The Infamous Waitlist

<p>kjofkw - I feel exactly the same way as your daughter does.</p>

<p>Statisitcally, I am in the middle, maybe a bit over the median SAT. I know that I am not a super-candidate with perfect scores and jaw-dropping, killer ECs, but I truly believe that WashU is the best place for me - academically and socially - and although I have some excellent options elsewhere, quite frankly none of them are WashU. I love the school - after countless info sessions and presentations in the fall, a campus visit was all I needed to know that this was the place where I wanted to be (unfortunately, too late to apply ED). Visits to other schools only deepened my love for WashU, and after some deep consideration, I realized that I would do anything to attend WashU, even if it meant turning down other the schools which were either cheaper or had offered me ample merit money.</p>

<p>Right now, I am agonizing over the process. I am grateful that WashU has offered me a place on their waitlist, although in a way I almost wish that I could move on. I will have to deposit at another school, but I fear that my heart may not be in it, which could turn out poorly when/if I don't come off the waitlist. All said, I may try and transfer after my first year at another school if I don't click with it. However, I am going to do my best - it's a bit of a leap of faith, mixed with luck and no small amount of pain, but I will try my best to find a way to attend WashU this fall.</p>

<p>I am sorry to hear that the school has disappointed countless students. I am sure that, for those who did not want to attend anyway, that you will end up with amazing options. For those of you (like me) who are going to try the waitlist, I wish you the best of luck, and hope that things turn out well for us in the end.</p>

<p>bluelin3r- your stats are ... well, within the range. i wouldn't say overqualified. actually i don't know what overqualified is anymore.</p>

<p>My older daughter (a college freshman now) fell in love with a particular school last year. (OK, it was Kenyon.) She was accepted, but the financial aid/merit package was not sufficient for our family finances, so she ended up attending her second choice school. Today, she is the happiest kid on the planet. She plays soccer, and when they went to her first-choice college for a match, she had a very mild twinge of regret at the sight of such gothic architectural beauty. My point is, she moved on and found what she needed elsewhere. She wouldn't trade the experiences she's had or the friends she's made at her "second choice" school for anything.</p>

<p>I've never seen anywhere on any college website, publication, etc. that college admissions are fair.</p>

<p>Bluelin3r: the quality of your education is more directly related to the quality of the student, NOT the quality of the University. You will be well educated and do well based on your abilities, character and work ethic at any reasonable institution. I truly hope you get in where you want to be, but there are truly millions of examples of students who do extremely well in different places than they expected (or wanted) to be.</p>

<p>Many of your criticisms are accurate, but based on what has been posted, you seem to be talented, motivated and will be very good at whatever you want to be good at (In St. Louis, D.C. or LostAndGone, Montana).</p>

<p>Aardvark--You are absolutely, totally, 100% right. You can get an amazing education at countless colleges/universities, depending on your own work ethic and attitude.</p>

<p>I forgot, but does anyone remember if any part of the Wash U application included applicants putting down ALL the schools they applied to?</p>

<p>Nope. Wash U app is just the Common App, and Common App doesn't ask for what other schools you applied to. I don't think the Pre-app form did either.</p>

<p>kjofkw-- Can I just say that I know exactly how your daughter feels? Kaythanksbye.</p>

<p>Seeing it on paper (my letter arrived in the mail today) is ten times harder.
Sigh.</p>

<p>Nvk: If you sent in the FAFSA for financial aid, it listed what other schools you applied to and since WashU considers need when it considers applicants for admissions, they can find out where your other prospects are that way.</p>

<p>If you were a recruited athlete...does the coach have more pull to get the athlete off the waitlist than in the regular decision round?</p>

<p>"If you were a recruited athlete...does the coach have more pull to get the athlete off the waitlist than in the regular decision round?"</p>

<p>I have friends who are NCAA Division III coaches (same as at WashU), and the coach informs the admissions office who he/she wants, and whadya know, they get in. No waitlist necessary.</p>

<p>shoe66 - Very possibly true at some D3 schools. Does not quite work that way at WashU - have an athlete there. Can a coach help - absolutely. But only as an extra push - the rest of the application and qualifications must also measure up. So the answer (at WashU) is yes it will help - but it will not guarantee admission.</p>

<p>ST2,</p>

<p>I realize that the athlete must "measure up." And I realize that a coach's recommendation does not guarantee admission. (Same thing at Division I schools, actually). </p>

<p>All I'm saying is that a Division III coach gives admissions a list of its recruits, and they don't waitlist any of them. The admissions office "helps" out the coaches. </p>

<p>Don't say this doesn't happen, because the coaches I know (one of which used to be at WUSTL in the mid-'90s) say that it does.</p>

<p>WashU's athletic teams are too good for them not to be lenient to incoming athletes. Otherwise, with their alleged academic reputation, WashU would be no better than Rice.</p>

<p>Eh, true, but that said, all of the athletes that I know here are all really high performers in the academic arena, too (despite having significantly less time to study due to practices, games, traveling, etc).</p>

<p>I don't know about the mid 90s - but I do know about now. As of now I feel quite comfortable saying what does happen. If an athlete falls in the accepted student profile, a coaches recomendation can make a difference. As for not being put on wait list - that is not a valid statement. The average GPA for athletes at WashU is higher than the average student body. The team that my kid plays on has 5 HS vals. So at WashU you truly have student athletes.</p>

<p>I have also been wait-listed; it appears that many students have been wait-listed.</p>

<p>Ive been waitlisted at Wash U and deferred from UMich in the past few days... I feel like I am doomed to be wait listed or deferred everywhere I want to go just so that I have to keep up my grades and be in suspense until like June. ahhhh!</p>

<p>I would also like to know if I was waitlisted from the because I'm not good enough or because WUStL thought I wouldn't attend.
Stats:
1520/2280 SAT I
CR: 800 M: 720 WR: 760, 12 essay
SAT IIS: 770 chem 770 math II 710 USH
5s on calc AB, chem, eng lit
4s on spanish, apush
will take: eng lang., calc BC, phys C: mechanics, macroecon and microecon
(10 APs total)
gpa: 3.4 UW (approximate, no ranking, very rigorous HS with grade deflation, 12 AP/16 total classes in 10th-12th , the other classes had no AP option)
Hook: scientific research (3 years)
1 person from my school with similar stats got in at WUStL ED
Also, my parents both went to Harvard and my mom works at Harvard Medical School, and that was on my common app.</p>

<p>I don't know whether to be discouraged or encouraged about my chances at ivy league schools. I got deferred from princeton ED and recentely deferred from the UMich LSA (probably because of my low UMich gpa). I guess they probably read me well because I would choose a few other schools over WUStL, but I'm still not sure what category I fall into fas a wait listed person.</p>

<p>i highly doubt that you were overqualified with your 3.4 GPA especcialy since u didn't get into Michigan. im really sorry, but im sure everything in this crazy college process will work out in the end. Best of luck.</p>

<p>waitlisted bummmmmmer!</p>