<p>It seems like (no numbers here, just my impressions as a CC fan and NYTimes reader) students applying to selective schools applied to MORE schools this year. Since each student can only attend one school, more places on the waitlist may open up. Due to high yields, basically none at HYPS, some at the next level down, maybe moreso at the next level down. That's what I think looking in my magic eightball. ;) And hot-headed dual alias young-uns' (apecifically blankman/agoodfriend), should grow up, take a chill pill, and lay off the flaming rhetoric. :)</p>
<p>i have that same feeling anxiousmom!
it will be interesting nonetheless!</p>
<p>and thanks, xiggi, for the numbers (as always!)</p>
<p>I'm am just quite surprised that we are seeing waitlist movement BEFORE May 1st. In the 3 years I've been on CC, I haven't heard of that happening before. The NACAC list, which will be available on May 5th, could be very interesting!</p>
<p>This was a pretty good article (from last year) on the trickle effect on the wait lists. </p>
<p>
[quote]
The number of students they admit from the waiting list can vary considerably from one year to the next, deans say. The University of Virginia in Charlottesville has admitted as few as eight and as many as 240 in recent years, while Rice University in Houston has taken from 40 to 130. Dartmouth has ranged from none to 40. </p>
<p>"It is a bit of a crapshoot," says Don Honeman, director of admissions at the University of Vermont- Burlington. The size of the applicant pool has more than doubled in five years, making it difficult to reliably project enrollment. </p>
<p>Ann Wright, vice president for enrollment at Rice, says yearly swings in the number of students admitted from the waiting list are the product of "a ripple effect." If, for example, Stanford University in California accepts students from its waiting list, some students who have committed to Rice will withdraw in favor of Stanford. Rice will then go to its waiting list to fill the vacated slots, impacting schools lower in the pecking order. "We are very much affected by what other schools do," Wright says.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My guess is that there is waitlist movement NOW because colleges do want to fill their incoming classes. As the numbers of admits send their "no" cards or letters, schools are probably seeing that they will have openings, and they want to snag their top wait list kids before someone else does.</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper1. There will be a lot of waitlist movement this year, but it's hard to know how much will happen at the top of the selection pyramid.</p>
<p>I just noticed on the Brandeis forum that one student mentioned getting a waitlist offer on May 1 and was now trying to decide. I believe that last year the movement off the Brandeis waitlist did not really start till late May. (Son had a good friend accepted off the waitlist at that time who was even given a small merit scholarship.)</p>
<p>Also saw another poster who'd been offered acceptance off the waitlist at Northeastern yesterday.</p>
<p>Sorry to interupt the spat, it sounds like semantics to me... has anyone heard from Richmond about their waitlist? D is biting her nails...</p>
<p>Kimbee's daughter can have my D's spot at Richmond. D is going to a different LAC instead.</p>
<p>xiggi - Just curious - Where did you get the waitlist numbers from last year?
Thanks.</p>
<p>Common Data Set forms posted on the colleges' web site.</p>
<p>It really is extremely variable from year to year. Here are Johns Hopkins stats:
2005 - No offers of admission from the wait list.
2004 - Approximately 150 students were admitted from the wait list.
2003 - Approximately 100 offers.
2002 - No offers of admission from the wait list.
2001 - Approximately 50 offers.
2000 - No offers.</p>
<p>So indeed for JHU last year no one moved off the wait list. The extreme variability seems a bit odd.</p>
<p>With selective LACs, do you think anyone would be offered a place off the WL if he/she didn't submit more information or anything? My D accepted a place on the WL at two LACs, but did nothing further (no additional recos, letters, etc). Will the schools interpret her inactivity as a sign that she really doesn't want to go there? Frankly, I don't think she or we would be bothered by that result, but I am just curious.</p>
<p>I would assume the students with no financial need would get some preferential consideration in WL decisions. Colleges with modest endowments would be crazy not to consider this. I think it would be deplorable if HYP did this.</p>
<p>Hopkins is an easy one to explain. Due to the two deaths they had on campus in '04, they thought yield would be down in '05, so they over-accepted. However, yield was not down, so they ended up with too many matriculants -- thus, no one taken off of WL, and they scrambled to find housing for all the new Frosh.</p>
<p>I am keeping half on eye on this and noticed that two more schools have extended acceptances to those on the waitlist: Syracuse U (May 3) and Harvey Mudd (this morning). </p>
<p>There are several people reporting on the Carnegie Mellon board that the school will not go to their waitlist.</p>
<p>Even HY and P have a limit of fin aid dollars. Most of these schools admit that when the aid dollars are gone they have to take full payers. Why is this deplorable? Should wealthy BMW dealerships give out free cars? Shouldn't the attitude be that it's great that there are wonderful need blind schools that make it possible for many to get amazing education they couldn't otherwise afford? I for one am greatful rather than feeling entitled.</p>
<p>Californian, I wouldn't worry about not submitting additional materials. But I would make darn sure that I'd contacted the admissons departments and let them know that I was interested. And if one of them is her first choice, saying "If offered a spot [contingent upon sufficient financial aid, if such is appropriate], I will come" surely doesn't hurt.</p>
<p>californian, my D was accepted a couple of years ago off the waitlist at an LAC she had simply sent a postcard response back to. She was not accepted at two others for which she made an extra effort and for which her school really provided extra support to get her in off the WL. I think the schools take whoever they need who has accepted a spot on the WL--they are in it for their benefit, not the happiness of the kids in qusetion. Gender, location, niche, all come into play.</p>
<p>suze, the endowments of HYP are so hugh P'ton floated a trial balloon which proposed eliminating undergraduate tuition altogether. It never gained any traction but just the fact that it was considered plausible gives us an idea of the financial resources availabe to HYP. And since they tout themselves as being need blind, these colleges should follow through on their waitlists too. </p>
<p>As i noted, I have no problem with colleges considering families' ability to pay if their endowments are unable to sustain totally need blind admissions. With an EFC of $80,000+, I suspect our son could have had some advantage at some more selective colleges should he have wanted to apply. It not something we would have desired but was a reality not of our control.</p>