<p>My son was offered a spot on the Carleton waitlist and it is the only one of several spots on several waiting lists that he accepted. He has 2 solid offers (important because we are high financial need) from good LAC's, but Carleton has been his first choice since we visited last year. I know we have to move ahead with the information we have and the offers on the table, for which I am incredibly grateful ... but it is very hard not to look back and second-guess ourselves (should we have applied EA, even though we might have ended up with more cost than we could bear?) or to be (unreasonably?) hopeful that he might be offered a spot.</p>
<p>As students, what are the rest of you doing? As parents, how are you advising your kids?</p>
<p>Good luck everyone, with your decisions this month!</p>
<p>Carleton, in general, has been near clairvoyant in the RD round, often not turning at all to its waitlist. But there have been exceptions. Sometimes major exceptions. If there is a time to anticipate a fair probability of the waitlist being used, possibly used aggressively, it is now. </p>
<p>With applications up 20% this year at Carleton AND financial need-based and merit-based aid (at other schools) so important in decision making for an entering class, we have entered statistically unchartered territory.</p>
<p>I’d be realistic but keep up hope, all while taking great pleasure in the 2 solid offers already on the table.</p>
<p>Thank you, 1190, for your perspective and words of wisdom. For us, the Waitlist is not the purgatory I worried it would be, and we are trying to be hopeful and also realistic about my son’s options. I am feeling for some of his friends and peers on this board, though, as they are finding themselves in an unexpected and unpleasant place if their choices are not what they had hoped or are limited.</p>
<p>I am surprised, waitlist or no, choices or certainty, how this month of decison brings about such potential for growth through introspection and self-knowledge.</p>