<p>cptofthehouse, I don’t take what you are saying personally and I definitely am getting a more cynical take on this whole process. I will be much better informed about the “system” next time around.</p>
<p>Ellie, I suspect cpt is correct. Yield is far more important to colleges than anyone else and yield is the way they manage their enrollment so putting kids on a “waitlist/defer decision status” rather than simply accepting or rejecting is a method for the colleges to manage yield AND a way to manage financial aid as they can pick and chose from the waitlist/defer students regardless if it is April or May. Does nothing to diminish the OP’s student AND it’s great news for the OP. </p>
<p>I don’t disagree with the use of the waitlist as a way to tweak the class composition and control yield. But, just based on my own experience, this kind of immediate reversal is more likely to be personal than strategic. (Similar situation with S…even at a public school…one call from the football office and his file was reviewed and a decision reversed.)</p>
<p>Maybe University of Chicago admissions officers read this thread.</p>
<p>Periwinkle-- :-h </p>
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<p>Or maybe the OP’s kid somehow charmed the ghost of Al Capone enough to make them an offer they cannot refuse. :D</p>
<p>Now watch him get off the Dartmouth WL too!!!</p>
<p>So Happy for the OPs here! I left a little bit of my heart at U of C last year, even though she is elsewhere. They have some of the brightest and most interesting students and professors I have ever met. We met some very bright future athletes while there as well. Congrats! 
My D got in EA last year with their 8.2% acceptance rate. If they were playing the numbers game, they blew it cuz her grades were not perfect! Elliemom has the right idea.</p>
<p>Congrats! Great news. You must be so relieved! </p>
<p>By the way, in my opinion, the son should still go to U.Chicago even if he gets off the Dartmouth waitlist too. He really sounds like he belongs at Chicago.</p>
<p>:"> </p>
<p>Yes, he does sound like a perfect fit for UChicago.</p>
<p>Thank You All. He is going to Chicago. Already committed. Very excited about the school and the wrestling program. This whole thing has been an eye-opener and more than a little mystifying. We understood many of the results, but he was outright rejected at NU. This may seem predictable to some but was a shock to me as I am an alum. At any rate, I thought Chicago was a better choice for him (as did he) and could not be happier. I’m also eagerly awaiting the next donation solicitation from NU. That reply will be sweet. Which brings up another subject: why are these places so dumb as to not even put a perfectly qualified “legacy” on the waitlist, which would definitely mitigate some of the anger any alum feels at having their kid rejected? It is as if they don’t care if they alienate alums (and donors). Mindless to create ill-will unnecessarily.</p>
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<p>Not sure about NU, but for many elite colleges, the legacy advantage only really comes into play if the applicant’s parents/grandparents not only attended the elite college in question, but also consistently donated substantial sums each year or who dropped a ginormous donation off. </p>
<p>A donation of a few tens, hundreds, or even thousands each year is not likely to cut it for them. </p>
<p>Legacy advantage is use it or lose it during ED. It is also not just related to amount of money donated. I know my kid’s school look for active alums.</p>
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<p>Depends on the college. I’d doubt being active as an alum working on behalf of one’s alma mater makes much of a difference considering there were a few threads here about angered legacy parents who were heavily involved with their alma mater, kids had stats within/exceeding the ballpark, and were still rejected altogether. </p>
<p>Just attended a national conference this past weekend where one of the scholarly papers focused on gap years. The research simply does NOT support several members’ opinions that kids who elect a gap year don’t go to college after taking one. (I tend to prefer empirical evidence over vague feelings and opinions on things of this nature.) In fact, the research suggests the exact opposite and provides greater benefits to the young people. Students who select a gap year and then go to college have incredibly high persistence and much higher graduation rates as compared to those who did not do the gap year. The investigator who was presenting her research looked at some of the service abroad programs, which were amazing opportunities for the students. Gap years are gaining in popularity, and are already the norm in the UK and have been for many years. If your son wants to take a gap year, great. I would, however, encourage him to go after Dartmouth and Chicago and find out what it will take to get off the wait list. I would also have him do his due diligence and talk with the admissions officers of his target schools to which he intends to apply IF he takes the gap year to get a read on whether this would be viewed favorably or not. I believe the key is in how your son frames his gap year experience. Also, remember he is back in the same college application game in just a few months, so if he is overseas, this may affect his ability to get the applications done. </p>
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<p>Probably because the students and parents who talk about “gap years” (rather than more mundane non-college options like work or military service) are probably from high income backgrounds where going to and completing college is the normal social expectation, and the good quality public or private high school attended prepares the students well for college.</p>
<p>UPenn and another ivy, can’t remember which, only give legacy preference at ED. They say it outright. Don’t know if any other schools do that. I’ve never heard of NWU doing this. I don’t get the NWU rejection either. I know UCh is not a big legacy school in that they don’t get all that many legacy kids applying. NW does. At some schools the legacy pool has become so large, that very little extra is given in the way of preference. So little that something like geographic preference would blow it away A lot of these best in region type schools are very, very hard on local applicants, by the way. They may give some good neighbor preferences for certain parts of the area adjacent, but overall, they want to keep down the number of students who live nearby. I’ve known some truly surprising rejection of Chicagoans for Northwestern and WashUSL. </p>
<p>I agree about the waitlist. A courtesy waitlist would have been the gracious thing to do for legacies. </p>
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<p>I’ve also heard from a few elite college adcoms themselves along with knowledgable college advisors that one’s legacy trump is highly dependent on one’s donation level and/or prominence/social connection(i.e. Become major titan in a field, famous celebrity, politician, etc whose association will likely be favorable for the elite college’s reputation/brand). </p>
<p>While being an active alum does help, it isn’t enough by itself if one donates nothing or amounts like $50-100 per year. Especially if there are enough wealthy alums from the same given elite college who have no issues donating sums of several million in one go with promises of more and/or well-connected prominent famous alums. </p>
<p>@laplatinum
The gap year is already off the table. The son has been admitted to Chicago and is going.</p>