@Crusoemom , a nice, sensible number of applications.
3 acceptances (from “low match” schools), 3 waitlists, and a slew of UC rejects here. What a crazy, disappointing process. Son is now considering CC and transfer rather than spend money on a lower tier school. (He has grad school plans, so saving money now means more money later).
This does not prevent the colleges from using spring admission as an enrollment balancing method. Middlebury has done spring admissions for 30+ years for this purpose (though the stated purpose is that a large number of students study abroad during a spring semester, leaving unused capacity in the spring semester; see http://www.middlebury.edu/admissions/admitted_students/envelope/info_feb ).
@Coll5678 Funny, my S got into Northeastern, but WL at both BUs (Binghamton and Boston U) despite fact parents went to the two BUs. Seems kinda random.
@baxter My other S is at Cornell on the same deal (had to attend another school for a year).
I heard Harvard does it too. BU did not invent, they are trying to mimic the Ivies.
@blevine that definitely is odd. If he got in to Northeastern he should have easily gotten into Binghamton
And…it continues. WL #5 arrived today from Wake Forest…
This is obviously anecdotal, but I was waitlisted at 6 colleges! It’s okay though because I got into my first choice which I will be more than happy to attend if fin aid works out as well as other schools with very generous FA. (If I get do-able FA from Barnard I will remove myself from the WLs and finally be done with this draining process 
.) Not sure if this was mentioned already, but I think another factor in getting waitlisted could be that sometimes the school likes you, but you haven’t shown enough interest, so they have to protect their yield. I am new to this whole applying-to-college thing and didn’t fully understand the importance of at least interviewing. I did not interview for a single school (yikes) and after getting my decisions back, I found out that the vast majority of my schools at least considered the interview and applicant interest (many of them even categorized those as important). I imagine this caused many of my waitlists (or at least that’s what I tell myself ).
To be honest, while I hate not having closure, I also like the softness of being waitlisted lol. I didn’t get any flat-out rejections, and I don’t think I could deal with 6 of them!
I think that finding match schools are especially difficult when you are solid, but not exceptional, student that needs financial aid.
My D’s stats aren’t high enough to get her enough merit at most of the schools where acceptance seemed safe, but are high enough to put her on the middle to upper 50% range of those more selective schools that meet most or full need. Which meant most of her “match” schools have lower acceptance rates.
She ended up adding 4 “safety” schools later in the processes when we realized this. All her decisions are in: accepted at 6 schools (the most selective of the bunch just slightly over our budget), Wait listed at 4 “match” schools, and denied at 3 (2 reach and one pie in the sky super reach).
I think she may stay on the wait list on a couple just to see…but they are too far away to spend money and time to visit and I don’t want to get her hopes up and take away from her falling in love with one she is already accepted.
Just a couple of questions for parents with kids on the waitlist: 1. Did they show demonstrated interest? (Did they visit the school and follow up with their regional admissions counselor?) 2. Did they continue to email their admissions counselor and let them know that the school was their first choice?
In our case, our twin DD’s did all of that with both schools they were denied at, as well as one’s they were waitlisted at.
That said they have done well so far with 3/3 safety acceptances, 4/5 target acceptances, but only 2/5 waitlists and the rest denials from reach schools with 3 more to go on Thursday - every school they applied to was a top 25 Uni or LAC, so it’s relative to their experience.
My D was waitlisted at a school she never visited, didn’t even request an interview, and wrote the supplemental essay on something completely unrelated to the school. She expected a rejection and was surprised to be waitlisted.
She was also waitlisted at a comparable school where she visited 3 times, interviewed, and wrote a very personal and sweet (and strong) supplemental essay that clearly showed she knows the school and how she would fit and contribute into its culture.
The two other waitlists I believe were because she didn’t apply EA, and they had already accepted a bunch of kids EA from her high school. Almost none (if any) of the RD kids had any luck at those two schools this year. A decided turnaround from just two years ago when nearly everyone was deferred from EA and then got in or rejected in RD. Things are definitely different.
That’s how it feels, anyway.
In my mind interest was not much of a factor this year–sure you can claim it made a difference for your kid, but there are others with the same stats or better for which it did not.
Yes, I think there’s something more at play here.
I think our twin DD’s results were unusual this as they are twins which is some sort of hook, or at least they get treated the same, and one of them will be a Varsity student athlete.
Interestingly, my S got waitlisted so far from colleges that he least desired and got accepted to ones that he most desired. Whether interviewed or not has no bearing on the results, as he didn’t interview with any of the colleges that he got accepted.
Has she been recruited to all these schools, AND told she didn’t need to apply ED to be guaranteed a spot on the team? It’s pretty unusually to have 14 schools, and the 14 you listed, agree to this.
These schools are playing games. If they have only ever accepted 50 off the waitlists, and have 500 on the waitlist, that’s a denial list. Maybe they don’t want to get the reputation of actually denying applicants or they want to protect some number on the USNWR ranking, but it seems very unfair to tell #411 that she’s waitlisted when there is absolutely no possibility of getting off that list. Even if they offer spots to only 500 on the list and only 200 accept, it is still ridiculous.
@twoinanddone, most are D3 and many had likely pre-reads with continued support through RD as she had high scores and excellent grades with a most rigorous course load.
Many are D3, but that doesn’t mean their sports teams are just a bunch of walk ons.
Definitely not walk-on’s; she got roster commitments from her top admitted choices - she spent a lot of time with the coaches to ensure alignment and commitment - it takes a lot of work.
My son was WL at 5 schools – 1 he never visited & 4 he showed demonstrated interest to some extent (visits prior to junior year, but none required him to sign in & extended legacy – grandpa & 2 uncles at 2 different schools). None offered alumni interviews & we live 3000 miles from these schools, so we couldn’t schedule ones on campus. I don’t think demonstrated interest (or lack thereof) had ANYTHING to do with it. I think it’s the same 25,000 students applying to the same schools #25-50 that is causing this WL glut.