My daughter is waitlisted at Virginia Tech. She clicked on their link to say that she’d like to remain on their list. She also sent an email to the admissions counselor to say she’s very interested in attending, and that she has been to the campus for a student day for interest in her major. Is there anything she should do that would help more? We’re exploring other colleges, but it’s difficult just waiting and hoping for a positive acceptance response.
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So the first thing is, you’re doing the right thing by looking elsewhere. Va Tech says they may not notify you up until July 1, so you’ll have committed by then elsewhere and love where you committed.
When you are waitlisted, the school is saying we cannot accept you (I say you’ve been rejected, others get offended by that but it’s true. However, the school leaves the door open if they need you - i.e. don’t yield enough. So you are a safety valve. The gave you a spot on the WL for their benefit, not yours. For that reason alone, you should look hard and fall in love elsewhere.
Every school has their own process - some WL an crazy amount, far more kids than they can even enroll. Others few. Some are need aware or pull OOS so they can make more $$.
Some want things like the LOCI you sent; others don’t.
Va Tech doesn’t want it: Since offering students from the waitlist depends on space by major, letters of recommendation, letters of continued interest, or personal visits will not affect our decision. We will use the information we already have to make a decision if space becomes available.
So statistically, here’s where they’ve been the past few years:
Last year, they WL 22,526. Think about that - That’s 39% of all applicants. A little over 7K enroll - but they do this because - clearly they’re not good at determining yield as they WL 3x more than enroll. And guess what, last year they went deep as 4,295 were offered admission. Only 7K enroll and they had to go 4300 deep to fill the class. Wow - obviously they go that deep because most decline. That 4,295 was from 13,380 that accepted the WL spot. So 32% had their name called.
The year prior 1524 got off the WL.
The year prior - of 12K+ offered a spot and 7K+ joining the WL, 0 got off.
So one never knows.
To answer your question, you’ve done what you can - but you need to protect yourself - so yes, find another school that you can fall in love with!! You might be like many of those offered a spot off the WL - you’ve committed elsewhere and are sticking iwth it.
Their loss if you do. Great school - but right now, you’ve not been admitted so love those that love you back!!
Good luck.
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I agree, there is really nothing to do but wait and see, and meanwhile make sure she is progressing along the path with whatever might be her actual college if she does not get a waitlist offer.
By the way, Virginia Tech is well-known in my circles for making a lot of use of its waitlist, but it is a wildcard sort of factor. As another poster noted, in their latest CDS, 4295 students were admitted off their waitlist in that cycle. The year before, though, it was 1524. The year before that, 0. The year before that, 2458. And so on.
This is indicative of a college that seems to have a lot of irreducible uncertainty about what their yield will look like in any given year. And if they don’t know that, you don’t either! And if you don’t even know how many slots they will be filling off their waitlist, then obviously it is impossible to guess at the chance of a waitlist offer.
So . . . that is simply out of her control, it is up to other people and the decisions they are going to be making. Which isn’t the greatest feeling, but it lends support to the idea there is truly nothing more to be done.
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Agree with the above. Your D has done everything she can. At this point I would move forward assuming she will not get into VT. Visit (if possible), choose from, and get excited about her affordable acceptances. If she gets into VT off the waitlist (and I hope she does), consider it a bonus!
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Agree that schools like VT are not going to consider continued interest. While a WL position in many schools is s/w similar to a deferral (akin to “we don’t have room for you now, but your stats make you a qualified student for admission should we have room”), at a school like VT, who who has historically pleased thousands on the WL and taken very few, it would be wise to not be hopeful in this case.
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Colleges that admit by division or major or have other buckets to fill (e.g. by region, SES, financial aid need) are likely to consider those factors in determining which applicants to admit from the waitlist. The chances of waitlist admission depend on whether admits who are most similar to the waitlisted applicant underyield, as well as whether the school overall underyields.
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