Waitlist!!!

<p>tsa: it isn't just a matter of getting everything right that entitles you to admission at these highly competitive schools. apparently not everything was done right. your sense of entitlement is astounding. noone should expect to get into stanford, columbia or swarthmore. they can only hope to get in. what i hope for is that you read the pomona coach's email properly and that you don't go oferfive.</p>

<p>BlacknBlue: You are right--I made that post a couple hours after the fact, and was still hot about it. I understand the nature of the admissions process...but I should clarify: I expected to get rejected from Stanford and Columbia, not accepted, or waitlisted. Frankly, I did feel that I had a good chance at Swarthmore, but never did a sense of entitlement occur to me. I should have chosen different words to express my grief.</p>

<p>As I stated in a different post, I'm in at the Honors LSA program at U of M, so I still have great plans.</p>

<p>TSA and Anonymous99:</p>

<p>Your disappointment is palpable. It really is hard to see you guys wrestling with it. But, please keep in mind that you guys are already accepted at good schools: (UMich, LSU, Tulane) that hundreds of thousands of kids would kill to get into. And, you both still have shots at two more great schools -- Emory and Pomona.</p>

<p>TSA: You've got a strong high school transcript, but you applied to some awfully tough places. Understand that out of 4900 applications, Swarthmore accepted maybe 225 white males. Fewer than that from affluent suburban high schools. The reality is that most of those either had "walk on water" academics (valedictorian, stratospheric test scores, Governor's school, etc.) or a strong hook (athletic slot, legacy) or worked their application really hard (visits, meeting professors, showing well-researched interest) or some activity that really stops the admissions readers in their tracks. Let me give you an example. There is a Swarthmore student who, as a tenth grader, organized a statewide protest on the steps of the state Capitol against mandatory testing. She refused to take the mandatory high school tests and thus was prohibited from getting a diploma from what is considered to be the best magnet school in the state. That's a spunky kid. Particularly in the regular decision round, it takes something that stands out. The Guatamala trip might be the ticket, but, alas, it's not 'til next summer so you couldn't capitalize on a unique experience in your essays. Don't beat yourself up. But, don't think that there is some grand injustice. You applied to some schools that are serious reaches for everybody.</p>

<p>Anonymous: I don't have as good a read on your situation. But, again, you applied to some very difficult schools. I'm hoping that Emory works out for you because I think it's a terrific school.</p>

<p>BlacknBlue, I wasn't really trying to show the love for Swarthmore right now...I'm saving that for one of my letters ;) EDIT: I reread my post, and I see what you mean...sorry if I came across as slightly arrogant! I also see where I don't show the love for Swat now...</p>

<p>...a better more legible list:</p>

<p>Yale, Dartmouth, JHU--rejected
WUSTL, Swat, Penn--waitlisted
LSU, Loyola (NO), Tulane, Ursinus--accepted
Emory--still waiting
Rice--they closed my app....there was no way they could reopen it either</p>

<p>Money was never a problem...I honestly regret not doing ED....</p>

<p>I'm trying to be optimistic with the Swat waitlist letter that says people have gotten off the waitlist for the last five years</p>

<p>FYI - Accepted to Pomona</p>

<p>Fantastic, TSA! Pomona will be great.</p>

<p>Did you know that Pomona and Swarthmore have an exchange program? You can do a semester at Swat and some lucky Swattie will get to do a semester in SoCal.</p>

<p>TSA</p>

<p>Pomona = Happiest students, according to Princeton Review. Way to go!!</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>...accepted to Emory here!</p>

<p>Congratulations TSA and Anonymous99! Those are great choices. Ironic that they were the last ones you both heard from! </p>

<p>So will those be where you go to college?</p>

<p>Anonymous99:</p>

<p>I am so happy for you! Atlanta is wonderful and Emory is definitely a happenin' school. My daughter had already sent in her application there when she got into Swarthmore ED.</p>

<p>Check out the John Portman-designed student center. Seriously nice.</p>

<p>Thanks collegialmom and interesteddad! I'm headed to Emory right now...the deposit and everything...the whole nine yards. It's still sort of hard to get excited when you're holding on to something as valuable and important as Swarthmore, though...</p>

<p>interesteddad, I'll definately check the student center!</p>

<p>I dunno. My daughter had a touch of sadness when she wrote Emory and withdrew her application. It has a lot to offer. A great city, wonderful weather. Terrific connections to the Atlanta business, medical, and political community. Tons of diversity. There's a lot to be excited about.</p>

<p>Hey, I know my daughter would love to get her mitts on one of the Carter Center internships.</p>

<p>My first letter was an MIT rejection on the week of the 18th, so I had time to fully experience and pass through the moping stage of things before all the rest of my letters arrived. :} As a consequence, I'm not terribly bothered. I haven't visited Swarthmore yet, so I'm not sure how interested I am, but I did get into Bowdoin, Cornell, and Mt. Holyoke, all of which I'm happy with, and I'm not going to kill myself if Swarthmore doesn't take me.</p>

<p>I'm going on a few last campus visits in a few weeks, so I'm going to finally interview and probably send them a bunch of stuff. I am curious about my chances, though-- if it's like the MIT waiting list, where roughly one person of something like 700-1000 gets in, I don't want to get myself worked up. :}</p>

<p>Hm... on second thought, seeing the waitlist stats, I'm not sure if it's worth putting the effort in (or the plane ticket). I guess Swat will have to go the way of MIT and Yale in "sucks to be you!"s. :} Any place that puts more people on the waitlist than it outright accepts deserves whatever the heck it gets. And that thing about specially invited visitors not getting in sounds incredibly low. What kind of sleazebags do they employ? I'm sure there's a rational explanation, but they should have thought about how it feels to be a student on the outside of all these complicated machinations.</p>

<p>Most people here thinking of sticking it out, I assume? I can honestly wish you good luck, and I hope you end up getting to go where you want to!</p>

<p>The way I see it, a waitlist means that you went far enough in the process to get serious consideration for an acceptance letter...probably far enough for committee discussion.</p>

<p>Rough numbers: 60% get rejected, 40% get seriously considered. Half of those get waitlisted; half get accepted. Once you are in the 40% who make it to committee, you've got a shot at admission. It just all depends on what slots you might fill versus what slots are still available. For all intents and purposes, a waitlist is a nice rejection...a sincere honorable mention.</p>

<p>Why so many waitlistees? First, there are a lot of good applicants. Second, they need backups for all the various slots. They need the #2 soccer goalie on the waitlist in case the #1 soccer goalie decides to go to Amherst. They need the #2 cello player on the list in case the #1 decides to go to Pomona. It's just a numbers game. There is no way to predict yield to two decimal places. So colleges have to under-enroll the class and top-off from a waitlist if they intend to hit a targeted number in the freshman class. If you ever see a college not go to the waitlist, it means they made a mistake in predicting their yield.</p>

<p>
[quote]
And that thing about specially invited visitors not getting in sounds incredibly low. What kind of sleazebags do they employ?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, I guess the easy solution that would be to not send as many free plane tickets to visit the school for Discovery Weekend. Frankly, I think it's a little hard to complain about getting a free plane ticket to visit a school, but that's just me....nobody offered my daughter bupkis to visit schools. </p>

<p>Colleges don't have access to high school transcripts when they put together their diversity recruiting lists. There is always the possibility that they will see something on the transcript that makes them worry if the student would really be successful at the school. An example would be an applicant with straight 2's across the board on AP tests. No matter how much you like the applicant, you have to wonder if the high school is so bad that the student is going to be unprepared for Swarthmore. There is no point in setting a great kid up for failure. With 52% of the acceptance letters going to domestic minority students, it's hard to argue that Swarthmore isn't looking to mail acceptance letters to as many Discovery Weekend guests as they can.</p>

<p>Waitlists are awful. One of my best friends applied to Swat with what I thought was a super-strong application: 3 in our class, Governor's Scholars graduate, 2360 SAT (with 2 perfect sections), black belt, multiple state-award winning speech competitor and speech team officer, from KY (yay for hooks!)...and he got waitlisted. I thought he was a lock, especially after he got in to Williams, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Centre, and Wooster. Sigh, he gets five acceptances and one waitlist from his top choice.</p>

<p>that's insane...he's really an amazing person.</p>

<p>I am afraid he should have applied ed; the good news is that if he really wants to go there, especially if he does not need financial aid, he has a very good chance to get in off the wait list. Last year they took 18 students; since they accepted about the same number as last year but the kids are all applying to so many more schools, the odds of getting in off the wait list should be pretty good with his qualifications.</p>