I don’t think @ChoatieMom was giving advice, she was explaining how the process works. (And she’s spot on).
I am sorry you are in wait list hell; there may be schools still accepting applications. I know last year I was very surprised to read that Millbrook still had openings in the Spring.
Correct.
It was a very good explanation of the wait list for sure. I was responding more to the claim that one should embrace their other options. In some cases the other option is not simply going to work out well.
At the Deerfield revisit day this morning, the dean of admissions said 292 were accepted which is 100 more than they have room for. Thought that might be interesting information for those on the waitlist to know.
Which is only an issue if more than 66% accept. Not everyone accepted will attend, and all schools have a planned yield percentage
Very helpful! Groton also seemed to be using a ~67% yield assumption. Is that fairly common for these schools?
Revisits are starting…so you might see more movement after students visit the schools and make their decisions.
(Meant to reply to the thread, not specifically GolfGr8, sorry!)
Agreeing, but just want to point out, the waitlist is not only about a school’s macro yield.
Even if a school yields more kids than it anticipated, some coaches may lobby for more admits after A10. For example, if LAX wants 6 recruits, gives offers to 8, and only 4 of these recruits accept, the LAX coach may ask Admissions and the Athletic Director to allow some other LAX recruits in off the Waitlist.
For anyone looking at nothing but waitlists, I get it. My DD experienced this last year. She applied and was waitlisted at all her schools last year. I then found CC (too late in the process and am still kicking myself) but the dreaded March 10 waitlist day had happened to us.
After we regained our footing thanks to conversations with her K-8 HOS, we pivoted quickly and pulled our Financial Aid application (family stepped in to help us) at the original 7 schools to which she had applied as well as applied to 4 more schools that had agreed to receive her application late b/c of the close relationship between them and our HOS.
Mercersburg was the first to offer admission. The Director of Admission (no longer there) and the school couldn’t have been more welcoming and wonderful. Madeira and Episcopal too were very understanding and welcoming as well. At this point we also had family connections who were working on our behalf trying to pull some strings behind the scenes at a couple of waitlisted schools. We were trying plans B, C, and D at this point.
With no word on the waitlist from the 7 original schools, we set up a tour at Mercersburg. We were all set to see the school on Friday, April 2, when I received an email from our AO at MX on April 1 about having good news about the waitlist. My DD was offered a place from a waitlist last year on April 1 (not an April Fool’s joke!) - in time to join the virtual revisit days. We have since come to find out that one of her friends at MX was also offered admission about this same time and had also pulled her financial aid application.
All this to say, schools can pull before the April 10 deadline if the right space pops up. Also, if one can swing it in any way, pulling the financial aid application is a help (and, yes, I realize this is usually not an option for most people). We know we are not the norm in these days of increased applications and lower admittance rates but wanted people to know it can happen.
hello! did anyone here accept the waitlist position in deerfield, berkshire, and milton?
sorry if i can’t ask, just trying to see how many people are still waiting for it
My son applied to 7 schools for 9th grade. Got into one of his top 3, woohoo, but waitlisted at the other 6. Is this normal? Do schools send out many straight up rejections? In a way it would have been better to get a rejection or two. As of now he is excited about his acceptance but can’t stop wondering about the others.
The conventional wisdom is to love the school that loves you. If down the road an offer of admission is made off the wait list, it’s a high class problem.
And yes schools give out a lot of WL spots…
Defiantly a problem of privilege! He is definitely coming around on the love the school that loves you but has gotten some nice feedback from admissions at a waitlist that they are “fighting for him”. Which is nice but makes it hard to move on!
Wow. Yes that’s tough. And honestly cruel IMHO unless they really think they can get traction (and even then…)
I still stick with the conventional wisdom though 
We are on the same page! Nice to hear kind words from a waitlist school but tough to have them make it sound like an option when it isn’t! Hoping his revise day at his viable option will remind him how much he loved it when he looked before and we can put it all to bed!
Yup. And btw that would be a potential issue down the road if offered a spot at the other school. He’ll be more emotionally invested in the current school. You may be at least somewhat financially invested by that point. And, he won’t be able to experience revisits at that other school.
Agreed. We will almost certainly have paid a deposit at the now option so he will have to really, really love the other offered a spot!
Appreciate the words…sanity checks are nice when we are doing this in a vacuum with no experience.
It is super competitive this year for top schools, we were told one week after M10 that the school enrollment was completed for 2022 already and it is highly unlike that there will be spot available, and we were asked if we wanted to drop from WL
Yikes. You mean some schools have already said no waitlist activity? That is crazy
Only one or two weeks after the acceptance day, we were told by email that this school year was “fully enrolled” already and if we still wanted to stay in the WL with very unlike possibility for spot available