My son was waitlisted at all 4 top schools he applied to. What are your thoughts if they will still accept people off of the waitlist given the current pandemic? This is anything but a typical year and he we have been staying in touch with the ADs. Do boarding schools have contract binding dates? If so, when is it? I know our local day schools have a date of June 1.
My son needs a school…he would be great at any of the one to which he applied.
Will any schools be going to waitlists?
Most schools pushed out the binding dates, ours is now July 1st but could change again if the fall plans are not finalized yet at that point. The schools certainly do worry about higher summer melt but it all depends on what the fall looks like, which depends on many outside factors that are impossible to predict right now.
It’s definitely an unusual year!
Our binding date is July 1 (or 15?).
A couple quick thoughts:
Oh another thing I’ll add about this year: because of the packing up of dorms being done by the schools, I can’t help but think there might be a couple of casualties from contraband found in dorms. I know that most schools seem to have a sanctuary policy in place for contraband that has been declared ahead of time, but still…there might be a few casualties in this weird situation.
On the flip side, there might be a desire to reduce number of boarders for distancing reasons so maybe on balance it’s harder to get off the wait list this year?
(none of this is insider info; it’s purely me brainstorming aloud.)
Our daughter’s school has pushed back their deadline from July 1 - July 15th. They also mentioned having fewer people in the dorms if school re-opens in the fall. My assumption is that they won’t take students off the waitlist this year even if they have room, as fewer students allows for everyone to have more space. We had been holding out hope for our daughter to get off the waitlist of another school, but I’m guessing the chance of that is even lower now. I just don’t see schools wanting to be at full capacity this year.
I think most people have been assuming that at least “some” kids will melt this summer. The question is whether schools will replace them or use the melt to make social distancing marginally easier.
This article appeared today in The Boston Globe. It’s mostly anecdotal stuff, and about college, but relates for sure.
Our school pushed back contracts to July 15 as well, after their plans for the upcoming year will be announced, so people can take that into consideration when deciding to sign up for the upcoming year, or not.
@cinnamon1212 I think that’ll become more widespread. Am very interested to see how the various school plans impact yield and WL movement.