Making Your Decision After the Colleges Make Theirs: Steps to Increase Your Chance of Acceptance from the Wait-List

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A letter notifying you that you have been placed on the wait-list includes a postcard asking whether you wish to stay on the wait-list. What should you do? No single answer fits everyone. Don’t fall into the trap of automatically thinking that the college that didn’t take you at first is automatically better than any that accepted you. It was just a different admission process. Usually, less than half of those placed on a wait-list opt to remain. If you find your other college choices more attractive, then it obviously makes little sense to remain wait-listed. But if the wait-list college is still an appealing option, you may want to respond positively, knowing that your chance of moving from the wait-list is low. You should also inquire about a college’s policy regarding financial aid for students admitted from the wait-list. Will aid be available if you have financial need? In some cases, it won’t. You have to ask. Make sure you send a deposit to one of the colleges where you have been accepted outright by the May 1 reply deadline.

Although airline standby lists are ordered in some kind of priority so passengers can assess their chances of getting a seat, wait-lists are usually unranked. This means that openings are not filled from the list in any prearranged order. There may be some broad tiers with a preferred group at the top, but the college usually won’t tell you which group you are in. The reason they don’t order the wait list is that they don’t know who will stay on it, so ordering it would be a lot of extra work, and they don’t know what the composition of the final class will be. They want to retain the flexibility to add the prospective students they want. So as openings occur, a college may examine its whole freshman class along geographic, gender, racial, and many other dimensions and fill any perceived gaps from the wait-list. The student who came closest to admission during the regular review cycle will not necessarily be chosen from the list when openings occur. Each admissions officer may have the chance to nominate a few students for consideration.

Usually, a wait-list sees little movement until colleges have a clear grasp of their yield from those already accepted, and that generally doesn’t happen until after May 1. Mid-May through early June is the busiest time for wait-list notifications. Wait-listed students who are accepted are usually notified first by phone, followed by written confirmation with a two-week, or sometimes much shorter, deadline for reply. If you tell the caller you are no longer interested, the college will move on to another wait-listed student and repeat the process. Most selective colleges officially close their wait-lists by the end of June and notify those who have not been accepted accordingly. Many have very little activity from the wait-list after Memorial Day.

I tell my wait-listed kids to put their wait-list schools out of their mind and pick one where they have been accepted because chances are pretty good that this is where they will go. If they find out later that they’ve won the lottery, that’s great, and they can deal with it then. But they need to start forming new attachments. I’d also encourage parents to foster that attitude.  - Independent counselor

If you decide to remain on a wait-list, it is wise to discuss your continued interest in the college with your high school counselor. Tell your counselor whether the college is your first choice. Your counselor may be able to help your cause by contacting the college and conveying support for you as well as your enthusiasm for the college. A letter from you expressing your interest as well as any new accomplishments will be necessary. Don’t rely on your counselor to do this for you. But again, movement from the wait-list at a selective college is a long shot at best. Don’t let hope of admission, which could even come well into the summer, spoil your excitement about college. Sometimes closure, even if it means deciding to attend a college lower on your list, is far better than the emotional limbo of staying on a wait-list. You know yourself best—be sure to weigh the wait-list option carefully before deciding what to do.