The college admissions process is a long and complicated one, and one of the final steps is finding out whether you’ve been admitted, denied, or waitlisted. For those who have been waitlisted, it can be a confusing and frustrating experience. But what exactly does it mean to be waitlisted, and what can you do about it if this happens to you?
Here’s what you need to know about being waitlisted:
What Is a College Waitlist (What Does It Mean to Be Waitlisted?)
Every college knows that not every student they admit will decide to attend their institution. So when some of the admitted students back out and decide not to attend, the admissions office will want to admit additional students to fill out their incoming class. To help them fill these openings when they occur many colleges (not all) will create a waitlist. The admissions office will consult with the waitlist to admit additional students to the college as spots open up.
So a waitlist is a list of students who have all the necessary qualifications to be admitted – but for some reason, the admissions office wasn’t able to admit them at the time their application was reviewed.
Students who have been placed on a waitlist might feel like they are in limbo as their applications haven’t been accepted or rejected outright. If you’re waitlisted, don’t give up hope – there’s still a chance you may be able to attend the school, but admission is certainly not guaranteed either.
How Does a College’s Waitlist Work?
Over the years, an increasing number of colleges have begun using waitlists over the years. However, the way in which these waitlists function varies from college to college.
Some schools have “ranked” waitlists, which means that the admissions committee has an order of preference for students on the list, and students are offered admission in succession as spots open up.
Other schools have “unranked” waitlists, which means that when seats open up the college will offer admission to the students that are the best fit for the available openings. At most of these colleges, you shouldn’t expect to be informed of your spot on the list as they do not know the specifics of their yield or the demographic they need to admit in order to have a balanced incoming class, which is why they cannot provide you with a specific ranking.
When it comes to deciding who to admit from the waitlist, admission officers at colleges with unranked waitlists often check the demographics of enrolled students to determine whether they are lacking in certain areas such as gender, region, ethnicity, or field of study. For example, if the college expected more engineering students to enroll than the actual number of students who matriculated, they may go to the waitlist and admit select engineering applicants to fill those spots. In other words, students who can provide something the school is missing might be more likely to get accepted off the waitlist, but predicting what that “thing” will be ahead of time isn’t possible.
When Are Waitlist Decisions Made? (When Do Waitlist Decisions Come Out)
Like how colleges use their waitlists differently, there is no one time colleges will admit students from their waitlists.
While some schools will admit students from the waitlist as early as April most colleges will notify you of their decision by mid-May, after the May 1 national admissions deadline, once they know how many students they accepted previously plan to enroll. That said, some colleges may not notify you that you have been accepted from their waitlist until the end of June, or even later.
How Often Do Waitlisted Students Get Accepted? And What Percent of Waitlisted Students Get Accepted?
Nearly all colleges that utilize a waitlist system admit some applicants from the waitlist annually, since it is unlikely for any college to get 100% of the students they initially accept to decide to attend. So the question becomes how many or what percentage of waitlisted applicants will be admitted each year.
If you go to the College Transitions website and look at the waitlist data collected from Common Data Set (CDS) forms and institutional websites you will see that the exact number of students who are admitted from the waitlist can vary widely from school to school with some schools admitting none or only a handful of students off their waitlist while other schools are admitting hundreds or in some cases thousands of students.
Factors that can impact how many students get admitted from the waitlist include the college’s enrollment needs (how many spots the college is trying to fill in their incoming class), their yield, which is the percentage of admitted students who ultimately enroll at the institution, and the size of the waitlist.
In terms of what percentage of students on a college’s waitlist get accepted, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) found that in 2018-19 the acceptance rate for waitlisted applicants was around 20%. However, this number often decreases for highly selective schools. To support this point NACAC also found that during the same time period at the most selective colleges, those that accept fewer than half of all applicants, only 7% of students who accepted a spot on the waitlist were admitted in the end.
What to Do if You Get Waitlisted
If you find yourself waitlisted you shouldn’t just sit there and hope for the best. There are many things you can and should do with several of them increasing your chances of turning your waitlist status into an acceptance letter.
- Find Out Why You Were Waitlisted. It can be helpful to reach out to the admissions office to find out why you were waitlisted and not accepted. Knowing this can help you understand the things that you can do to strengthen your application and sometimes these things can be a relatively simple or straightforward fix.
- Decide if You Are Still Interested in the College. If you are no longer interested in attending the college and don’t wish to remain on the waitlist, send a letter of withdrawal to notify the admissions office so they can open the spot for another student.
- Remember to Enroll at Your Second Choice School. Be sure to secure your spot at your second-choice college by submitting your non-refundable deposit before their acceptance deadline, which for most schools is May 1st.
- Notify the College of Your Desire to Remain on the Their Waitlist. If you wish to remain on the waitlist, it is essential to follow the college’s instructions to formally confirm your desire to the admissions office.
- Consider Writing a Letter to Admissions. You may also want to consider writing a letter to the admissions officer you have been corresponding with providing new details as to why you would be a great asset to the college. Make sure to keep the letter positive, showing enthusiasm for the college, and if you are certain that you will accept if offered admission, kindly state so.
- Have Another Recommendation Sent to the College. Another thing you could do would be to request another recommendation letter be sent to the college from a new source. Ideally, this should be someone from your 12th grade year, such as a teacher or employer, who is a big supporter of yours and can enthusiastically provide a unique perspective.
- Looking Into Visiting the College Again. If it is encouraged by the institution you can consider visiting the college again. If you decide to make another visit you should see if there will be an opportunity to meet with your admissions counselor while you are on campus.
- Remember to Keep Working Hard in School. If you’re stuck on a waitlist, it’s vital to keep up your grades since colleges can take your entire senior year into account. In addition, you will want to make sure that any new grades get reported to the college promptly.
- Send In Additional Test Scores. If you decide to retake the ACT or SAT, or if you’ve recently gotten your AP test scores, make sure to get them sent to the college. Doing this can really give your application a boost and make sure that you have the best chance of getting accepted.
- Let the College Know if You Are Willing to Pay in Full. If you’re on the waitlist for a college and you applied for financial aid but would be willing to pay the full cost of attendance if accepted, you might want to let the school know about your financial situation. Sometimes, colleges are running out of aid when considering waitlist applicants, so the only ones who will get off the waitlist are those who don’t need a lot of financial assistance. It’s not guaranteed that sharing this information will get you off the waitlist, but it certainly can’t hurt.
Final Thoughts
Being waitlisted doesn’t have to be a roadblock on your journey toward higher education. Knowing what it means, and how to handle it, are key to making sure that you ultimately get accepted into a college that’s great for you. If you find yourself in this situation, take the necessary action to increase your chances of getting off the waitlist while continuing to consider your other options.
Even if you don’t get accepted into your dream school, don’t forget that there are many other fantastic colleges out there that could be a great fit for you and provide you with a fantastic education. There is always more than one college that is a good choice for you!
