I’ve been waitlisted at seven colleges (so far). What can I do to raise my chance of being admitted? I don’t have many updates. I am (or was, due to COVID19) basically still doing everything I wrote on my application. What should I write on my letter of continued interest? Is it a good idea to write about independent activities that I didn’t include like running and strength training? Or to write about projects I’ve been working on (I wrote a short screenplay and some poems, I worked on set recording sound for a class film project, and I’m learning Ableton and Premiere)? Is it a great or terrible idea to submit some of my written work? Is it a good idea to list some books I’ve read? Or is it a very individualized thing and I should write whatever I feel like? I feel like I must be a borderline applicant if so many schools didn’t accept or reject me. How can I break out of it? Thanks!
My son has been waitlisted at 5 colleges so far and has faced a similar dilemna regarding not having many updates due to COVID-19. So far he wrote about what he was doing toward accomplishments in two of his activities that would have likely come to fruition had they these competitions, etc not been cancelled due to COVID-19. Basically, he wrote about what he was able to accomplish thus far even if it wasn’t much but mentioned COVID-19 as a contributing factor. He also wrote about what professors and classes excited him at the colleges he’s written LOCI for. Also, he obviously praised the school and thanked them for waitlist consideration. In terms of supplemental pieces of work, I would check what each school agrees to accept. I know some of my son’s schools said only one letter of LOCI and an update on grades (that is if he gets any more grades!!!) Maybe other people have some other ideas. Good luck. I’m sure you are a great applicant.
Thank you and good luck to your son! I see you are concerned about being high need- I’m high need as well- keep in mind that if many high need accepted students don’t admit, they may be looking for a high need waitlisted applicant to fill socioeconomic quotas… It really seems to be a lot about luck.
Sadly this is unlikely to be true. Waitlists are one of the dark areas of college admissions. At many schools the waitlist isn’t about holding on to kids they will accept if a space just opens up, it’s primarily marketing to future applicants.
There is no rule that requires only putting enough kids on the waitlist to provide a reasonable buffer for a shortcoming in enrollment. So smart college adcoms realized they could have it two ways. They could use the waitlist for kids for whom they’re hoping space opens.
And they could use the waitlist to pass out quasi “acceptances” that didn’t require actually enrolling the kid!! HS juniors with similar stats will think “If Julie got in last year then I got a shot too” and apply. Thing is, Julie didn’t get in; she was waitlisted and somehow never made it off the list. Colleges love lots of applicants because the more apps they have the more selective they look.
You can sometimes find numbers in the Common Data Set reports. In 2019 for Northwestern 3,067 offered the waitlist, 55 eventually taken from it. UPenn offered 2,051, eventually accepted 101. WUSTL, well known for passing out waitlist slots, won’t even say how many are waitlisted!! But in 2018-19 they took 31 from it. In a recent year JHU 2,069 offered the waitlist, 57 eventually accepted from the waitlist. JHU enrolls about 1,300 frosh each year. They are under no illusion that every initial admittee will decline, and the same thing happening with the 1st set of kids taken off the waitlist to replace them. In other words they know very few of the waitlist kids won’t get in but it’s a great move on their part to have 2,069 kids out their spreading the word they were offered a slot on the waitlist.
That makes sense.
Waitlist accepted to a T10 LAC. It CAN happen! Maybe not often. Maybe bc my parents paid 75% of the tuition. I don’t know. The odds aren’t great, but I’m still letting my kid stay on a few bc I’m living proof it can work out.
This year schools are going to waitlist a lot earlier and will be enrolling more off the lists.