For college hopefuls, a wait list is the hardest part

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2004 | by Mary Beth Marklein

At Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta, Ga., 18 of 182 applicants to the University of Georgia were put on its wait list this year.

"There's a high level of anxiety," says guidance department chair Sharon Karpel. "We're getting calls from parents and visits from students asking, 'What do I need to do?' " to be admitted from the wait list, she says.

The answer: There's not much a student can do.

Though smaller private institutions sometimes encourage wait-listed students to supply additional materials as a way to bolster their chances of being admitted, large public universities mostly discourage such tactics.

Decisions about whom to admit from the wait list -- if anyone -- will "depend on what we need to round out the class," says Nancy McDuff,...