What waitlists are active? Who has closed their waitlists?

I think there is a difference between being told they will take you off the W/L if you will accept an offer and being told that you can only be on the W/L if you would accept an offer. Had never heard of the latter happening and @intparent confirms that it doesn’t exist. We know of some situations for the former, though they likely aren’t all that common. I think for these last few potential candidates, schools are simply putting the final touches on the class they would like. They might be playing a yield game, but it could be as much about building the desired class as it is about yield.

@JBStillFlying Re: U Chicago waitlist in post #112. I am not yet comfortable sharing more details about the student who was admitted off the waitlist several weeks ago. Two things: I am 100% certain about said student, and on a college counselor chat board there are two additional reports of students being admitted off the waitlist. It certainly is possible those three students aren’t on CC.

Any news from Dartmouth?

NOT going to waitlist

  • [] George Washington
    [
    ] Grinnell - international students
    [] JHU
    [
    ] Virginia Tech
    [] UVA (probably)
    [
    ] Wake Forest University (for now)

Wailists active

[ul]
[] American
[
] Amherst
[] Barnard
[
] Bates
[] BU
[
] Bucknell
[] Case Western spring admits
[
] Claremont McKenna
[] Cooper Union
[
] College of Wooster
[] Davidson
[
] Dickenson
[] Duke
[
] F&M
[] Fordham
[
] Georgia Tech
[] James Madison
[
] Kenyon
[] Lehigh
[
] Middlebury
[] Mt Holyoke
[
] Notre Dame
[] Oberlin
[
] Pepperdine
[] Pitt
[
] Pomona
[] Purdue
[
] Rose Hulman
[] Scripps
[
] Siena
[] Smith
[
] Soka
[] Trinity (ct)
[
] UChicago
[] UCI
[
] UCLA
[] UConn
[
] UCSD
[] UMiami
[
] Vanderbilt
[] Villanova
[
] W&L
[] Wake Forest
[
] William and Mary
[] Williams
[
] WPI
[li] WUStL[/li][/ul]

May open soon

  • [] Emory (Oxford)
    [
    ] Harvey Mudd

^@Mwfan1921 at #121 - totally agree and understood about the details. No need to share any of that.

To follow up on @StanfordGSB00’s point at #50 (schools are playing a yield game with the W/L), I believe it’s unnecessary if the school is already a low-admit-rate/high-yield school. Even a variation of 30 additional spots isn’t going to impact yield all that much.

For instance - and as just one example - UChicago probably admitted about 2,050 kids this year and shot for a class size of about 1,725. If they are currently at 1,715 before pulling from the waitlist, that’s a yield of 83.66%. If they offer a spot to, say, 30 more kids and all accept, that’s a big leap to. . . . 83.89%. If they offer 30 additional spots and exactly ZERO accept, the yield plummets to a low 82.45%. In other words, because the numerator and denominator are so close, you are talking a 1.5% spread. That might matter when the yield is 50%, but it’s not going to matter when the yield is around 80%.

So if schools are looking for a commitment from W/L candidates (and that does seem to happen with at least a few we hear about every year), it’s probably best to look to other reasons such as concerns about over-enrolling or perhaps fine-tuning the desired diversity of the class.

Has UChicago now stopped its waitlist?

Some GCs do have relationships with AOs that have some pull. They do not want to jeopardize those relationships. So it is not unusual to have to give the GC a firm commitment that a certain WLschool is a go if accepted and the GC communicates this to the school.

My oldest son, along with others in his class on a waitlist was asked to commit to accept right before the head of the school met with the AO of the school to appeal for acceptance of WL students.

Of course, the student in the end can do as he pleases. It’s not a contractual obligation such as the ED commitment. But often it requires giving a verbal commitment. But still, I know students who have reneged in a much discussed WL spot when a long shot WL comes through. A GC might have aim “in” to get a student off a Kenyon WL so a student might commit to it, only to have the Swarthmore WL spot open up unexpectedly, andcthe studrbt could well upset that Apple cart.

Possibly they might request that commitment if the student is full pay. But the student really isn’t bound by it. And it would be unethical to even request that commitment if the student has applied for FA and not seen the FA package yet.

@cptofthehouse and some students do not have GCs who are that sophisticated or have any relationships with colleges and maybe those WL kids are at a disadvantage. I’m not thinking any of our GCs called schools to push for a student getting off a waitlist. As competitive as our public school is, our GCs aren’t that great.

GCs often kick into action if a kid has no acceptances, but is on waitlists. And sometimes the schools call the GC to judge an applicant’s interest before making a WL offer. (Which I don’t like, I think some GCs make assumptions in those situations).

FYI Carnegie Mellon sent out the prompt for their WL essay. That was late last week. Some students might hear back tomorrow I believe.

Rochester looks active.

Purdue seems to have gone back and accepted some students who initially received rejections, not WL offers. Is this typical?

I email Dartmouth and it turns out that it is highly unlikely that Dartmouth will go to the waitlist this year, we will probably get our rejection letter within the next 2 weeks.

NOT going to waitlist

  • [] George Washington
    [
    ] Grinnell - international students
    [] JHU
    [
    ] Virginia Tech
    [] UVA (probably)
    [
    ] Wake Forest University (for now)

Highly unlikely to open

[ul]
[li] Dartmouth[/li][/ul]

Wailists active

  • [] American
    [
    ] Amherst
    [] Barnard
    [
    ] Bates
    [] BU
    [
    ] Bucknell
    [] Case Western spring admits
    [
    ] Claremont McKenna
    [] Cooper Union
    [
    ] College of Wooster
    [] Davidson
    [
    ] Dickenson
    [] Duke
    [
    ] F&M
    [] Fordham
    [
    ] Georgia Tech
    [] James Madison
    [
    ] Kenyon
    [] Lehigh
    [
    ] Middlebury
    [] Mt Holyoke
    [
    ] Notre Dame
    [] Oberlin
    [
    ] Pepperdine
    [] Pitt
    [
    ] Pomona
    [] Purdue
    [
    ] Rochester
    [] Rose Hulman
    [
    ] Scripps
    [] Siena
    [
    ] Smith
    [] Soka
    [
    ] Trinity (ct)
    [] UChicago
    [
    ] UCI
    [] UCLA
    [
    ] UConn
    [] UCSD
    [
    ] UMiami
    [] Vanderbilt
    [
    ] Villanova
    [] W&L
    [
    ] Wake Forest
    [] William and Mary
    [
    ] Williams
    [] WPI
    [
    ] WUStL

Likely to open soon

[ul]
[] Carnegie Mellon
[
] Emory (Oxford)
[li] Harvey Mudd[/li][/ul]

How long does it take for most schools to say they are either not going to their waitlist or they are finished using it? I hope some kids aren’t getting off waitlists in June or July.

^ Some kids get off the WL as late as August, althoughit usuallyis done foremost by early July… The schools try to get everything settled as early as possible but that is generally easiest (for those on the WL) when they are over capacity and hoping more students go abroad or request gap year deferrals – which as you can imagine, is it’s own kind of problem for the school.

@whatsnext20 wow! From a denial to an acceptance - I’ve never heard of that. Have they gone to their waitlist yet?

@gardenstategal but wouldn’t schools know their yield by May 2nd? Then they go to their waitlist if they need to over the first few weeks of May and pick up some numbers and then be done. They only give these waitlisted kids a couple of days to decide so the school knows right away if they are filling their class.

I don’t get why this would bleed into June, July, or August.

4 years ago, my eldest was on the “extended” waitlist for Georgetown. This is a step beyond the wait list and students had to sign a paper letter signifying their interest…as I recall, it was only about 25 kids worldwide and we were told to expect activity as late as July.