And I think I remember somebody on here say that he was waitlisted at Princeton and was going to take a year off and stay on the waitlist so that he’d be the first one off it the following year. Is this even allowed?
The waitlist is not “random” - when a college goes to its waitlist, they don’t just pick a name out of a hat. They look at what type of people they want to fill the class- did not enough engineering majors matriculate? do we need more people from the midwest? - and look to fill those institutional needs. They also might look to see who has continued to show interest once they got waitlisted.
And no, that would not be allowed. You can’t “defer” a year on a waitlist, since you don’t technically have a place at the school. And since Princeton doesn’t rank their waitlist, he has no idea if he would be first off.
The waitlist doesn’t carry over to the next year.
Ha, that’s a good one. No, that would never happen. As for your question, it’s not random. For tippy top colleges, there is probably an immediate go-to wailist of people who had to be taken from the admit pile. I imagine they get called first. People who are full pay might also get first dibs off WL at other schools. Sometimes WL is a polite rejection and there is no way some people will ever be called. Probably most selective colleges have their own way of prioritizing their waitlist.
There are many reasons for WL. Right, some kids will never have a shot.
And when the class is full, the WL goes away. Gone. No carryover. Finito.