Much Better to be Waitlisted Than Deferred

chocoholic
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:57:46 +0000

I don’t believe that schools are “letting you down easy” by wait-listing you. At that point they are only looking out for themselves; they have filled 40% of their incoming class with the ED applicants, then offer the remaining 60% of the seats to possibly one-and-a-half to two times that number. The wait-list game benefits no-one but the school.

In any case, the chances of getting off a wait-list are inversely proportional to the popularity/ranking of that school.

I would not be happy if my student was wait-listed. It is awful enough for the next 3.5 months, after being deferred in mid-December, to then have to hear that you are wait-listed?

Or perhaps they only wait-list RD applicants and NOT deferred applicants?