<p>Seems to me there are more kids Waitlisted this year than in years past. My D got 6 acceptances and 4 wait lists. She has some nice choices but one of the WL schools is her first choice, one other would be second. I would love to hear thoughts/advice - should you pick one WL school, send a heart felt letter about why it is #1, update your accomplishments and then pick a school,send in your deposit and move on? Or, is there any harm to staying on all the lists? Does it seem to anyone else that the number of WL is up? Anyone have a son or daughter who got in off a wait list? Words of advice?</p>
<p>I think the unprecedented rise in applications this year has made the colleges a bit skittish, thus the size of the waitlists. If your daughter really wants a waitlisted college, be prepared to forego financial aid. At that point, most financial aid has been allocated; so it would help in the letter (if this is true for you) to mention that you would not need financial aid.</p>
<p>It seems to me that more kids have applied to many more schools, suggesting that, in the end, there could be some movement on these lists. I would stay on a waitlist ONLY if I would chose it over the school where I sent the deposit.</p>
<p>We also have one waitlist --thankfully, only one.</p>
<p>Fireflyscout --Are you saying that need-blind schools would fail to give financial aid? The one waitlist offer my son has states, clearly, that need will not be a factor. If the student is replacing another student who might have attended the school, why would all the money be gone, especially in a school with a large endowment?</p>
<p>My thoughts on waitlists? Promptly fill out the postcard stating "thanks, but no thanks," mail it in, and get on with making a choice from one of the other great schools she got welcomed to. Just my personal opinion...</p>
<p>I sort of agree with weenie. IN GENERAL, being W/L'd is a polite way for the school to say, "Look, you could be a contender here, but there were just too many applicants and no room for you." But it seems to me that (the ad at the top of this page aside) getting the W/L letter is kind of like the Publishers Clearing House letter. You have ZERO chance if you don't respond, but if you do respond, the chance of getting the big prize is only slightly on the positive side of zero.</p>
<p>That's been true in the past, dig and weenie, but don't you think that the schools may dig into the waitlists a bit more this year? One thing I've noticed from reading this board is how some kids seem to have hit the jackpot getting into six or seven coveted schools, while others have been waitlisted at as many. It seems to me that the second layer of top schools may go into their waitlists this year - kids are applying to more, and they can only attend one.
I think I'd advise kids to go ahead and take your spot on a waitlist or two if you like, and then forget about it and commit emotionally to one where you lay down your deposit.</p>
<p>Send in the check-off card to the #1 saying Yes, write a letter if you feel like it, and forget about it.</p>
<p>One more thing, though: if there is a very special hook (like being a tuba player, or a platform diver or something), spend the letter highlighting ONLY that. They already know (probably more than they want) about her general qualifications. Most folks that I know of who get off waiting lists at prestige schools do so because all of a sudden that niche has become unfilled.</p>
<p>"Dear adrep: I know you put me on the waiting list. But I still have a living picture in my head of playing the tuba in the back row next to the organ in Founders Hall. I am meant to be there. etc. etc."</p>
<p>I guess I see too many kids here who consider the waitlist more like being deferred. If you want to stay on a waitlist, go ahead, but you need to continue on as if you aren't on a waitlist. The chances of getting off aren't good, and it's better to move on in a positive direction than linger.</p>
<p>Some smaller schools have to use a waitlist, to make sure they don't overenroll if too many of their accepted students decide to attend. Rice did take a sizable number off the waitlist last year. They meet the full need (as determined by FAFSA/Profile) of all students - even those off the waitlist. If you have questions about a waitlist for a specific school, I would recommend you search their school website for info, or inquire directly to the university as to the possibilities of financial aid for students taken off the waitlist.</p>
<p>This year is crazy! I have two daughters who have gone through this app. process and now my son. He applied ED II to his frist choice, was accepted in Feb. We withdrew eight apps. the same day. That is just the morally right thing to do and is expected from the ED university. I double checked to ensure all schools were notified. Some sent letters, some e-mailed, some did not respond. So, today, my son gets an acceptance from a top school - huge envelope - and I am thinking oh know breakdown in communication. We quickly sent in the withdrawal again - by mail and I also sent the e-mail dated Feb. 6. That said, I think they have so many apps. that these errors accure and my son's space has opened to a wait list applicant. Not my fault but I feel badly that the adcoms spent the time on my son and not some other worthy applicant. Don't give up on waitlists!</p>
<p>It really depends on what school(s) you're talking about. Olin has a history of taking kids off waitlists. Our waitlists aren't a gentle way to say no, they're needed so Olin can actually get very close to the 75 kids they want to enroll. We're too small a school to cross our fingers and just hope the yield numbers work out since noise can play quite a role with numbers so small.</p>
<p>According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, "As a national average, a student's chance of being accepted off a wait list is roughly one in five."</p>
<p>Donleyc-- The same thing happened to a good friend, who was accepted EA at Yale and promptly withdrew the applications she had already submitted to schools she would never consider over Yale or her other first choice, Williams. Today she received the big envelope from Stanford, and finds it very amusing that a school like that would fail to withdraw her application after a written notice and failure to send mid-year reports and test score verification. Additionally, one of her close friends was deferred and then not admitted, so it just seems like a cruel joke. (Maybe they held out that she would change her mind, given her acceptances at Harvard, Williams, Amherst, and Pomona as of today). Just a funny story that highlights the "admitted to 6 "top schools"" / 5 WL's gap that A.S.A.P. described.</p>
<p>The problem with hanging on to the waitlist is that people (kids and parents) can become enamored by a school simply because it's unattainable. </p>
<p>Remember back to high school when, instead of being happpy with the kind, smart kid who liked you, you lusted after a dumb jock who seemed MUCH cuter because he wasn't interested in you? Sort of the same problem...</p>
<p>I see nothing wrong with waitlists. I've known several kids that got into schools they wanted thru that, and are doing just fine. Sometimes a lower SAT score, or applying last minute, or recommendations that don't sound spectacular, can give a college pause, but don't mean the child is not up to snuff. I'd say go far it; write the extra letters, get an additional recommendation if it reflects current work (say, a current teacher). Meantime, you have nothing to lose but the deposit to best choice among schools accepted.</p>
<p>Movinmom,</p>
<p>Sent you a PM!</p>
<p>from reading my daughter school live journal it appears that many of hte kids got in off a waitlist
( they are giving tips to a student who is waitlisted from the not so helpful* drunken phone calls* to the possibly more helpful- restating why you want to attend)
She wasn't waitlisted but it does make sense that especially with the very small schools like Reed college- who want to remain small, that they would waitlist students- and then move some students off the list</p>
<p>movinmom the one thing about last year's experience that I would do differently is not to stay on the wait list. It's hard to move on when you're still nursing a hope on any level. We hung on until the bitter end on three lists and didn't get off any of them. Fortunately we had only clear yeses and no's this year but I had already thought that I would have advocated depositing any wait list letters into the circular file. If there's clear evidence that your school takes a substantial number of kids, on average, from the wait list than perhaps it's worth it, but otherwise IMO it's not.</p>
<p>I was wondering when someone was going to write what andi just said (and am glad she did). Waitlists, from the point of view of a parent watching her kids deal with them, put kids in limbo after the long wait to hear from schools. The odds are not good that any one kid will get in off the wait list - worse odds than getting into the school in the first place (and look where that got you). Send the letter to the school if you must stay on the waitlist, put down a deposit elsewhere and make plans for the deposit school. If you do get a call, you can rethink your decision. It IS hard to move on with that little crumb of encouragement.</p>