Waitlisted? Advice for making your best case for an acceptance

OperaDad
Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:35:00 +0000

poetgrl:

Okay. So this is a genuine question. Why on earth would anyone want to go to a school that waitlisted them? My D was waitlisted at one place and laughed out loud at the idea that she would “wait” to be admitted.



My Son is waitlisted at Harvard. Not too many people would not want to go to Harvard, even if offered admissions off the waitlist.



Is there any kind of research on how schools treat kids who were waitlisted vs. kids who were not? Is this status lost upon admission? I hope so!



80% of the 29,000 people who applied to Harvard would succeed at Harvard (according to the Admissions Office). Around 2,000 of the 29,000 are admitted.

Once you are admitted, there is no difference on how the school treats you. At school, I can’t think of anyone who was ever asked “were you waitlisted?”.