<p>In general, does anyone know how a college chooses people out of a waitlist? Like, do they do a lottery or whatever when a spot comes up?</p>
<p>I don’t know, but if I get on the waitlist, I think I’m just going to ask them to rescind my application. Only about 3-5% of the waitlisted people get in eventually, and I don’t want to hold anyone else’s spot. I will have already chosen another college to go to long before they may consider to accept me off the waitlist.</p>
<p>I suspect they look to the holes in the class they need to fill based on who has accepted. It is assuredly NOT a lottery.</p>
<p>Do they rank people? And then accept the top…50 or however many is needed?</p>
<p>I don’t think they rank using specific numbers, but I think they have an unofficial ranking system, like there are people at the “top” of the waitlist who were really close to getting accepted outright, and then there are people who got waitlisted rather than outright rejected just out of courtesy. </p>
<p>To answer the original question, I think it helps your case if you continue to show interest in the school while you’re on the waitlist; for example, contact them to let them know if you have accomplished anything since you applied that would help your case, perhaps asking your guidance counselor to call them on your behalf to see why you weren’t accepted, etc. Show them that if they accept you off the waitlist, you are very likely to actually enroll.</p>