The letters are pouring in, but you get one that neither confirms nor denies your seat: The Waitlisted Letter. Technically not an acceptance; some ways to look at it is as being in limbo or as a soft denial. It sometimes means: we would like to offer you a spot in the class but we don't have one, yet. It isn't a hard denial as schools could use students from the list who help round out their class, yet many of the list will not be offered a seat. It doesn't seem fair. While other students are accepting their places and being assigned housing, some students wait until June or even July hoping that they will come off the list and into the class. Do you deposit? Should you have your hopes up? Is there anything you can do?
Some Possible Steps to Take if Waitlisted:
A number of schools, such as Scripps, Stanford, Tulane, and Notre Dame, admitted no students from the waitlist in 2014-15. And consider Carnegie Mellon, who extended a waitlist decision to over 5000 applicants. Brown has waitlisted 1000 more students than it admitted, and UPenn waitlisted 3500, about the same as its offers, yet they traditionally take 20-175 off of that list. In 2020-2021, the pandemic caused some incredible surges in applications, record lows in admissions rates, and increased waitlists. Ultimately, four students got a seat from that list. In cases like these, and many others where less than 4% of the waitlist will see a spot open for them, a waitlist letter is as good as a rejection. Which brings into question the practice - Are schools being ethically responsible in extending hundreds or even thousands of waitlist offers to anxious and hopeful students when the data indicate a minute number will ultimate obtain the coveted spot? See some updated statistics from the group of 2019-20. Hamilton's Guide on The Waitlist Georgia Tech's Look at the Waitlist
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AuthorOlder blog posts were for the UCLA Ext course "Using the Internet for College Counseling" Archives
February 2023
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