College Wait List

In making admissions decisions, colleges generally have three options. They can accept a student, deny the student or put the student on a wait list. If a student is placed on a wait list the college is telling the student that they are not admitted but if not enough students who have been accepted decide to attend, then the student on the wait list may be accepted. In the past, the wait list was generally very limited and used for strong students who the college felt were strong students but not quite as strong as those students who were admitted. Recently, however, colleges have been putting more and more students on a wait list thus in effect putting the students in limbo. The colleges have been doing this in large part because the increase in applications has made it more difficult for the colleges to know which of the students they admit will actually attend the college. By having a large wait list, the college has more options available if too many of the students they admit decide not to attend. So what do you do if you are one of the students placed on the wait list for a college you wish to attend?

First, before deciding what to do with the wait list, review the colleges that have accepted you and decide which would be the best choice for you. Even if you decide to have your name put on the wait list there are no guarantees and you need to make sure you have confirmed attendance at one of the colleges that have accepted you.

Second, review your options before deciding on whether to put you name on a wait list. It may be that your best choice is one of the colleges that accepted you. In that case, don’t worry about getting on a wait list. If you decide that you would like to consider the option of attending the college that put you on the wait list, then go ahead and notify the college that you wish to be on the wait list.

Third, if you put your name on the wait list, how do you improve your chances of acceptance? If there have been any improvements in your grades or any new honors be sure to inform the wait list college of this new information. If the wait list college is your first choice college if accepted, let the college know that fact. If a college accepts students off the wait list, they prefer to accept students who are likely to accept their offers. Students will sometimes want to visit the college again to show their interest in attending the college. Usually, this is a waste of time unless the college requests to interview you or has some other reason to come to campus.

What do you do if placed on multiple wait lists? You certainly can put your name on multiple wait lists. The problem with accepting multiple wait lists is the issue of telling a college that they are your first choice if accepted off the wait list. While many students will tell multiple colleges that they are the first choice if accepted, this really is not ethical. It is better to decide what your first choice college is and accept the wait list for that college. If you want to accept another college’s wait list, do so but don’t tell them they are also your first choice if accepted.

The bottom line to wait lists is to accept the reality that most colleges have many more students offered a wait list position than they would ever have the opportunity to accept. For example, last year Amherst College offered wait list spots to 1261 students of which 565 accepted a spot on the wait list. Only 2 of those students were admitted off the wait list. Some colleges have more students accepted off the wait list and some colleges don’t accept any off the wait list. If you want to know about the college you are considering, ask the college how many people were offered a position on the wait list and how many were accepted off last year’s wait list. That should give you some estimate of how competitive the wait list is at that college.

How Many Recommendation Letters to Send?

Every year I have one or two students that want to send lots of recommendation letters with their college applications. The reasoning is that when applying to selective colleges you need to distinguish yourself and what better way than to send recommendation letters from lots of people.

It is true that it is helpful to distinguish yourself. The way to do that, however, is not with the use of a ton of recommendations. In fact, this is the type of move that will get you noticed but in a negative way.
Colleges know what they want from students to make the admissions decisions. Give them what they ask for and do so in a manner that highlights the strongest you.
If a college asks for two teacher recommendations, then most students should give them exactly that: two teacher recommendations.

There are of course exceptions to every rule. If you are involved in a particular activity that would be enhanced by a recommendation from someone who knows your extensive involvement that may be acceptable. But, before sending an additional recommendation like this, ask yourself, what does this letter add to my application that the reader doesn’t already know. If someone is going to say you are a good kid or a hard worker, do you really need that additional recommendation? Probably not.

If you do think another recommendation will help, do not send a recommendation from someone who does not know you well. For instance, a recommendation from your dad’s buddy who went to the college 30 years ago and who will talk about what a great guy your dad is, will not help. It is the rare case where any alumni recommendation will help you in the admissions process.

When deciding whether to send in a recommendation that isn’t requested from the college, keep in mind the old saying in the admissions world: The thicker the file, the thicker the kid. In plain language, a bigger admissions file is not necessarily a good thing.

2010 State of College Admissions

The National Association for College Admission Counseling just release the 2010 edition of the State of College Admissions. This annual report highlights what is happening in the world of admissions.

Although everyone seems to dwell on the most selective colleges where admissions is incredibly difficult, the average acceptance rate for 4 year selective colleges last year was 66.5%. And while most colleges (65%) did have increases in the number of applications last year, 29% of the colleges reported decreases in the number of applications.

One area where growth continues is in the number of students that submit 7 or more applications. Almost 25% of student fell into this category. Another area of growth is the 26% of colleges that accepted a greater number of early decision and early action applicants.

Another finding of the report that students need to be aware of is that 20% of colleges now place considerable importance on demonstrated interest when making admissions decisions. 76% of colleges said that demonstrated interest played at least some role in admissions decisions.

Next week I will talk some more about the factors colleges are looking at in deciding who to admit.