"We would like to offer you a place on our waitlist." Just what do those eleven words mean? They can mean three things:
1. The admissions committee likes you and would love to
admit you – they just have too many similar, qualified applicants.
2. The admissions committee likes you but thinks you are
going elsewhere so they do not want to waste an acceptance on you. They likely feel you have a lack of
interest in their school.
3. The
admissions committee wants to reject you, but they are concerned such a
decision will cause problems (with your high school because they admitted
another student with weaker academic credentials but with a desired talent or
ethnicity, with your college counselor because s/he advocated strongly for you,
or with your parents because you come from a long line of graduates). This is what is called the
"Courtesy Waitlist".
The waitlist is the college's safety net. Each year they must accept many more
students than can possibly attend because they know students apply to several
colleges and many will attend those other options. Colleges use a complicated mathematical formula to figure
out just how many admitted students they can expect to matriculate – some years
they end up with too many (hence triple freshmen dorms), sometimes too
few. When they end up with too
few, they go to the waitlist to make sure all beds are filled.
The waitlist can vary greatly from school to school – some
colleges invite 200 students to be on their waitlist, others over 1000. Some years some colleges have taken
over 100 students off their waitlist, in other years colleges take none.
So if you are offered a waitlist spot at your dream school, what should
you do?
1. Immediately
send back the card and accept the spot on the waitlist. Then, of the schools to which you were
admitted, decide on the one you would most want to attend. Send in your acceptance and deposit to
that school. If you are lucky
enough to get off the waitlist of your dream school, you will lose your deposit
but that other college will release you from your promise to attend.
2. Write a
personal letter or email to the admissions representative responsible for your
school or region (ask your school counselor, look on the website, or call the
admissions office to find out whom that would be). Assuming the college decides to take people off their
waitlist, that person will need to be your advocate, so you want them to know (1)
everything about you that could help your case, and(2) that you’re extremely
interested in that school. First,
provide an update on your accomplishments since you applied. You’ll obviously want to highlight any
new awards and provide an update on your grades (assuming they help your case),
but also think creatively. You
might include your plan to study for your 3 AP exams, your work in organizing the
graduation activities, or even information about your upcoming summer
internship. Next detail why you
want to attend that college. Be
very specific especially about the academic reasons you are excited to
attend. And finally, assuming it
is true, be sure to state that if you are accepted you would definitely
attend. If it is not true, do not
write it, instead say that the college "remains at the very top of my
list”.
3. Share your
news with your high school counselor and ask for his or her help. Ask if s/he would be willing to call or
write another letter on your behalf.
Assuming they are good, ask to have your 3rd quarter grades sent to the
college.
4. Get an additional
letter of recommendation from a senior year teacher who can report that you are
continuing to work your hardest into the spring of your senior year. Alternatively, you could ask an
employer, the volunteer coordinator at your community service site, a club
advisor, or a coach to write an additional letter to make sure the college
knows about the depth of your contribution. One additional letter is plenty and
ideally it say something that was not already detailed in other letter or other
parts of your application. This letter should be in your file before May 1.
5. Do steps 1-4
ASAP and then move on! Get excited
about the college to which you have been admitted and have agreed to attend!
Timing? Waitlists
begin to move in the first week of May – after students have sent in their
enrollment deposits for the May 1 deadline and colleges have had a chance to
sort out their numbers. Who gets
off the waitlist typically depends on the college’s needs and how the class has
shaped up (i.e., are there enough boys, do they need another kid from the
Midwest, do they need a Center on the football team?). Unfortunately, there is often no
financial aid for students who come off the waitlist. If a college does accept students off their waitlist, they
often call students personally to offer them a spot in the class. They have been known to say, "If
you were offered a spot, would you attend?" If the student does not say yes, s/he is likely not to be
offered a spot. Often these offers
have a short time window (2 days-1 week) – they want to fill the class, if you
don't want the spot they will go on to the next student.
Waitlists are highly unpredictable and vary greatly from
year to year. The best thing you can do is to bond with the college to which
you have been accepted. And
remember: there is no perfect school – your experience and future depends much
more on how you take advantage of what is offered at the institution you attend
than the sticker on the back of the station wagon!
