Waitlist and Deferment

Trying to decide if you want to remain on their waitlist? Start by asking yourself some questions: 1. Do I want to remain on their waitlist? 2. Is there something more that I could add that would strengthen my application? 3. Do I want to commit to the work involved in putting together extra support material to send to this college? 4. How do I really feel about a college that didn’t offer me admission on the first round? 5. What are the odds of getting in--how many students did they take off their waitlist in the past? In Spite of the Odds, You Still Want To Remain on their Waitlist? Here’s what to do: • Update your profile adding positive events from your senior year like: an updated transcript, awards, research projects, graded paper, published articles, outstanding achievements, athletic accolades, and new leadership roles. • Return a letter indicating you are interested in remaining on their waitlist and press your point on how much you can contribute to the fabric of their freshmen class. • Meet their deadlines including completing all financial aid documents and medical requirements. • Look at your list of acceptances and make a deposit to secure your dorm to your second choice college. If you do get accepted off the waitlist, send a letter to this college withdrawing your acceptance. You will lose your deposit. • Be ready to deposit to your waitlisted college and remember it may take until after the May 1st deadline before you hear from your waitlisted college. Are you the kind of person who can make a major life decision at the last moment?

Waitlisted??? Now What? Here is some advice for students on a waitlist from an article where I was quoted in the Washington Post. “Swift action may be required if teens are going after waitlist spots or trying to improve financial aid offers. Make sure to heed all deadlines for notifying admission offices of the desire to remain on a waitlist. The process may not be automatic. Politely ask the following questions of the school: In the past three years, have you gone to your waitlist to admit? If so, how deep? You may have to put a deposit to reserve a spot at one school while waiting to find out whether you make it off the waitlist at another. “Depending on the selectivity of the college, there are years when some colleges do not go to their waitlists,” Aviezer said. “Last year, however, there was a sudden climate change in the number and size of waitlists across the country. Attributed to the increase in applications received by colleges and the jockeying for students that ensued as a result, more students received a waitlisted letter.”

A deferred application is considered again along with the applications submitted during the regular cycle. This complex alternative is so tenuous and uncertain that it is impossible to predict the outcome. If you find yourself in this limbo, here are some guidelines for how to proceed. 1. Don't Panic. Remain calm. Most likely, if you've been deferred your credentials are in the ballpark for getting accepted. If they weren't, you'd be rejected. So that's the good news. The percentages vary from college to college, but some students do get accepted after being deferred. 2. Find Out Why You Were Deferred Unless the college asks you not to do so, give the admissions office a call and try to find out why you were deferred. Be polite and positive when making this call. Try to convey your enthusiasm for the college, and see if there were particular weaknesses in your application that you might be able to address. Practice before you make this call to the college's admissions office. 3. School Guidance Counselor Your high school counselor can find out some information from the college admissions for you. 4. Be positive and Be Polite As you try to get out of deferral limbo, you're likely to correspond with the admissions office several times. Try to keep your frustration, disappointment and anger in check. Be polite. Be positive. Admissions officers are remarkably busy this time of year, and their time is limited. Thank them for any time they give you. 5. Send a New Letter of Recommendation Is there someone who knows you well who can really promote you effectively? If so, an additional letter of recommendation might be a good idea (but make sure the college allows extra letters). Ideally, this letter should talk about the specific personal qualities that make you an ideal match for the particular college that has deferred you. 6. Send Supplemental Materials Many applications, including the Common Application, provide the opportunity for sending in supplemental materials. Try not to overwhelm the admissions office, but you should feel free to send in writing or other materials that will show the full breadth of what you can contribute to the campus community. 7. Update Your Information Chances are the college will ask for your midyear grades. If you were deferred because of a marginal GPA, the college will want to see that your grades are on an upward trend. Also, think about other information that might be worth sending: New and improved SAT or ACT scores Membership in a new extracurricular activity A new leadership position in a group or team A new honor or award 8. Have a Back-Up College or two While many deferred students do get accepted during regular admissions, many do not. You should do all you can to get into your top choice school, but you should also be realistic. Make sure you have applied to a range of reach, match and safety colleges so that you will have other options should you get a rejection letter from your first choice. 9. Letters If you have been deferred but have new information to present to the college, you'll want to write a letter presenting the updates. Remember, the advice above is general and that every college and university has its own policies when it comes to sending in additional documents. Check with your college.

Wait, wait, wait. Be patient as you may not hear until the day before school starts. First of all, select a college to attend from the list of colleges that already accepted you. You should have great choices that are much better than the school that waitlisted you. Second, recognize that most colleges only take 10% or less off of their waitlists so don't take it personally if you don't get in. THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO TO INCREASE YOUR ODDS. 1. Write an updated email to the admissions office. Tell them about new and exciting things have happened to you since you applied. Highlight academic achievements, awards, and accomplishments. 2. Ask a senior year teacher to write you an additional letter of recommendation. 3. Visit again, if you have the time--Ideally after May 1, when admissions officers are now looking to waitlists. 4 Have your counselor contact the admissions office. 5. DON'T BE A PEST DON'T EVER HAVE YOUR PARENTS MAKE ANY OF THESE CONTACTS. Recognize, that colleges often take students who can pay outright and other students that meet regional or specific academic needs.

Do you still love the college? Will you life be so much better there? Can you afford the college? Can you afford to lose the deposit at the school you accepted? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you should consider evaluating the offer of acceptance from a college that waitlisted you. You may need to go and visit again. You will want to find out about housing and access to classes first semester. You will want to compare financial aid packages and talk with your family. Many kids get off waitlists and don't accept the offer as they have fallen in love with a college that accepted them. While others, take the offer and jump.

Acceptance is acceptance. Accepted regular or off a waltlist, you got accepted to the college!! And no one will ever know that you got in off of a waitlist. You are a student at the college with all the rights and privileges of all students. The only difference may be access to freshman housing. As you may have missed the housing deadline, you may go to the end of the housing list. But that is a small price to pay for getting into a college you really want to attend.

You can do many things to help set yourself apart from other students on the waitlist. First, make sure to communicate anything new that has happened to you since you first applied to the admissions office. Highlight academic accomplishments, awards, activities, etc. Then have a senior year teacher write you an additional letter of recommendation. Also have your counselor contact the college. Send in a project or paper that you wrote recently that reflects your intellectual or activity strength. Visit the campus after May 1 and check in with the admissions office. Don't overwhelm the college but keep submitting this information until you hear. But remember that none of this means that you will get off the list as it is often factors way beyond your control that affect who gets off a list. You can and will find happiness at another college.

You may not like this answer, as there is no clear answer to this question. Colleges are increasingly placing kids on longer and longer waitlists. Yet some schools really draw on waitlists, while others rarely go to them. In this competitive era and access to easy online applications, students apply to many colleges. Yet you can only attend one, so while you accept one, you refuse others. That means that spaces open up at those colleges, and there is a trickle down as kids say no to colleges you may want to attend. However, don't hold your breathe. As colleges draw on waitlists, they often look for kids from certain regions or who can pay entirely. It is sad that colleges now waitlist so many kids as the waiting is agony. And the lists are so long as they place some kids on their not to hurt the feelings of their high school or family. So please find happiness with a school that accepted you outright.

As with so many things in college admissions, it depends. Some schools don't even maintain wait-lists. Some take several students from the list, some take very few. This is also true of individual schools from one year to the next. A college might take 15 students from the wait-list this year, but next year only take three. Your best bet is not to stress about your chances of turning that wait-list status into admitted. Express your ongoing strong desire to attend the school via a letter, then put your wait-list worry aside and focus on choosing from among the colleges that have already offered you a spot.

Send a letter expressing your strong continued interest. If you're comfortable, let them know that you're committed to attending if admitted off the wait-list. Share any new information, including improved grades, honors you've received, or other spring term accomplishments that weren't noted on your application last fall. After this, cross your fingers and get on with making the best choice from among the colleges that accepted you. Don't waste your time with hounding or gimmicks like cookies for the admissions staff; they won't help your case, and they might even hurt it.

Whether you receive an offer via early decision/action, regular admissions, or off the waitlist -- an offer's an offer! If you are waitlisted and then offered a spot -- you should accept it IF it is still the number one place that you'd like to attend. Be sure to ask about your financial aid package, however! Also -- make sure you have some solid housing options still available as well. Once you are on campus, no one will know if you were a waitlisted student or not. However, if you decide to take an offer after being waitlisted, be sure to contact the school immediately to discuss any financial aid issues you have.