Do you think that being waitlisted by a top 20 college means im competitive enough for admission to other top 20 colleges? Like being in the “final cut” means I could be in the final cut for other colleges and get lucky enough to be admitted?
Very few applicants are admitted to elite schools generally. Students who are admired to more than one are mentioned in news report. Each school makes its own admissions decisions. Overall, getting wait listed at one elite school doesn’t assure admission to another. Of course, it never hurts to be an extremely qualified applicant. It is speculation to think being wait listed at one school provides more hope that a particular student gets into another elite school with its own admissions standards and goals.
You are attributing information to the waitlist that is not there in many cases. Being on the waitlist does not mean you were on the brink of getting in. Colleges such as JHU send out waitlist letters to more kids than they accepted.
Why do they do this? It’s part of the marketing campaign for next years applicants. They expect kids will tell their friends they are on the waitlist and current juniors will think just like you are now, “if Joe was right on the cusp and I am a student similar to him then with a little bit of luck I will get In.”
a few years ago Duke waitlisted 4000 students and ended up accepting 50 of them.
Which makes sense because typically only about 6-7K students make the ”committee table” for a top school. They admit 2000ish and thus the remaining 4000 get waitlisted. I highly doubt regionally admissions officers have the authority to waitlist. Their job is presumably to recommend a certain amount of students to present to committee while rejecting those that don’t make it. Those that made committee but didn’t get in were waitlisted. At least that’s what I’ve gathered through research.
another waitlist…