I got waitlisted. Now what?

As we near the end of March, regular decision applicants are beginning to hear the results of their applications.  Some will be told to wait even longer for a definitive answer; they'll be placed on waitlists.  So what do you do if you find yourself invited to a college's waitlist?

First, understand why the waitlist exists and you'll have a better idea of what to expect.  Selective colleges admit a group of students knowing that not all of those admits will choose to enroll.  The number of total students to be offered admission is carefully scrutinized, planned, and set based on previous years' data and fairly complex projections - all in an effort to forecast how many admitted students you need to have in order to make the class.  This is the idea of "yield."  Let's say you want to enroll a freshman class of 900 students, and you typically yield about 30% of those you admit.  Then you need to admit 3000 students to enroll your 900.  But it's nearly impossible to be that exact, and most schools don't want to over-enroll.  If you're shooting for 900 because that's how many freshmen your campus can hold, and 1100 enroll into the freshman class, you have to figure out where to put those extra kids.  Rooms that are meant for two get turned into triples or suites.  Study rooms are sometimes partitioned off into makeshift dorm rooms.  Additional sections are added to classes, sometimes with additional instructors hired to teach them.  Over-enrolling creates a campus-wide problem. 

So if most colleges don't want to over-enroll, they have to be a bit conservative in their projections.  They hope to hit the target enrollment right on the numbers.  But if they're a few dozen students short, they can go to the waitlist to fill the rest of those spots.  And that, dear waitlisted students, is where you come in.  You're a valuable piece of the enrollment management work these admission offices do.  It's a rare year that a college doesn't have to go to their waitlist for at least a few students.  Here's what's important for you to remember:

• Don't expect to be called from the waitlist until after May 1.  You're there to complete the class after the school has an idea of how many admits they've yielded.  Since enrollment deposits aren't due until May 1, a school usually doesn't know how many students have committed to the freshman class until then.  

• That means you'll have to deposit somewhere else by May 1.  Let's say you've been admitted to Duke and waitlisted at Emory, though Emory is your first choice (good choice by the way; go Eagles!).  You would have to deposit at Duke and plan on going there.  If Emory were to then call you at the end of May and offer you a spot off the waitlist, you would deposit at Emory and sacrifice that non-refundable deposit at Duke.  Of course you could always turn down the offer at Emory and stick with your plans to attend Duke (disclaimer: as an admittedly biased Emory alum, I would give you all sorts of good-natured ribbing for this).  

So there's the down side.  You most likely won't hear about waitlist offers until after May 1, and you'll have to eat the deposit you've already sent if you accept a waitlist offer elsewhere.

Here's your strategy for improving your chances of coming off the waitlist:

• If the school asks how long you are willing to stay on the waitlist, pick a date as far into the summer as you can.  You never know, they may not be able to call you until June 15.  But if you've said you're only interested in staying on the list until June 1, they'll respect that.  They'll call someone else who is still active on the waitlist.  Some schools even keep an extended waitlist into July.  At many schools, the longer you are willing to sit on the waitlist, the better your chances of being called.  

• Before May 1, demonstrate some interest in coming off the waitlist.  Many schools don't rank the waitlist.  Even if they do, they want to call students they're confident will accept their offer.  They know you have other options and have deposited somewhere else.  And perhaps you've completely moved on - that's totally fine.  But most schools don't want to call people who aren't likely to accept their offer of admission.  So if you're really hoping to come off the WL, dig out our regional rep's contact into (or ask me for it) and let them know.  Include any updates you have about your life since applying.  Be positive, be honest, and plan on staying in touch with our rep.  An email before May 1 and another couple before June to check in or say hello are plenty.  Be in touch but don't be too desperate.  Sending love notes, flowers, food, photo-shopped images of yourself on campus, or to-scale architectural models of campus buildings won't help (all true examples from my time in Emory's admission office).  Don't go overboard.