Is it helpful for a waitlisted student visit the campus of the school he/she was waitlisted at? Or do admissions officers find this unnecessary and advise against it?
I am wondering about this too.
Have you already visited? Shown interest during the RD process?
How far, how much of a trip? Are you going to be in the area anyway?
Look on their website, they often have guidelines for wait listed students.
Ask your GC to contact them and ask.
Hopefully you already sent your representative a letter of continued interest.
You can check with admissions at that school. In any event send a letter of continuing interest and include any significant achievement since the application was filed if there were any (and if true one can write “if accepted I will attend”). But I would also worry about getting someone’s hopes up or having him/her fall in love with a waitlist school that is probably a longshot at this point.
Besides this letter, put the schools out of your mind and move on
While visiting can show interest, it’s a little late for that now. You can do that other ways. I also understand that it feels risky to say “I’ll come if you take me” when you’re not sure what you’re committing to. Many schools go out of their way to show themselves fully only to admitted students, not applicants. With that said, you’re not the admitted student they’re trying to woo at this point, so you’re not really welcome to the events for the prospective class of 2020.
At most schools, the odds of coming off the waitlist are slim to none. I’d invest in checking out the options that ARE available to you and making the best choice from the schools that accepted you.
@gardenstategal At most schools, the odds of coming off the waitlist are slim to none.
This all depends on the school and is often driven by size. At some mid to large schools, hundreds of kids can come off the wait list each yr. This can represent 10-15% of the incoming class. And when applications rise due to kids applying to more schools, yield becomes harder to predict and then wl may move a bit more
It can help, but there are better things you can do with your time to give yourself the best chance of getting in. Send a personal letter of intent, send any new grades/accomplishments, another recommendation, etc.
@wisteria100 , you’re absolutely right. It depends on the school.
I assumed based on OP’s other posts that it was a very competitive school (i.e., Penn, Tufts) and most of those have a WL that is the longest road to no… But yes, @tjgirl123, you should check the common data set for the school that you’re interested in to see if the WL moves. If it’s one of these, I doubt a visit would help.
Google Common Data Set. Then look for “waitlist” and see how many are on it and how many are accepted off it. I would start loving the colleges you ARE admitted to…and stay on a waitlist. I woudl choose one and tell them you would attend if admitted.
We were having the same dilemma with my D. Waitlisted at one of her schools she is very interested in attending, though she has not officially visited. No tour, no info. session. We are familiar with the school and small town due to summer vacations. D said though she loves a lot of things about the school but can’t in her heart say yes if by chance she was offered an acceptance off the WL since she has not physically felt the vibe of the school.
We will be visiting two other schools she has been accepted at for their accepted candidates days they are relatively in the same area, so we will attend an info. session and tour the WL school during the trip.
My concern was that the WL school did not think we were bugging them, and frown upon our visiting. When our D emailed the admissions counselor to say she was very interested, updated him on other achievements since she applied, she said we would be visiting also. He made it very clear that visiting will have no bearing on if she gets off WL or not, which we understand. I respect our D for wanting to be sure, especially when they give you very little time to make a decision off a WL. Once she visits and depending on how she feels vs. the other two accepted schools, she may then be able to tell the WL school - she definitely attend if offered a spot. The WL school is a top competitive small LAC. After that she knows to move on and not live in limbo, she will choose one of the other top two choices make a deposit etc…
PS - I’ve learned so much from CC, I’m just sorry I didn’t start reading all the forums till after she applied…
Thank you!