waitlisted (not deferred) ED and nervous

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
1

hi! I was waitlisted and not deferred from Wesleyan early decision 1. Wes is still my absolute dream school, and I have no idea what this means and what I should do from here? Does anyone have any idea what an ED waitlist means? Is it better or worse than a deferral? (For reference, both of the other Wesleyan ED applicants at my high school, which tends to send a lot of people to Wesleyan, were straight-up rejected.) I’m feeling nervous about everything right now; I’ve been admitted to 4 schools, but am anxious about other decisions.

some things about me: White female at highly ranked small public school, not incredibly high financial need. I want to be a political science major, with IR and environmental studies minors.
GPA: 93.5/100, almost all honors/AP/dual credit
ACT: 33 (36 E, 36 R, 32 S, 29 M. 10 on essay)
SAT2: 740 on World History, 760 on Lit
AP Scores: (I self-studied all of these APs with the exception of Environmental Science, which I took at school.) AP Human Geo (4), AP World History (4), AP US Government (4), AP Comparative Government (5), AP Environmental Science (5). Will graduate with 10 APs.

Extracurriculars: President of Quiz Bowl, Secretariat of Model UN, Science Research, selected for a program where I shadowed New York State legislators and then founded a youth civic education/engagement club due to my genuine horror about how uninformed we are about politics, voting rights/state government activist, singer-songwriter, in select and regular chorus, high school theater, volunteer tutor, National Honors Society, etc.

my schools:
wesleyan (waitlisted ED1)
UVM (accepted with 23K a year and also got into the honors college)
beloit (accepted with 30K a year, will seriously consider going if I don’t get in anywhere else)
Dickinson (accepted with 22K a year, triple legacy, will seriously consider going if I don’t get in anywhere else)
Whittier (accepted with 31K a year)
Barnard (tied for second choice)
Pitzer (tied for second choice)
Bates (tied for second choice)
Scripps (one of my top choices)
Macalester (one of my top choices)
Oberlin (one of my top choices)
American U (if I get into a specialized program it will be one of my top choices)
Kenyon
Skidmore
Bryn Mawr
Connecticut College
Brown (just for fun)
Whitman

Will I be ok? Has anyone else heard of an ED waitlist? Thanks!

2

Interesting. I’ve never heard of a waitlist on the ED list. It seems like a silly construct since they also have ED2 and RD – why wouldn’t they just admit you before filling those later enrollments? I don’t think you hurt yourself if you call Admissions and ask about it. It shows continued committed interest. Straight-up ask them what happens to you versus ED2 and RD? In theory the ED1 list shouldn’t change unless someone reneges on their binding commitment to the school. And that likely wouldn’t happen until after RD. So are they going to consider you in the RD list like a deferral in the meantime? I will be curious to hear the answer. I may be cynical but it sounds like a clever marketing way of deferring you for all practical purposes while keeping your interest high by signalling you are high on their list.

3

Why don’t you just go to Bates? Better to be in Maine with easy access to the out-of-doors than in a more urban, hipster environment for your interests, I think. Of course I’m showing my bias, but you have a lot of good options. Try to fall in love with a different school!

4

Because they aren’t admitted to Bates yet. This is just the list they applied to, no answer yet except to ED, EA, and rolling schools.

5

The waitlist response is pretty weird - I’ve never heard of that! My gut feeling is that it is less favorable than a deferral, and that it might be healthier to try to get excited about some of your other great options. Being strung along is no fun.

Sounds like you are likely to have some significant price differentials among your final choices, too. Thought exercise which could well come true: What if you got into both Pitzer and Scripps, with a nice merit offer from Scripps? Do you prefer Pitzer enough to pay the difference, even though Scripps would give you access to the same courses and majors through the consortium? (Have you visited the 5C’s?) Even if you can full pay, there’s a lot to be said for a good value, and for saving money for grad school and other experiences.

As for “Will I be ok?”… of course! Even with the handful of offers you already have, you would be ok, and you’re going to have quite a few more options by the time you’re done, I’m sure. The waiting is hard, but I’ll bet you have plenty of good news yet to come!

6

@aquapt our school called Wesleyan, and admissions did seem to act like it was more favorable than a deferral, but I have absolutely no idea! I haven’t seen the 5C’s, but plan to if I am admitted to Scripps or Pitzer. I hadn’t considered the price differential! I think I’m just so anxious about the whole thing that I didn’t even consider the possibility of getting merit aid at any of the schools I applied to other than Beloit, UVM, Dickinson, and maybe American.

7

Well, my gut is no authority - if admissions says ED waitlist is better than deferral, that’s good! I’ve never heard of it before.

I would guess that some merit from Scripps is entirely possible, whereas Pitzer’s merit is more limited. Scripps merit scholarships can be up to $27K/year; Pitzer’s merit tops out at $5K/year. Whitman has merit aid up to $20K/year, and quite a few of your other schools have more limited merit scholarships available. So, it’s worth thinking not only in terms of “all things being equal” preferences, but also about how swayed you might be, both by a good value, and by the “love the school that loves you” factor. Even if Wesleyan did come around… what if you ended up with the option to go to Scripps and save $100K over four years? (Not to harp on that example; it just happens to be the one with which I have real-life experience!) The silver lining in your ED disappointment is that you get to step back and give other opportunities the chance to win you over.

The process is anxiety-inducing for sure, but you have wonderful safeties already nailed down. I know several students who are ridiculously happy in Honors at UVM; Beloit for the cost of a public U is a terrific option too; and the Dickinson offer is great as well. And out of the 13 schools you haven’t heard from yet, there are certain to be more good options. There is no one Perfect College - you could most likely be very happy at any of the schools you’ve applied to. You have time to breathe and think now; try to take turns thinking about each of your schools and really imagining what would appeal to you about going there. You are done being the product; it’s time to shift gears to being a consumer.

8

Hey all! I was accepted off the waitlist at Wesleyan last year as a 2021’er! For all those hoping to get off the waitlist, I strongly recommend writing an email to the admissions office (whoever your particular officer is for your region). In this email you should specifically state how you could make a difference here and what specific clubs/courses/curricula Wesleyan has to offer that makes this school a great fit for you. Also, a reason the school waitlists you is because they want to see if you will have any improvement in grades/scores in your second semester senior year. Also, if there has been an improvement, TALK ABOUT IT in the letter. Don’t be worried! If wes is truly the fit for you, I’m positive you will get in off the waitlist. Let me know if you have any other questions…happy to help :slight_smile:

9

@greenalltheway I just got wait listed ED2 and was wondering how many people they usually accept off of the wait list. And what are the odds they even go to the wait list this year at all. I have very similar stats to the OP^ and am trying to do whatever i can to convince Wes to take me! thank you

10

Hey @TryHard44 So in regards to the particular stats, I know that for the class of 2020, they accepted less than 3% off their waitlist. Disclaimer: this isn’t a verified stat, its just a stat I found mentioned online. Unfortunately I have no data concerning the class of 2021, but I do have a good amount of friends that were in fact accepted off the waitlist. Good luck!

11

@TryHard44 From Wes 2017-2018 Common Data Set #Students Offered Spot on Waitlist 2267 #Students Accecpting Waitlist Spot 1233 #Students Admitted From Waitlist 108

12

Wouldn’t this data be for the RD waitlist? I thought the original post was that these posters have been put on some waitlist from ED2.

13

^Yes, the question seems to be whether there is some sort of waitlist specific to ED2? I’ve never heard of such a thing; perhaps, they invented it just for @TryHard44 ? And how long must he wait for an answer?

14

@aquapt I got into Whitman last Thursday with 17k a year, so I’m excited to also have that as an option!

15

Congrats, @not2disappear - that’s awesome! Whitman is a terrific school! If you had to choose among your current acceptances, would you go with Whitman over UVM/Beloit/Dickinson/Whittier, or is there not a clear front-runner in your mind, out of your merit-aid schools so far?

16

@aquapt I have decided I will not be attending UVM or Whittier! I think I would likely go to Whitman if I were not to receive any other acceptances, but Beloit and Dickinson are not at all far behind, so I’m not sure. American U is the last low-match school I have to hear from, and out of my low-match/safeties, it’s my favorite, so if I were only admitted to low-match/safety schools, I would likely go there.