We did and run from Richmond as far as we could 
. This was indeed originally dream school that DD was extremely happy not to attend in the end. Actually DD on several occasions mentioned how happy she was that she was not at Richmond and it wouldn’t work for her. So we got lucky that they messed up!
1 Like
it’s funny how things turn out, isn’t it?
Cwru. Miami. Emory all WL a lot.
2 Likes
I find the fact that UCSD and a few other UC schools waitlist tens of thousands of applicants ridiculous. Here’s some numbers from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Number of students on UC waiting lists for the 2023-24 school year
Students who were offered a spot on the waiting list, who opted in to the waiting list and who were admitted
Table showing the total number of students who were offered a spot on the waiting list, who opted into that spot and who were admitted for each UC Campus. UC Riverside admitted the fewest from its waiting list with 1,145, while UC Santa Cruz admitted the most with 10,812.
Offered
Opt-
ins
Admitted
San Diego
29.1K
19.4K
2.6K
Santa Cruz
18.4K
12.3K
10.8K
Los Angeles
18.3K
11.7K
1.4K
Santa Barbara
15.7K
9.7K
5.5K
Riverside
8.1K
3.9K
1.1K
Berkeley
7K
4.8K
1.2K
UC Merced does not have a waiting list. UC Davis and UC Irvine did not provide data for the fall 2023 class.
Chart: Danielle Echeverria / The Chronicle Source: UC Common Data Sets
3 Likes
I guess I’m still bitter with the fact that my Alma mater UCSD was one of my D24’s top colleges and the only UC school and public school that waitlisted and eventually denied her admission, but she gets into all her other UC schools and public universities. Their loss and another university’s gain.
2 Likes
The SF Chronicle did a really great job with the UC articles. Eye opening.
Reading them proved to us that we (CA residents) are the opposite of what the UCs are looking for these days (Catholic school, upper income, etc.).
My daughter wants to go to a smaller school in any case.
For deferral, USC defers everyone who did not get accepted in EA to RD 
1 Like
I hear you! My S20 decided to attend a small college in the NW rather than a large university and loved it. He learned a lot, made many friends, and was well prepared for the working world. He received a couple of job opportunities and is now working at a solid company doing what he learned in school.
D24, on the other hand, was waitlisted at not only UCSD but also many other “smaller” private schools. She did decide to go to one of the other UCs and was fortunate enough to get into an undergrad business school. It is challenging but she does enjoy it and is growing. It does work out!
3 Likes
Our Scoir data shows that Colby is a huge user of the waitlist.
2 Likes
Good to know since Colby is one of the schools that does not release much information.
It’s third party so if you’d have to validate but this shows an obscene # for Colby.
1 Like
Considering that Colby enrolls fewer than 600 kids per year, putting 4700 on the waitlist is absurd.
3 Likes
Is it absurd though? The number that I think we see is that of the applicants that are admitted from the waitlist. However, that says nothing about how many students are approached on the waitlist for admission. Neither I nor my child has gone through the waitlist process before, but reading the various waitlist threads here on CC, it seems that the process is that the AO calls up waitlist applicant and asks them if given an offer of admission, would they accept. If that answer is yes, then an offer is extended.
If my understanding is correct, the number of calls that Colby may have to make to get a handful of “yes’s” to their question could be quite large. And they may need what appears to be an absurdly large waitlist pool so as to have the variety needed to still meet their various institutional needs.
Again - it’s 3rd party.
But a school with no name recognition like ( I don’t know about Colby’s yield but definitely has low name recognition, so may have a low yield. In the end, for all their largesse, they are a business - and they need revenue - butts in seat - and often WL are need aware and they pluck the big bucks.
39K apply to Case Western. Just over 11k are admitted - And near 12K are offered WL spots.
There’s lots of absurdity out there.
U Miami admits about 9K students. Offered nearly 22K students a WL.
There’s lots of absurdity out there - part two!!
But they are not looking out for you.
They are looking out for themselves.
A wait list is an insurance policy - for them, not you.
Yes, some will come off but for the majority it’s a false hope.
Emory admits about 3600. Near 6K offered a WL spot. My daughter got WL from Emory. They made her think she had a chance…but nope she didn’t.
It’s how life is.
They are looking out for #1 - and that’s not your student!!
3 Likes
Admission rate from the waitlist probably can vary considerably from year to year, depending on whether the college over or under estimated yield from regular admission for each year.
Exactly. And WL makes sense for students mostly if family are full pay or close to full pay. If family needs big FA then WL is more like consolation prize.
2 Likes
Middlebury is another huge waitlister at our very competitive NJ public school. I don’t think anyone in the past five years has gotten into Middlebury RD, and most of the ED were athletes.
ETA: 1 out of 50 applicants got in RD in the past five years. And many of these are kids with very high GPAs and 1500+ scores.
1 Like
In my opinion top and mid tier schools fill majority of the class/ insitutional needs with ED, EA, and RD. WL is just to plug holes and make money (full pay or OOS).
Some schools even go to foreign students that can pay to fill empty spots. That is why students should not consider WL as valuable hope after middle of April. They just need to commit and move on.
3 Likes
Admitted 1377. 2778 offered the WL per the CDS.
Remember too that many kids who are offered a WL spot will not take it because they have options they like better. So a school that enrolls 500 may anticipate using its WL for the last 50. It may offer 1000 kids WL spots. Maybe half are interested in being on the WL. Let’s now assume that admissions was right and has those last 50 places to fill, AND they all need to be male. And let’s assume that the WL was evenly split in terms of gender. So this school now has 250 boys to go through to fill 50 seats. Some of those are going to say no because they were interested in what would happen but not interested in attending. Or another, preferred school offered a spot from their WL. And there are needs the school is trying to address, whether interests, geography, need, etc. Note in this scenario, all the girls are done on May 1 when the school sees who has deposited – unless they start unenrolling because they are getting WL offers they prefer. You can see why schools feel like they need big lists - even though they may end fully enrolled without using them. It may not be “good” for the kids on the WL, but it isn’t done with the intention of hurting them.
Being on a WL involves a lot of uncertainty. The only thing you can control is whether you accept a spot on the WL or not. I would strongly advise only accepting WL spots at places you would seriously consider over places where you have acceptances.
If you look at the CDS for any school that interests you, you will see a lot of variability in # of students admitted from the WL from year to year. No guarantees, ever. One good thing some schools have done is tell kids who are offered WL soots is what merit $ they will get if offered a place. This has eliminated the need for kids to take a spot just to see a merit offer. Good move to all who have done this. (Yay, Denison!)
4 Likes