<p>I was just wondering how BC notifies you if you get off the wait list and how long they give you to make a decision to go to BC or stay with the school you already put a deposit on. Will you get housing for freshmen year? Are you treated the same as non-wait list students?</p>
<p>Dear lovethecape : If you get picked from the waiting list, you will receive a phone call from Boston College (they will continue until they reach you) directly and you will be given about 24 hours to decide whether you will accept the spot. </p>
<p>If you say “yes”, there will be some amount of time given to putting down a deposit versus getting any type of financial aid package constructed which varies based on the individual situation. This is why the call down on the waitlist is actually a much more tedious process than people think. It also explains why this process can go on until June with last minute class cancellations.</p>
<p>All freshmen will get housing; the dorming process does not actually complete until well after the class is set following the wait list call-down. No one will know you came from the wait list unless you tell them. (Come September, no one will really care to be honest - there is no stigma attached to it.)</p>
<p>A common problem for waitlisted students is that you usually have to place a down payment ($500 or so) elsewhere; you will lose that money if you decide to accept a position off the Boston College wait list.</p>
<p>ScottJ - Do you know what areas of focus are high on the list when the Admissions Committee reconvenes to consider waitlisted students. Are those with the highest SAT/GPA scores chosen first? Any suggestions for my D?</p>
<p>Asbury:
Your question gets discussed every year. A couple of the high level points I recall from previous discussions and articles on this are:</p>
<p>1: A school really doesn’t know which waitlist candidate attributes it will favor until it begins to understand the composite makeup of the accepted students who choose to enroll there. </p>
<p>2: No one outside of of the admissions committee discussing waitlist candidates will know what those priorities are.</p>
<p>3: Flooding the school with repeated information or with new recommendations is not well accepted. Usually a one page update from the student with a confirmation of stated interest and any new relevant information is desirable.</p>
<p>Two years ago, BC sent out letters of acceptance to some WL’ed candidates. Not all received a phone call. Depending on the acceptance ‘wave’, students had a LOT longer than one day to decide and put down a deposit. Note, that final decisions may not be made until June 30.</p>
<p>WL’ed students will not receive four years of housing, but will receive Frosh housing like everyone else. </p>
<p>Financial aid maybe limited.</p>
<p>Looking at past years, numbers are not the only criteria, in that some lower numbers are accepted off the WL earlier than higher numbers. Thus the process appears to be holistic, just like regular admissions. In addition to pure numbers, qualitative aspects are still important: geography may come into play, and perhaps gender, college to which you are applying, strength of recs, and the like. It also depends on the need of the college. If the tuba player just changed his/her mind and decided to go to local State U, for example, BC then needs a new tuba player…</p>
<p>No one will care who was WL’ed or not, unless you decide to share.</p>
<p>Thank you for the responses. My son does not have his heart set on BC and has other options he will be happy with but he is on the waiting list. I want him to be prepared to make a decision quickly if he is lucky enough to get off the list. </p>
<p>Do most students at BC get 4 years housing? I’m trying to determine if this is a real negative. I assume many might want to study abroad one year. When I attended BC many, many years ago a good number of my friends had only 3 years housing.</p>
<p>My understanding is that slightly less than half of the incoming class gets 4 years of housing. I would think they would let your student know if housing is 3 or 4 years when/if the student gets off the waitlist. Other students are notified with their acceptance letter.</p>
<p>Yes, housing notification will be included on the acceptance letter. But I’m guessing that the official WL notification clearly states that three year housing will be typical, i.e., four-year will be unlikely for students accepted off of the WL. Of course, depending on construction times, the new dorm could be ready for this class, enabling everyone to have four years of housing. But given construction delays, I wouldn’t count on it. :)</p>
<p>Study abroad for a year is doable, but most students go abroad only one term/semester.</p>
<p>I just received my BC decision and I was wondering if it was possible for BC to notify you before June if you’re off the waitlist?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they start notifying waitlisters after May 1st, after the accepted RDers’ deadline to put down deposits, all the way to (the end of?) June. I believe 2011 applicants started hearing back starting May 7.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/boston-college/707347-waitlist-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/boston-college/707347-waitlist-thread.html</a></p>
<p>Does anyone here happen to know when the majority of waitlisted applicants start hearing back? Is it possible to hear back before may 7th?</p>
<p>Dear bubblofoom/FindmeFazo/jdevv10 : Several days are typically needed after May 1st in order for admissions to have the dust to settle after the deposits are submitted. Only then will the final distribution of students be known across the various schools and departments. For obvious gaps, waitlist invitations can be sent as quickly as 48-72 hours from May 1st although that will be the exception with first invitations typically sent during the second week of May. This process could continue well into June based on the University’s needs.</p>
<p>Boston College does have a web page on the subject that will help many readers. of particular interest is the following sentence : “Keep in mind that more than 50% of admitted students who confirm their enrollment to Boston College do so after April 25.”</p>
<p>[The</a> Waiting List - Office of Undergraduate Admission - Boston College](<a href=“Admission - Boston College”>Admission - Boston College)</p>
<p>Scottj: Do you foresee that BC will be using their waitlist this year? Some places I have read that (a) they will not because of the incredibly talented pool of applicants that applied this year - they think that the yield will be even higher than last year or (b) they will because many of these incredibly talented applicants will have been accepted at Ivys and will not pay their BC deposit. What do you think will happen taking into consideration what we do know that (a) BC added a supplementary essay which ultimately reduced (depends on how you see it) its # of applicants from 35,000 to 26,000 and (b) it reduced its number of acceptances from almost 9000 or so to 7000 and waitlisted 6000 or so…which btw, is a lot!</p>