Mention Other School in Wait List Letter

Why, why on earth, would you EVER consider this a good idea, OP?

@vilan0va First, you are hijacking the thread, which is considered very rude; in the future, you should open your own discussion to ask your question. Second, your example is no different than the original one, and the answer is the same; no!

@vilan0va (re post #46): In reply to your question, I believe it’s a truly bad idea. ONLY indicate your ardent desire to attend Z and your unquestionable decision to matriculate at Z, if admitted. Any “I was accepted by X and Y” remarks (location is entirely irrelevant) are foolish (and, potentially, they may cause Z essentially to say, “fine, go there.”).

Yes, telling a school that you got into excellent other schools but that school X, the one you are talking to, is still your first choice and you will come if they extend an offer, can help. This is especially true if the schools that you got into are viewed as peer schools or are rated as high, if not higher, than the one you’d like to get in to. Telling them that ensures that 1) they won’t get turned down if they extend you an offer whereas they may get turned down if they call others, and 2) other schools as strong or stronger saw you as desirable so maybe they missed something or will miss something by passing you up.

We all think we’re so important. We’re not. The college already has a class mostly full of people they wanted. Nobody is so important that a college is going to fight other schools for them.

My perspective and the other perspectives that people arrived out came from the fact that schools appear to be doing yield protection. For example, I was accepted at the most prestigious Ivys, then waitlisted at the presumably less selective Ivys. Other people who were accepted to said schools also remarked the same things happened to them to some degree. In this case I think mentioning may be reasonable, albeit risky.

I wasn’t really rejected outright anywhere which is suspicious.

@lostaccount (re post #23):

  1. Crux of waitlisted applicant's letter to (maybe) Northwestern or Vanderbilt: "I was accepted by Yale and MIT, but you're still my first choice and I'll attend if you admit me.
  2. Northwestern or Vanderbilt admissions thinks: a) Why do I care? b) Do those excellent schools understand this university -- and what we seek -- as well as we do? c) This arrogant teenager is really trying to pressure us. d) We only have 15,000+ equally distinguished denied/waitlisted applicants who would die to attend; we can always select one of them and there will be ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE to our institution. e) The hell with him, he never leaves the waitlist, we'll simply pick one of thousands of equally -- or more -- qualified individuals to attend.

Thesis: Even mediocre schools have many more applicants than freshman seats. No single candidate (okay, maybe the RARE Olympian, or President’s daughter, or potential billion dollar donor’s child) has ANY leverage, because he is truly indistinguishable from SO MANY others. Furthermore, no one likes – or wants to cooperate with – a perceived, self-important teenager who is attempting to leverage a university.

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I think telling a school that you 'd rather be there then any where else, and telling them where you have already gotten admitted, tells the school you will accept an offer if you get one This isn’t dating. Admissions officers know you are applying to many schools and that you, like them, are looking for certain things. When I selected students, if one said they’d gotten in elsewhere but really want to be at X, I’d look again at their application. It is nice to know that you have some strong alternatives that will say yes right away. Same thing for a job offer. if you have interviewed many places, have one offer with a deadline for accepting, it makes sense to call the others to find out where you are, express how strong your interest is. It is certainly not a sensitive issue to those on the selection committees.