First time user–parent of a senior.
My daughter is wait listed at UCLA and UCSB----UC Berkley pending. How to handle the wait lists?
btw–she did get into other uc/cal schools–but not her top choices.
thx in advance!
In the wait-list email there should be a link to accept the wait-list (SIP). From there, wait for an acceptance or a rejection some time before May.
They are not going to randomly choose a student off WL. Very often, the first students pulled off WL are students that were originally in the accepted pile, but had to be waitlisted because there were too many accepted.
She should write an email stating the college is her first choice and she will attend if accepted. She should update any new achievements or honors and explain why she is a good fit for the school. She should ask her counselor to send updated grades. She can email now, with a short confirmation that it’s her first choice, then send the longer email closer to the May 1st national acceptance deadline.
My kid got off two waitlists. It helped that she had good stats. Once she sent her emails, she was done and assumed it wouldn’t work. That’s a good idea, because it usually doesn’t. Your daughter can do the work, then she should move on as though it won’t happen. Get invested in the other schools. Many students in fact decline WL offers when they finally come along, because they wisely do move on. My D had a very difficult time because she really liked the school she had deposited at. When the offer came in July, it was from a top choice. She did accept the offer, but it was hard to give up the other school.
Another reasonable option is to say to heck with the wait list, accept an offer of admission from another college, and go there.
Staying on a wait list may mean living with uncertainty from now until the end of the summer. Some students feel better if they make a definite commitment to a college at the normal time and start making plans to attend.
A long time ago, I was waitlisted by my first-choice college but accepted by two other colleges that I liked, which were similar in selectivity and academic opportunities. One of the colleges offered much better financial aid than the other, and because of this, my mother asked me to choose that one. I agreed, accepted the offer of admission, and went to that school. I have never regretted it. I would have been a nervous wreck if I had stayed on my first-choice school’s waiting list all summer.
I know a student who got off the wl at one of those schools last yr. They were very persistent in reaching out and checking in with their adcom on a regular basis. They also had others reach out on their behalf. That strategy could be risky - as you may be perceived as being annoying, but in this case it worked. Stats were good, but not the highest. But think the student came across as passionate and charming during the wl process and the relationship developed with the adcom obviously helped. Good luck!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the Common Data Set of each school give one a peek at # WL’d and # accepted off WL, and therefore that might prove helpful re: gauging chances?
Typically, a student will not receive an offer from their wait list school until AFTER the May 1 national student response day, when that school has a better idea of how many students they can take from the wait list. Sometimes it can be during June or even July, when the ‘summer melt’ can happen.
This means that if Student A gets off the wait list at School 1 and then withdraws from School 2, a space has now opened up at School 2 and is offered to Student B, who then withdraws from School C and so on – hence the summer melt.
What this means that any wait list student will still need to commit and deposit to a school they’ve received a solid offer from to confirm their spot before May 1, with the knowledge that if admitted from the wait list to a preferred school, they will need to forfeit the first deposit and be prepared to make a second.
@midwest67, I partially agree. While I think the common data set does show the number of wait listed and number accepted, I don’t think it breaks it down by the major. From what I understand is that if you have a school that you need to apply to a specific major/college and a student declines, they take from the wait list for that particular area of study. Again, if it is applicable to the school. There are schools that have not taken from the wait list in at least 2 years.
- look at the common data set and see what the acceptance rate is:
For UCSB 2015-6:
Number accepting a place on the waiting list 2,910
Number of wait-listed students admitted 278
So about 10%
http://bap.ucsb.edu/institutional.research/common.data.set.2015.16.pdf
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As of May 1, have her pick a college that she would be happy to go to . Buy her the sweatshirt and have her start the process of finding roommates/whatever. Tell her to prepare to go to this college because who knows what will happen with WLs.
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Follow the college’s WL procedures…some will check in with you periodically to see if you are still interested.
For the 1(!) college she is the most interested in, she should tell them she would attend if admitted. At this point the colleges want you to 100% attend if you are admitted. But you should only tell that to one college.
College Data also list all colleges and the number of wait listed students last yr and the number accepted. The stats for accepting wait listed students is very low for most schools and many are no longer need blind in the process. Example Vanderbilt.
@Midwest67 , there is a thread going right now on the admissions forum about that. Here it is: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1974876-add-accept-from-waitlist-rates-for-any-college-here-if-you-know-it.html#latest
In a nutshell, no, looking at WL acceptances from one year to the next is rarely helpful, at least at very selective colleges. There can be wide variation from one year to the next. In an example I used on the other thread, last year Notre Dame took 85 kids off WL. Two years before, they took zero.
Another example: For 2015-2016, UCB admitted 1,340 from WL. The year before, it was JUST 437. It’s pretty clear that looking at who gets in off WL is not a reliable way to gauge chances.
For lots of people, a wait list = a no. It’s healthier to move on and commit at somewhere you were accepted.
If you want to keep one waitlist open, knowing that you’ll lose deposits elsewhere, go ahead, but in the long run, it just lengthens the stress.