A CC poster’s child was accepted off the waitlist for Lafayette College today
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Is this unusual to this year?
For Lafayette? I don’t know.
No I meant overall.
Is this year proving to be abnormal so far in your opinion?
University of Pittsburgh, Business school, accepted from Waitlist 4/23
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With the caveat that I’m just a mom who has been around for a while, it seems like there may be more early waitlist movement than last year, though I haven’t tracked it closely. Colleges may have planned to accept fewer in RD and more from the waitlist, as a hedge against yield uncertainty. Many/most colleges use enrollment management consultants who have mathematical/econometric types of models or algorithms for yield and my sense is that these models might tend to skew in the same direction with regard to certain variables that apply to all schools. It’s much easier for highly selective colleges to underenroll a bit from RD and then finish off the class from the waitlist than it is to be overenrolled.
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I too am just a mom, and my sense is that it’s similar to years past. For any school, you’d have to look at its forum from previous years to see what’s happened, and often, it varies a lot from year to year.. There are a bunch of schools that seem more inclined to hold the line at May 1. A thread like this addressing WL in general definitely makes movement more apparent.
The use of WL has evolved and it’s a very effective way of managing enrollment. Over-enrolling is the problem that just keeps on giving from an administrative pov.
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IMO things seem similar to other years so far. But, I’m not really sure what’s ‘normal’…I took a fast look at notes from last year (impacted by FAFSA delays…there seems to be something every year) and these schools all went to the waitlist before May 1 (I’m sure there are more.)
BC
Rice
UTK
Tufts
PSU main
South Carolina
U Chicago
TCU
Northwestern
UCLA
I would not be surprised if enrolling international students for Fall 2025 becomes quite challenging.
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I am cutting/pasting/reposting what I said in my first post as I started this thread:
“While how deep schools go to their WLs can vary greatly from year to year (sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all), many things can affect student enrollment. IMO this year, given the current financial/economic climate, more families may be unable to afford the tuition, room& board and fees this coming year. Add to that the likelihood that visa challenges/uncertainty may affect the international student enrollment. This is in addition to the other factors that affect “summer melt”, when some students decide to take a gap year or get off a waitlist and into another desired school. So I think many schools may go deep into their waitlists this year to fill their classes. Sometimes there can be apparent “times” (e.g when a parent cannot pay the first set of fees by the due date), though the movement across schools too can make this process fluid.”
…” Yes, schools are businesses and have to meet their business goals and models, but if the school is able to find spots, or needs to fill spots to fill their class, admissions offers will be made!
As is known, colleges use enrollment management tools to make budgetary plans each year and reach enrollment goals. These are helpful/necessary to gauge acceptances, fill classes, complete budgets, facilities management and space planning for classrooms, dorm space, etc. These resources are helpful for schools to do their best calculation to reach their yield goals. Waitlists are used by the schools to reach these goals for the incoming class.”
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To add…. in some years past, several schools overenrolled students. They were then faced with space planning issues— not enough dorm space (some schools put students in triples when they were supposed to be doubles, so me used nearby hotels or private housing), then they had trouble having enough courses and classroom space for these students, etc. SoIMO, they wisely used their enrollment management tools to make fewer initial admission offers, see how their acceptances are going, and then fill out the class from the WL. This also helps the “numbers” - lower acceptance rates and higher yields, that schools like to show.
SO IMO, yes, there has been a finer tuning of use of the WLs in recent years. BUT THIS YEAR IN PARTICULAR, add to this recent the nightmare of financial unpredictability with wild swings in the market, and greater unpredictability about visas and deportations. Let’s please not get political here, but these are the realities currently further affecting enrollment this year in particular.
Hope this helps.
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A counselor is reporting that Michigan went to its WL (for OOS) last week. Waiting to double check this
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I need UVA to start! 
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any news on Uni of South Carolina??
Adding Loyola Marymount to the list, based on counselor report
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Add U Miami to the list. Know of a student offered a spot off the WL for computer engineering.
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A friend’s son was also admitted to Michigan last week, but I don’t know if it was a reconsideration or a waitlist. OOS
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This is not a thing at many schools (some schools have appeals, but generally for denied students, not waitlisted.) Do you have knowledge that Michigan has a reconsideration process for waitlisted students?
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I have no idea if reconsideration is a thing at Michigan, just saying I don’t know if our friend’s son came off the waitlist or was admitted another way.
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Thanks, I was just curious. And don’t want to get this thread off track.
We have relied on counselor (both HS and independent) reports of waitlist movement for this and past threads, so I do think it’s likely accurate but will wait for jym626 to get back to us.
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