If she has a heart towards sharing, perhaps you can explain to her that the sooner she declines the ones she’s not seriously considering, the sooner some other kid might get pulled off the waitlist, which is all they have in their pile of college admission responses.
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that’s not really true. Schools plan for a certain yield and, when one student turns down a spot, it does not mean someone gets off the WL. Most schools are below 40% yield in RD (most way below that) so those would need more than 60% of accepted students to turn down their spot before they go to WL.
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This is why it is generally advisable to view the wait list as a “no” (according to our HS GC) and move ahead with back up plans. If a spot eventually materializes, bonus! But it more than likely will not at most schools…
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Ha, do any of us have the magic trick to get a teen to do anything?
Best of luck with her decision making–those are three very good schools! I’ve toured all three and loved them all, though they have different “feels” to them; I hope your daughter gets to experience them in person or at least spends time with the many video tours to help her make up her mind.
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My D loves Syracuse’s atmosphere, the school spirit, the many activities that she is already planning to get involved in. My wife and I like Hofstra smaller size, similar internships and graduation outcomes, and the larger scholarship they gave her.
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Of course, it depends on the school. According to this post, last year Stanford & Berkeley offered admission to over 30% of their waitlist hopefuls. There’s a wide range, with an average of 29% offered a seat from the sample of the 100 colleges included here:
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@Wishful-Thinking How small a LAC did your daughter attend? Ours was convinced she wanted a tiny LAC and was admitted to several. Then, out of the blue, she was admitted to UC Berkeley. Now she is questioning her rationale in mostly applying to SLACS… Still weighing options…
Something like 1800k undergrads, smaller than her high school! She applied ED then pulled her applications to the UCs, so she never had to deal with making the kind of choice your daughter is facing.
There are definitely students who could thrive at Berkeley and a SLAC. Before he received all his decisions, our son was contemplating the same decision. It is not easy to turn down Berkeley!
SO hard!
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Have you visited Hofstra? They advertise it as being near NYC (true) but it is in Hempstead LI( think), which is not very nice.
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2020 waitlist data is an outlier since that was the beginning of Covid and many students deferred or took a gap year.
Here is the 2021 Waitlist data for UC Berkeley:
2021:
Number of qualified applicants offered a place on waiting list: 11,725
Number accepting a place on the waiting list: 6,871
Number of wait-listed students admitted: 359
5% admit rate
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Case study - Purdue-wide was 67% last year. CS is 21% and Engineering 33% this year.
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Stanford is one of the few with reasonable waitlists. On the latest CDS, they offered 652 waitlist slots from 53,000 applications not admitted.
Michigan, which I happen to have open, is more typical IME, with 17,800+ waitlist offers of 63,000 not admitted. 17,000 slots when averaging <600 admitted over the last four years seems to be … ummm…let’s just say “odd”.
Fwiw (edit: noticed this is a repeat): Berkeley admitted 359 of 6800+ on the list (of 11,700+ offered) per their CDS. The linked article has year-old data, not the “class of 2025” as listed. Both years are probably COVID-affected.
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I guess the % we really need is the % offered admission, since in most if not all cases that would be higher than the % who accepted the offer, which is the only data CDS provides. UC Berkeley itself reported this year that “Waitlist admit rates in recent years have ranged between 20% to 60% depending on circumstances.”
I’d still say that no matter the percentage whisked off the waitlist, do what you can to get off a waitlist of a school you are smitten with, but definitely try your best to “love the one you’re with.”
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Interesting. I’ve never seen that data and always wondered what the uptake rate was.
Edit: reading the document, that’s the actual admit rate. I’m still curious what percentage accept a waitlist offer.
And yes, a student needs to pretend waitlists don’t exist and plan on enrolling at a school to which they’ve been accepted.
Shortly before University of Michigan released their decisions, my son, who is really only looking at LACs, said “well if I get into Michigan, I kinda feel like I have to go.” 
I was actively praying he would not get into Michigan envisioning the boatload of research, the travel to visit, returning to the debate big vs small, all because he’d feel silly turning down MI from out of state! Thank god he was waitlisted - back to our regularly scheduled programing! Good luck to you and your daughter!!
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Wanted to give a quick report on our trying to narrow down S22’s top two picks, which we visited this past week.
UW-Seattle, because we are from the forests of Wyoming where he likes to ski and fish but also really wanted a big city experience. We attended the Admitted Student event, which was exciting with the crowds of families and kids all gathered in the basketball arena for the opening presentation. We then did a campus tour and dorm tour but did not attend any of the information sessions. The campus was stunning with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. But something seemed lacking. We walked up and down the “Ave” just off campus but it seemed deserted with a lot of spaces empty. The sun peaked out a few times and it drizzled a bit. None of it was a turn off to S22. He said he really liked it and that he thought he could see himself there.
But then we went and toured Berkeley. It wasn’t their Admitted student day but we went on an Admitted student tour and it was such a different experience. The guide was much much more energetic and full of really useful information about the experience of Berkeley (how the semester system works, gen ed requirements, dorm life, vibe on campus and why he loves Berkeley with a passion). And the other thing we really noticed was that the groups of students walking past us all seemed to be laughing and really enjoying each others company. S22 had this idea that Berkeley was so academic that everyone was stressed and somewhat miserable. That was not at all the vibe we had! Seemed laid back (lots of kids on blankets with groups of friends on grassy areas), friendly, lively with happy, light-hearted students. Kids (and parents) in our tour group also seemed much friendlier than the ones on our UW tour.
And since S22 applied to be a Japanese major and both universities have strong departments, the deciding factor might be the vibe! Will update when a final decision is made!
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Ok S22 is down to a decision between 3 schools - Denison, Kenyon, and Lafayette. I feel good about his choices although I have my favorites and my concerns. But it’s his choice and ultimately I’ll be happy with whatever makes him happy!
And in the spirit of helping those coming after us (as I combed the forums looking for kids like mine who came before us) here is where we stand:
WGPA 3.78 (but by his Senior fall semester he was straight As), 5 APs, SATs 1420, varsity sports, decent ECs, LORs I’m not sure how good they were as 1 was from a teacher who had never met him in person due to covid and the other only knew him a month or 2 into his senior year, but an optional 1 was from a City Counsel person he had worked closely with serving on the counsel. Essay - I thought it was good, but who am I to tell?
Accepted: Denison, Kenyon, Lafayette, Connecticut, Dickinson, Clark, Elon, Denver, Allegheny, Beloit, Hendrix, University of CO Boulder
Rejected: University of WI
Waitlisted: University of Richmond, Colgate, University of MI
(I can’t remember what the merit numbers were. I know Lafayette didn’t offer any.)
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I said it might make the waitlist move sooner. Not necessarily before May 1, but certainly before August 1.
My D19 didn’t want to go to UF or FSU because of size and she wanted an out of state experience. Not going to sugar coat it, she had some tough days but being away from home helped her learn how to cope. It hasn’t always been easy but she’s matured a lot with the distance. Yes, missing out on free tuition was tough but we have been preparing for a private college bill since our kids were born and were prepared to foot the bill to a certain point. My D was lucky and got a nice merit award which helped.
From a Psychology perspective, she has really liked the classes and became a research assistant her sophomore year. I know nothing about the major, but apparently this is a big deal. She also going on a trip overseas for 4 weeks this summer and both classes she is taking apply to her degree and basic requirements. We love that she has this option to go overseas but not for a full semester. She’s part of a “spirit squad” at Tulane and she doesn’t want to miss a single semester of that opportunity.
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