It used to be that at the end of the application season, students got either thick acceptance packets or thin envelopes that dashed their hopes. With most decisions now online, there is less warning of what to expect on notification day. But whether the outcome is a happy or a sad one, it offers clarity. The same is not true, however, when you are waitlisted! For many students, this twilight decision between being accepted and being denied can be the hardest. So, what does it mean?
What is a waitlist?
Waitlists are a way for colleges to hedge their bets against the uncertainty of knowing how many students will accept their offer of admission. Because of such uncertainty about their “yield,” colleges create a list of admissible students who can fill the gaps left by those who decline their offers of admission. Your chances of being admitted from the waitlist, therefore, depend on how many accepted students will say yes to that college.
Because yield matters to colleges – too many students and they end up with crowded dorm rooms and laboratories; too few and their budgets suffer – they rely on waitlists. Last year, about 43% of all colleges used one. In addition, colleges can use the waitlist to “correct” for their institutional goals. Do they “need” more male humanities students from the Midwest? Female mathematicians? First-generation or rural students? When admission officers waitlist students, it can also be a way for them to recognize students whom they deeply admired, even if they were not the strongest in the applicant pool.
From the perspective of a waitlisted student, though, the practice looks a bit different. Nationally, colleges admitted about 20% of students who chose to remain on waitlists. But, according to NACAC, the national admission organization, among selective colleges, only 7% of students remaining on a waitlist were ultimately admitted.
Those figures suggest that the waitlist is indeed a long shot, but also that at some schools in some years, there is at least a window of opportunity!
What should you do?
First, carefully review all the colleges and universities that have sent you acceptance offers and re-evaluate. Even if you still have a corner of your heart set on the waitlist school, please give yourself a solid backup plan by accepting the best offer of admission that you have already received. Send in a deposit, with the understanding (and parents’ agreement) that you will forfeit that deposit if (and it is a very “big” if!) your waitlist school accepts you from its Waitlist. Knowing that, no matter what, you have a place to enroll in the fall will greatly reduce your stress!
You may want to get out of the waitlist purgatory altogether and move on with your life by allowing yourself to be excited about a college that values and wants you, and has accepted you! Remember, there is no one institution that is the perfect (and only) “fit” for you; there are many. So, fully invest in another school and move on.
If you do stay on a waitlist, remember you may not hear back from this school about a final decision until well into the summer. Be sure that you understand each college’s unique policies before accepting a waitlist offer. Find out if there would be a change in housing options or in your financial aid package. Also, financial aid may not be available to waitlisted students, as the accepted students will have their needs met first. If you are accepted to a school off the waitlist, you sometimes will have only 24-48 hours to decide whether or not to attend. Therefore, only stay on the waitlist of schools of high interest to you!
Next, let the admission office of your waitlist school know that you will remain on their waitlist and will attend their school if accepted – some colleges ask that you do it online or by returning a signed card. But then follow up with something more personal and passionate – a letter or email that makes your commitment explicit and sets out the reasons why the college remains your top choice and what you have to contribute. Include any updated information (along with documentation) about your strong spring grades, new awards, work experience, or extracurricular activities. A (new) letter of recommendation from a teacher, guidance counselor, or alumnus could be helpful, as could an interview and/or a personal college visit, even if you have already completed those steps. You might even consider saying that you would be willing to enter in January, after the first semester has passed, and either take or not take courses at another college during that term, as they prefer. For many students, this may not be a good option, but some colleges do offer the opportunity.
Above all, continue to keep a positive attitude, study hard, get good grades, and stay involved with all of your extracurricular activities. Enjoy your last days of high school — soon they will be in the rear view mirror as you race off to your future at a college you will quickly call home!