<p>I have to agree with ctyankee regarding the semantics of the word prioritized. If the school does not prioritize their waitlist, you sure have to think that waitlist is organized and/or sorted and probably in many ways. </p>
<p>If a school is trying to use the waitlist to fill holes in the incoming class, it is actually to the school’s benefit not to strictly prioritze the waitlist. If they end up with a couple of spots in the biology program, they don’t want to add more linguists who might happen to rank higher on some overall prioritized list. But within the biology subgroup? I bet they are sorted/organized/ranked in ways that allow the list to be quickly prioritized, depending on the need. A student intending to major in biology from Wyoming does not become a higher priority than a similar biology major from Connecticut until the school receives the May 1 responses and the school sees they are short on both biologists and kids from Wyoming. How the students get pulled/prioritized from the waitlist will be based on the hole the school needs to fill.</p>
<p>So, although there may be no one single prioritized waitlist, there may be multiple prioritized sublists, depending on what the school needs from the waitlist and how the school wants to sort the data/students.</p>
<p>I’m cynical and I believe it’s much more random than this all suggests. I don’t believe it’s substitute-in-another-oboe-player-from-Montana if the first one says no. I think it’s
a) adcom members’ own “pet choices” that they went to bat for but couldn’t quite sell in to the full crowd during regular decision,
b) students who wave and jump and say “remember me, I still love you” and get noticed – early bird catches the worm and all; and
c) signals of students who are full pay / don’t need financial aid.</p>
<p>I for one never believer “official statement” from any institution. I go with common sense. Everyone on the list is qualified and it is silly to admit a student because he/she wants to be a biology, linguistic major because most students change their majors all the time. Adcoms want students who have continued to excel through out senior year AND are willing to commit.</p>
<p>Schools like Duke, Chicago…are going to their WL before HYPS to get students to commit. If any of those students is unsure (waiting for HYPS to go to their WL), they would move to the next one in line. The question is if a student were to commit to Duke to take a WL spot, then get off HYPS, should/would he/she take it?</p>
<p>PG - well, I agree with your post #122 too. The way I look at it, your items a, b and c become some of the data points that go into “sorting” that is done to determine who comes off the “unpriotized” waitlist first. LIke cytyankee said, semantics.</p>
<p>Sure, some would - the cost of losing a deposit is minor in the scheme of things - which is why this whole WL and melt thing is ridiculous.<br>
There’s already ED I and ED II. Then there is RD. And now there is waitlist melt over May, which bleeds into June as kids “break” accepted schools to go to schools that take them off the waitlist? When will it end? </p>
<p>What would indeed happen if (hypothetically) this year it became illegal for colleges to have / go to a waitlist? Where the music stops as of April 1 (or more accurately May 1 as everyone replies) is where it is. If you’re underenrolled because too many of your acceptees chose to go elsewhere, too darn bad. Turn a few doubles into singles and call it a day. </p>
<p>Since you are all smart, can you all play out this hypothetical for me and see where it takes us? What would happen to colleges and their admission strategies?
And what would happen to applicants and their strategies?</p>
<p>PG… In that scenario colleges would probably all over enroll, would not be able to offer all incoming freshman dorm space and classrooms would become over-crowded. I would imagine colleges would always prefer to over-enroll versus under-enroll, otherwise they could have budgeting issues.</p>
<p>An earlier poster commented that this is all ridiculous and the kids should know so they can plan. That makes me smile!</p>
<p>I have seen teens turn on a dime. What was sure, sure, sure one hour went completely out the window the next. This is particularly true during the May/June of the senior year. A lot of long time romances founder. There can be a huge shuffle as people figure out their prom dates. </p>
<p>I loved the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the kids are at the end of their senior year. “Willow” (Buffy’s pal) wanders around the school, nostalgic for everything, including the pop machine and the girl who had always been hateful. </p>
<p>For many, this is a clear end to childhood. No longer does the path move forward the same way for everyone (What comes after fourth grade? Fifth grade!). There are sudden realizations of inner truths and sudden leaps forward in faith and in spirit of adventure. It’s exciting – and it’s hard. </p>
<p>I think college admissions folks have to be part Zen master. There have to be so many things out of one’s control – like calling that kid who has been pestering from the wait list for two solid weeks only to learn that he’s been offered a year long Rotary scholarship to Estonia and is busy packing his bags and his phrase book. </p>
<p>And we parents? We are at the edge of the action, like a lighthouse who can shine a light but not move from the shore into the currents.</p>
<p>My D was waitlisted at several schools. She elected to remain on five waitlists (accepted at 7). I must agree somewhat with Pizzagirl – put 100 or so on the waitlist. At least this way, students will know that there’s a reasonable chance that they might get accepted. She’s been through sheer agony these past two months, and now it’s simply been prolonged wondering each day if one of the schools might possibly call. Her stats/ec’s/apps were PHENOMENAL and yet, after April 1, she found herself in that group of kids that for whatever reason, got put in limbo hell. The kid voted “Most Likely to Succeed” has been doubting and questioning everything, and her self-esteem has plummeted. The thought of enduring two more months of this is quite painful. I wish something in the system would change, but I’m uncertain what the solution might be.</p>
<p>Logically, it’s the opposite. If a school is competing for a student against HYPS, they would be far better to wait for those decisions to be made versus making a bunch of phone calls to kids that are simply going to tell them what they want to hear (i.e. if you take me, I will come). Then they get off the HYPS wait list and poof, they’re gone.</p>
<p>“Didn’t many of the colleges on this list claim they don’t prioritize their WL’s and that they would start the WL selection process after May 1st (or May 3rd) when they know for sure they need to go to their WL? How can they immediately pick kids off their non-prioritized WL’s of hundreds or thousands just couple days after May 3rd? In the competition for better students, I guess there must be an advantage in getting to the WL sooner”</p>
<p>There has to be a method to the madness…maybe if they can get someone off their WL and deposited by May 1st it technically doesn’t count as a WL acceptance, and it looks more impressive to say “we had a WL in the thousands and only took 50 students off it”.</p>
<p>I bet that’s it.</p>
<p>For instance, S was WL at two schools, he got a call on April 28th accepting him off the Providence WL, they overnighted an acceptance letter and wanted the deposit postmarked by May 1st…why the rush? So they could count him as a RD and not a WL admit, IMO.</p>
<p>On April 29th he got a call from Loyola accepting him off the WL, but they were giving him until May 7th to decide. Loyola had something called a Priority WL that my son was never on, he was on the non-priority WL so we were surprised that he was called as soon as they went to the list.</p>
<p>I also think he did 2 thinks that helped get to be the first called both WL’s. He called, wrote letters and had the GC call both schools, but bottom line, he’s full pay, so I’m guessing that more to do with him being the first off two WL’s than anything else.</p>
<p>momtravels - your son did 3 things that helped him off the WL. He showed Loyola love, and they moved him up in priority. I think the best time to submit additional informaion is 3-4th week of April - all the RD craziness is over and Adcom is getting ready to go to WL - have the GC call around that time - then call again beginning of May. Keep your name fresh and not appear too pushy.</p>
<p>here is an excerpt
*
But colleges say it’s not so easy. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it tried being nice last year and kept its wait list much smaller than usual, but then it almost got burned when the school needed extra students. Stu Schmill, MIT admissions dean, says colleges need to have a large cushion.</p>
<p>“If we don’t plan for the worst case and it happens, then we’re stuck looking for students that we don’t have,” Schmill says.</p>
<p>Schmill says schools also want to be able to find certain kinds of kids on the wait list. For example, they may need to fill out their architecture program or volleyball team. Waiting may be hard, he says, but it’s something kids have to learn to deal with.</p>
<p>“This is part of life, and they need to learn that having a positive attitude and learning how to go forward, regardless of the outcome, is really the most important aspect of this,” Schmill says.</p>
<p>Schmill says kids who simply can’t take waiting anymore are always free to opt off the list. It happens more than you’d think. As one student put it, no one wants to be anyone’s backup date for the prom. *</p>
<p>Olymom, I know you’re right, and my daughter, deep down inside, would agree; however, it’s still painful and frustrating to watch a kid who has by all practical purposes done EVERYTHING right (straight A’s at her prep school, 12 APs (all 5s so far), 2250 SAT, TONS of ecs/volunteer hours, nationally recognized athlete, often functioning on 4 hours of sleep, etc.) feel as though “it wasn’t worth it.” Did she get into some great schools? Absolutely; however, she somehow has been waitlisted at her top five (excluding Stanford from which she was rejected). She knows that God has a plan, and she must accept it; nonetheless, at this point, everything is still very tender. As they say…time heals all wounds!</p>
<p>What? No way! It is not as if MIT is the only good school in the country. No, my friend, those kids do not have to learn to wait. They can learn that there are other fish in the sea. What bunk!</p>
<p>jc40, although my daughter’s numbers and schools are one small tier down from yours, the disappointment and feeling that “Why did I do all this?” is palpably the same. The answer, of course, is that virtue is its own reward. Our kids have learned work habits and attitudes of stretching for their best selves that will be with them their entire lives. If they can combine these with the habit of not looking for external validation of their worth that’s been discussed on this thread – a tall order, I know – then they will be truly exceptional individuals. I wish them luck because they already ARE exceptional, and they deserve recognition of that fact … even if it can’t always be from their top colleges.</p>
<p>How much is waitlisting a PR stance that allows rejected students to save face and for schools to project a more positive image in the rejected students’ minds? </p>
<p>As far as I can tell, colleges have very little to lose by creating large waitlists. They can go to them or not. Students (and parents) say “Sonny was accepted at A, B and C and waitlisted at D, E and F” which sounds better than (but essentially the same as) “was rejected by D, E and F.” The waitlist lets the student know that the school recognized his hard work, grades, etc. and offers a softer blow than outright rejection. </p>
<p>Maybe I am cynical but the numbers of students waitlisted at most schools seems so far out of line with the actual number a college needs to fill its freshman class, even after “summer melt.”</p>
<p>stillnadine - you are exactly right. I have heard directly from admissions reps that they do not like to outright reject well-qualified applicants whom they simply don’t have a spot for - so they WL them instead. Being waitlisted should be taken as a compliment of sorts - but not as a sign that you have a realistic shot of being admitted. Sometimes, yes, it does work out, as we can see from all of these schools that are going to the WL. But for most students - I say take it as a compliment and then focus on the schools where you have actual acceptances.</p>