Again, no one can chance a waitlist (or an admission, for that matter). You are asking someone to speculate about the profile of someone who declines to matriculate and then how closely you, a stranger to everyone here, match that future, imaginary hole. Waste of time. Go outside and play.
Not to be a downer, but the reality is that many schools will find themselves adequately or over-enrolled on A10 and will not go to their waitlists at all. You have no control over this so, as @PhotographerMom advises, love the school that loves you and let the WLs go. Certainly donât worry about WLs before you even have your results.
@Summer1974 I have no experience on the subject, but I suppose that makes sense. Since FA funds are so limited, one would assume that FA applicants are more prone to the Tuftâs Syndrome.
They could fill their classes many times over with full pay students, so I donât think FA is a factor in deciding who gets an offer. I believe full pay students have just as great a chance getting a WL status as FA.
@preppedparent the financial aid waitlist is REAL!!! SwimKid got serveral that stated financial aid as the reason. There is a reason that over and over and over it is stated here that financial aid candidates need to cast a WIDE net! If FA wasnât a factor, then all schools would be need blind. The truth is that the applications go into 2 seperate piles. Financial aid budgets are.NOT unlimited.
I also believe in the Tufts Effect for financial aid applicants.
I think its overstated. There are so many super qualified full pay kids who get waitlisted all the time. Thereâs lots of anecdotes on that front as well. I know one FP student who ended up on 10 WLs with no admission offers. She ended up at a tony day school in NYC and is now at an ivy. FP kids get waitlisted just as much. Unless you can provide data, the discussion is moot. Lots of FA and FP kids both on wait lists.
^of course there is WL for FP students, too. But to say FA doesnât make a difference is absurd. It is easier for a FP to get a spot off a WL also, because if FA money is spoken for, youâre definitely not getting off the WL unless you somehow are suddenly able to become FP.
There are a lot of kids who need full or lots of FA who get sponsored by benefactors/donors of the school. Those kids are in demand as much as FP. Unless youâre an ADCOM I donât think anyone here can tell if its easier for a FP to get a spot off a WL.
I know on the FA website of at least one of the schools we applied to, it specifically stated that by applying for FA a student will be placed in a more competitive applicant pool. (The school that posted that has a $250+M endowment, and approximately 50% of students on aid.)
My sonâs private K-8 feeder school invites admissions reps from different schools around the northeast to come speak with students and parents several times a year. In every parent session weâve had they say to apply for FA if you need but - but also acknowledged that your request for FA can impact the decision on M10.
FA kids get wait-listed more than FP because they do not have enough FA for everyone whom they would like to accept. First AOs make one âacceptâ pile of both FA and FP, and then there is a 2nd meeting re the FA students to decide who in the initial âacceptâ pile will be offered FA. The badly needed tuba player and soccer star get in, the drummer gets WL because they already have 2 great drummers. If the drummer kidâs suggested family contribution is already close to FP, she may be offered the choice of being accepted as a full pay or being wait-listed. Schools differ but many keep 2 waitlists - 1 for FA and 1 for a bed/spot. I donât believe demonstrated interest plays too big a part in decisions of who to wait list as when a spot opens, WL kids are called one by one and given 24 hrs to decide if they want to enroll. If you need FA, then you will not get that call until someone turns down the schoolâs FA offer and that money is returned to the kitty. Schools canât know what other schools will have accepted any 1 applicant at the time the initial wait list is issued so interest isnât a big consideration. I agree that Juggling chainsaws is a more productive and fun way to spend time.
We were on FA waitlist but were able to get grandparentâs help and move to FP. @ChoatieMom had a similar situation. These stories and more are in the older threads.
Many schools post on their website that you are in a more competitive applicant pool if you need aid. Also, the AOs will tell you the same if you ask. We did. There is an article in The NY Times I think it was about this very thing. The majority of these schools NEED a certain amount of full pay to stay in business. The kids that get denied the most are those who need FULL aid. The budget is limited. In fact, we called one school who had gone to the waitlist. They told us they couldnât offer our kid a spot because they just didnât have any money left. I agree it is completely absurd if you donât think that it is harder for a financial aid applicant.
Makes total sense that a FA applicant is going to have a tougher road. Not to mention someone applying for partial FA, the school needs to make a decision. What if what the family is prepared to pay and the schoolâs offer is different. This is particularly true of Middle/Upper Middle Class folks. Local PS might be good enough.
The Waitlist seems to be an ongoing source of mystery for some people, and understandably so. Some kids hang their hopes on it leading to a last minute acceptance, while other parents and students put the odds of getting off the WL at slim to none.
Perhaps schools want a lot of kids on the WL in case they need to fill specific slots (a cellist, or a field hockey goalie, or a debater, etc.), but why so many WLers? It just seems to give kids and parents a false sense of hope.
in 2016 Lawrenceville accepted 354 students for a class with 226 slots. Presumably they were expecting a yield of 64%. If their yield estimate was off (low) by 1%, then they would be short 4 students. I can understand them having a waitlist in case this occurred and if they had to take 20 kids off the WL to make up for a yield that undershot by 5%. But Lâville had 457 kids on their W/L that year. In 2016, a LâVille kid probably had between a 1%-4% chance of getting off W/L. Yikes.
I have to assume Lâvilleâs WL ratios/numbers are similar to most of the elite BSs, all of whom have relatively constant yields (perhaps Cate-SPS-PA-PEA-LâVille-Thacher have even more predictable yields due to geography or prestige).
So elite boarding schools, can you trim the WL down a bit and start levelling with applicants a bit more?
I think they like to have options on the waitlist even within a single âhookâ (Tuba player, alpine skier) because I can imagine the yield on the waitlist is pretty small (or at least smaller than regular for the school). That being said, If you are on the waitlist, DO NOT count on being taken off it. Like @MVY4evr said, about a 1-4% chance.
Hmm. Seems like they need to have some variability hence they need a waitlist. But they might also be trying to soften the blow to legacy and others. So if many full pays decide not to attend they need full pays off the waitlist and vice versa with FA. They can likely reach out and get someone who had expressed strong interest and is on the wait list. Having a waitlist in the hundreds seems odd. Maybe thatâs just to say, you didnât get in thru no fault of your own.
Waitlists in college are a little more transparent due to the Common Data Set. But, the story is similar - colleges waitlist far more students than they need to. For example, per their most recent data sets:
Princeton received 29303 applications, admitted 1911 (6.5%) and enrolled 1306. They offered 1237 students spots on the waitlist, 840 accepted but only 18 were eventually admitted (2%).
Carnegie Mellon received 20497 applications, admitted 4550 (22%) and enrolled 1676. They offered 5609 students spots on the waitlist, 2834 accepted but only 4 (0.1%) were eventually admitted.
