<p>I'd be curious to see a list of schools that waitlisted or denied applicants at the top (stats-wise, anyway) of their applicant pool. For example, my daughter was waitlisted at Skidmore while being accepted to six colleges clearly above Skidmore in terms of reputation/academics. Her only other waitlist was at Haverford, a top LAC. </p>
<p>She interviewed at Skidmore, expressed interest several times, and spent a lot of time on her application even though it was her safety school. If things had worked out differently, as they very well could have, then she would not have had any fallback. In fact, at one point during the application process, she preferred Skidmore to "better" schools, so the waitlist could have been devastating. I know of one other CC person who was waitlisted at Skidmore and yet was accepted at Tufts. I also know Skidmore does indeed accept students with similar stats to my daughter's since several CC students got in early-write to Skidmore's honors program, so it's not straightforward.</p>
<p>For those who experienced this, which colleges waitlisted/denied you? Where did you get in? Do you think this is a yield game, or do you feel that the adcoms really didn't believe you were as desirable as the accepted students? It doesn't matter whether your safeties were second, third, or fourth tier schools. Any feedback will be appreciated. </p>
<p>For rising seniors, it will be helpful to learn which schools routinely waitlist a segment of their top applicants.</p>
<p>I got rejected @ UT austin which I considered was match/safety. I was near the top of the SAT spectrum they had @ collegeboard and the GPA too. I got into USC however which has 24.7% acceptance rate... I heard people got into Rice, Emory, and PRINCETON and still got rejected @ UT austin apparantly (i was hanging around @ UT austin forum alot @ one point)</p>
<p>WHat i didn't know about was, that UT austin has around 25% rate for out of staters anyhow. My friend got into UT austin, however.</p>
<p>I wonder what the stats are like for out-of-staters at UT Austin. Still, if people got into Princeton, Rice, and Emory but not UT Austin, then that school definitely qualifies.</p>
<p>So far we have . . . </p>
<p>Skidmore
UT Austin</p>
<p>Well my friend who got in out of state for UT Austin:</p>
<p>2050~2090 SAT score
3.9 GPA
she tutors, is a vice president of creative writing club, and tutors some more. She probably has some more though. She's very hardworking. She also got into Cornell, Georgetech, Texas A&M, etc etc. She didn't make it into Stanford or Rice though (she was apprantly half asleep when she wrote the stanford essay..cough)</p>
<p>I don't think UT is that selective in-state. I cannot think of a single person who applied to UT as a safety and got rejected, although they have a new policy of asking some "lower-level" applicants to start school in June.</p>
<p>^ instate its much easier thanx to the whole 10 percent rule thing. It doesnt' apply out of state though</p>
<p>Of course such schools will accept a portion of its top applicants - but the question is, what percentage?</p>
<p>I personally feel that it's a numbers game. If a school waitlists or denies a good percentage of its top applicants, several things happen. First, the school selectivity numbers go up, which gives the college points in the national rankings. If the ranking goes up, then the school will attract more top applicants. Increased ranking improves the chances that the <em>accepted</em> top applicants will choose the college. Next, it ensures a good yield, also an important ranking number, because the college accepts mostly those it expects to attend. Last, it sends the message that it does not want to be considered a safety school by anyone. </p>
<p>One university, which I'm familiar with, decided several years ago that it would only accept those students it felt would be likely to attend. After the faculty learned of this, they revolted because it meant that the university was limiting the quality of students according to the adcom's projections instead of letting the top applicants decide. That's one school I know for a fact accepts applicants that exceed its averages as well as those it deems a good fit.</p>
<p>Oh, I misread your initial post. Meh.</p>
<p>No apologies necessary, Dorian. It's good to know that UT Austin is a reliable safety for in-state applicants.</p>
<p>This is a little off topic, but I was wondering if anyone had applied using online applications or the general app as opposed to the individual schools' applications. Do you think it made a difference regarding your acceptance?</p>
<p>
[quote]
If a school waitlists or denies a good percentage of its top applicants, several things happen. First, the school selectivity numbers go up, which gives the college points in the national rankings.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's a pretty tough way to increase a school's ranking. "Selectivity" is only 15% of the measure, and test scores and high school rankings are 90% of that. So the % accepted is only 1.5% of the final "score" that determines the school's ranking.</p>
<p>It can still be good for the school, in that it may raise its stature by word-of-mouth. As guidance counselors, students, and parents hear about the denials of top kids, they may rethink the school's perceived quality and conclude it's not the safety they thought it was.</p>
<p>But I suspect the reasons are more emotional. Taking a few fewer superstars (who probably consider you a safety) so you can take a few more of the bread-and-butter kids who love the school, would do anything to attend, have alumni ties, etc... that's the kind of admit letter an admissions office loves to send. No school would reorient its entire admissions process to do that, but I could readily imagine an institution doing that for a limited number of applicants. Granted, the school may mistakenly deny some top apps who consider the school a first choice. Another reason it would be a bad idea to deny them across the board!</p>
<p>bigU212, my daughter used the Common App for all but two of her applications, and then only because those two required their own application. Out of those two, she was rejected from one (an Ivy) and accepted to one (a top LAC). Her five other acceptances obviously came from the Common App.</p>
<p>Waitlisted at:
Union College and Reed College, as well as Princeton.</p>
<p>Got flat out rejected from:
Bowdoin and Colby, as well as Brown and Columbia.</p>
<p>Accepted at:
Carleton, Davidson, UPenn, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Haveford, WesleyanU...and a few others.</p>
<p>Very strange pattern. Don't know what was the tipping factor.
IB</p>
<p>Brandeis is famed for rejecting top applicants from my school (we are in the Boston suburbs) unless they show a LOT of interest.</p>
<p>You may be onto something, Etselec. Maybe the safety waitlist/reject has something to do with the history of the high school. For example, maybe Brandeis used to accept many students from your high school but discovered that most never matriculated. All the applicants from your high school then become unlikely admits.</p>
<p>Alot of this is yield management. Why accept someone who isn't going to come? That is why so many schools wait-list rather than reject. Not all schools do this, however.</p>
<p>I agree, Slipper, but I don't think it's good policy.</p>
<p>The schools cannot possibly know the motives each student has for applying to them. Maybe my d had her heart set on Skidmore. A waitlist is a negative from the moment it is received. For the sake of argument, let's assume that my daughter was rejected from every college but her two safeties, Skidmore (waitlist) and College B. Of course she's going to College B. Skidmore (or whatever college it happens to be) just missed out on catching a good student on the rebound.</p>
<p>Maybe Yield-protection waitlists work like this:</p>
<p>Adcom feels applicant is treating school as safety-Applicant Waitlisted
Applicant Accepts place on Waitlist-Applicant Accepted on the spot
Applicant Ignores Waitlist-The Adcom was right, and forgets "top" applicant.</p>
<p>Could this be???</p>
<p>i was waitlisted at elon, which was my only safety besides the state schools. i had a 3.7, 1290 old sat. got into davis, irvine.. etc. scholarship to schools with av. gpa 3.86 and 1260 sat. elons sat is like 1170 or something. i thinks its all just a crapshoot.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted at Elon and my sats are 2290 and GPA is 4.6, and I have tons of unique leadership extracurriculars etc.
On Elon’s app they asked for all the schools I’m applying to (which includes Yale and places like that).</p>
<p>I haven’t heard from anywhere yet except USC, where I got accepted.</p>