<p>Does have an alumni or possibly two, write a letter on your behalf improve one’s chance’s of getting accepted after being waitlisted?</p>
<p>How about a friend? I was thinking about writing one for one of my fairly close friends… is it worth it?</p>
<p>If the alumnus and/or alumna are very influential (ie just dump $100 mil for a school), then there is a very good chance that a letter could get you off the waitlist. If not, more often then not no. A letter from an incoming first year would be useless.</p>
<p>A good friend of mines daughter got waitlisted last year. Her uncle was a mid level alumni donor (50k per year) and he wrote a letter. The girl had good stats, capt of basketball team good gpa, strong SAT, great art portfolio, solid ec’s. No luck.
It takes serious coin to make a difference in this regard. I wish I had better advice but with so many on the waitlist, and having watched this same scenario play out last year, my advice would be to focus on another school that accepted you.<br>
My friends d did and she is very very happy and doing quite well.<br>
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>If I were your friend’s daughter’s uncle, I would never donate to the school again. Similar thing happened to family friend of mine at UNC several years ago. Father donated 50-100k a year to UNC, daughter didn’t get in, never gave UNC another cent.</p>
<p>Funny you should say that b/c I am reading a book about who gets into the ivy’s and who get left at the gates by a pulitzer prize winning author and that very reaction is becoming more and more frequant. People are saying, “hey you don’t care about my loyalty and donations, then I will direct them elsewhere, like the school who did take my kid”
Doesn’t seem to matter though, too many deep pockets to take that persons place.</p>
<p>thats true, but honestly to throw away $1,000,000+ in future donations and let some high school athlete in who is either not going to be good, or get drafted and leave the school in 2 or 3 years. that $1,000,000 could be tuition/scholarships for 20 people.</p>
<p>How many students are on the waitlist? Remember that not everyone who’s accepted decides to go to UVA. You probably stand a good chance of being accepted with strong stats/gpa. Hang in there! In the meantime, be sure to send your deposit elsewhere…</p>
<p>LBP,</p>
<p>If i remember correctly, there are 4000-5000 waitlist spots offered. I don’t know how many of those accepted a spot, so maybe someone else can chime in with that, but either way the odds don’t look good.</p>
<p>I also read that they only organize by department and do not rank by desireability of the student.</p>
<p>Odds of getting off the waitlist are terrible. Go ahead and submit letters but start making an attachment to another school. Treat it as a lucky surprise if you get in - in other words - don’t count on it. I think UVA and a number of other schools put WAY too many kids on the waitlist. It gives false hope - and makes kids miserable. Why do they need thousands to fill what could be no more than a couple hundred spots or less?</p>
<p>A few thousand on a waitlist is ridiculous… Why does UVA put so many kids on a waitlist??? What’s the reasoning?</p>
<p>The purpose of the waiting list is just to torment you for an extra month just to tell you that were rejected. I was waitlisted last year then rejected, but I wasn’t really surprised. I got in this year due to the guaranteed admission program. I realize there are a ton of people who were far more deserving than I was, but the world isn’t fair. I honestly do not think I deserve to go to UVA, but you can’t blame me for wanting to go to UVA with the opportunity that I was given. UVA is wacky with some of the decisions they make. I take classes at a community college with a girl who is graduating high school who was rejected from William & Mary, but got into UVA.</p>
<p>“UVA is wacky with some of the decisions they make. I take classes at a community college with a girl who is graduating high school who was rejected from William & Mary, but got into UVA.”</p>
<p>How is that wacky? I know about 4 kids at my high school who got accepted to UVA but got rejected from W&M. Those are just of the kids that I know… I’m sure that it applies to more kids as well.</p>
<p>UVA is the #2 public school and W & M is like #6, but I don’t really know much about W & M. Maybe you could inform me.</p>
<p>US News Ranking != Admissions Selectivity</p>
<p>W&M and UVA are on equal footing when it comes to admissions selectivity. According to princetonreview.com W&M has an admissions rate of 32% and UVA has a rate of 37%. I think W&M’s slightly lower admissions rate can be attributed to the smaller class size. Really… one is just as selective as the other. Most kids who get accepted to one, get accepted to both.</p>
<p>A smaller student body would be a good reason why. My point is that as this discussion board has shown the admission committee seems to make some odd decisions on the people they accept and decline.</p>
<p>yes, but pretty much ALL colleges make odd decisions… I know a girl who got rejected from George Mason and waitlisted at VA Tech but accepted to UVA… how or why I don’t know…</p>