it's National Decision Day and by midnight tonight, colleges will be fairly certain of their enrollment numbers.
it sounds like some colleges already knew they'd be a bit short because I've seen activity in some threads where kids are being made offers. And it sounds like some other colleges already know that they're full so there will be no wait list activity. Is this correct?
But for most colleges. they'll likely begin tomorrow to reach out to kids who are waiting...is that assumption right? Is it the kind of thing where, say, 70% of the activity might happen this week and then dribs & drabs as kids accept/reject?
Any insights welcomed…my kid is still holding out hope on 2 colleges in particular…and it’ll be good, honestly, to get a firm no (or a yes).
This time is known as the “summer melt”. As students decline and schools see their yield, if they have spots, they go to their waitlist. And as students accept a spot from the waitlist, their spot may open up (if a school isn’t over-enrolled). Many schools will announce when their waitlist is closed. Some say they close it June 1. But… stuff happens…
Students don’t graduate. Acceptances get rescinded. Parents can’t pay the tuition payment. Kids decide to take a gap year. Kids get sick and delay admission. So, even if a school says it is closing its waitlist … there are times when staying in touch with the school may help… especially if you are full pay.
@SouthernHope Many if not most schools do not know how many people they can take off the waitlist this week. They know how many people have accepted their offer of admission. But as jym pointed out they do not know how many of those students will actually matriculate.
Some prospective freshmen will fail to graduate. A few will die or become injured and be unable to attend. Some will have financial problems like suddenly unemployed or dead//injured/divorced/etc parents. Some will be accepted off waitlist at other schools. These students often don’t withdraw until midsummer or later.
Your best choice is to plan on attending your back up school. Getting in off a waitlist is great if it happens but at this point concentrate on the one that did accept you and where you’ve committed.
Is there any scuttlebutt as to wait list activity in general so far this year? I know a lot of people thought that there would be a lot of wait list movement and I wonder if there are any early indicators?
@SouthernHope - getting a firm “no” might take a while based on summer melt as explained by @jym626. @nocturne21 - some colleges seem to have started working their wait list. There was at least one message in the Duke forum about it today. I think most colleges should start working on it as early as tomorrow after the midnight cutoff tonight.
It will probably take a while to get a firm “no” or that elusive “yes”, but if your child is focused on one school in particular, as an waitlisted student myself, I found that going back to old waitlist threads was really helpful, especially if the college typically keeps the same schedule for sending decisions. I know that UChicago, the school I’m waitlisted at, typically will start taking students off students early April and close their waitlist around the second week of May. However, this year is a bit different due to the addition of ED, and according to the people who got off for a gap year and called the AO, the Class of 2021 is full. The good news is if the college really likes you, the college is more likely to keep the student on the waitlist to account for the summer melt.
Hopefully waitlisted students will have good news this year. Good luck to your child and anyone else hoping to get off a waitlist!
3 days into it, looks like a combo of some schools already handing out offers (UCLA is a biggie), others saying that they’re pretty much full (Carniege Mellon) and the majority are still crickets…no news…
The “midnight cutoff” on May 1 was the deadline for admitted students to notify schools that they would be attending. So after that, schools would know where they stood in terms of admitted students and their enrollment target and could start to go through the waitlist process. Good luck!
If you are on a waitlist, don’t spend time on keep checking the status. Focus on the school you have committed until you hear something. Just don’t put much expectation on it.
@SouthernHope , by this time last year, D was taken off WL on May 3. Two others were crickets for a long time. Then, on July 2, D was offered a place off WL at a college, while at the same time the door was shut at another college.
Summer melt is real. The farther it goes into summer though, the smaller the chance that a student will take up an offer, because they often invest their energy in the school they have deposited at. However, I have seen on this board a few occasions when students have accepted WL offers as soon as two weeks before the start of term. Who knows how true the stories are.
It’s obviously a mug’s game to hope to be taken off WL though.
