Any news from the Wait List?

ChoatieMom
Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:26:18 +0000

Not to be a debbie downer, but there are still people here who think there is a one-to-one relationship between spots declined and waitlist acceptances. To summarize from The Wait List thread (which says it all):

One student declining an offer of admission ≠ one student pulled from the waitlist.

The waitlist operates as a safety net for the school and, in a good year, it will never be used. The schools plan on a certain percentage of their offers being declined. If and only if the actual number exceeds that figure will there be movement on the waitlist due to inadequate enrollment, so to get off the WL, a school will have to have over-estimated its yield rate. Then, when a school does go to the WL, it is to replace the profile of a student who declined (male/female, foreign/domestic, boarding/day, grade, baseball player, FA match, etc.) I know this can be hard to hear when you are waiting, but it does help to explain why a school may not go to its WL even if you know kids who have declined spots or, due to a profile match, why one kid gets off the WL over another.

@jahphotogal: Keeping my fingers tightly crossed that your child IS that profile match for the next available spot at Loomis as they seem to have over-estimated their yield this year.