Richmond has always been my dream school but college wasn’t a realistic option for me until junior year so I knew that my 3.3 gpa and 1260 SAT was below their average. Knowing it was a reach, I went ahead and applied anyway and to my surprise I was waitlsted. My essay was very strong and I provided them additional information about my late start in deciding to go to college as an explanation for my kind of low gpa.
Anyways the waitlist letter explained that there is no rank for the waitlist and no percentage for how many will be accepted. It was just a matter of how many spots end up being available.
Other factors they look at when selecting from waitlist is the main thing level of interest, change in grades after mid-year reports, and if there are any updates to the resume.
And this is where I stand now: Senior year I am taking 6 AP’s (never taken an AP before and only got a 3.5 cumulative junior year). Senior year got 4.6 all 3 quarters, and I just secured an internship at Virginia’s public attorney’s office.
So basically I have to write them a letter in addition to sending updates that I think will help my chances like new tests and stuff. I dont know how a waitlist letter works or what I am supposed to say. Am i supposed to beg?
And how good of a chance do i really have? because regardless I still have to make a deposit to another school by May 1 which is probably going to end up being VCU and I want to pursue that wholeheartedly if there is no hope with Richmond. The letter was very encouraging and I don’t know if I am being too optimistic and wasting my time if its a low chance.
From what I have heard, it helps to not need financial aid when wanting to get off a waitlist. I heard that it can give you an advantage. I don’t know if that’s the case for you. By all means, send them a letter with your updated info and your desire to attend.
I was waitlisted last year and I have these tips for you.
- It depends on the year how many students they take off the waitlist. It has been as low as 12 or over 100. You won’t know that obviously. I would put down a deposit at VCU and still stay on the WL at Richmond. You could get off in a few weeks or in the middle of June. No one knows. As time goes on more and more people will take themselves off the waitlist as they decide on other schools.
- Visit campus and admissions if you live nearby. I think one of the biggest advantages of visiting and meeting people is you can put a face with the name. Politely just introduce yourself to someone in admissions and say you are interested in Richmond still, it is your number one, and you wanted to visit because you accepted a spot on the waitlist.
- Write that letter you are talking about with updates to your application.
From what I can tell you, it goes far at Richmond if you are serious and demonstrate interest. They want to take people off the waitlist who have UR as their #1 choice. Good luck!
I agree, visit, write a great letter, stop in admissions when you do visit, maybe even send an email to your regional admissions rep and see if you can meet in person for a “quick few minutes” and give him or her the date you’ll be visiting. I think it sounds like you have really taken control of your education and proving yourself very well! I think they will be impressed by that! Don’t worry about writing a proper WL format, if you get hung up on that it will delay you. Just speak well, articulate, be concise and have an English teacher read over your final version. Good luck, let us know what happens!
UR is need aware for waitlist admits, so it helps you don’t need financial aid.
has anyone heard from the wl?
they’re already replying to those waitlisted???
@tcsenion2k16 Apparently, but I thought they wouldn’t start notifying people to after May 1st.
^^ Isn’t that a bit unusual? Could it be that their yield is lower than previous years? It seems from reading here at CC that the % of kids getting merit money may be down, so perhaps some students that were expecting merit money do not want to pay full price?
@londondad That’s what I’m thinking. I had a friend get off the WL last year, and she was not called until the end of June. To me, it seems weird that they are taking people before the national signing day deadline. Finances may be the reason. I had a girl in my accepted students day group ask why the merit money wasn’t more evenly distributed among students or why they would not match her FA package from another school.
@rvalover7 from your experience as an accepted waitlist student, were you able to find a roommate with the same interests and go to orientation? Also, when and what month did you receive the call?
@Rwoo24 I didn’t get off the WL as a freshman. I had a friend who did, and she got the call at the end of June. If you are accepted, you’ll have to go to orientation, and as for roommates, you’d probably have to do random. Most of the people I know in my class (2020) and the incoming 2021 class have found their roommates. You’d want to join the FB group and start looking there. I just find it very hard to believe that they were already “calling” people off the WL since national declaration day wasn’t until today. From people I know who have gotten off Richmond’s WL, most of them heard in June.
@rvalover7 I’m really interested in how early they start calling in May. I was waitlisted and UR is my top choice. I feel like at the end of June is such a late time! Thank you for the info.
@Rwoo24 As I stated before, it’s very hard to get off the WL at UR. How many they take depends on the yield. Last year about 1200 accepted a spot, and 60 were offered admission. The year before that, they took 150 out of 1600 waitlisted students. In the past, as few as 12 have been admitted. Just make sure you put a deposit down somewhere else in case you don’t get accepted to UR. Also contact your admissions counselor there and make sure you let them know UR is your #1! Good luck! Hope to see you there in the Fall 
Just finished the college application process with our third child-- youngest son. Here’s my take on how it works with private schools. They offer great scholarships to special groups and the incredibly academically gifted. My son is a good student – 4.3 gpa, lots of APs, Eagle Scout, high SATs. That only landed him a spot on the waitlist, which he declined. U of R waitlist is not need blind. Thus, they will fill it with students who are either willing to take on huge amounts of student loan debt, or with parents who are willing to pay out. That’s when it’s time to question whether the education that a particular private school provides is actually worth the ridiculous price tag. We ended up deciding that our state has many affordable state universities (to which he was accepted at all) that offer an equivalent or superior educations for a fraction of the price. Because grad school is right around the corner. Be cautious consumers, people.
Has anyone heard anything yet? It’s May 5th so i assume they have started contacting people but I don’t see many people hearing anything.
^ UR was contacting people during the last week of April. Apparently, UR has become a bit overambitious and arrogant and waitlisted/rejected too many strong candidates (or accepting kids (who were expecting merit) with no money). Serves them right.
@londondad This is probably true considering their acceptance rate was extremely low this year. I forgot how many, but they said it at accepted students day and I could not believe it. I will say, that is one issue UR has is they waitlist so many people. I think it was close to 3,000 last year.
My D got the call 6/14 last year. Good luck!