Some are. Others it’s obvious from the acceptance threads here and on reddit. As Homerdog said it’s up to the kid to decide whether to go down that road.
I don’t know that I’ve seen any school this year say they put x number of kids on their WL.
Only obvious to some of you more experienced folks. My S applied to a pretty big # of schools so we had a part in creating the issue. So, hopefully lots of folks like us will drop offers just as soon as they decide. 
Our plan is to really crunch everything after the March decisions are in, since he only applied to one ivy. If they make it to the Northeast, by second week of April we should be able to shed a lot of schools. Thank goodness the vaccine timeline has moved up and the outlook for openness and pre-May 1st travel is better now. I still have concerns but I’m getting a bit more confident.
6 Likes
Same here!
Guilty here too!
I feel ok about the apps. Covid is crazy. He’s not gapping, he picked an extremely competitive major, and we want residential and at least hybrid, period. Only toured 1/4 of these schools. But on the backend, I think we have a responsibility to others to not make it harder for them. I hope other parents feel this way.
5 Likes
Yeah, my D applied to so many because she really didn’t know what she wanted in a college. The good news is she seems to be figuring that out just in time.
5 Likes
Same–BUT–the school told us and every other senior family to apply to more than usual due to uncertainty!! sigh. Still have a pile of decisions coming, all within a 10day span I think. D21 has no rejections YET–but we know they are coming. WL is better than rejection I suppose?! but it will make quite prolonged drama for many of us on here.
5 Likes
I hear all of you all. I think that’s why the stress level for many of us will only intensify almost daily as we wait, and the decisions start flowing in 1-3 weeks.
S and I already fussed at each other today. Time change isn’t helping either.
6 Likes
I agree that this is a difficult thing for a kid to deal with. On the other hand, if a school were to overenroll and my child was stuck in a quad room when he wanted a single or was sitting on the floor in a lecture hall I would think it would really hard to deal with as well.
Two sides to this waitlist mess, and I don’t like either alternative. 
1 Like
I live near Virginia Tech, who had an enrollment debacle in 2019, so I understand the problems associated with extreme over-enrollment. But I think people are objecting to schools with a waitlist of 5,000 kids when they know they will likely draw only a small number. Or the cases that people have alluded to where a school uses a waitlist decision as a nicer way of saying no (with no intention of ever drawing that kid). But it is what it is! We all get to enjoy it for a few more months potentially!
1 Like
Updating my spreadsheet with what I can find of newly-posted 2020-21 Common Data Sets (class of 2024 admission stats). A few bits: at Georgetown, of the students who took a spot on the waitlist, 19% were accepted. At Lehigh, 89%.
7 Likes
Last year more students compared to normal years got off the waitlist because 1) Many international students did not come 2) No Covid vaccine 3) Kids chose to gap. This year will be very different , so not sure if comparing with previous year will help.
8 Likes
They also started earlier last year but maybe not until May this year.
I think they will start early this year again, as soon as they get some data back. If they’re being conservative in their RD acceptances, and planning to use the waitlist to fill out the class, seems like kids on the waitlist may be more likely to say yes in April than, say, late summer.
4 Likes
What is this waitlist thing in which you speak of? I’m actually envious.
D’s answers have been binary so far. Accept or reject.
Slight digress back to UC Irvine for those CA parents especially. A parent posted that they’re kid was waitlisted at UC Irvine, but accepted to Michigan EA and GT. Go figure. Of course, I feel much better now. Doh!
2 Likes
Can you share more as you update? I can share also as I look up and tag you.
2 Likes
Michigan and Wisconsin don’t have 20-21 data out yet that I could find but Wisconsin does not do a waitlist at all and Michigan was a 2% acceptance rate off the waitlist. Looks like state flagships use this resource much less.
Michigan has their 2020-21 CDS up, 1248 were admitted out of 9856 that took a spot on the waitlist (12.6%) https://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2020-2021_umaa.pdf
Wisconsin doesn’t have it up yet. I do think they label their CDS weird (“2020 CDS - Fall 2019 info reported”)
Friday’s WSJ had an article about the unknown factor for internationals and how that is still very much a factor in terms of whether they’re going to be able to come or not. Visa issues, vaccine issues and financial issues have to be a huge part of all of that. I also think they’re a huge chunk of the applications within the elite set of colleges, so it will be interesting to see how that all shakes out.
4 Likes