College waitlists are a source of frustration every year for students, families, and definitely us counselors, too. Being waitlisted can make the college application process drag on, leaving students and families with prolonged uncertainty and stress. Here are 5 things to do if you’ve received a waitlist offer:
Decide if you even want to join the waitlist. Joining a waitlist is not required; perhaps you’re ready for the uncertainty to be over or you’re no longer interested in that college that put you “on hold”. These are totally reasonable decisions! If you do want to join a waitlist, carefully follow the instructions the college sent. Colleges require students to opt-in, so if you do nothing you will not be added to the waitlist.
Understand how colleges use waitlists. Colleges put students on a waitlist for a few reasons:
To have a pool of qualified students available to pull from. This allows a college to easily extend additional offers if their yield (the number of accepted students who actually enroll) is lower than expected.
To be able to “fill in holes” they see in their incoming student body. Did exactly ZERO students from Kentucky enroll? Guess which state’s students will be getting a call. Fewer geology majors than expected? Johnny with his geodes has a strong shot at a spot on campus. Colleges use their waitlist to craft the class they want in terms of geographic, demographic, financial, and academic factors.
To “courtesy deny” students (aka not say “No” but not say “Yes”). This often happens with students from high schools with which a college wants to maintain good relationships or to an applicant with legacy status. Sometimes it happens when a college wants to encourage applications from a high school that doesn’t typically see many students apply. It’s akin somewhat to pulling a Band-Aid off slowly vs. quickly. Which is better? I know which one I prefer (the latter).
Look at data while remembering results vary greatly. To borrow from investing terms, “past performance does not indicate future results”. Some colleges, like Virginia Tech, post historical waitlist data, while others are more elusive about sharing their numbers. If you Google a college + “Common Data Set”, you can find how many students were waitlisted and how many were offered a spot in the previous admissions cycles. The difference between these two numbers is often very large. If you see that typically only 2% of students tend to get off the wait list year after year? Perhaps rethink if you want to prolong what will likely be a final “No”.
Enroll at a college you’ve been accepted to. This is SO IMPORTANT, it should really not be #4 in any list (but here we are). If you decide to join a waitlist, make sure that you have paid the enrollment deposit at a school to which you’ve been fully accepted by the enrollment deadline. This is the only way to guarantee that you have a spot somewhere.
Mentally commit to that college you enrolled at. Spring of senior year is an exciting point in the college admissions process— all the hard work’s over! It’s time to buy the merch, plan the parties, and start looking forward to all the amazing opportunities ahead. The WORST thing about waitlists, in my opinion, is that they can make students hold out hope for something that probably won’t come to fruition when they have ALL the reason in the world to be happy about and focus on the option(s) they DO have. Get excited about where you are going, even if you decide to wait to see if you might go elsewhere. Your freshman Fall self will thank you tremendously for it.
Interested in how Endeavor Advising helps students navigate the entire college admissions process, from research to applications to the final decision? Learn more about our services here.