He is a math/physics kid - make sure he knows the number accepted off the wait list and then go to pitt and penn state for accepted student days (honors accepted students days would be best)
and then decide which one feels right to him
See what perks honors gets him at Pitt.
I feel for you, as my DS had the same issue - WL and denied at every reach and match and left with one match and 3 safeties. He didn’t bother pursuing the WL - one was at CMU’s comp sci school (he was accepted into their Humanities as a safety since the stats were much lower). He just went to the match LAC and it all worked out really well.
I’m so surprised about the unanimous approach in this thread to give up on the WL. My son is grounded and knows the chances are slim and he will go visit Pitts Honors accepted day as well as PSU. At the same time, I see in other threads how parents say that their kids did get off the WL. I’m trying to balance and model an approach of “stay hopeful and at the same time stay grounded” rather than “stay realistic”. This entire process in insane and I can’t even extract lessons learned for my other kids who will get to this process in the coming years. My husband and I received our undergrad and graduate degrees in our home country and we came here to study as graduate students. We never gone through it ourselves so it’s hard to make sense of it.
I’d have him accept all the waitlist spots and send emails reiterating his interest and hope to be accepted. Then send enthusiastic updates if he has awards or accomplishments to share. If he has one clear first choice, maybe have your GC reach out and confirm his strong interest. But I’d keep them all in play if possible if he prefers them to his safeties.
He, of course, will need to deposit by May 1 at one of his acceptances.
Well, if he really is committed to his career path as a math PhD, while his undergrad experience may be impacted, academically, he won’t be held back by Pitt honors + CMU cross-registration.
In fact, would Dartmouth undergrad even be as strong as that?
It’s not unanimous. I see no reason to give up on the waitlist! In years past the priority waitlist had pretty good results - but of course past performance doesn’t predict futures ones!
Hang in there until you must make a final choice. In meantime, I know my kids would favor Pitt over PSU for extraneous reasons: Pittsburgh is a real city; State College PA is just a large college town. The son of a good friend (former student) of mine left PSU after a year because of the isolation and social-cultural life, and he now attends school in NYC.
But the choice between these two schools should be based mainly on program, curriculum, IMO.
@mackinaw my son is leaning towards PSU because he’s not a big city guy. He likes more intimate environment and PSU is closer to home, which he likes. We will go see both places once again and consider all the options.
PSU is isolated but massive. At Pitt honors, he’d have intellectual peers at the honors college and the potential to take CMU classes as well.
The daughter of a friend is graduating from Pitt Honors this year. Has LOVED her time there and is now heading to grad school, fully paid (psychology). Another son of a friend went to Pitt Honors, big scholarship (graduated ~10 years ago) and went on to a PhD. RAVED about his experience and the research he was able to do as an UG. Another neighbor’s S went to Penn State and also had a great experience. Was in engineering and took an extra semester to graduate. Was also in a frat. Got a great job after graduation and enjoyed his time in Happy Valley. My sense from the kids I’ve known who went to Pitt is that is is quite possible to make that school feel smaller, esp in Honors.
We were lucky our flagship offered merit $$ and has great programs. Both sons would have been good going there, which was why my younger S said there were some schools that weren’t worth the difference in cost.
@PurpleTitan these are excellent arguments he will be looking at. Also housing will be with honors students, which is a plus. He tells me: “look mom, I’m not going to PSU assuming I’ll get into the Schreyer Honors program but I spoke with friends there and it is much easier to transfer once you’re there so I think I’ll end up in the honors program regardless.”. Can’t argue with this kid 
he’s so grounded and calm about the process. Honestly, while I wish he would live his dream and get accepted to an ivy and alike, I’m lucky to see him more often knowing he will be only 2 hours away. It’s their loss!
If you are going to be in the area anyway and they are having a session for WL students, why not? He knows it is a slim shot, but let him give it every chance. By June, he should let go and get excited about where he deposits.
I think his logic in skipping match schools was pretty sound.
He should go to accepted student visits at the two safeties before deciding.
If he really prefers PSU to Pitt, he can try appealing the honors college decision. He can let them know that he got into the Pitt honors program and mention any accomplishments since he applied. I know a student who was successful with a Schreyers appeal a few years ago.
I also agree that he can stay on the waitlists and write LOCIs to any of the waitlist schools that he would consider attending. In the meantime, he needs to mentally commit to one of his definite options. Good luck to your son. He sounds like a great kid who has worked very hear.
My daughters were waitlisted at Columbia and Harvard. They have accepted the waitlist option, but I am curious, if kids who were accepted, do not choose the school, is that seat actually given to a student on the WL? or does that seat stay unfilled? If the school says they will admit in the next school year 1000 students, and 950 accept, do they really take 50 off of the WL to fill those seats? Is it that simple?
I am with you HRSMOM, when the girls asked me if they should accept the WL, I said sure, why not…you never know. Don’t bank on it, but what a nice bonus if it does. Fortunately, where they have been admitted …there have been no losses in my house.
I raise a glass to all the parents…what a ride its been. Fortunately for me, I’m done!
@HRSMom I agree, I wrote on my original post that we next week will visit Pitts Honors accepted program and go up a few blocks for a session at CMU for waitlisted students. Fortunately we were able to sign up for both sessions on the same day.
@intparent he plans to visit both, no doubt. Just starting to lean towards PSU based on a good conversation he had with a friend who’s already studying engineering there and is super happy there
@MisPollitas00 Schools have yield formulas that indicate how many students they should offer acceptances to so that the number of kids who end up accepting their offer is enough to fill their class without over-filling it. So they intentionally accept well more than they need or want to fill their class. Therefore, they need to have more students turn them down then their yield formula predicted before they would need to go to a wait-list to fill out their class.
Most schools go to their waitlist in early May if they are going to. A few start in April when it becomes clear that they are trending toward under-enrollment. And a few schools seem to consistently hit the waitlist pretty heavily every year — apparently it is a strategy for them.
If you want to know previous year patterns, the info is in the Common Data Set for each school (can Google for that).