| D was also waitlisted at Oberlin. I called the admissions office yesterday to see if I could get any more information; the woman I spoke with was very nice and helpful. She asked what instrument D played and then told me that 200 kids had auditioned for the 20 violin openings. Their yield on acceptances runs about 50%, so they sent out 42 admission offers and 30 waitlist letters. She couldn't tell me where D was ranked on the waitlist because they have to get all the waitlist response cards back to see if any of the 30 drop off. She also said there really isn't anything we can do to improve D's chances, other than returning the response card (although I agree with the previous posters that staying in contact with the faculty and/or the admissions office is a good idea; it certainly can't hurt). She said they should know pretty quickly after May 1 if they will be making any offers to the waitlist kids and financial aid will still be available.
In terms of the May 1 deadline, she suggested that we call the school that D would otherwise commit to, explain that she's been waitlisted and ask for an extension. Apparently, this is fairly common practice and preferable to putting a deposit down at one school and then trying to back out of that commitment if another school makes an offer from the waitlist. |