Unusually high admission rate from waitlist?

<p>Hi there, so Reed was my top choice and I was placed on the waiting list. Without letting this crush my spirit, I checked inside of a college guide book titled " The Best 368 Colleges", the 2009 edition, and inside it has for a statistic that Reed admitted 63% of the students from the wait list. Looking at other schools I cant find anywhere close to this rate. Anyone have any input or thoughts on this?</p>

<p>Last year’s common data set says that they had 835 on the wait list and admitted 30 from that wait list. </p>

<p>[Reed</a> College 2009-10 Common Data Set SecC](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/cds/cds0910/cdssecc200910.html]Reed”>Reed College 2009-10 Common Data Set SecC - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>

<p>Yeah…Reeds waitinglist is pretty cruel. I hope to get
off it as well</p>

<p>Ouch, I dont know where this book got their information from then. Thanks for the reliable statistics to bring me back to earth.</p>

<p>Waiting list statistics are different every year. Waiting lists exist because colleges don’t know how many accepted applicants will actually enroll. It forms a buffer zone so that colleges can always get the number of students they want. Each year the number of applicants, the quality of these applicants, and the number of colleges these applicants applied to are different. There are always the possibilities that a college may accept all the people on the waiting list, or none at all.</p>

<p>^ Herunar there is no way Reed will accept all 800 odd students placed on its waitlist. Not even 50% or 25% is feasible. The highest number that can be taken from a waitlist for a Liberal Arts College the size of Reed, is 50-100, and even that’s pushing it. The chances are low all around.</p>

<p>My question is, why waitlist 700 kids if there is no way all could fit in? It seems like the let should be around 200-300…ugh College</p>

<p>Think of it this way: the waitlist is not ranked, it’s used for crafting the class. As responses trickle in, if not enough, e.g., HS newspaper editors are accepting Reed’s offer, and there is still room, one can be pulled from the waitlist, because it is deep enough with qualified applicants of various backgrounds to find what Reed wants. Or maybe not enough from a particular region of the country have accepted, or not enough dancers, or physics majors. With a deep waitlist, various unpredictable scenarios can be handled. That’s my theory.</p>