<p>Shennie:</p>
<p>I am really sorry to hear that your son was waitlisted.</p>
<p>Here are the stats from last year:</p>
<p>Total applicants: 4085
Total acceptances (on or before April 1st): 899</p>
<p>Waitlisted: 959
Accepted spot on waitlist: 358</p>
<p>Additional acceptances from waitlist: 18</p>
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<p>The 18 acceptances off the waitlist was at the low end of the range over the past seven years or so. The high is about 50. The average is somewhere around 30 (from memory). I believe that virtually all of the 18 accepted off the waitlist last year happened pretty early – like in early April. I think some of those were athletic recruits where they knew right away that they had lost one guy and moved to the next recruit within a week. They were above their targeted freshman enrollment by 9 students on June 1st and had little summer melt, ending up 6 students over their target. They just never had any slots open up.</p>
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<p>If your son decides to go onto the waitlist, communicate a clear first choice in the letter to the regional admissions rep. Keep them posted of anything that could provide ammunition – such as the poetry contest. When things die down in a couple of weeks (the adcoms are fielding calls up the wazoo for a week or two), e-mail the regional rep and continue to demonstrate interest and keep yourself visible. </p>
<p>Realistically, the waitlist acceptances are going to be used to fill specific slots that they didn’t fill after the yield shakes out. So, I do think it’s important to psychologically “move on” and get excited about the other other options. Hanging onto hope for a waitlist acceptance gets in the way of that. Consider an acceptance off the waitlist as a bonus out of the blue if it were to happen.</p>