Hello everyone.
I just found out I got waitlisted at this school I really want to go to. Does anyone know how to get off the waitlist?
Thanks.
What school? Tell us about your applicant profile.
I was also waitlisted, at St. Paul’s.
I’m applying to a bay area prep school named Harker.
Here’s my applicant profile:
SSAT Scores:
Math: 99%
Reading: 84%
Verbal: 98%
Overall: 98%
Extracurriculars:
DECA- 5th place at States
Violin- 4 years, concertmistress and associate concertmistress
Language- Telugu, Hindi, and English; university degree for Telugu
Vocal- 9 years, Indian classical, advanced
5 awards, 1st place
Japanese abacus mental math grandmaster
Volunteering:
I volunteered for my music school for about a year at music school for 2 hours a week. I also volunteered at VA Hospital over the summer.
Grades:
4.0 GPA
Courses:
Biology
Global Studies
Honors English
Spanish II
Honors Precalculus
Orchestra
For Orchestra I’ve taken part in youth orchestras such as YOSAC and LPYOS.
@shantacorn Are you currently in 8th grade? If you are, then I think you have a pretty good chance. Most eighth graders don’t take biology and Honors Precalc!
I’m a 9th grader @elielieli and applied to be a sophomore
@shantacorn Oh ok
But you really seem to have a very diverse list of ECs. How were your results (other than Harker) if you don’t mind me asking?
Do you have any acceptances at all? Or just waitlist? Honestly your stats look pretty good.
Did you apply for financial aid? This often makes a big impact.
@sgopal2 @elielieli I was waitlisted at Harker (a private school in the bay area) and last year I was accepted to Exeter and Choate but couldn’t go due to some personal issues
Ok thanks sorry I thought you wanted to know how to get off the waitlist for boarding schools. I don’t know much about Harker. Day school waitlists are sometimes hard to decipher. Usually the biggest factor is whether or not you need financial aid.
Just continue to show interest, and provide updates to the admissions office. Sometimes if you call and ask to speak to the admissions officer who read your file they may give you some hints as to why you weren’t accepted. Try to address these first.
@sgopal2 I read that I shouldn’t contact (email/call) them too much, as they could get annoyed. Is that true? I want to update my profile ASAP, but I don’t want to annoy them. Are there some questions that I should NOT ask (ex. how many kids are on waitlist)? Am I allowed to directly ask them why I was waitlisted?
For SPS, they say you should only contact them if their school is your first choice and you’d accept an admissions offer there. I assume it’s pretty similar for the other schools.