Why some top students get waitlisted at many top schools. Every year many of our school’s top students (National Merit Scholars, National AP Scholars, top rank, high GPA, high rigor, solid/dedicated extracurriculars, well liked, social) apply to about 10-15 of the T20 schools and only get accepted at 2-3 and are waitlisted at others. This is not a rare case, every year there are many similar cases reported at college confidential too. What do these applicants do wrong?
So annoying.
What do they do wrong? Nothing. There are literally thousands of kids across the county exactly like them, and all are applying to the same schools.
It is heart breaking for them as usually they get accepted at their last choices. Obviously, they don’t stay stuck at that but it must be confusing and saddening nonetheless after all the hard work and seeing others getting in because of hooks.
The applicants may or may not have done anything wrong. There’s just not enough spots for everyone who wants - or is qualified - to attend. Colleges are building a class. Maybe the band needed some specific instruments those applicants didn’t play. Maybe the classics department needs more students, but those applicants were STEM. Maybe a lot of football players were graduating and they needed a lot of athletes. Perhaps they just had a lot of the same kind of applicants, and they wanted more diversity in the class.
An applicant can never tell what skill a college needs in a given year. Also, the top colleges are not interchangeable. They have different vibes, different foci, different priorities, different strengths. A student might be a match for 2-3 out of the 15-20 top schools applied to. The fact that your students got into only a handful could be a demonstration that the college recognized the match. The rare students who make the news for getting into all the Ivies are often URM with not only excellent, but superior achievements. And just because they’re in the news for getting into all the Ivies doesn’t necessarily mean Stanford or MIT also accepted them.
Demand at those colleges outweigh supply. And a student can only attend one school. Three acceptances at top schools means they’re doing great.
Colleges started waitlisting many more students than they can ever accept. People think of the waitlist as almost being admitted but really their chances of coming off the waitlist are very small.
The applicants did nothing wrong in their HS years as they appear to be strong, qualified candidates for any college.
However, they would have done something wrong in the application process if they did not:
- fully understand the hyper-competitive nature of admissions at the very top schools and were shocked by this outcome; and
- find and have been accepted to some excellent match/safety schools that are affordable and that they are excited to attend.
Based on some posters here on CC the student does something stupid on the application. The 3.95 UW GPA sudent who explains his lone B grade to be the fault of an incompetent teacher etc.
Agree with many comments so far.
This is where the problem comes in for some applicants…the ‘hard work’ is for one’s own education and growth, not for admissions to colleges of certain selectivity level. Of course I know some students are doing things because of how it might look on college applications…but the ones who think they should get a prize for that are the ones most disappointed when X college doesn’t see it the same way.
Re: students with hooks…they are per se qualified if they were accepted by X school…it’s any school’s prerogative to build their class how they see fit.
The students who get all of this are the ones who generally will excel anywhere, even their target or highly likely schools.
“Confusing and saddening?” “Heartbreaking?”
Sounds like a misunderstanding, at best. And mistaken thinking, which could have been avoided.
You dont get in for being a ‘good little bee’ in hs. Not some hierarchical package of “National Merit Scholars, National AP Scholars, top rank, high GPA, high rigor, solid/dedicated extracurriculars, well liked, social.” (If you aim high, you should know that.)
That’s what makes you a high school top dawg. Now, 6ou have more to present.
If these hypothetical kids were on their college decisions game, why be applying to “10-15 of the top 20???” Crapshooting? Assuming?
Lots of reasons for WL.
Getting waitlisted at “top schools” isn’t the same as being “waitlisted everywhere” unless the students didn’t apply to any safeties. If that’s their situation the way to avoid it is to apply to a couple of schools they’re sure to get into, that are affordable for their family, and that they’d be happy to attend. These may or may not be what the family considers “top schools.”
There just aren’t enough seats at the top 20 schools (as reported by US News) for all the students who would like to attend. Families need to understand the basic math. The Ivies alone received ~253,000 apps last year for a total of ~23,000 open seats. With those statistics, the surprise should be getting in, not getting WL or rejected.
How do they know why other students were accepted? Do they really believe the students who were accepted from their school must have been hooked in some way? I don't think that's fair or accurate.
Did they see their app packages? Did they even know how to rate another’s app, if they did see it?
Many kids are firmly planted in the hs mentality: my grades are better or, “I founded a club!” If they knew what the targets want, if they had put the right effort into this and choosing the right targets, they wouldn’t be comparing on superficials. It’s not count of AP or how CB assigns awards to scores. It’s you, vying for a position at that college, with its wants and competition. Don’t do it blind.
This isn’t applying for another, better high school.
“ONLY” get accepted to** 2 or 3 of the top 20? **And you are asking what they did wrong?? C’mon now…
This thread strikes me as clickbait.
In 35,000 Us high schools there are 175,000 “top 5 rank/gpa”, tens of thousands of “high rigor, solid EC”, etc. students. Not to mention recruited athletes, legacy, etc.
Top schools accept, what, 2,000 students? So T20 schools accept 40-50K. Only thing they did wrong, if they are confused, is not understand the numbers and the reality of their chance of acceptance.
Only being accepted to 2-3 top 20 schools is not a tragedy.