Also waitlists can be used to increase the “yield” number…after students say they will or won’t attend, then you offer a place to someone on the waitlist…you ask them if they would attend for sure if they were offered admission…if they say yes, then you have an offer=admission so it looks like more people were offered and accepted… If you say you wouldn’t attend, then they don’t offer admission and go to the next person.
I think it depends on the school. WUSL tends to waitlist a lot of students. They only tend to list the students who accept a spot on the waitlist not the total number that were offered a spot on the waitlist. For 2014 they accepted 0 off the waitlist. They accept far more students to their waitlist than would be deemed necessary for yield protection so I think in away it’s mostly a nice way of saying no. On the other hand Purdue University is a rolling admissions school. They get a lot of applications from applicants that use them as their 2nd, third, fourth choice etc. They may fill up their engineering class fairly quickly but then waitlist top students who apply later knowing that a number of the students who were admitted will go onto other universities. It looks like they accepted around a quarter of the students off their waitlist in 2014.
We’ve only dealt with one school that waitlisted my D13. She had already decided she didn’t want to attend so there was no point in accepting a spot on the waitlist. I think unless it is a first choice school or there is a truly compelling reason such as in the case of Purdue then I would recommend that my child make their decision based on the schools that accepted them. However, there is really no downside except that you can’t truly commit to beginning the transition from HS to college until you know for sure. I think that is psychologically challenging.
D1 was also WL at her grade school. It was because we applied very late. She was pulled off the WL when a prospective student’s family decided not to return to the States that fall. I kind of forgot about that. She loved her experience there.
DD was waitlisted at one of her top 3 choices. She likes them all for very different reasons. Accepted at the other two so will go check them out. Can’t say ‘would attend if accepted’ at WL school as she does not feel like she knows enough about it and with WL, can’t really visit and get more info. So, probably will go with the two in the hand and leave one in the bush.
Letting your emotions or ego dictate the steps in your college search is a bad idea. The colleges treat it like a business transaction, and so should you. Your kid will likely never interact with those admissions people again if they come to the college, so feeling snubbed by them is silly. If your kid has WL olleges they prefer to where they were accepted, then by all means get on the WL (unless the school won’t give FA to WL students and you need it – there are some that say that in their WL notification).
We had a long talk with adcom at a selective school who used the waitlist that way. He said that applicants on the waitlist have all of the qualities to be a successful student, but didn’t make the first round of acceptances for one reason or another. If they misjudged their yield rate, they would then go to waitlist and start calling students that positively responded about being on the list. The only time they would take someone off the waitlist and accept them was when after a phone call they indicated that they would enroll. I would expect schools that are obsessed about yield to do this.
Maybe not a top candidate, but it could have nothing to do with her qualifications. Maybe her teachers weren’t as eloquent as others. Maybe her essay just didn’t grab them quite as much. Maybe the geography or the ECs weren’t quite in her favor. Maybe they had 100 overqualified candidates for 50 spots and they let the 10’s know right away, but sit on the 9’s. There’s no way to know.
My best friend from high school didn’t get into Yale off the waiting list until two weeks before school started. She’s a happy Yale graduate.
Everyone has their own way of working through the decision process. If part of that means a kid loses their love for a school when it takes too long to make a decision, that’s ok too. It’s a valid criteria for some kids. I wouldn’t invalidate that feeling, especially if other schools have shown them love:)
My kid is ok with the eternity for his last few schools. And if he gets WL at his top choice, he will accept it and ask his GC to start working the phones! But that is just him.
The problem with that is that the “school” hasn’t shown them love (or not), it’s the admissions office. Once they actually show up on campus, they may or may not get any love at all. You really can’t evaluate the school based on experiences from the admissions office. So one really needs to base decisions on what the school has to offer once everyone from top candidate to last wait listed kid arrives, not on some “feeling” one gets from the admissions office, with whom they will never again interface after they arrive.
I liked your reference to a fresh circle from hell. My daughter is wait listed too for her first choice, too. Time to face reality and put a deposit down on an admitted school, but keep fingers crossed for a wait list opening. Good luck!
They are ALL obsessed about yield, even the ones that pretend that they aren’t.
DS was waitlisted at his top choice, and chose to stay on the list. Deposit given to another school, and then, within 10 days, he received letter from waitlist school - he had been accepted, with great financial aid package (this after admissions told him there was no financial aid for WL students). His response? He has had time to really connect with the school that got deposit, and he’s not convinced now that original top choice was really meant for him. Financial aid slightly better at non WL choice (financial aid office very responsive), and he is appreciating the differences (larger student body, active town/gown service opportunities). He applied to five schools - I can’t imagine how he would have taken dealing with 12 - 15 college opportunities, rejections or wait lists!
Several kids at my son’s school were still holding multiple acceptances as of last week. I think they were trying to figure out the funding for their top choices but keeping the acceptance for the back up schools as well. As long as they have paid a deposit to hold the spot at each school, they can wait to make their decisions. Then when they do, they can decline the school they don’t want to attend. How would anyone know if they just got in off the waiting list somewhere else or if they held the admission from day 1? What is to kept them from dragging this out for everyone else who remains on the waiting lists?
Wow. It’s really annoying when people make deposits at multiple schools and hold onto them into late May! No wonder colleges can’t wrap up their wait lists earlier. It would be nice for everyone if there were a way to prevent commitments to multiple schools, especially because a student can only attend one school. The only reason I could understand this is if fin aid offers from the school were delayed. Now, committing to multiple wait lists is fine.