<p>if the school is going to send you their final decision after the common deadline of May 1 by which the schools that have accepted you require you to deposit attendance payments? If I choose to remain on the waitlist for one of my schools (to be a freshman this coming fall), I'll get notified in July... I don't get why other people would choose to do so? Is it helpful only for emergency cases in which students haven't gotten into any other schools?</p>
<p>To me, the point is that remaining on waitlists don’t harm you (even if your chances are 0.1%)… they’re a shot at yet another opportunity. So why not? Also, if you’re waitlisted by your top choice and then accepted, you may decide to forfeit your other deposit.</p>
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Almost exactly the opposite. The odds of getting off the waitlist at many colleges is small; say 60 kids out of more than 3,000 to use one example. If kids haven’t gotten into any other schools then they’re going to community college or taking an involuntary gap year. </p>
<p>The reason to stay on the waitlist, as the previous post says, is in case the unlikely happens and you get into a school you like better than any that accepted you. If you get off the waitlist then you accept the spot, then notify the school where you sent in a deposit that you won’t be showing up after all (and lose the deposit).</p>
<p>In most cases, I think remaining on a wait list keeps you from mentally & emotionally moving on to seeing yourself at the school where you enroll, which is decidedly not helpful. If you are WL at schools that have a track record of going to the WL to fill a significant number of spots AND you love those schools so much it would be a no-brainer should you get that call AND you are full pay AND you can set it aside and not constantly be tormented by it, then I understand remaining on the WL. For most of us, it’s better to love the school who wanted you and not look back.</p>