they do WL with ED2 candidates
The schools aren’t afraid to tell you no.
They’re afraid to fall short of their enrollment goals.
This is a hedge for them in case they mos judge yields.
But at some schools it’s mind blowing how many they wait list - some top level privates. But I’m sure their yields on WL acceptances are tiny as most will have moved on.
I assure you it’s not to protect feelings.
But yea we are all entitled to our opinions.
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Cornell offered 7746 students a spot on the wait list in '22. 5800 accepted their spots. They admitted 24 off the wait list. Not zero but still terrible odds.
Soft rejection in my book ; )
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Oh yeah. CWRU is the worst. 1600 enroll. 11.5k offered a WL. But they did accept 364. Wonder what the yields are on WL. But to put that many on WL is unfair.
It is a no. My daughter was WL at Emory and W&M. Stayed on Emory. Not W&M.
I know it’s a no in most cases.
Just saying it’d be fun to see. You went that far. You paid the fee.
But agreed one needs to move on.
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Agreed. There are a decent number of schools with similar practices and odds.
The schools that offer WL to such high numbers, I believe, are pulling kids off to meet specific institutional goals. e.g., No one enrolled from North Dakota… pull a ND kid off the waitlist.
If a kid really loves a WL school better than the one they deposit at May 1, then why not stay on the WL… IF they can put the WL school out of their mind and embrace the school that really wanted them. Never count on a WL offer.
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@DramaMama2021 , That’s what one of my kids did. Applied ED, was deferred , then waitlisted. Stayed on the waitlist but moved on. We bought swag for the school he deposited at and he started getting excited about that school. Then an email came out of the blue from his original ED school, advising him that he had gotten off the waitlist. He was almost annoyed because he then had to agonize over what to do! He did take the waitlist offer after thinking it over for a few days but it was not an easy decision.
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Some schools will say that they are done taking people from the waitlist, others will not.
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No. Many colleges do not rank wait lists. Those that do probably use a stats formula for admission (probably not the colleges this forum focuses on).
Colleges “building a class” may take wait list applicants who more closely resemble the type of admit who under yielded.
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They’re not doing a wait list for the applicants benefit, they’re doing a waitlist for the colleges benefit. They want to be able to fill their class with all of the pieces that they need. Most wait lists are not ranked but pull according to where they have space. Need more females, more psychology majors, someone from North Dakota, etc.
Typically it is all those factors that determine whether you get pulled off the waitlist – not your academic factors. Once you’re on the waitlist, everyone is an acceptable admit depending on their other factors.
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The number accepted off WL can and does vary wildly from year to year.
As Bates is the school I am most familiar with, I’ll list their info on this.
22-23. 0 admitted
21-22. 2 admitted
20-21. 4 admitted
19-20. 42 admitted
18-19. 0 admitted
17-18. 7 admitted
16-17. 49 admitted
15-16. 11 admitted
It is very unpredictable. For each of those years, it seems that somewhere around 2000 are offered the WL option. Getting off WL is usually not going to happen for most people.
That is true. These numbers accurately represent the # in the class who matriculated from the WL. And they show that relative to the number offered WL, it’s small. Really small.
But also know that this does NOT show those who were offered a spot from the WL and declined it. Not everyone offered a spot from the WL will take it.
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The common data set c2 shows.
518 enrolled at Bates. Yet 2441 were offered WL, 1264 of which accepted their spot.
8273 applied so more than 25% offered a WL. Crazy. But it ensures they won’t be short.
That’s true. We don’t know how many were offered a WL spot. It’s probably fair to say, however, that if 2 were accepted from WL in 21-22, maybe a very small number of students received an offer? Maybe 10? I’m not sure which colleges publish that information.
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