Hurry up and waitlist
We’re at the end of a week that found high-school seniors frantically hitting refresh on their in-boxes to see the status of their regular college applications. Fingers crossed that everyone gets at least one acceptance that they’re excited about!
One thing that we’ve noticed over the last few cycles is that waitlists are becoming a more prominent feature of the college application process. In years past, students would typically get a mixture of admits and rejections, with an occasional waitlist offer thrown in (I myself was waitlisted at Amherst - how life could have turned out differently!). Now, however, several of our students reported multiple waitlist offers in addition to their hoped-for acceptances.
Why is this happening? With more students applying to more colleges, colleges can’t admit the same number of qualified applicants that they could in the past. Even though a certain number of accepted students will go elsewhere, colleges need to ensure that they don’t give away too many offers for the number of beds they have. However, they still want those same qualified candidates to consider enrolling, so instead of rejecting them outright, they put them on the waitlist (this also explains the rise in the presence of the January/second semester acceptance offer). So now the sorting process that used to happen in regular decision (College A offers twice as many spots as it has beds; half of the kids take offers elsewhere) is now being pushed to the waitlist (College A offers twice as many spots as it has beds in regular decision and then offers another 25% to its waitlist).
What does this mean for students? It means that the process that could be completed by the middle of December, for an early acceptance, or March, for a regular acceptance, is now pushed into the late spring and even into the summer: the waiting could go on until July or even August. This requires enormous patience from our students! As always, our adolescents are evaluating the responses of the adults around them, so demonstrate your own patience while you’re asking for theirs.
Students can and do get offers of admission from the waitlist. This of course varies from college to college and from year to year. If a student wants to engage with the waitlist process, it’s important to note several things:
1.) The student needs to accept the offer to stay on the waitlist - it’s not automatic.
2.) Waitlisted students should write a letter affirming their ongoing interest in the college, including any relevant updates since the initial application submission. This letter should include higher grades or test scores, or recent extracurricular accolades.
3.) Students should demonstrate their interest in other ways. Some colleges offer suggestions on how to do so, such as attending an optional zoom meeting or a campus visit (if possible).
4.) Remember to accept an offer elsewhere, so you are guaranteed a spot for the fall. This might mean you will forfeit your deposit to that other university, but it’s worth it if you get an admission offer from your waitlisted school.
Waitlisting is another feature of the application process that has become more competitive and therefore more elongated - let us know if we can help!