Waitlist / Waitpool FAQs

[Anonymous]

What are the chances that the waiting pool moves and my son/daughter get accepted?
Exceptionally slim. Do not make any plans based on an assumption that your DC will get in.

Now that the commitment date has passed, will schools go to their waiting pool?
Not usually. A school always accepts more students than they have spots fully understanding that a percentage of kids will decline their admission offer. They base their admissions decisions on years of historical data and are rarely (but not never) wrong. If they indeed go to the waiting pool, it is typically only for a very few students. This differs from school to school.

What number am I on the waiting list?
The schools use a pool, not a ranked list. If a spot happens to become available, the schools will try to identify characteristics missing from their current class make-up and find those qualities in the pool. This could be gender, a musical instrument, a specific position in sports, racial, ethnic or economic.

What I accept another offer and then my DC gets an offer of admission?
You would have a difficult decision. You would lose your deposit if you choose to accept to school for which they were waitlisted.

How many people are in the waiting pool?
This varies dramatically from school to school. Some schools are well-known for waitlisting nearly every applicant that is not accepted. Others send both rejections and waiting pool offers, making the list slightly more "real." In general, very few kids get off of the list but it does happen every year.

Should I contact the school?
Some people believe that contacting the admissions office is a good idea to convey that you would accept admission if offered. This "first choice" e-mail / call should only go to one school if at all.

Do schools call or email?
It varies from school to school.

If my child is accepted off of a waiting pool, will financial aid be made available?
It is exceptionally rare that FA is available to those admitted from the waiting pool because it has typically been committed to already-accepted families.

When do they typically notify people?
While some movement rarely happens over the summer, any activity on the waiting pools tends to happen between now and the June contract date. It is critical to understand that waiting pools rarely move at the super competitive schools.

What percentage of kids get offered admission from the waiting pools?
There is no hard data on this. Anecdotally, SFS seems to use the pool more frequently than schools like Potomac, GDS, Maret, STA and NCS. It is safe to say that the % of kids admitted from the waiting pool is lower than the % that were initially admitted. For the aforementioned schools, probably low single digits in terms of %.

[Anonymous]

This. Given the concurrent threads with the same questions, this.