Who else here has been waitlisted? What other schools are you thinking about? Praying that people will choose YPMS over H this year!!
I did! I feel lucky to have been waitlisted, because my application was pretty lacking in the writing supplement and recommendations.
I have been accepted to all of the other schools to which I have applied (UOP, UC Davis, Cal, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, and Stanford), but I’m in between UCLA and Stanford right now. I’m not sure if I want to leave California for undergrad, but I just might if Harvard happens for me. 
I (international student)
Accepted to penn, ND, rice, tufts, tcu, u of Roch and I forgot the rest
How many people are normally admitted?
Me as well. Accepted to JHU, NYU Stern, Williams, Amherst (w/ Schupf Fellowship), Swarthmore (full ride), Berk, UCLA, Vandy (full ride), Duke, Wash. U (Olin) and Cornell. Waitlisted at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Brown. Debating between Williams, Duke, and Vandy probably as we speak, but would jump at any of the waitlist offers!
Any idea how many people were taken off of the waitlist in previous years?
I was waitlisted at Harvard. Accepted at Villanova, BC. Denied at Amherst, Upenn. Hoping to be accepted or z-listed, but have heard z-list is usually composed of legacies?
There were 30 students accepted off the wait list last year. Our daughter being one of them.
Hi GreatKid, my daughter is wait list this year. Could you let us know what your daughter did to help her accepted? Thank you.
Same Q GreatKid. Any suggestions?
My S was deferred SCEA, and now waitlisted. I don’t know if this means anything regarding his chance.
Wow, 30 kids out of the 1000 or so on the waitlist. Even a lower chance than we had at admissions in the first place :-<
Beyond her expressing sincere interest and forwarding information pertaining to newly received awards/accomplishments I have no words of wisdom.
While we certainly believe she is deserving we also really recognize how fortunate she was.
She had a pretty compelling story/background and I think her regional AO was really pulling for her. I do believe the kids that come off the wait list are more heavily scrutinized than any other admits.
We are extremely grateful to have her be there.
Best wishes to your children!
“Any idea how many people were taken off of the waitlist in previous years?”
As @GreatKid noted, 30 were admitted last year from the waitlist. It varies a bit from year to year. Some years, they don’t take anyone off the waitlist. Going back maybe a decade or so, they took some dozens off the waitlist. So, what happens one year doesn’t give a lot of hint as to what will happen this year. I suspect this year’s numbers will be closer to the low end than the high end because it seems that Harvard has gotten extremely good at achieving very high yields and at predicting their yield very accurately.
If you plan to pursue a place on the waitlist, after informing Harvard of that fact, within the next few days, sit down and write a letter expressing your appreciation for being put on the waitlist, and your heartfelt desire to be admitted from the waitlist. This is the one time that Harvard cares about expressed interest. This is the time to provide updated information on yourself. Any new awards, updated grades, etc. In your letter, this is a place to try to give the admissions folks a little bit more of a glimpse into who you are as a person. I suggest that you try to just be yourself. If you choose to submit any additional letters of recommendation, limit it to ONE letter only, and the letter writer should be someone who can speak about your [hopefully sterling] character.
Then you need to wait patiently.
Remember to accept admission to another school in the meanwhile. And keep in mind, if you accept admission somewhere else, and Harvard offers you a spot off the waitlist, you’ll need to withdraw from the other school, and generally speaking, you will lose any deposits or other fees you had to pay to the other school before the waitlist offer was made. And during that time, I strongly suggest that you do the ordinary things associated with the school that you pick - orientations, invitations to parties, other events. In the likely case that you’re not offered a spot at Harvard, this is how you will be able to maintain your sanity as you wait, and how you will reduce to a minimum and residual disappointment in not getting off the waitlist. I’ve watched students go through this process, and frankly, seen them get to the point where they’re not sure they’ll take the spot off the waitlist, if it comes.
The admitted students have until May 1 to accept or reject their admission. Only after that do the admissions folks start offering folks spots of the waitlist - they need to see who came, who didn’t come, how many spots they need to fill, where they may have unexpected gaps in the class. The calls start, if I recall correctly, around the second or third week of May. They seem to go through at least June, although I’ve heard of kids getting called even later int he summer, as schools experience summer “melt.”
Be prepared for the possibility that they may offer you a spot on the z-list. This is a list of students who will not be admitted for the upcoming fall semester, but who are guaranteed a spot in the following fall’s class. Thus, someone z-listed this year would be offered a spot in the class of 2020. These students wind up with a gap year between high school and college.
If you are called, you will get a little bit of time to make a decision - you don’t have to give them a decision at the time of the call. I’ve heard that folks get anywhere from a few days to maybe almost as much as a week. Make sure you understand - you don’t have to accept the spot if it’s offered to you. Sometimes, by the time the offer comes, a student has become quite enamored of the alternative school that he/she chose.
Good luck to you all.
@ccggp101 actually it is about the same % as RD (2.8%) depending on how many were actually waitlisted.
I was also waitlisted at Harvard; I am planning on writing a letter and maybe submitting a rec. However, I was wondering if it’s possible to submit another arts supplement? The waitlist page does say that submitting images/sound files is an option. Right now, my mindset is saying that I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve won statewide accolades for my art, though I was unable to submit any of my art pieces during application time. Would it be wise to submit a supplement?
I provided a glimpse, NotJoe provided a comprehensive explanation. His information is spot on IMO.
Our daughter received a call last year on May 13th notifying her that she had been accepted off the wait list.
@silmaril,
I don’t see why not. Sending a modest sample of your award-winning work strikes me as a good idea. If you’re going to send other material, this is the time to do it. And as you said, you have nothing lose at this point.
I thing I am going to submit a final essay desfribieng the conclusion of my gap year and just hope for the best.
In the mean time I think I will choose penn so either way everything is great
I was also waitlisted - pretty pleasant surprise since I was expecting an outright rejection!
@GreatKid, is there any way I could talk with your daughter through email maybe? If so, send me a message! Meanwhile, I’ll probably commit at the University of Chicago.