<p>I am exaggerating, but D is doomed.</p>
<p>She was WL at Washington and Lee today. Her SATs are very high (2340) along with a 3.9 UW GPA, great extracurriculars, etc.</p>
<p>I looked at the statistics for W&L, and found she is above the 75th percentile for W&L. So am I being naive when I assume if she gets denied by a small liberal arts college, that means she has no chance at other top schools (top 20 on USNWR?)</p>
<p>Thank you. Any insight or past experience is appreciated.</p>
<p>You will just have to wait and see. Hopefully she had a nice variety of colleges on her application list (from reaches to safety schools for admission). It is very possible that Washington and Lee thought she would not attend if accepted (her stats are high) and they put her on the waitlist instead of accepting her. </p>
<p>Our son got waitlisted at one school…probably the one that was the closest to a match of any of his schools academically. He remained on the waitlist and was eventually denied admission. It didn’t matter to him…he had already made a decision to go to another school. He was accepted to 6 other schools.</p>
<p>This is a stressful time.</p>
<p>I have no advice – just support. My D is also doomed. After months putting together a list, going over it with a very not helpful GC, she has now received 3 rejections, and 1 acceptance to a safety she never really wanted to go to. One of the 3 rejections were for a shoe in school. I am sick. This is really bad. There’s no “do over” for this process. Yes, you can transfer, but who wants a transferee from a 2nd rate school? (Sorry if I sound harsh – just trying to be realistic).</p>
<p>I really hope this is the worst of our beautiful D’s application cycles, and we’ll soon be posting on the “accepted” thread. I hope. And pray.</p>
<p>Have faith - WL phenomenon can be mysterious and I don’t think you can draw much from one data point. S was WLed last year at WUSTL and Lehigh, but accepted to Vassar, Oberlin, Tufts and Davidson, among others.</p>
<p>Good luck to your D Classof2015.
Thanks thumper1 and aagdad, it soothes me a little. The waitlist was a bit stunning and of course very disappointing. This is a stressful time of year, agreed.</p>
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<p>Yes there is. There is a gap year and reapplying or applying to other schools. </p>
<p>I know how stressful all of this feels to all of you! Good luck.</p>
<p>I remember this part. It’s horrible.
The last two weeks of March are absolutely THE WORST. </p>
<p>If W&L is her first choice, make a pitch and go for it. But, by next week you will have all the answers and things will look better. And then you have a bit of time to get your ducks in a row and figure it out.</p>
<p>One thing about the small liberal arts colleges – they are small. They do not have enough room to accept everyone they’d like. Bucknell wrote my son a great reject letter last year – paraphrased it said we don’t have enough room for all the great students that would like to attend. But YOU are going to be successful somewhere because you have the qualities that we’re looking for. Or something like that.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if she was rejected because she was over qualified. Wait for next week, if she applied to some top 20 schools, she may be pleasantly suprised. My daughter was WL at a school where they told her college counselor that she was WL because they didn’t think she would go. We pushed and told them that D1 would go if admitted, and she got off their WL.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks, kindhearted people, and especially OP. Tomorrow – is another day.</p>
<p>Schools are putting together * classes* not people to populate utopia.</p>
<p>FOr example.
My D is small, cute, blond a big reader & enthusiastic writer…
THis got her into a highly ranked 
elementary school- but others who had similar but slightly different attributes were not accepted.
When she was applying to middle schools, she did get accepted to her first choice, but she was also denied by half of the other schools she applied to.
I don’t think she took it personally, as she shouldn’t have, they probably already had their perky blond quota already met.
Some schools don’t mind filling half the class with perky blonds- but others may be wanting more of the Helena Bonham- Carter type.
Very different.
and yet…</p>
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</p>
<p>If oldfort suggests it, in a thing like this, you really ought to try it. JMO</p>
<p>One thing that can be said for certain is that nothing is certain.</p>
<p>Even with top stats, one is not a shoe-in. There are still state universities accepting applications (the fee is small, and most that I know do not require essays), so it might be worth peace of mind to quickly submit an application or two.</p>
<p>I don’t think the W&L waitlisting says anything about what might happen with the rest of the applications. Stay calm and I’m sure your daughter will have some great acceptances.
That said, WHY do people keep picking safeties that they don’t really like??? Don’t we keep preaching on here LOVE THY SAFETY???</p>
<p>Another option - some schools having rolling admissions, maybe there are some that she would be interested in that are still accepting aps?</p>
<p>I was going to make the same suggestion as some of the others - if this is the school your D really wants to go to, then she should contact them and let them know she’s very much interested and if it’s her first choice even if she’s accepted to all of her others, she should tell them that as well.</p>
<p>You can’t always make much sense out the rejections, WLs, and acceptances so I don’t think you or your D should use this as an omen.</p>
<p>There was another recent thread where some indicated they thought more and more colleges might be placing some people on the WL if they think the person would really attend a different school instead. If it’s true, it may be to see what the interest level of the student really is, or, maybe more likely, to increase their yield metric which may be a factor in the almighty ‘rankings’.</p>
<p>Don’t panic yet. (I know that’s easier said than done!) CC is FULL of stories of kids getting WL’d and denied from clearly less-selective schools, while getting acceptances and even merit money from supposedly more selective schools.</p>
<p>Each school is making their own decisions based on their own needs. One needs language majors, another needs kids from the midwest, and another has a psych department that cannot accept any more students because they’re already oversubscribed. </p>
<p>Despite a plethora of “chance me” threads, no one can really predict college admissions.</p>
<p>Sounds like they are protecting their yield. They see her as over-qualified. Good news comin’ soon.</p>
<p>Powerpuff, the thing that comes to mind when I read your post, is that your D may not have shown demonstrated interest for the school. With those test scores, she is a candidate for the top schools, and if she did not show a lot of love and interest for W&L, which is a tiny school that has to pick its acceptances carefully, they will think she is blowing them off. </p>
<p>The counselors at my son’s private school were emphatic that kids visited and communicated with the admissions people at certain colleges, and the smaller colleges that are looking to have a high yield are the ones that particularly needed lots of attention. I know that the admissions person at Gettysburg College out and out told the group to keep in touch with the admissions office, show interest, show how much you want to come to the school. I also know that Emory is a school where an applicant had better visit or have a good reason expressed to admissions as to why not, and some other form of interest emphasized, like spending time with the college rep for the school at a college fair or going to an receptions or open houses held in the area.</p>
<p>Powerpuff…If anyone can commiserate with what you’re feeling right now, it’s me. Our D graduated last year with very impressive stats from a highly regarded private prep (4.0 UW; 2250 SAT; 790/770 SAT II; 11 APs – 10 fives, 1 four; 1 DC – A+, NM, sports capt/natl awards, etc., etc.) We had told her from the get go not to count on anything for the game is often so arbitrary. Nonetheless, we were thinking she’d have some pretty exceptional offers. Did she? Yes. However, no one could have prepared us for the vast number of WL she had – 8!!! She was WL at 8 schools! (Princeton, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, WUST, Vandy, and Tufts) She elected to remain on 6/8. She sent in updates and waited. As for demonstrated interest, she had visited most every school during her sophomore and junior years, went to every local event, etc. Her essays were solid too. The outcome was baffling. For her, and us, the uncertainty that we faced last summer was pure purgatory. </p>
<p>Realizing she had to deposit, she looked at what lay before her: Northwestern, UVa, UNC (honors), BC (honors), Wake, Pepperdine (Deans Scholar), and Trinity (25K/yr). She narrowed it down to three and we revisited these schools last April. On April 30, she told us she had selected UVa. </p>
<p>As in SO many cases, none of her WL materialized. The good news, though, is that she us thriving both socially and academically at UVa. It used to be so very easy for me to say, “They’ll wind up where they’re meant to be,” but last spring I was tested to see if I really bought it. Did it take time? Yes. Was it difficult to watch others who I felt weren’t as qualified get their top choices? Yes. The big question – Did I eventually get over it? Yes, when I visited her and recognized how well she’s done and most importantly, how happy she is.</p>
<p>So I suppose my point is that the hurt and disappointment you are feeling is completely normal, but in time it will pass. Your daughter is a bright, high-achieving girl and regardless of where God puts her, she’ll most likely thrive and accomplish great things. Best of luck!</p>