My first post ever on CC! My daughter applied to 16 small liberal arts colleges ( she looked at larger schools but eliminated them due to size). She’s a top student academically, beautiful supplemental portfolio in art ( she attends a selective HS where art is offered daily) and great ACT scores.
Because we qualify for financial aid, we did not think ED was a financially good decision for our family. All RD. .
2 early write acceptances from safety schools she loved on tours. Merit aid and acceptance into honors programs.
1 RD acceptance to a great match school she loved upon visiting. Also fantastic financial aid package.
4 denials from reach schools
7 wait lists - 2 reaches, 2 match and 3 schools she was somewhat overqualified for
This s is a lot of waitblists. She was denied from her first choice school, Waitlisted at second and is pursuing that. She’s understandably confused by all the wait lists. My husband and I are thrilled with her acceptances and are looking forward to attending accepted student day with her.
Any advice? Perspective? Anyone else’s high achieving kid Waitlisted ALOT?
What are her stats? There are lots of smart kids out there.
You say she is a top student academically. That would mean a 4.3 wGPA and 1560 SAT score. Students with a 4.0 wGPA and a 1400 GPA would be hard pressed to even crack the top 100.
Has she been accepted to her three safety schools? It sounds like one of her RD schools came thru for her that she loves. That is good. It could have been much worse. Many smart kids can only afford the local CC despite being top in their class in HS. Sounds like she did get into a lovely LAC that she likes. A pretty good outcome.
The good news is that she has an acceptance as well as an excellent financial package from a match school that she loves as well as safety schools she could see herself attending. Given that she can only attend one college, it seems to me that she is in great shape. She can pursue a waitlist spot at a preferred school but she should move forward assuming she will attend a school she has been accepted to.
Many LACs do take a chunk of the class ED and they use the waitlist to manage their enrollment (ex. so they don’t over-enroll). I don’t think your D’s situation is all that unusual. In fact a poster here @Lindagaf may be able to comment on her daughter’s experiences last year with a waitlist from a LAC.
Yes, please read the post linked above. Your daughter applied to 16 schools. That’s why she has been put on so many waitlists. I am wondering why this is so surprising to people.
ETA: just saw @happy1 mentioned me. My d was WLed at three selective LACs. She got off two of those WL. She applied to 12 total, ultimately accepted at nine. Denied at two tippy tops. The main thing in her favor is that she was careful in where she applied. It was a very realistic and balanced list of high reach (2 rejection), low-reach (got into 2 of three), match (got into 5), and safeties (got into two.)
When it was all over, she regretted applying to a couple she lost interest in. Apps are a lot of work. I do not believe that kids need to keep applying to evermore colleges if they do their research. Anyway,if your daughter relly wants to get off WL, she should be proactive and unambiguous in her desire to attend a given school. Update with any new info, and ask the counselor to send updated. grade reports. @2122mom
It may just be coincidence. However, there may be several other things involved.
She applied to LACs which fill half or almost half of their classes in the early rounds. If so, you should be aware that the acceptance rate in the regular round is much lower than the overall acceptance rate, i.e., more competitive. A lot of the places in the regular round will be offered to minority kids, kids who will boost geographic diversity, and others who are "different" in some way.
The school has a limited fin aid budget and is need sensitive in admissions.
There was a problem with her application you don't know about--a teacher rec submitted after the deadline, late receipt of required test scores, or some other mechanical problem. You might try having the GC call and ask. Years ago, this happened to someone I know. It turned out that the GC got her rec in very late, due to a death in the GC's family. When the schools found out the reason--and that it was not at all the student's fault--2 out of 3 offered her the first spot off the waiting list.
Thanks! I think she’s had a fantastic outcome! And her list was not unrealistic at all ( I had multiple professional eyes look) and she can only attend one great school right? My questions were more about how to support a kid through the utter confusion of wait lists in large numbers. We are guiding her toward the schools that accept and really want her but she’s cluttered up emotionally/ otherwise with the wait lists.
I’m new here and don’t feel comfortable listing stats. I’m not in la-la land about my kid. There’s smarter kids and kids not as smart. No brainer there.
That’s not true at all. Just look at the common data sets of top 100 schools.
I think part of it has to do with the fact that there are just so many more qualified applicants these days and less spots. Common app makes it easy to check off multiple schools whether kids are interested or not and it’s tough for colleges to weed out who really wants to attend.
Thanks for all the helpful replies! We knew the risks with RD and ED as well. No tough love reality checks needed for this mom. Guidance counselor at our school said he’s never met a parent more in touch with their child’s strengths and shortcomings and more interested in just finding a place she’d be happy. I think these schools can sell themselves to her and it will ultimate,y work out.
But the more social emotional responses ( thanks!) did give me an idea. I think her guidance counselor could be convincing about the schools she was accepted to than Mom and dad. So you’ve all helped me come up with an idea.
We are planning to visit all 3 and I’m excited to do so. She’s been invited to attend classes at one of them and since they have a really sparkling curriculum I think that may sell her. She’s going to be amazed at how different college classes are from college!
Don’t hold out for the wait list schools. Accept one of your offers before May 1st and put a deposit down. If you come out of wait list (which at most schools is not common), you will lose your deposit, but the most important thing is to make sure you are going somewhere in the fall.
Choose only one wait list to accept, and send them a nice letter explaining why you would definitely come if you got a spot (and affordable, if you need to mention that to accept). Be sure to mention any new accomplishments or awards that would update her application as well.
@2122mom Sounds like you and your daughter had a good handle on the application and admission process. Perhaps the principal surprise was in the number of waitlist vs admit in a few cases.
In terms of the emotional aspects and how to deal with waitlists, it seems there are two primary approaches: (1) “Love the schools that love you” - if you have been admitted to some good schools you are happy with, enroll in one and decline your waitlist spots. This has the advantage of avoiding uncertainty by focusing on a known future. (2) “Still want to go to the dream school” – If the student still has a real favorite among the waitlist schools, take whatever steps are necessary to try and get off the wait list. In the meantime, take a good look at the schools where you have been admitted and select the best fit+financial option as the intended/likely destination, perhaps waiting to make a deposit until a little closer to the deadline. If the waitlist option comes through after the deposit payment, you can de-commit and accept the dream school.
Although there are variations involving multiple waitlists, it seems like that would involve way too much uncertainty/anxiety and drag the situation out far too long, at least for me.
You might take a look at the common data set for each school you/your daughter would consider waiting for to find out how many students are admitted off the waitlist to see whether it is “worth it” to accept a position on the waitlist. Sometimes, though, there can be so much variation from year to year this might not provide a reliable guide.
How to support a kid on WL? Tell her it’s unlikely she will get off WL, but to email if it’s a top choice, and then assume it won’t happen. Tell her to research the schools she is accepted to, and get excited about them.
My D did her due diligence of updating with a couple of thoughtful emails to her two top choice schools. Then she deposited at a school she was accepted to. She learned more about the school and got excited about it. She knew it was tough to get off WL. (Her first WL offer came a couple of days after the SRI deadline. She turned it down, realizing the school probably wasn’t a great fit.)
She was prepared to attend the school she deposited at. Then, in the summer, she was notified by one school that they had overenrolled and would not take anyone off WL, and ironically, on the same day, received a call from the other top choice school to say she was accepted. She had a very hard time deciding, because by then she was excited about the other school. She decided to attend the top choice and is now a happy freshman. I do think it was possible that because she had not yet been assigned a roommate, that helped her with her decision. She hadn’t yet made any connections.
In all honesty, she had literally forgotten about the WL. No one ever imagined it would happen in the summer. But “summer melt” is a thing. A lot of kids decline WL, because they don’t like the uncertainty. But my D is a fatalist and believes what is meant to be, will be, so she didn’t take herself off the WL. The important thing is to not think about it once due diligence is done.
if your d is still seeking answers, have her look at the statistics in the schools’ CDS filings (common data set). Most schools make this data readily available on their websites and if you look at several years data in a row, it can be quite telling.
Some schools WL as many students as they accept
Some schools WL 30% or more of their applicants
Some schools admit a good number of students from the WL
Some schools admit 0 students from the WL
Most schools vary each year in terms of how many are admitted from WL
The main take-away is that WL is a tool that schools use to manage their yield and class size. D can take heart knowing that she didn’t do anything wrong and a WL means that if not so many folks had applied she would have been admitted. Tough pill to swallow, but it’s not a poor reflection on her.
Yes, WL admittancs can vary wildly from year to year. In 2016 Notre Dame admitted 85 kids from WL, but two years before it was zero. You just can’t tell year to year.
Let her know she did a great job, has wonderful options, and that you are proud of her.
If there are a few schools she is waitlisted for and prefers, accept a spot and then forget about it. There is no reason to accept every waitlist spot she is offered. Choose carefully.
Focus your energies on picking an affordable schools that she has been accepted to.
If she gets in from a waitlist school, deal with it then (first see if it is affordable and if it is she can make the choice)