Every school is different, and how they handle it may vary by admissions cycle and timeframe within the admissions cycle. I worked at a college that could not state how waitlists worked. Not because we didn’t know, but because it was a process that depended on so many factors. In a studio art program with a small cohort, balancing the type of work (size, focus) comes into play. In a larger college, the engineering school may have an opening for a chemical engineering student. As the summer progresses, it becomes increasingly important that a student admitted from the waitlist will actually attend. They may have to make a decision more quickly than they would have had to earlier in the cycle. Some students who stated that they would attend if asked actually just wanted to know if they would get in, which extends the timeline for admissions for the next candidate. That can lead to another round of “who to take next” if there isn’t a similar candidate available. So it’s an art rather than a science.
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