Radical proposal--no rejections

Parent Cafe
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<p>Kinda what Harvard does now. H is (in)famous for establishing a huge wait list each year - many times larger than they are remotely likely to have need of. At last that’s its reputation, but no one seems to know exactly how large the list actually is. Part of the mystery I guess.</p>

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<p>S was waitlisted at 3 Ivies, (and was deferred from SCEA to RD for a 4th). However, he ultimately was admitted to none of those schools. At the time, we were aware the wait lists were longer than needed in terms of total number of students, but didn’t realize how MUCH longer. Furthermore, we figured his odds were decent because he was on 3 lists. We also thought the list worked as a replacement system. If a prospective English major, editor of the high school newspaper went elsewhere, then they’d go to the list to find someone similar. So under that scenario, we felt S had an equal chance of getting off the list as someone else. I am not sure that is actually true, as I’ve heard the lists are ranked. </p>

<p>The point is, we really did not understand the system well, nor did we realize that the schools sometimes waitlist kids (like legacies) they have no intention of ever accepting, merely to lessen the blow. False hope is bad, and a no-rejection system would increase the confusion and expand the number of students with false hope.</p>

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<p>So you’d replace the current system with one that extends the “don’t know if I’m in or not” waiting period until an indefinite time in the summer? For hundreds of thousands of students? </p>

<p>I don’t think so.</p>

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My contention is that what I suggest would be better than what you describe. You couldn’t have too many illusions about the waiting list if everybody else was also on it.</p>

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<p>Hou 'bout under this new plan the schools be required to disclose how many people are on the WL?</p>

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<p>^^bingo…</p>

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<p>I still completely don’t understand what possible BENEFITS the proposed system would have, for anybody. It seems mildly harmful to me, but not the end of the world. However, there’s nothing on the other side of the scale to weigh against that.</p>

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<p>Just out of curiosity, what % of matriculants were initially wait-listed? I.e., what % actually got in off the wait list, for a range of institutions? Does anyone know where I might find a list?</p>

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<p>I still completely don’t understand what possible BENEFITS the proposed system would have, for anybody</p>

<p>I don’t either- unless you think that bragging that you were wait listed instead of denied is a benefit.</p>

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<p>I don’t get it either. I saw friends’ kids go through angst with wait-lists, and honestly, if my kids had been wait-listed anyplace, I would have advised them to consider it done and over with, and move on to a place that had accepted them and get excited about it. And if they got a mid-summer surprise phone call, great, but don’t count on it. I think the hoping-against-hope isn’t a good thing, but I’m one with a big need for systems that provide closure.</p>

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<p>As a parent whose daughter was never rejected, only wait listed, we were advised early on that if that turned out to be the outcome, to move on…and we did</p>

<p>For those that do not have the benefit of " counsel" or CC, I do think that if this ridiculous practice of wait listing thousands of candidates continues, it is only fair that it should be revealed how many students were actually waitlisted…</p>

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<p>I suppose the benefit of the current wait-list system is that it is somewhat less painful than an outright rejection. But if everyone is wait-listed then getting wait-listed becomes the new rejection even more than it is now. And thus the small current benefit would be lost.</p>

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<p>Another parent of a daughter who had numerous waitlists to super-selectives (mostly ivies)…like others who have posted, I would say it’s sheer agony! Most of her friends were flat out rejected, so I suppose it gives top qualified applicants at least a bit of an ego boost; however, for those that accrue several WL, it gives nothing but false hope. Yes, she had incredible acceptances and is very happy, but the summer before her freshman year she was constantly on the computer: How many had Princeton called? Had Dartmouth closed their list? Did Penn take any A&S in this round? When will Brown send letters to waitlistees? You get the jist. It’s easy to say move on when you receive one or two, but when a kid gets numerous waitlists, it’s a bit more unsettling. I’m praying our son will not be waitlisted anywhere but rather accepted or rejected.</p>

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<p>Don’t colleges already have pretty large wait lists?</p>

<p>[College</a> wait lists grow as schools hedge bets on enrollment numbers](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051403691.html]College”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051403691.html)</p>

<p>[Waiting</a> Lists Have Plenty of Company - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/waiting-list-2011/]Waiting”>Waiting Lists Have Plenty of Company - The New York Times)</p>

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<p>[More</a> Students Put on College Waitlists, Stay in Limbo a Year or More - The Daily Beast](<a href=“More Students Put on College Waitlists, Stay in Limbo a Year or More”>More Students Put on College Waitlists, Stay in Limbo a Year or More)</p>

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<p>OK, I take it back.</p>

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<p>No. It sucks to be on waitlists. You keep holding out hope that you’ll get in to that dream school and put off making deposits on a school you’ve gotten into. This can cause you to be at the back of the list for housing, classes, financial aid, etc. There is no good that can come out of this- none.</p>

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<p>Stay strong, Hunt. Don’t fold now!</p>

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<p>OK, here’s the best case I can make for the advantages of my proposal:

  1. Colleges would have more freedom to select from the waiting list those students who fit their needs (i.e., if the soccer player from Idaho drops out, there may be another one).
  2. Most of the waiting lists wouldn’t actually be that huge, because many kids wouldn’t stay on them, or at least not on all of them.
  3. I think that most kids would be more, not less, likely to “move on” because this kind of waiting list would give less false hope.
  4. Alumni would be happier if their kids weren’t rejected, maybe.
  5. Nobody likes to be rejected.</p>
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<p>@mihcal1, that data is in the Common Data Set for each school, section C2. College Navigator might give you some summary data.</p>

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<p>I think colleges should not have waiting lists at all. It’s gone from a reasonable idea to fill seats in summer meltoff to situations described above with thousands of kids “waiting” for zero - sometimes less than 20 spots. The saddest, saddest stories are the kids that are sitting in May asking what to do because they are “waitlisted” at their favorite college. Wait lists are all about the college and not the student.</p>