<p>If you get wait listed for a boarding school, do you then have a slim chance of actually getting accepted into the school?</p>
<p>Seemingly very slim, based on reports from last year.</p>
<p>How do they rank you on the waiting list?</p>
<p>Its depends on the school. Some schools don’t rank.</p>
<p>Yankee, it’s not like it’s ranked as much as they try to find someone who fits the spot they have available - grade, sex, boarding or day, and sometimes even special interest.</p>
<p>Coming off the waitlist at the top schools is extremely rare. Coming off a waitlist with FA is terribly difficult because they would have to have both the room and the money for you.</p>
<p>I think it might also depend on the school. Not all schools fill up by April 10. The best strategy is that if you have an acceptance, treat the waitlists as a denial. Love the school that loves you.</p>
<p>My sense last year…and this is just a sense…was that the few kids on CC who got off a waitlist got off just before April 10. Not sure why, but I’m guessing it has something to do with yield.</p>
<p>Waitlists vary from year to year. It just depends on how well schools calculate yield.</p>
<p>When you say yield, do you mean the school calculates how many acceptances wont go to contract? Does that mean they accept a slightly higher # of students than there are spots?</p>
<p>It depends on the school and for those who have higher yields. Yield is the ratio of students attending to students admitted. For schools that have approximately a yield of 75% or so, they may want to accept a certain number of students to try to reach a desired goal. Worst case scenario, they have a few extra or fewer students coming in that year.</p>
<p>Yield is basically this: School X gets 500 applications, they want an incoming freshman class of 100 kids. They accept 200 knowing that 50% of them are not going to choose School X. Out of the 200 kids accepted only 90 matriculate. This is a 45% yield. In this case, School X has miscalculated their yield. They will now take about 10 kids from the waitlist.</p>
<p>Logically, if a school wants a higher yield and lower admit rate, they accept fewer students and put more on their waiting list, then open the waiting list early (before April 10) if it looks like they’re going to need more bodies. (I noticed last year, for example, that while Andover’s admit rate was lower than Exeter’s and their yield higher, they admitted significantly fewer students. They have a slightly higher day student ratio, though, and I suspect day students have a higher yield rate, so that probably affects their admit. rate too.) </p>
<p>And this is the point where my brain starts fuzzing…really, the only thing to take away is that if you really really want to get into a school where you’re waitlisted, let them know immediately that they’re your first choice. It’s still a long shot but, I think, your best shot. It’s also useful to know that they will sometimes take kids off the list before April 10…so it’s possible to hold off on accepting the bird in the hand for the bird in the bush. More likely, though, for FP students–and IMO, acceptance tends to mean better fit than waitlist, so I’d take a closer look at any school that accepted you before assuming that the waitlist school is the ideal place to be.</p>
<p>It’s not an easy period, the adrenaline starts going and one queries and tries to interpret every burp, rumor, CC comment. Truth is, one is not going to hear boo until March and the schools are very tight lip. There is no one set way they (Admissions) do this. Some kid gets bounced or decides not to return and a spot opens. I do recall a good friend who’s son received a waitlist letter and literally the same day it arrived the phone rang that evening basically saying that if he really wants to attend then to say just say so and the wheels would quickly turn. I don’t know why they just didn’t say yes in the first place but I surmise that they felt the boy would go where his father had gone. They were right and the boy did end up following his Dad. There is a method to their madness.</p>