@Karamiles I’m so sorry! This waitlist stuff is hard. Big hugs for you and your daughter.
@artskids may just depend on the school. My understanding that type is a myth at CMU and Michigan. My girl told me they just look at the whole candidate and don’t have profiles they are trying to plug in…anyway just repeating what she told me when we were talking at Christmas.
About CMU Priority Wait List…glad two others chimed in, because I also was going to say that when my D was on the CMU WL, we also got the financial aid package with the WL so that if a time came when an offer was given to be admitted off the waitlist, the financial aid package was already in hand since only 48 hours are given to take or leave the offer. So, we did have the financial aid information already. In my D’s case, she didn’t get off the WL, but didn’t care because she was already admitted to her first choice school, NYU. She does have a friend who got off the WL at CMU in that person’s year, and gave up her spot at CCM
@mtoverload thanks! She went to dance as soon as the email arrived. I can’t stop crying because that was the dream school.
@Karamiles So sorry, that’s really hard to be so close and then have it not happen.
@Karamiles
Ugh, this process is painful. I’m so sorry. From everything I read on CC, one day she will look back and be grateful she wasn’t accepted because she will be blooming and happy where she landed. Hang in there!
@Karamiles - I feel for you! It’s hard to watch them get bad news. The only silver lining is you’re not waiting for the dream school all summer. I hope there’s a great school she can fall for now that the dream school said no.
Thanks all. I think it kind of feels like a broken heart, though in the beginning of this process we said there was a rule about falling in love. It’s been a rough couple of days, she got waitlisted at Tisch but then had 2 rejections over the weekend and then yesterday lost BW. Northern Colorado also released her from their WL yesterday. That makes 19 rejections so far. I guess we have to focus on the 3 yes’s she has. We’re visiting next week. Hopefully she can have her mind open with yesterday’s losses behind her.
@Karamiles you guys have been through a rough stretch indeed…I am so sorry. Hugs to both of you. I hope that your D is able to fall in love with one of her 3 yes schools when you go on your visits! 
Does anyone have insight into Wagner’s Theater Performance waitlist? The letter said to contact a specific faculty with questions, but I sent an email almost two weeks ago with no response even after my admissions counselor said she would give a nudge. I also tried calling the professor but their voicemail was full, so I called and I left a message for the chair of the department instead also with no response so far. I know this is a crazy time of year for schools and faculty, so I’m trying not to clog inboxes and be overly pushy. But it’s hard to start making final decisions when I have no information about how their waitlist works and what the likelihood I could come off of it is given what they know about who has committed already.
@Karamiles. We had one of those rough stretches too in March, too many rejections all at once. D handkespd it better than I did. Hugs to you guys! I did not know that schools released from their waitlist before May 1. Best wishes for your D to be happy at one of her acceptances.
@luvbloominroses For what its worth, the above information about CMU is correct at least 4 years ago. They will give one year “grants” that are reviewable every year based on financial need. Scholarships are hard to come by. After a couple of appeals, we got one; but it was less than requested. All said and done, the grant and scholarship would have covered about 45% of the total tuition and fees (not R&B or books). The difficult thing for us was the 1 year “grant” process. What if 1 or 2 years in they decided our need changed and took it away or reduced it? Great school but the financial aid process was pretty frustrating to me.
@singoutlouise I have figured it out. There is a document they are waiting for for financial aid documentation. Not to start a whole “thing” but my VERY X (literally 17 years) “opted” not to fill out the documentation needed…so I was just notified that I need to submit a waiver. UGH! Luckily I can do that…and other schools have worked through the process pretty quickly…just frustrated that I did not know it was missing. Timing. The WL information says a decision has to be made within 72 hours of notification…so we plan to go visit…JUST IN CASE. We will see what happens.
I’m curious about the couple of students on this thread that were “released” from their Waitlisted schools…and it’s not even May 1st. So basically these schools know they have their final class? I can understand it more if it is May-late May and even June to send out notices that freshman class has been filled at “x” school and close out any guessing that an offer may still be available to a student but to do it This week is odd. I’m sorry for those of you who have experienced this “maybe” and hoped to move off the waitlist only to then gets hopes dashed right away without fair time. Makes me question the validity of a waitlist.
@luvbloominroses all of my D’s financial aid documents have been received and we still do not have an aid package from CMU. Very frustrating for sure!
@3Blessings Some schools evaluate their wait list on a weekly basis starting in April. Some/Many schools will have had some commitments and can release students each week as they have more of their class committed. One example is BW. We had the same sadness last year being released from the BW waitlist around the 15th of April. But as so many have said - it all turned out for the best. It would have been a very hard decision if he had an offer off the WL as he had BW tied with the school he ultimately committed to and is happy with.
@3Blessings - I would say it is a function of the class size and acceptance/yield… Hypothetical numbers (coming ONLY out of my head - ZERO evidence) Let’s say a school wants a class of x kids…and they put out Y offers (based on expected yield), and have a waitlist of Z more kids… so Y is total number of offers - but once they REACH X… they don’t need more kids. If lots of kids pick other places… they may need to move to waitlist… but Y is bigger than X, so if they fill X out of original pool - they don’t need Z
And this is why I teach history - NOT math…
^^^All of that is true. Yet, it is odd if they had enough students put down a deposit and commit just a few days into April, to fill the class. Many students are still weighing options.
Often, waitlist movement starts after May 1.
I just wanted to chime in to clear up the disputes about CMU Priority Waitlist for Class of 2021. I know Micaela, and right after she accepted her CMU offer, another student (her friend who she had perfomed with for years) got off the priority waitlist. They were so excited to attend together, but then Micaela booked The Cher Show. If my memory serves me correctly, they did fill her spot, but I’m not positive. But I can say 100% that at least student was taken off Priority Waitlist in 2021. I also know of a student who was class of 2019 who got in off the Priority Waitlist.
Re: release from wait list. Personally, if a school knows at some point that they will not be making an offer to my kid, I would prefer to get that information as quickly as possible. Being on a wait list muddies the water. I don’t think that an early release invalidates the idea behind a wait list. On the contrary, I would applaud any program that moves quickly to let students know that they are no longer being considered.
Having said that, I think that some schools could stand to revise their wait list methods. Ithaca for instance told us that they would have a wait list of between 50-60 applicants, but that they typically only take 1-4 from the wait list! At least they were completely up front about that. Just thinking about this particular example might lend credence to the idea that some schools have a “paired” wait list for “types.” Why else would you keep 50-60 people waiting if you’re only going to take 1-4 of them.