Wait listed at Vanderbilt class 2023

@singingbear yes! I will be going to UCLA. Going to vandy or UCLA wasn’t really a choice, as soon as they saw the vandy price tag they said no way! I am still very pleased with UCLA though!

Today we received our fourth email asking if son wants to remain on the waitlist:
“Thank you for remaining active on our waitlist. As we take another look at our incoming first-year class, we’d like to again assess your interest in attending Vanderbilt.”
The dates of the four emails are April 25, May 9, May 16, and May 28.

DD declining to remain on Vandy waitlist. Happily committed to WashU, though will still remain on one other dream school waitlist. Best wishes to all!

Is anyone else here a little annoyed at Vandy’s use of its waitlist? We had three kids accepted ED from our school and a ton waitlsted. Not everyone who was waitlisted took the spot (S19 did not) but now SEVEN of them have come off the waitlist. How are kids supposed to plan for this if they are applying next year? I think some kids around here are planning to get waitlisted and then in. Lol. I do wonder what’s happening over there and if this was the plan or if they truly did not get the yield they hoped for in RD and now are going to their waitlist in such a big way.

My understanding is Vandy typically uses it’s waitlist in a big way. I’ve seen statistics that state 8% - 10% of their freshman class each year are taken from the waitlist.

I don’t know. That just bugs me. So many kids then (what is 10% of the class? 200 plus kids?) deposited somewhere else and then had to shift gears when they were offered a spot. Why does Vandy think this is good for the student? Obviously it is not. And I’m not a fan of that strategy.

I agree! I’m not sure what’s worse: To put thousands on your list and admit 10 or to do it Vandy’s way and admit a lot. I think I’d prefer a middle ground. It’s clearly part of Vandy’s admissions strategy, and many kids accept up until they close it in July, but it’s a crazy game.

@homerdog where are you from?

And they do it so they can protect their yield? Or I wonder if their reasoning is a little more acceptable - that they don’t want to over-enroll. They also lose out because a number of kids at our school who were waitlisted would maybe have chosen Vandy if they got in RD but chose not to play the waitlist game. Those kids are going to schools like Chicago and Georgetown. Vandy was definitely on their radar and I’m willing to bet some of them would have chosen Vandy. Many kids with other elite acceptances in RD don’t take the Vandy waitlist spot. The kids I know who received waitlist offers had all deposited at their safeties and were thrilled to get the call, so those are the kids Vandy is getting when they go to waitlist. Amazing students for sure, but ones who did not get into one of the favorites on their list.

@“sai.1321” The Chicago area

I think they do it for both reasons - surely they don’t want to over-enroll - but I think protecting their yield has a LOT to do with it as well. And I agree, I know kids who definitely would have chosen Vandy had they gotten an RD admission, and in some cases Vandy was their top choice, but they have now moved on. They may have even accepted their spot off the wait list had it come shortly after decision day. But now, it’s been a month and they have paid deposits, bought the sweatshirt, registered for classes, picked roommates, etc. and are just done with the process. Vandy is missing out on some great kids - BUT I am sure there are lots of other great kids on their list and they will fill their class just fine.

We went to a recent info session at Vandy and the admissions rep said they typically use the wait list a lot. She claimed that they are conservative in who they take RD because their freshman housing literally cannot accommodate one extra kid. In reality, I think it also is part of their yield protection strategy, which goes along with how they encourage ED and fill I think 1/2 the class in ED1 and ED2. One thing I love about how Vandy does admissions, though, is for early decision applications they only accept or reject – they do not defer. That is refreshing given how many schools string kids out who applied ED.

I’d love to see the stats on the kids accepted in ED minus the legacies and athletes. I wonder if it truly is a little easier to get in because they know you’re committing. We had some kids in the top 20% apply to Vandy ED from our school (so not top ten percent) and they didn’t get in. The three who got in fell into that top 20 but not top ten percent but they were all legacy. So, if our D21 is in that position in the class and not a legacy, then I’m not sure it’s worth using an ED since history at our school anyway shows they took the legacies.

@homerdog To be fair, 4 kids (including me) from my school got into Vanderbilt this year. I applied ED and was accepted. 3 of my classmates applied RD and were accepted. One applied RD, got on the waitlist, and was admitted in the first round of wait list notifications. The other 2 were accepted within the regular RD window. 3 of us will be attending in the fall and the 4th has opted to attend another fantastic school that gave her a full ride.

All of us have pretty similar stats. Perfect or near perfect GPAs, boat loads of APs, tons of themed extracurriculars, great recommendations, etc. None of us are legacies. None of us are of the same race. None of us are planning on majoring in the same thing.

So far, we don’t know of any other kids who even applied to Vanderbilt from our school this year, but I am sure there has to be at least someone else, but all of my graduating class were generally pretty open about where we were applying this year. Never have we had this many kids receive admission to Vanderbilt. In the last 2 years prior to this one, we haven’t had one single legacy admit. Go figure.

@FilledWithHope that fabulous! Congratulations to you and the others. Our school has a history of having 8-10 kids go to Vandy. Looks like that’s where the number will end up here again. It’s good to know, though, that admissions are not static and kids at a high school without a history with Vandy are getting in! And very true that they love high stats. I think Vandy puts even more emphasis on it than some other schools and, in a way, is less holistic. Scores have been very very high there these last few years.

I also don’t buy the “top 20% but not top 10%” statement. We have kids from our school going to about half of the Ivies, Duke, Stanford, Rice, Emory, Chicago, etc. Great public high school. Yet, I personally know a few kids with 35s and 36s on their ACTs, another kid with a 1580 on his SAT, all had stellar GPAs, and they all received several rejection letters and aren’t attending the schools they wanted to attend. Grades and test scores are one thing, but not everything.

What do you mean that you don’t buy the statement? It’s just the truth. Many of the kids in our top 20 percent via weighted GPA still have high test scores. We had something like 120 kids in the class score between 33-36 on the ACT. Top 20 percent would be the top 140 kids. Many of them also had very strong ECs and I’m sure recs. It just depends on the high school. 98 percent of our 721 kids are going to four year college. Not sure why I’m being questioned.

I was just saying that that subset of student didn’t get into Vandy from our high school. Lots of kids in the top 20 percent going to elite schools. And of course some of them are going to a safer school on their list either because they didn’t get into other schools or because they ended up costing too much.

@homerdog I think you are right about the scores. Getting in the top 10 is the holy grail, but the other institutions that are already there are improving as well. The new dorms being built for upperclassmen will be fantastic and I think this will really give us a boost in the rankings because it will make an already fantastic place even better. Now if we could start winning some basketball games and competing with the SEC football Elite, we would shoot straight to the top! LOL!!

When I say I don’t buy it, I say I don’t buy the fact that class rank indicates admission. My mother works with someone whose child who is another example. Perfect test score, perfect GPA, and the salutatorian at their school. When she told them I was applying to Vanderbilt, they informed her that my chances were non existent because their child with perfect scores didn’t get in. My theory is that the vast majority of the 30,000 plus kids that apply to each elite school have great GPAs and test scores yet only a small percentage get in…no matter the school. No one is questioning you. I am sure your school stats are correct. I simply don’t believe that class rank at someone’s school is the critical factor that determines admission at Vanderbilt or any other school. Plenty of factors are at play.

I don’t have a ton of evidence and my examples are of course anecdotal but it seems that Vandy and Wash U take kids who have stellar test scores first and foremost. They sometimes give a little on the ECs. Both schools are playing a game to see how high they can get their ACT and SAT ranges in order to move up the ranks. Schools solidly in the top ten are more likely to overlook a little bit lower test score if the student is exceptional elsewhere on the app. Most of the kids accepted to Vandy from our school and neighboring schools are the “average excellent” non-URM kids one hears about. The kids here who get into Ivies have something exceptional in their app separate from their grades and scores and sometimes those scores are even a little lower. I’m not digging on Vandy - it’s just what I see here and it’s good to know for the local kids so they can estimate their chances of getting in.