<p>This is a general question for all whose kids have been waitlisted at a school that you think would be a great fit for your kid. How much effort do you think it is worth it for your child to put into maintaining a relationship with the WL school(s) in the hopes of being admitted? Is there a detriment to the school that your child accepts in the interim while still waiting to hear from the WL school?</p>
<p>We’re wondering the same thing.</p>
<p>He’s in at UVM and waitlisted at UCONN, Loyola MD and Providence College. We think with some phone calls, another recommendation and lots of interest he has a good shot at getting in…their waitlist isn’t as enormous as Loyola’s, which I don’t think we have any chance at. He’s not interested in UCONN.</p>
<p>Now I’m even wondering if it’s worth the effort. Is Providence a better school than UVM? Is it worth almost 10K a year more?</p>
<p>My son thinks so, for whatever reason he can’t get excited about UVM.</p>
<p>This may sound awful but I wonder if we should pull out all the stops to pursue?</p>
<p>Acme, I don’t understand your question about the detriment?</p>
<p>If you put money down at a school your child has been accepted at, you’ll lose that money if you don’t go and instead go to the school you were WL at (if you get it).</p>
<p>It won’t bother the college much, I’m sure they have their own WL and will just fill your child’s vacancy with someone off their list.</p>
<p>The detriment to your child, however, is that it stops him or her from getting excited about the school he or she did get into, and just makes the “waiting game” longer.</p>
<p>When I applied, back in the dark ages, I got into my waitlisted school in July. My head was already in the school I had accepted, and I turned down the waitlisted school.</p>
<p>One of my kids accepted a spot on the waitlist at a school…but he had already been accepted to a number of other great choices. He really had “moved on” but just wanted to see what would happen. </p>
<p>Truthfully, if your kid really wants to be on the waitlist, fine…but I would do it with the idea that it might not pan out…if it does, it will be a happy surprise.</p>
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<p>That’s exactly what my daughter did. She did come off the wait list about a month after she received all of her other acceptances. We did lose our deposit, but the tuition at her first choice school was significantly less than her second choice school, so that was no biggie. The worst part of the whole thing was having to call up her prospective roommate and tell her she would not be coming after all.</p>
<p>As far as contacting the wait list school, it probably depends. When my daughter received her letter telling her she was being wait listed, it specifically said “Do not contact our office unless you have some further information of value to submit.” When our daughter received a very prestigious award from her high school, our GC sent that info along to the wait list school, but we made no phone calls, sent no letters, etc.</p>
<p>What timing. We are going to have this conversation with son tonight, provided he is up for it. We have talked about the impact to the prospective roomie. The other thing is the timing of the summer registration of the school where he has been accepted, which ends July 9th. His waitlist school says final notifications will not be until June 30th, which is pretty tight.</p>
<p>Thank you all. It’s helpful to hear the pros and cons from others out there wondering the same thing. By detriment I did mean detriment to child, certainly not to the college (as if!). Here is our situation:DS is accepted to a very specific program at a less-prestigious school and waitlisted for the same program at a more prestigious school (by which I mean considered top 15). However, he likes to make a decision and move on, so for him being waitlisted is the same as being denied. Given his choice of major, architecture, which is a very difficult field, I think it’s worth putting a little effort into the WL school, writing a letter, sending updated info, such as his recent honors in a district-wide competition, but he is ready to throw in the towel. </p>
<p>Thanks to everyone and good luck with all of your kids’ decisions! It will all work out for the best.</p>
<p>No idea why that little icon appeared on my posting, or what it means, btw…</p>
<p>Last year my D (NMF, 4.0, All-State athlete, yada,yada,yada) stated she did not want to attend an institution where she wasn’t their “first choice”. </p>
<p>Waitlisting means you are at or near the bottom of the institutions’ student ranking/preference. </p>
<p>We are people of modest financial means, EFC ~ 50% at most private top 20 schools.</p>
<p>I think the financial crisis sent many of the “top 20” institutions chasing after the full pay kids. It will be intereting to see if this impacts average SAT’s and , ultimately, rankings. If they all do it, the relative impact is nil.</p>
<p>See if you can get some statistics on how many kids the school typically puts on the waitlist and then accepts off the waitlist.
Some colleges will waitlist hundreds of kids yet accept few.</p>
<p>The downside of being waitlisted:
My daughter was in this position two years ago. She was waitlisted at her #1 school and just could not move on. I kept telling her to not get her hopes up. She kept in communication with her admissions counselor, sent final transcripts and he just kept saying, "That’s great!, Thanks!
She did put a deposit on another school, went to accepted student’s day - but just was not moving on.
After not hearing from the waitlist school she finally emailed again the end of June, or early July. They told her they had accepted 3 people off the waitlist.
They never did send her a rejection letter or any other official communication.</p>
<p>JustAMom-- </p>
<p>Did she end up liking the school where she went? I really hope so.</p>
<p>D was offered a waitlist spot at a top five last year but had no interest in being “second choice,” as Big G noted. (Of course, she didn’t even choose her most highly ranked schools to attend, so I wouldn’t go by her. She’s her own story. ;)) </p>
<p>Good luck to all the waitlisted who still have thier heart set on that school, and good luck to those who choose to move on. They’re all pretty happy by October, but it can be a challenging time of year, right now.</p>
<p>acme your student is trying to “move forward” I think it is best to take cues from your child with regard to waitlisting and if the choice is to stay on the waitlist then the student needs to take the lead position. For your own benefit, see if you can ascertain how many kids are typically waitlisted and how many get accepted off the waitlist. As someone pointed out some colleges/unis waitlist hundreds and move only a handful off the waitlist. Financial aid is also a consideration. Some schools move “full pays” off the waitlist since they have dispursed their budgets prior to taking kids off the waitlist. I know that my kids would be like Poetgrls’ and would not “like” the concept of being in a “second choice” situation. I do wish your family good luck with whichever direction you choose.</p>
<p>poetgrl - not in the beginning. she really hated it and I think part of that was refusal to “let go”.<br>
The college that waitlisted her did actually encourage her to apply as a transfer and she wanted to but by the end of her freshman year she had settled in and made friends. A combination of factors: not moving on, leaving a boyfriend, being the youngest (and spoiled ;)) made her adjustment somewhat of a challenge.</p>
<p>As she moves to the end of her second year, she is doing really well. She has a great group of friends, excelling in school and just found she was accepted into her major (they had to apply as a sophomore)!</p>
<p>As for myself, I am a little bit bitter that this school got her hopes up and kept them up without full disclosure that the odds were indeed quite small. As painful as rejection letters are - they do serve a purpose in allowing the applicant to move forward.</p>
<p>Some schools will take many students off waitlists, some just a few, they often can’t predict the numbers themselves. Some have the waitlists in rank order, but others don’t. They use the waitlist to round out the class. If you are interested in attending a school which has waitlisted you, you should accept your second choice as late as possible (unless housing is an issue). You should absolutely send in anything that will make you look better plus a letter of interest. I don’t know why kids don’t want to go where they weren’t picked in the first round, no one needs to know you got in off the waitlist. If you liked the school best before, the school still is offering whatever it was that you liked best.</p>
<p>By the way, as a warning, some schools have priority waitlists which work like ED, you have an excellent chance of getting off a priority waitlist, but you are stuck with whatever financial package that comes with it.</p>
<p>JustAMom-- I’d be pretty annoyed by the lack of etiquette in not even letting her know when they knew they weren’t going to offer her a spot in the class, too. </p>
<p>But, I have my own ambivalence about the power structure in the whole admission game, anyway, and it brings out the smart alec in me, so I’ll just leave it at that. 
I’m glad your D is doing well. It’s never easy to see our kids heart’s broken. ever.</p>
<p>D accepted a spot on the WL and it was a little tortuous waiting; particularly after 5/1 when all of her classmates had made firm decisions. For example, there was a college bound recognition dinner and she didn’t know weather to indicate WL school or 2nd choice school. In addition, during the graduation ceremony the grad’s matriculation plans are announced and she still didn’t know what hers were. Plus how do you answer the question “What are your plans?” </p>
<p>Anyway she didn’t come off the WL and is now very happy at 2nd choice school where she is having opportunities she would have NEVER been able to enjoy at WL school. Even though she was in limbo nearly two months longer than her classmates, I think she felt she owed it to herself to accept the place on the WL to see what would happen. But she did allow herself to begin to fall for #2 school during the wait.</p>
<p>As far as loosing the deposit goes, yes, it’s a bummer but I considered it an investment in peace of mind. Plus if you are looking at plunking down tens of thousands of dollars for a college education that 200-300 dollars became a little less of a deal.</p>
<p>D1 was a waitlisted kid, she got off 2 WL 2 years ago. She worked hard at getting off the WL and so did her GC. Unless your kid loves a school he/she is already accepted at, there is no reason not to stay on WL. It’s rubbish to think just because you are WL, it meant you were at the bottom of pile. It just meant there were too many kids with the same profile. If you didn’t have the credential they would have just rejected you. Once you get in, no one would know if you were WL or not. When you graduate, there won’t be a stamp with WL on it. </p>
<p>D1’s GC called those 2 schools D1 was waitlisted on to find out what was missing. She put a packet together with latest transcript (it was D1’s best ever), additional awards, rec letters from employer and teacher, a personal statement from D1. </p>
<p>I found out on CC when her current school opened their WL and informed her GC. Her GC called the school to humor me, because she didn’t think it would open so early. That afternoon she was offered a spot. Two days later the other school also called to offer her a spot. It was also luck because the year before her current school never went to the waitlist.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is if there is FA involved, it is not as likely to get off the WL. By the time they get to the WL, most schools have run out of money for FA. Another thing is adcoms want to be finished as soon as possible in order to move on, so they would most likely offer a spot to someone who would say yes right away without a lot of issues. If your kid has a clear first choice WL, then let it be known. I let D1’s current school know that she would definitely if accepted off the WL.</p>
<p>Several years ago, my daughter was accepted off the waitlist from Carnegie Melon, she rejected them for several reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>She would be the last person to choose housing,which would get her the worst housing.</li>
<li>CMU treats waitlisted kids like second class citizens. Although they normally match scholarship offers by comparable schools, they won’t match any scholarship if you are accepted off the waitlist. Generally, if you aren’t full pay, tough. She didn’t like that and neither did wel</li>
</ol>
<p>Justamom, I think the way they left your child hanging is horrible!</p>
<p>S was waitlisted at THREE schools (but only wants to remain on 2 lists). I think he has a chance at one, but the other school, Loyola Maryland has a “priority waitlist”, and he’s not on it.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of anyone getting rejected at Loyola, just waitlisted. It seems to me that they’re stringing a whole lot of people along with their non-priority (aka, you’ve-got-a-better-chance-at-being-struck-by-lightening) waitlist.</p>
<p>I wish my S would want to go to the school he was accepted at…he doesn’t feel like a 2nd chance citizen at all at the WL schools since he knows he’s more than capable of doing the work and he also knows that kids with lesser stats than his were accepted.</p>