D17 reports a classmate was offered a spot off the U of Chicago WL if willing to take a gap year. The offer was accepted. I remember hearing of a student last year who took a similar offer at an Ivy. How prevalent is this practice? I don’t think either student particularly wanted to take a gap year. Do the WL forms ask about gap years up front? My D didn’t accept spots on waitlists, so I never saw what hers looked like.
I have heard of this at some very few super selective colleges. My understanding, which may be totally wrong, is that this is known as the Z List. It’s nothing that will be offered as a WL option. The student will be offered it on a take it or leave it basis. It’s something reserved for perhaps not top-notch students who might be important legacies, or as “top secret” favors to people. Maybe @MYOS1634 or @Hanna knows more?
And I do not think it’s very common at all. It does exist (allegedly), so try googling Harvard Z list and see what comes up.
@ams220 , look at the most recent U Chicago waitlist thread. There are several people on there who were given this option. It seems to be a common practice there. It appears to happen on a much more exceptional basis at a handful of other schools.
There is some information on the Harvard WL thread as well. Not legacy. Far fewer.
I second looking at the Harvard 2021 Waitlist thread. I was admitted into the class of 2022 (they stated that they wouldn’t be taking anyone from the waitlist this year because there was a record high yield rate and the class of 2021 is full). I’m non-legacy, non-wealthy, no Harvard affiliations. It’s normally called the Z list but this year I think it’s a bit different just bc they don’t have any spots. They also told me that if a spot opened up in the Class of 2021 I would be contacted immediately.
The ever increasing practice of pushing students into the next year is troubling as it seems to be driven by yield protection as compared to what’s best for the student - how can a student that never envisioned a gap year all of a sudden be given 48 hours to embrace that idea. So, now we have EA, ED and Gap Year as yield protection tools - this feels like it’s headed in the same direction as athletic recruiting of underclassmen.
I find it troubling as well. I think gap years are a great idea, and would have benefitted from one myself, but this seems more “enrollment management” than anything else. Also, these pre-filled spots are less spots available for next year’s applicant pool, which will probably be the largest ever in history for whichever prestigious schools choose to do this. (I think the person from last year’s class at my D’s school was admitted to P, not H.)
I know a few people who have been Z-listed at Harvard in the past few years (but not this past year). All were decently smart but unqualified by Harvard standards, were extremely wealthy, and were connected to Harvard in some way (significant legacy or through a board member).
The idea is that it gets this person a spot at Harvard and keeps the big guys upstairs happy, but the person’s stats are never officially published (some loophole with how admissions stats are kept) and thus it doesn’t negatively impact things like ACT range, students in top 10%, etc.
However, this year it seems like Harvard just wanted more kids than they could possibly take, and they opened up the Z-list to more highly qualified applicants. It seems near-sighted on their part because they’ll just have that many more amazing kids next year with even fewer spots, and now they are forcing some students to do a gap year even if the student might not have even considered it in the first place, and probably won’t take full advantage of a gap year.
Some schools may offer guaranteed transfer for sophomore year which I found it to be even harder to understand.
I continue to hear more and more schools, including several just this week, are implementing a gap year deferral program from waitlisted students for the first time. While I understand the school’s motivation as they believe they have another ED backlog, I can imagine that a year off isn’t going to turn out well for many of these kids.
Initially I had the exact same thought but then remembered that literally no school has 100% freshman retention rate so I guess there’s always some spots that open up?