The waiting game: what if I'm wait-listed?

Careers and Colleges, March-April, 2005 by Jennifer Gross, Amy Vogt

It's finally arrived--the envelope from your first-choice college. Nervously, you open it. It's not a denial! But it's not an acceptance, either. You've been wait-listed.

Colleges use waiting lists as insurance. Applicants who are qualified for a college but don't make the "cut" may be wait-listed. Unfortunately, colleges often can't predict whether they will utilize the wait list or how many students from the list they will need. And you may not receive a final acceptance or denial until July.

Waiting-List Trends

According to NACAC's 2003-2004 State of College Admission Report, roughly one-third of colleges and universities use wait lists. On average, 12 percent of those who apply to schools that have a wait list are placed on the list. As a national average, a student's chance of being accepted off a wait list is roughly one in five.

Your Insurance Policy

Because the wait list is so unpredictable, it's not wise to count on moving from the wait list to acceptance. If you're wait-listed at your first choice, your first task is to look at the colleges that did accept you.

Carefully compare your options and decide on a second-choice college. If you haven't heard anything from the wait-list college by the May 1 deposit deadline, make a deposit at your second-choice college.

Improving Your Chances

Different colleges use wait lists differently. To assess your chances of acceptance from the wait list, call the admission office. Ask what your position is on the list (if the list is ranked) and what percentage of students have been accepted from the wait list in recent years.

If the college that wait-listed you is still your heart's desire, there are some ways to improve your chances. "If your wait-list school is clearly your first choice, let them know that," says Shaun McElroy, director of college counseling at Escuela Campo Alegre, The American School in Caracas, Venezuela. Colleges like a sure thing. If they end up using the wait list, they'd rather offer acceptance to the students who are most likely to enroll.

"One call or e-mail says you're interested," says McElroy. "Ten says you're a pest."

Reprinted with permission from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (www.nacac.com).