Congratulations! That is impressive and rare. Has she withdrawn her acceptance to schools she’s no longer interested in? (Not sure how much the high schools and their peers are publicly encouraging that?)
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This is also the reason why massive waitlists exist. It goes both ways.
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That’s right. The “system” we have today is out-of-control. A large part of the blame goes to the Common App making it easier to apply to 10, 15, 20+ schools vs back in the day when you had to type it up and mail it to 3 or 4 schools. So, each year it gets worse it seems with ever dwindling acceptance rates due to ever increasing applications. It’s a lot of work to do 10+ applications as most on here know. But that seems to be the game that exists today.
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But your DD was presumably admitted to Princeton in December, so she did not have to throw darts to get into a Top 20 school. Congratulations on her accomplishments, but that can’t have been the motivation. If you need to throw darts to compare aid packages, that’s one thing, but otherwise . . .
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No, she completed all of her applications by Thanksgiving. So, yes, we were throwing darts to see what might happen knowing full-well that most of the schools on her list were likely to be “no.” And so, at this point we are waiting to see what transpires this week, look at aid, and then we’ll decide quickly and drop the other schools to free up those wait-lists…
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Waitlisted for Bioengineering
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Accepted to Engineering:
From CA
4.0UW/4.6W
13 APs, 1530 SAT
Applied through Questbridge RD
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It could be if you applied RD, they didn’t think it was a top choice for the sibling. I would advise a sibling who really wanted to go to Vandy to apply for ED/ED2.
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Do you not know the aid for the EA schools already ? I think those who are making points about dropping schools or withdrawing from ones she won’t attend as soon as possible is right for the sake of others. Imagine many people sitting on offers from dream schools of other kids and that all multiplying up and you have the massive wait list Issue. So many desperate kids and parents out there - no point sitting on offers or sticking in processes on schools until the end. Unless your aid package from Princeton or whichever her top is doesn’t work of course. Waiting for the sake of curiosity of where she would get in that just doesn’t make sense when sitting on the high quality offers you are sitting on. Just saying.
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I hear you! D23 finally falling in love with W&L but took a bit to get over the huhs. Rejected from Vandy but this was her extreme reach. Kind of freeing to have a rejection after 8 wait lists.
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Just a note, it may make people feel better if “extra” acceptances are rejected quickly but the reality is schools already extend more offers than they expect students to accept, aka yield. So even if kids notify schools they’re not going attend there is no guarantee a school will need to go to their waitlist; it’s not a one out one in process. If you’re interested in the number of kids a school historically admits from their waitlist you can look at their common data set.
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Sorry. It’s wrong to shame students for holding onto offers they deserve to take a look at even if they don’t intend on committing. Them rejecting an offer faster doesn’t help anybody and ultimately situations can change in an instant. Besides, every school gives out more offers as @vpa2019 notes, so it does not necessarily even mean more waitlist spots will exist.
I completely understand where you are coming from but it’s a falsehood that’s been spread time and time again to the benefit of nobody.
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While it is true that all colleges give out offers based on their yield calculations, some schools will turn to their wait lists in April if preliminary results suggest yield calculation was off. It’s not April yet so not tying to shame anyone, but there can be benefit to other students in turning down offers prior to May 1.
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As someone mentioned earlier re: waitlists: At Vandy, about 10% of ea freshman class comes from the waitlist. So, in a class of 1700 students, approx 170 of those students were pulled from the waitlist. This has been the case for decades there, and when we did the admissions tour just last summer, AO giving the presentation had an entire slide on it. Of course each year is different, but don’t write it off!
I graduated from Vandy in the 90s and was one of those waitlisted kids - even better, we didn’t have computer portals then, so I received my offer letter via WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM. My mom threw it away because she thought it was junk mail. Good thing I found it in the kitchen garbage! #facts
Good luck to those waiting and as more decisions come in 
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Yes, it is encouraging that they at least seem to take some people from the waiting list. Some colleges basically accept none! I see for fall 2021 they took 181 students from the waiting list. I wish they published how many people were on the waiting list though, so we could have a better idea of our chances.
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Did anyone chk their slate account for Vandy? Mine says In progress even after the decisions have been released.
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Yeah, mine too. It has said the same thing the whole time. Were you waitlisted?
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yes
slate isn’t that accurate…also vanderbilt’s last update on slate was 3/29 at 3:29 AM, which was before decisions were released (decisions released on 3/29 at around 6 pm). slate updates to “decided” after the decisions have finally come out
Sorry 061. Our child has almost identical stats and was rejected. I don’t think they look much at the essays, sadly.
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