Much Better to be Waitlisted Than Deferred

calmom
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:19:34 +0000

Actually, I think a deferral puts a student in a potentially advantageous position: they have had some feedback on their application (“close, but not quite good enough”) and an opportunity to supplement & improve upon their application. When my d. was deferred from Univ. of Chicago, she and I talked it over and I made some suggestions as to what to submit for supplemental information. No agonizing – she waited until her mid-term grades were available, and then submitted the supplemental material at the same time as she submitted the grades. (At the time, Chicago had the students enter their grades online rather than waiting for the transcript from the high school – I don’t know what they do now.)

My d. was accepted RD, as was the one other kid from her school who also applied EA to Chicago and was deferred. Both kids ended up going elsewhere - the other kid went to Harvard.

In my view, a waitlist is tantamount to rejection. Schools have waiting lists as a reserve to fill up their classes if & when their yield falls short. They create very large waiting lists because they know that the “yield” on waitlisted students is far less than the initial applicants. That is, maybe 2 out of every 5 students who are accepted to their university end up enrolling – and maybe only 1 out of 8 students on the wait list will actually accept a spot when offered. The waitlisted students usually have other options.

The waitlist is often used as a way for the school to draw in full pay students as well – especially useful for schools with need-blind admission policies.