Applying to college, students hope to be accepted and fear being rejected. In the regular round, the waitlist is typically not even on their radar. And yet, thousands of students receive this purgatory-like decision in March: neither in, nor out of the class. Once you receive a waitlist notification, what should you do, and how long should you hold out hope of being admitted?
WAITLIST: TWO IMMEDIATE STEPS TO TAKE
First, accept an offer of admission at another college or university and make your enrollment deposit. Do not wait to get off of a waitlist! This is a time when you need to have a plan A and a plan B (and sometimes a plan C!). If possible, attend an admitted students’ day program at the school where you have enrolled because this is your plan A, and you will likely be moving in at the end of summer.
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Second, if you have any interest in remaining on a waitlist and keeping a plan B alive, accept and confirm your spot on the active waitlist. Schools waitlist far more students than seems reasonable, and the more selective the school, the less likely they are to admit more than a handful of students. But, to have any chance of admission, follow the instructions sent with your waitlist offer: if updates are welcome, submit an update. If you are asked to submit a final transcript, submit a final transcript. Only students who take the affirmative step of accepting their waitlist offer will be considered for admission. For example, for the Class of 2027, American University placed 7,312 (41%) of the 17,786 applicants for first-year admission on their waitlist. Only 18.7% of those students chose to remain on the waitlist, and, ultimately, 491 (35.9%) of them were admitted.
EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY
“The test of a first-rate intelligence,” F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Hanging on to a waitlist spot while enrolling elsewhere means embracing uncertainty, holding two possible outcomes in mind and being okay with that tension. To reduce the discomfort of this position, train your mind back to plan A after you maximize your chances of getting off a waitlist.
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Some schools have response forms with strict word limits; others allow submission of supplemental materials; while still others advise against any updates or submissions at all after confirming your spot. If a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) is allowed, do spend time and effort on making your case for why you are a great fit at that particular school (Show, don’t tell!)—don’t send a passionate email five minutes after receiving your waitlist offer. Send an additional academic recommendation if allowed, and be sure to submit your most recent grades and provide an email address that will be current over the summer. Remember: they have read your application. Only new information—like awards, projects, publications, test scores, or grades—will have any impact. Think carefully about any new projects or initiatives you have embarked on. If you are short on new actions, seize the day and send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or meet with administrators at your school to act on an issue you care about—then report on this to your dream school in your update. Submit your waitlist update early in the summer: some schools strike quickly to hit their enrollment target in May, while others continue to fill spots into July, as students play musical chairs once they are admitted off waitlists and essentially “un-enroll” at school A and deposit at school B. If you haven’t heard anything by mid-June, reach out to admissions for an update, reiterating your continued interest.
WAITLIST: DATA SPEAKS
To assume some control in this process, you can always turn to data. Schools admit, on average, 20% of students who remain on waitlists, but selective schools (those admitting less than half of applicants) admit an average of 7% of students on their active waitlists. The range is vast. For the Class of 2027, Michigan State University admitted 97% of its waitlisted applicants, while Yale, Dartmouth, and Caltech are in the Zero Percent Club: they admitted no students off of their waitlists. While these percentages change from year-to-year, knowing your odds, based on the past few years’ figures, can help you gauge how long to wait on that waitlist. Search online for the name of the school and “common data set” to access the most up-to-date admissions data, including waitlist figures, reported to the federal government. Here is a sampling:
| School | Admitted from Waitlist | Waitlist Acceptance Rate |
| UC, Santa Cruz | 10,812 | 88% |
| Stony Brook University (SUNY) | 1,577 | 88% |
| University of Washington | 2,985 | 72.4% |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | 4,436 | 61.4% |
| Fordham University | 1,777 | 58.7% |
| Southern Methodist University | 292 | 35.6% |
| Clemson | 1,162 | 25.8% |
| Case Western Reserve | 1,141 | 14.4% |
| UC, Los Angeles | 1,400 | 11.9% |
| UNC-Chapel Hill | 36 | 0.78% |
| Williams College | 3 | 0.47% |
| Boston University | 34 | 0.38% |
WAITLIST: A TEMPORARY STATE
Whether you are admitted off of a waitlist or stick with a school that admitted you outright, this in-between state is temporary. You are going to college AND you will thrive!
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