads on CC show the same thing--there have been just way more waitlists for WashU than others; yet WashU says the size of their waitlist is not vastly different from other. How does one reconcile this? Somehow the WashU rejects are just more inclined to lie and say they have been waitlisted? </p>
<p>Another stats I found unique about WashU is its super-high SAT range. Those scores are quite remarkable and unusual for a school with rather low yield. Typically, a school with similar yield would expect a 40-60 pt drop between the admits and enrollees. But the score is so high for WashU enrollees that if you add the 40-60 pts, WashU admits may actually have higher score than Harvard's. According to the official ACT site, the students that sent their scores to WashU have comparable score distribution to those that sent their scores to other top-20 peers yet in the published stats, WashU says they have ~80% of students with >30 while other peers have about 60%-70% with that score range. Again, one would wonder how that happened? Did they superscore ACT?</p>
<p>I have no doubt WashU offers great academics and environment. But I'd really like them to start being transparent about their admission data/practice.</p>
<p>I can't see why some people gets offended by the wait list, do you really want everyone rejected to feel better? The reality is that only those best "fitters" are accepted in first place, and later those with good stats are given a second chance, the ones that didn't realized Wash U is a top 15 school and don't have the stats to get in, are plain rejected (about 14k to 16k every year).
Naviance is only a guide with stats self reported, not every kid report the 20 or so schools he applied to and the results.</p>
<p>totally agree with all of the above who believe that Wash U is waitlist king; it doesn't, however, seem to affect the numbers who continue to apply there each year, so why would they change their practice or release admission numbers? I just think it's unfortunate for those people for whom Wash U was their #1 choice....(like trackie) who hold out hope beyond hope b/c they got that "waitlist letter"......</p>
<p>Sam Lee; "Again, one would wonder how that happened? Did they superscore ACT?".....yes, they actually do superscore the ACT, one of the few schools who do......</p>