Waitlisted - now what?

Parents Forum
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<p>My S has been waitlisted at two of the colleges he applied to. If you are reading this post I am assuming that you have a S or D in a similar position. In general, what are the chances of ultimately being accepted from a waitlist? How many students are typically put on a waitlist? How many students are contacted and offered admission off a waitlist? I hope some of you can provide a few helpful answers to these general questions.</p>

<p>Should you do anything to try to enhance the chances of S or D who is on a waitlist (I have personally heard strong cases for both yes and no answers to this question from college admissions departments)?</p>

<p>Is it more effective to simply consider any waitlist as a rejection?</p>

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<p>My D had many friends who were WL-ed. I was shocked at how many of them wound up getting off of the WL, usually in late May/early June, after the schools had rec’d info from the accepted students about their plans to attend. </p>

<p>Your child can certainly let the school know that they are #1 and would attend if offered a place.</p>

<p>One child we knew was WL-ed at a school (a big one), and she updated the admissions office with recent info (award for a sport, grades) and sent in another letter of reference from a connected alumni that she knew. This worked.</p>

<p>PERSONALLY, I would be very cautious about depending on WL movement; would look at schools that accepted child; deposit at those… and see what happens… some kids had already moved beyond the whole thing by the time they were taken from the WL and did not chang their plans. `</p>

<p>A lot can happen in a month or two. Kids go to visit, send in deposit, buy the sweatshirt and that other school that WL-ed them no longer appeals.</p>

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<p>I’d also recommend reading the letter/e-mail/online posting you got carefully. We’re dealing with several waitlists here and most of them were very upfront about how the numbers tend to go (number of kids on waitlist, what percent tend to get taken off, one even had actual numbers of kids taken off the waitlist over the last five years–very helpful, especially since four of the five years it was 0). </p>

<p>If your son’s top choice was one of his WL schools, then I echo mom4college (and other posters will agree)–let them know it is his first choice, send in additional materials that put him in a positive light, . . . . But, again, read the notifications he got carefully. One of our WL schools specifically said there’s nothing we can do at this point to change his chances–I think they really do not want to be bothered with a lot of extraneous stuff.</p>

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<p>At most privates, more often than not, people who would get off the WL would be someone who do not need FA.</p>

<p>I would first celebrate your kid’s acceptances, re-visit some of those schools, and make a deposit by April 30.</p>

<p>In about 2 weeks, after the craziness has died down, send in another packet: an essay about why the school is still your top choice (not too long), latest transcript, additional awards, 1-2 recommendation letters (could be outside of academic, like a coach or employer), and a letter from the GC (some public school GC won’t do it).</p>

<p>If one of the schools is your kid’s top choice, then you could let the school know that he would attend if he should get off the WL. It would be more powerful coming from the GC, again, a public school GC may not want to do it. In that case, as a parent, you could also express your support in an email.</p>

<p>A lot of schools go to their WL as early as end of April or beginning of May. At that time, it is good to keep your ears to the ground or pay attention to CC as to when/if the school is going to its WL. As soon as you know, either you or the GC should call the adcom.</p>

<p>The thing to remember when it comes to WL is by May most of those adcoms are tired, they want to move on and go on their summer vacation. Any WL applicants who could demonstrate most interest and would accept the offer right away (with no FA issues) are the ones they want to make the offer to.</p>

<p>Most old timers know that D1 was WL at 2 top schools, and she got off both. We told a friend, whose daughter was at a public school, about what our private school counselor was doing to get D1 off the WL. Their GC wouldn’t do anything for them, so our friend did all the leg work. Her daughter also got off 3 WL, all three were top 20 schools.</p>

<p>As far as how many kids they take off the WL, it is different year to year. My daughter was lucky, her school took a lot of kids off their WL her year, but next year they over admitted. Last year, Harvard went to their WL. I would do some research to see how often those 2 schools your kid is WL at go to their WL.</p>

<p>It is hard to count on the WL, but at the sametime if your kid really likes those 2 schools, I would put a bit of effort in trying to get off the WL (don’t let his wounded pride get in the way).</p>

<p>I hope your S kept up his grades. D1 pushed herself hard senior year, she graduated with the best grades ever, so she had a very nice story to tell. She wasn’t happy at schools where she was accepted, and she knew she would need her senior grades in order to transfer someday. I am always the one to tell the seniors in Fall and early Spring to keep up their grades, just in case of WL situation.</p>

<p>Good luck. Most kids end up where they should be and few weeks after they arrived at their college they wonder why they even considered other schools.</p>

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<p>Check C2 on the common data set for each college to see how many students were wait-listed and admitted from the wait list last year.</p>

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<p>I would go to school that LOVES YOU back, as opposed to going to a school that you dreamed about. At the end, it will all worked our for the best of your kid.</p>

<p>My S was WL by a good school as well. He just moved on to schools that wanted him without looking back. We are talking only about undergrad education for God sake! The road is still long. Move on and he will be happy with school accepted him. At this point and time, it is a lot important to ensure that he is ready for college and will do well in the college he will be attending. Comparing to high school, college is a different ball game altogether.</p>

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<p>If your son has a school he is already happy with then I would just move on. But I am assuming the reason you started this thread is because he is not. Going through the WL is very emotionally draining. Month of April was awful for us, when D1 was accepted off her WLs (mother’s day weekend) she has missed all the accepted students events at those WL schools.</p>

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<p>Schools generally don’t waitlist more kids than they think can reasonably be offered admission down the road. They base it on the expected attrition rate from the first batch of admitted students committing to that school or not. WL students are offered spots as the first wave of admitted students decline their offer. I would not interpret being on the WL as a rejection. I would interpret it as your son is a competitive candidate and will be admitted if space allows.</p>

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<p>By the first week of May, $0 FA S1 had too much of an emotional investment into his admitted EA-with merit scholarship school to be moved by off waitlist/$0 FA Princeton. It was more of a conundrum to us and even as we tried and Princeton offered a package that matched our out of pocket expenses, S1 didn’t budge. He’s extremely happy at his choice. It’s very nice when you love a school and it loves you back as kxc says.</p>

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<p>“Schools generally don’t waitlist more kids than they think can reasonably be offered admission down the road.”</p>

<p>Possibly true in many cases, but a notable exception is a school like WUSTL, which by all accounts waitlists a large number of applicants every year. I believe that last year Duke also waitlisted quite a few more applicants than they could possibly take.</p>

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<p>I love that, “the school that loves you back”. I just recently applied to two grad programs and got into both of them. The school that “loved me back” gave me the financial aid award right away ( a half tuition scholarship in the admission letter) and invited me to an open house with reimbursed travel expenses. The other school has not let me know of financial aid and expects an answer from me before they will make a financial aid award. They have three different websites I must log in to to either check my financial aid status, my department status or the school status. Everything about that school tells me as an applicant that I don’t matter and I am just a cog in the machine. It makes it so easy to choose the school that “loves me back”.</p>

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<p>I would recommend your child talking to his GC. Let the GC know if he is taking a place on the waitlist. In addition, make sure that if your child gets accepted off of the waitlist that they will attend. If he is absolutely sure that this is his first choice and wants to attend have the GC contact your regional admissions person (this is the person who read your child’s application and presented your child to the admissions committee). The admissions rep will tell the GC’s your child’s positive attributes in addition to the things that they were on the fence or concerned about. The rep will make recommendations to the counselor ranging from writing a letter of continued interest, to retaking a SAT/SAT II to submitting a recommendation, an graded paper, etc.</p>

<p>As I stated before make sure that your child wants to attend before getting the GC/school involved in the process. From the school’s perspective they do not want to 'waste time" pursuing a kid on the waitlist who really does not want to come. From their end is is about maintaining relationships and having to face that same admissions rep next year. From the college’s perspective, they want to go to their waitlist call a student offer a spot and get an acceptance (they don’t want to go through a string of kids who are now on the fence).</p>

<p>After May 1 once all of the intent to enroll submissions are made, the school will look at the composition of the freshman class and will most likely start calling students that will help them fulfill their institutional mission. This is the $64k question; what is the mission this year?</p>

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<p>This is actually not true. There are schools that are known to WL a lot more kids than to reject them, some of them WL enough kids to fill their whole class again. WUSTL comes to mind. Some schools WL legacies so they wouldn’t upset their donors. Each school is different on their WL policy, that’s why it pays to do some research.</p>

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<p>Is it true. I have worked in admissions offices for over 15 years. Schools do not like to put an unreasonable number of kids on a waitlist. They estimate the amount of kids they think have a chance of getting in based on years of data. Does that mean every single waitlisted kid gets in? No… but they do not put people on a waitlist unless they think they have a fairly good chance of being offered admission. It is in no one’s best interest to give an applicant false hope and quality schools simply do not do that.</p>

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<p>I repeat, check C2 on the common data set to see how many students were wait-listed and accepted from the wait list last year. Many times schools have the common data set for several years posted on their website, in which case you can see what the trend has been in recent years.</p>

<p>Wishing all you families with seniors the best. Give 'em lots of huggies while they’re still at home!</p>

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<p>It makes people feel better when they are WL than rejected and it costs the school nothing. I see it every year with WUSTL, I would usually tell a kid to forget about it if it’s from that school.</p>

<p>D1 was deferred from Columbia ED, when she was not admitted for RD, the regional rep told her GC that they were just going to reject D1 instead of WL her because they wanted her to move on (they rarely go to WL). I have a lot more respect for that.</p>

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<p>@4education,
The school that failed to give you aid information might have been due to the bureaucratic system? I would try to call them up and see what the situation is. If it is a good enough of a school, I would find out the answer before giving up.</p>

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<p>I want to thank eveyone for your compassionate and insightful replies. My S actually did get accepted at his top choice school (after missing out on his ED choice) and the two waitlisted letters were a surprise. I thought this thread could be helpful for a number of students, my S included, who are getting these letters. Even though he got the school he wanted, he was disappointed with the waitlist notifications. Once again, thanks and I hope this is helpful to others as well.</p>

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<p>THIS IS SO NOT TRUE FOR MANY SCHOOLS. Some schools follow this but MANY DO NOT. There are quite a few schools who have a courtesy waitlist. You are given the courtesy of a waitlist instead of a denial, but that list includes students WHO WILL NEVER COME OF THE LIST. This may not pertain to most students, but some are waitlisted as a courtesy to their school, their GC, some are WL’d due to being a legacy, etc. </p>

<p>Some schools have a huge waitlist and one year they use most of it and the next there is little movement and they take no one. </p>

<p>I agree that looking at the school that WANTS YOU, and esp if that school is being generous with merit aid or FA, is the way to go. And for those who still need to try to get in, I agree with this:

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<p>4education- our DS had two acceptances to good grad programs also.
One offered him great merit $$$ right away; the other was very nebulous about merit money that might be coming…<br>
Son accepted that school that loved him back and has thrived there, graduating in May.
Best of luck to you.</p>