Thanks! She is also considering the community service pre-orientation option but we haven’t been given the details yet, and the outdoor ones are approved on a first-come-first-serve basis so…I don’t know. I imagine the community service ones may involve more masking if they include interacting with community members…not sure how masking would feel if activities are held outdoors in Virginia heat in August. A past pre-orientation community activity was some kind of horse thing involving children, (as seen in a college video).She has had some equestrian experience in the past and would love to do something like that, but I don’t know how likely that would be held this year.
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@3Sailaway, do you think these adventure trips tend to fill up quickly?
I know D19 took a few days to think about it and she still got her first choice. She had a terrific experience! I will ask her if she has any inside information on how fast the trips will book.
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If Georgia Tech runs into trouble, they should work out a deal with Purdue, who is substantially over enrolled. I say this as the son of a Purdue CS/Math grad, so no disrespect, but Purdue isn’t quite a GA Tech. Still: win-win.
Purdue planned on expanding this year’s class.
So my Nancy Drew skills are rusty.
I can’t figure out what Wake Forest is trying to gauge via sending a survey to S (and probably thousands of others) about his level of interest in athletics, fitness, and sports!
He did NOT accept their offer to attend and told them that in early April. The email says, “even if you chose not to enroll please complete this survey”.
I find this puzzling. Help me connect the dots. What are they wanting and why? Are they looking to cut or add sports teams? Sports played no role in S applying to WF. He’s not a sports guy at all. But does appreciate and engage in physical fitness. (But what college student doesn’t care about fitness? Probably a very small percentage.)
Thank you!
That IS odd…
My brother had told me he read it in an article about 2 months ago. You seem focused mainly on LACs but this is not only about LACs as this impacts all schools where there is no waitlist movement at all, and we’re talking schools that have freshman enrollment of 6-10k students per year.
Next as someone else said, there is a big difference between taking a gap year and reapplying, and then deferring and having your spot held. For instance, many counselors said early this year they were seeing no more than 20% of students deferring their admission a year. So, if that number is as high as 20% then that’s a lot of spots right there and you only then needed 5% of last year’s seniors to have taken a gap year and then reapplied. We’ve seen it on this page more than once. As for deferring their admission’s, I’ve seen it constantly on the Michigan page, all saying how great it has worked out for their kid. As @sushiritto has said it was 217 kids. I believe it based on how many parents have commented. But I do for sure think it’s impacted the WL and enrollment which I think they’ve overenrolled considering they went from saying only 80% in dorms this fall (before CDC changes) to now saying trips and quads WILL be allowed (also pre-CDC changes). Cornell has had it as well with parents saying their kid took off the year. Cornell however allowed anyone who wanted to take off the year to take it, with the exception of those they took off the wait list last year. I don’t think they even had to give a reason. It can easily be in the hundreds. I recently read that Yale and Harvard had a large percentage of that will now start. We had 2 from our high school last year get into Harvard and both deferred to start this fall.
I believe more schools allow students to defer their admissions than those that don’t. Either way, even if it’s only 10% which it isn’t, that is still a huge number and most likely a lot of why one school after another is saying their classes are full or over-enrolled. Many of them will probably be happy to lose some of these kids at this point.
@Pnwfamily Wow that is a lot of gap year students at Williams and @gotham_mom to accept 200 less from this year’s class is sort of a bummer for these kids. I know there are kids in my son’s class that were accepted to college for fall 2022 even though they applied for 2021. So that’s another thing that colleges did this year. Not a bad strategy for kids they really want. Just sort of level stagger the students more. Sadly, I think a lot of kids will not make it at the colleges they end up at. Either they were accepted into schools they probably have no real chance at succeeding at, or, thanks to remote when things are live and in person, they will be wholly ill-prepared and not be able to transition to in person and those real demands and expectations. It will be most obvious in high schools with improper grade level placements. Hopefully I’m wrong, but there is normal attrition that colleges expect and then there may be abnormal attrition. One of mine today told me how many people they know that pay others to take their remote exams. I was shocked. Never knew that was even a thing. We’ve never paid for a tutor in our lives with the exception of ACT prep. So, the idea of paying someone to take a test or do homework for you, WOW. Blows my mind. No wonder so many people can’t function by themselves.
@rbc2018 This is unfortunately the problem at the smaller lesser known schools. While the top are benefiting, the lesser known, easier to get into, are taking a beating. I don’t know how many schools this year are forced to close down, but I remember so many were at risk last year if numbers didn’t pick up. Shows so much inequity in the system.
@JennaMA If they’re reminding her of a gap year or deferral deadline when last year they wanted no one to take one, then I would be a little suspicious that they definitely are trying to encourage people to ask to free up some space. Which school is this again?
@homerdog UT does not have a WL, so they wouldn’t ever be going to one. They also don’t guarantee on campus housing, so if they over-enroll, kids just don’t get university housing, may not get classes they want, etc. but they don’t promise housing, etc and they do cap a lot of their students. They also can just take less transfers if they see a trend toward over-enrollment. Or take less appeals.
@evergreen5 I agree with you. I haven’t heard of a single person who double deposited. I asked my son also if he has heard of a single person from our school who has gotten off of any waitlist or switched colleges. He hasn’t. There’s a 2021 page for students to list colleges and spreadsheet etc. It has been dead quiet. Graduation is tomorrow, but the kids on some tippy top waitlists have seen zero movement.
@VirginiaBelle My son’s roommate at UM said something like 13 kids from his HS are going to Berkeley this fall. That’s crazy. Of course the kid is from CA. But still, WOW!
My son has received surveys from the schools he chose not to attend also. I guess they are looking for things they can improve on, or what kids may be looking for or who knows what? At this point, he’s just ready to move on from those and focus on the one he chose. No offense to those schools but little interest in a survey at this point after spending the last 4 years of work work work.
One more day until graduation and of course huge storms expected during it! 
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I hope the predicted storms fizzle out and that graduation remains unscathed for your S and his classmates!!!
(Bet you are in shock tomorrow is graduation after such surreal past 14 months.)
Thank you so much! I can’t believe the year is already over. I’m still on auto pilot as my daughter is leaving for Israel on Tuesday and we’re trying to get her set up with an ATM card that has no foreign transaction fees, etc. before she leaves. Such fun stuff to deal with at the last minute. My last day of school is Friday. The holiday is Monday so it’s all so rush rush. Not sure what I will do on Tuesday after she’s gone and the other daughter starts her internship and I am free for the summer. Wait, I know! Shift my focus to dorm shopping! rofl
Speaking of…thanks whoever it was, I forgot, for the BBB (maybe @NateandAllisMom) I bought a bunch of stuff including sheets the other day. I am also learning that my son is not ok with me picking stuff out as if he thinks I’ve never done it before. He did like the Cubs flag I got to hang on his wall. He did not like the little drawer thing I got for him from BBB saying it looks flimsy and it’s gray, blah blah and not for a boy. Ugh! My daughter had to tell him that’s what everyone has. But sadly, I think I’m actually going to have to bring him into the store with me!
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@beebee3 my daughter is attending a SLAC and from what I’ve read on the parents FB page, freshmen rarely get the classes they are hoping for. This is so disconcerting! They do not arrive on campus until Labor Day, have orientation, meet with advisors, and then choose classes. It sounds like such a stressful start. D21 was looking through the course catalog today and can see how many seats are left in some of the courses that interest her. Not many!! I hope it will all work out. I’m glad she is at least beginning to think about what she might like to take.
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@srparent15 Congrats to your son! I hope the rain stays away!
Georgia Tech won’t run into trouble as far as running out of kids to fill spots (although I wish as my son would have a better chance!) - they had 4900 kids accept a waitlist spot and I know of 5 or 10 personally off the top of my head who are waitlisted and it is their first choice (quite a few ended up at UGA). They took almost 1000 off last year due to gap years, kids who chose to stay enrolled but go fully remote for the year, and international kids who could not get here. I do remember seeing on last year’s waitlist thread they were offering spots in August. I can’t imagine they will have that level of attrition this year.
Last day of in person school today for D21, tomorrow is virtual and asynchronous and then she has her make up AP lit exam next Tuesday. I offered to take her to school today but she wants Dad to do it. 
I kind of thought the one time I dropped her off this year in April or so would be the last…
This weekend will be spent decluttering her closets and getting some new summer clothes. No clothing shopping happened during the last 18 or so months with the pandemic. Last night we went through some dresses and donated both of her middle school grad dresses. Doesn’t seem like that long ago!
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From Jeff Selingo’s newsletter:
The admissions year that ended is still not overas some colleges have over-enrolled (a few campuses by a lot) and high school counselors report double deposits by more of their seniors than usual.
- Syracuse University offered accepted students who had yet to commit and needed more time to decide a $1,000 credit if they ultimately chose Syracuse—supposedly to cover their loss of a deposit somewhere else.
- I want to hear more about the changing enrollment picture over the summer. So if you’re a parent of a soon-to-be college freshman, a high school counselor, college admissions officer, or advise students on the college search, email me what you see happening or message me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram. I plan to write more about this issue in the coming weeks.
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We were hoping he would tell us, not the other way around, lol. Hopefully he will ask those who actually know why colleges are holding - or not - onto waitlists, i.e., admission officers. Are they really concerned about double depositing, or are there concerns over visas for internationals, or something else @Jeff_Selingo
The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that colleges (um, enrollment management consultants?) straight up miscalculated yield due to test optional policies throwing multiple wrenches into their system. The assumptions were wrong.
Selingo says counselors report more double depositing than usual, but how much more? Intuitively, it seems like that’s barking up the wrong tree. It’s been almost a month since the deposit deadline; how many students would still hold two spots at this point? Our high school sends out final transcripts in a week or so, though I realize other high schools will take more time than that. If double deposits were an issue, would waitlist movement pick up significantly in another month? With some waitlists already closed, that seems unlikely - feels like AOs know something we don’t.
(We had never even considered double-depositing, but looking back, I now regret not at least considering it, as the choice between two came down to the wire and that 11:45 pm May 1 deposit to a school not visited may not have been the best decision. I’m trying not to rehash it - ugh. H has made peace with S21’s decision but I am still struggling, and the prime waitlist that could have changed things is now closed.)
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I can feel a bit of your angst because D21 was offered a spot at NU Medill off the WL, we quickly visited, I loved it and the program had built in amazing opportunities for her. She wanted to stick with Barnard, but felt some pressure because even our Lyft driver in Chicago told her not to turn down the spot! She asked if she could double deposit and I said no. Hanging on to another option just delays decision-making and IMO it’s wrong. Are there days when I think about her decision, yes (though I will meditate or do anything else to divert my thoughts), but double-depositing doesn’t seem to be the answer.
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In that moment, it felt like even one more day could have changed S’s decision. Or certainly a visit might have. He hadn’t slept, APs were approaching, etc., and it was literally a toss-up.
It was way past my bedtime. (I need to just stop it already.)