<p>On March 10th we recieved the email notification of WL status. The email said not to contact AO until March 15th. On March 15th I called the office. I did not hear back within 5 days so I called back again. Two days later, I received a call back from the AO. He was nice and apologized for the delay. He said he had hundreds of voicemails to get through. I gave him my son’s info and he pulled the file. He said my S was a strong candidate, and it was possible he could come off of the WL if there was movement. But he admitted there was no ranking of WL candidates. He said most likely would hear something late April or May if it was to happen. I asked him how many people were on the WL and he replied 600 students. My heart dropped. I didn’t think there would be much of a chance at that point. I asked if I should send his latest grades and he said yes. I called back about 2 weeks later and asked if he recieved the grades (all A’s). He said yes. I told him I was going to have to commit to another institution but I was willing to forfeit the registration fee if necessary if he was to be accepted. I also told him that after July 1st we would be committed elsewhere and that at that point I would likely pull him off the PE WL. I said thank you and I hoped I would hear from them soon. They called on April 11th. I would suggest being as straightforward as possible. You are not being annoying by contacting them for information. Ask pointed non threatening questions. they will be honest with you.</p>
<p>@dadofexeter: If you are comfortable sharing this information, did you require financial aid, or are you a full pay student? I just want to know, because I know financial aid can really hinder an applicant on the waitlist, and I am really afraid of that specifically.</p>
<p>About financial aid, I’d like to know as well ^-^ but 600 PEOPLE ON THE EXETER WAITLIST? I’m in terror… and whoever said 15 freshmen girls, my heart just dropped. I sincerely doubt it, but if it’s true… ><</p>
<p>Earlier it was reported that day student admit rate at Andover this year was 23%. plus the wl movement, it sounds like a better year for day students.</p>
<p>I am on the waitlist for Middlesex school in Concord Mass, I am wondering if anyone has heard anything about wait list movement at Middlesex. I am a day student also, thanks!</p>
<p>Did anyone hear about any movement on the Peddie wait list? It doesn’t seem like there are many Peddie students on CC, though…</p>
<p>I’d really like to know if there is like, ANY chances of me getting off the waitlist as soon as possible because I might have to make other plans and such.</p>
<p>And for anyone else on a wait list, Good Luck!</p>
<p>Don’t know what they were thinking. Last year they had an admit rate of 19% and accepted more yet still went to wl, but this year they accepted fewer with an admit rate of 17%. No wonder they had to tap into wl ‘like crazy’.</p>
<p>It is really hard to know how/why the admissions process works the way it does. There are so many rumors going around it is hard to know what is really happening.</p>
<p>WOW GMT, scary article, but I think you are most likely correct that the prep schools use a similar method for their waitlists. Exeter’s WL for this year was somewhere around 600.</p>
<p>The head of admissions was musing on this in a recent Exonian. Possibilities range from a separate admit process (Exeter doesn’t use the common app.); the different ways schools measure applicants (Exeter only counts complete applications); the specificity of Harkness-style education (may attract a more pool crew of applicant); New Hampshire vs. Massachusetts; larger day student populations at PA than PEA (doesn’t apply to Deerfield); the (misleading ) reputation that Exeter has for being more academically difficult/competitive. But the bottom line was…who knows? What’s important is that all these schools have more than enough very qualified applicants.</p>
<p>We were told at the interview that around 80% of the applicants are qualified. How they narrow it down is a mystery to me. In the latest Exonian they say they look for academic ability, love of learning, good character, and EC talent. 3 members of the AO and faculty read each file then the files are given scores 1-5 (1=most desirable, 5=least desirable.) Each folder is read 3 times and students with scores of 3 or 4 are most likely to be admitted. Around 75 prep applicants each year receive a perfect score of all ones. Of course FA is a factor all by itself. They have to consider the desirability of the applicant vs. financial need. They work down from there.</p>
<p>But sometimes there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for a decision one way or the other. One AO said there could be 100-200 boarderline students who could go either way and to some degree it is a crapshooot.</p>
<p>Re preliminary vs completed applications, it’s interesting that Andover also says:
So who is using “the number of preliminary applications to determine their admit rate”??? Which school that “matters” in this respect does that, Deerfield? SPS? Groton?.. </p>
<p>What I am curious about is not why Exeter doesn’t have as many applicants but why they had such a ‘misjudgement’ of their yield this year.</p>
<p>Again–I don’t think it was misjudgment as much as being more conservative than usual in original admits–at least according to the admissions office, as quoted in the Exonian. Also, I don’t think we have any way of knowing how many waitlist offers they’ve made in the past; we only know how many were “accepted.” I wouldn’t assume that the waitlist offers have a 100% yield rate. </p>
<p>As far as completed applications go–I think both A and E simply want consistency in how stats. are reported. I think all the major schools have been moving in that direction–they weren’t all there two years ago when my son applied.</p>
<p>classicalmama, for the record, I’m not <em>judging</em> Exeter for its handling of WL. What I have “an academic interest” of is this: Since they admitted more students last year and still took a few from WL, why did they admit even fewer this year instead of more? Did they have any reason believing it would be a year with higher yield? For example, did they put in place different admissions policies/strategies, re-design re-vist days, or was offering more generous FA packages? Or was it just a blinded “gamble”?</p>
<p>No…I knew what you were saying. Just trying to point out that the wording “accept” from the waitlist might not be equal to offers, as it is in the regular admit season; it might mean the number of accepted offers. We don’t really know for sure that they’ve made more waitlist offers this year than they have in the past: what we’ve heard is that (a) they made calls to 21 students this year and that (b) typically 0-15 students come off the waitlist. B could still end up being true this year, right?</p>
<p>But assuming, that Exeter does take 20 plus students from the waitlist this year–and I’m just gathering this from reading the Exonian and the website–my understanding is that, yes, they admitted an even lower number of applicants this year than last year (451 vs. 458, with a 17% admit rate). I didn’t get the sense that it was because they anticipated a higher yield necessarily; my sense is that, for Exeter, having too many students enroll (even if it means a higher yield) is a bigger problem than going to the waitlist. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>^^it does, except I don’t see a compelling reason they should worry about over-enrollment. (when was the last time they had a significant over enrollment?) Idk, but i agree that if this year’s wl movement was “planned” rather than unexpected, I guess it’s not a misjudgment after all.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they were overenrolled two years ago, when my son was a prep. I know there were some triples in his dorm that should have been doubles. Interestingly, I know of at least one kid who came off the waitlist that year–so it may have been a particular year that was overenrolled. And I know from reading the Trustees Reports that they were, for several years, working to get the FA/FP ratio back in balance after and overly successful year of need-blind admissions (2008 maybe?). So that may be playing into the planning as well. Who know really, though…</p>