This time of year can feel like an emotional roller coaster for high school seniors. Refreshing your email can feel like a game of Russian Roulette. Will you feel disappointment at being rejected from your dream school, elation at being admitted, or…confusion at being wait listed? What does it mean to be wait listed? How likely is it to get accepted off the wait list? What should I do about the other schools I’ve been accepted to? We’re here to help guide you through it.

Yield Rate

College admissions is a delicate dance between schools and students. Universities want to build the best incoming class they can, filled with students who would be happy and participative over the next four years. They aim to maintain a high yield rate, which is the rate at which students who have been admitted actually commit to and then attend the school. A high yield rate means everyone is doing their jobs correctly: admissions officers are choosing students who will succeed and wish to attend, the university is providing an educational experience attractive enough for highly qualified students to apply, and students are applying to programs they will be happy to attend. Similarly, a high retention rate is another marker of success; it measures how many first-year students return to attend their second year.

So what does this have to do with wait lists?

Universities offer admission to more students than those who will attend. This is due to the fact that almost all students will apply to (and most will be accepted to) more than one university, and so the student must choose. As a result, many offers of admission will be refused.

Wait lists are a university’s fall back plan in the case that enough offers of admission are refused that they don’t fill their incoming freshman class – in other words, they don’t meet their enrollment target. Highly selective colleges and universities often use the wait list in less transparent ways, such as to control their admit rate. Lower rates of admission (e.g. Harvard has an admit rate of around 3%) reinforce a school’s reputation as selective, elite, and highly desirable. They may also wait list highly qualified applicants in order to protect their yield rate if they believe a student is not likely to attend (the school feels as if they are being treated as a safety), but this is more likely to occur as a deferral during the EA round.

What happens if I’ve been Wait Listed?

The first thing to note is that if you’ve been wait listed, it means you are a qualified applicant. The school wants you. They just don’t know if there is room. Please do not take this as a judgment on your self-worth, or your value as a student. We understand that this is an anxiety-inducing result to all your hard work, but the best thing you can do to assuage that anxiety is to make a plan and be realistic.

As mentioned above, many schools use the wait list as a tool for their own ends. This can be quite cruel to high school seniors with high hopes – it can feel like you’re being strung along, only delaying the dispiriting reality that you won’t attend that school.

A good way of checking a school’s likelihood to admit you off the wait list is to have a look at their Common Data Set. This is a series of data points that most schools publish after each application cycle. It won’t be the information regarding the current cycle, but past trends can be quite predictive – and some trends might even take you by surprise.

It’s important to note that not every school participates in publishing their Common Data Set. It is a voluntary program, so schools may redact information, not answer certain questions, refuse to publish it at all, or require inquiring minds to fill out forms to request it (*cough* Northeastern University *cough*).

What should I do if I’ve been Wait Listed?

What you should do depends on many factors. The most important is where this school ranks on your personal list. If it is your top choice, you should absolutely accept the offer of being placed on the wait list, and then take further action to declare your intentions by writing a Letter of Continued Interest.

If this school ranks lower on your list than another that you’ve been accepted to, you can in good conscience reject the offer in favor of the better (for you) school.

If you are waiting to hear decisions from other schools, accept the position on the wait list. Unless you have received a clear-cut, far and away incredible offer of admission from your top choice, you should wait until you hear back from all the schools you’ve applied to before you make a decision and commit.

I am on the wait list, but commitment day is approaching. What now?

2024 is an interesting year because many schools have extended their commitment deadlines past the traditional May 1st date due to complications with updates to the federal Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA). This means you may have a bit more time than usual to weigh your options. However, be careful to note which schools have and have not extended deadlines: there has been no uniform response.

Within reason, and within the deadlines set by the schools on your list, you can hold out to make a decision. If you have already committed to a school and receive notification from a top choice that you’ve been accepted off the wait list, you may lose your tuition and housing deposits to the school you’ve already committed to. However, this is a small price to pay for better academics, location, or job placement. This is a decision that must be carefully weighed.

Need advice?

Aristotle Circle is here to help. If you have received several decisions and aren’t sure how to proceed, give us a call at 212-360-2301 and we can match you with an admissions expert who can guide the way. You can also email us at info@aristotlecircle.com.

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