I do think there is likely something to the “optionality” argument, especially for small schools. Small schools need to get pretty granular in shaping their classes or things can get out of whack in some ways that are important to the institutional needs of the school. Male/female ratio, geographical balance, the need for the oft-cited “tuba player” and probably dozens of other priorities may need to be addressed when going to the wait list pool. To be sure they can address whatever deficiency they have, the school may need to maintain a much larger waitlist than might seem reasonable, especially given that their yield from acceptances off the waitlist is probably much lower than the yield from acceptances during regular decision (which may already be pretty low.)
It’s interesting that UCSD gets twice as many applicants as UT Austin.
However, even with ostensibly available waitlists, a few selective schools, such as Grinnell and Bucknell, have failed to meet enrollment targets in fairly recent years.
Typically the latter.
That’s what I figured. So the number of waitlisted people who received offers could be higher and, possibly, substantially higher.
I believe it’s the former. Perhaps @Mwfan1921 can confirm?
There’s a subtlety to this relationship, however, at least at the private colleges with which I’m familiar. Generally, an offer is not “made” unless an applicant indicates she will accept the offer and enroll. As a statistical consequence of this, the figure for those receiving offers at a given college may be the same as that for those accepting offers and enrolling. In practice, this may be universally, or nearly universally, the case across private colleges. Cynics might view this as a statistical free lunch for the colleges, although this would seem to represent a debatable point.
This was definitely not the case when my son got a waitlist offer from Vanderbilt. He got an e-mail asking if he was still interested, and the response, IIRC, was just checking a box saying he was, and then they sent out the offer and he could accept or not just as if he’d been admitted RD (it was before May 1, so he had until the regular deadline). Vanderbilt is pretty well known for admitting heavily from the waitlist, though (and the link backs that up).
Well, this list isn’t entirely accurate; my daughter’s college states that zero people were accepted from the wait list, but I know at least one person who definitely was (one of her closest friends). Sample of one, but it suggests that some of the numbers might be off.
Great list. Remember, these also vary from year to year. One year, a school may take 50 kids from the WL, the next, none. And sometimes, it may only be one gender that’s under-enrolled, so if you’re on the WL, your odds will be very different depending on which side of that you fall.
There’s no need to accept a WL position right away, so it’s okay to wait until you’re sure that you don’t have acceptances you like better. While your odds aren’t great at getting off the WL at most schools, you’ll save your sanity by only accepting WL spots at schools you’d seriously consider.
As discouraging as these numbers are (and the percentage who intimately get in is brutal!) I am so surprised at how many wait listed kids get offered admission! I had thought it was closer to zero for most schools. The thing that jumps out is how many kids are being wait listed in the first place I guess. Didn’t realize colleges utilized this so much!
As someone without inside knowledge I guess I imagined 30 kids wait listed with maybe 0 getting in at an average great school. Really eye opening for me. Thanks
There is always room for error. If they are retrieving data from CDS and institutional websites then it is reliant on their accuracy at the time of reporting. This was meant as more of a guide than an absolute.
The high numbers of waitlisted students shocked me, but the low number getting accepted off the WL shocked me more. I feel like some of these unis wield the WL offer a little too liberally TBH.
Right, so this is what I’ve seen with respect to how figures are officially reported on the CDS — if an appiicant doesn’t accept the offer, then she is not reported as having been accepted from the waitlist. In a less statistically visible manner, however, offers of admission from waitlists are made to more students than indicated by Common Data Sets or thorough sites such as that linked in the original post. I realize that one of my posts may have stated this ambiguously.
The person I’m thinking of did accept the spot. But again – sample size of one, probably insignificant. But I think there might have been more, based on what my D said, and if so then something’s not being reported.
100% and I have been saying the same thing. My kid has been waitlisted at most of his target schools, where he is more than qualified. We need financial aid. His FAFSA was processed in 3/22, after he heard from almost all of them. He was accepted to one of them and offered the honors program and a merit scholarship. He has been feeling incredibly discouraged and said “what was the use of it all? Why did I work so hard?”
He is very lucky to be accepted from WL with merit. That almost never happens.
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