<p>I've read the posts that indicate how many students each school accepts and it seems that they all over-accept in order to yield the number they want after the prospective students make their final decisions. My question is this: If they over-accept, why do they also have a waiting list? And, do students on that list have to wait until everyone decides what they're doing before they are offered a spot at that school? I appreciate any thoughts on this.</p>
<p>I think all the schools do things differently. From my experience with my children, it seems like some schools over-accept by the number they have determined necessary to yield the desired class size. In at least some cases (e.g., BU), they don’t do wait lists. Other schools seem to accept the students they wish to make up their class, and then make up a wait list of students to fill in for those who decline offers (e.g., CMU). Then there are schools that over-accept and also do wait lists. There is often no way to know where you stand on a wait list, either. Schools may fill a spot vacated by a tall blond girl for a wait listed tall blond girl. They will try to maintain their freshman class diversity. It’s impossible to determine exactly what to expect for a wait listed student. It has been suggested on CC to call the admissions office and ask how many students were called from the wait list over the past SEVERAL years in order to get some idea of your chances. You also need to make it very clear to the school that you are still interested, and keep your file with them updated with any new accomplishments. While there are always many reports of students coming off of wait lists on CC, hopefully you have another choice and can get excited about it!</p>
<p>Thanks much for the feedback. The school in question actually is BU, so it looks like it may be one of the schools that over-accepts and waitlists. My D does have some other BFA choices (certainly more affordable ones), but BU was where her heart was. I guess she can wait for a couple of weeks to see if she hears anything, but then I think she needs to move on. I don’t think calling the BU Admissions Office will help.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Orris93, just to be clear, BU does NOT waitlist.</p>
<p>Actually BU does waitilist. </p>
<p>I emailed Paolo Di Fabio last fall to get the stats from him for the class of 2010. </p>
<p>This is quoted from his email back to me.</p>
<p>“Last year we had approximately 800 students audition (true freshmen and transfer) and just about 90 were offered initial acceptance with about 20 students wait-listed. Of those 20 students, 5 were offered full acceptance off of the wait-list. Of those accepted we yielded 40 students for our current freshmen Class of 2014 (19M/21W).”</p>
<p>I hope this helps and good luck to your daughter Orris!</p>
<p>Thanks actingmom for the stats. They’re not too encouraging. My D, although still sad, is working at moving on and, except for the fact that we live in the same city as her second choice school, is thinking it will be as good a fit as BU. (She still took a spot on the waiting list, but she’s not actively waiting.)</p>
<p>Interesting. In the info session in Chicago they specifically said they do not have a wait list at BU. Sorry for the mis-information.</p>
<p>Yes, my bad as well. Although I went back and checked my notes I took during DS’s audition at BU on Feb 13, 2010, and I wrote “BU doesn’t WL”, as something that was said during the presentation.</p>
<p>Anyway, hoping for the best for your D, orris93!</p>