Waitlist movement in mid-July

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got off one of the waitlists listed in the OP a few weeks ago. While we were waiting, I was looking at this issue. Those who had an F1 visa appointment that was scheduled prior to May 27 will still have that appointment. The schools probably know exactly which students did not get an appt booked before then. My ballpark guess (based on nothing in particular!) is that perhaps a third of the international freshmen might not have gotten their appt scheduled before appt scheduling was paused. So, there are probably less than a hundred internationals who might not get their visa in time to start freshman year in time. For Harvard, this really is no big deal.

For the other schools, this is a bigger deal due to lower yield coming off the waitlist, combined with the fact that some of them may have admitted fewer students overall this year due to mistakes by enrollment management consultants, so they've already been making heavy use of the waitlist. But then, this is exactly why even top schools have such large waitlists, a hedge against just this sort of risk.

Separately, students coming from particular countries are blocked, as far as I am aware, though I have not checked the news on this issue in a few weeks.

100 per school?

Does this explain what’s going on with Brown and Northwestern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got off one of the waitlists listed in the OP a few weeks ago. While we were waiting, I was looking at this issue. Those who had an F1 visa appointment that was scheduled prior to May 27 will still have that appointment. The schools probably know exactly which students did not get an appt booked before then. My ballpark guess (based on nothing in particular!) is that perhaps a third of the international freshmen might not have gotten their appt scheduled before appt scheduling was paused. So, there are probably less than a hundred internationals who might not get their visa in time to start freshman year in time. For Harvard, this really is no big deal.

For the other schools, this is a bigger deal due to lower yield coming off the waitlist, combined with the fact that some of them may have admitted fewer students overall this year due to mistakes by enrollment management consultants, so they've already been making heavy use of the waitlist. But then, this is exactly why even top schools have such large waitlists, a hedge against just this sort of risk.

Separately, students coming from particular countries are blocked, as far as I am aware, though I have not checked the news on this issue in a few weeks.

100 per school?

Does this explain what’s going on with Brown and Northwestern?

Do you all think fewer internationals will be admitted next cycle to avoid this uncertainty?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got off one of the waitlists listed in the OP a few weeks ago. While we were waiting, I was looking at this issue. Those who had an F1 visa appointment that was scheduled prior to May 27 will still have that appointment. The schools probably know exactly which students did not get an appt booked before then. My ballpark guess (based on nothing in particular!) is that perhaps a third of the international freshmen might not have gotten their appt scheduled before appt scheduling was paused. So, there are probably less than a hundred internationals who might not get their visa in time to start freshman year in time. For Harvard, this really is no big deal.

For the other schools, this is a bigger deal due to lower yield coming off the waitlist, combined with the fact that some of them may have admitted fewer students overall this year due to mistakes by enrollment management consultants, so they've already been making heavy use of the waitlist. But then, this is exactly why even top schools have such large waitlists, a hedge against just this sort of risk.

Separately, students coming from particular countries are blocked, as far as I am aware, though I have not checked the news on this issue in a few weeks.

100 per school?

Does this explain what’s going on with Brown and Northwestern?

I was referring to Harvard specifically. Each school has a different number of internationals.

Brown and Northwestern both accepted fewer students in ED/RD and that seems to be behind their waitlist use this year seeming to be more extensive than typical. I would blame their enrollment management consultants failing to predict well. Or perhaps they strategically planned to use the waitlist more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got off one of the waitlists listed in the OP a few weeks ago. While we were waiting, I was looking at this issue. Those who had an F1 visa appointment that was scheduled prior to May 27 will still have that appointment. The schools probably know exactly which students did not get an appt booked before then. My ballpark guess (based on nothing in particular!) is that perhaps a third of the international freshmen might not have gotten their appt scheduled before appt scheduling was paused. So, there are probably less than a hundred internationals who might not get their visa in time to start freshman year in time. For Harvard, this really is no big deal.

For the other schools, this is a bigger deal due to lower yield coming off the waitlist, combined with the fact that some of them may have admitted fewer students overall this year due to mistakes by enrollment management consultants, so they've already been making heavy use of the waitlist. But then, this is exactly why even top schools have such large waitlists, a hedge against just this sort of risk.

Separately, students coming from particular countries are blocked, as far as I am aware, though I have not checked the news on this issue in a few weeks.

100 per school?

Does this explain what’s going on with Brown and Northwestern?

I was referring to Harvard specifically. Each school has a different number of internationals.

Brown and Northwestern both accepted fewer students in ED/RD and that seems to be behind their waitlist use this year seeming to be more extensive than typical. I would blame their enrollment management consultants failing to predict well. Or perhaps they strategically planned to use the waitlist more.

I know Brown under-enrolled by 100. Had not seen Northwestern did that.

From what we see in our circle and news that’s available for NU (my kid is incoming NU freshman reporting the dozens of kids leaving the NU freshman IG group bc getting off Duke, Stanford, Brown and Harvard WL), their summer melt is higher than usual.

[Anonymous]

We know 3 kids who got off BOTH the northwestern and brown WL so far. All 3 choosing brown.
All 3 were going to flagships (UNC, UCLA, Mich) prior.

[Anonymous]

It is a weird year for Brown whether it be bad enrollment prediction or some sort of plan to utilize waitlist more. Mine was admitted last year off waitlist, both her and good friend she met on revisit were enrolled at UPenn prior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got off one of the waitlists listed in the OP a few weeks ago. While we were waiting, I was looking at this issue. Those who had an F1 visa appointment that was scheduled prior to May 27 will still have that appointment. The schools probably know exactly which students did not get an appt booked before then. My ballpark guess (based on nothing in particular!) is that perhaps a third of the international freshmen might not have gotten their appt scheduled before appt scheduling was paused. So, there are probably less than a hundred internationals who might not get their visa in time to start freshman year in time. For Harvard, this really is no big deal.

For the other schools, this is a bigger deal due to lower yield coming off the waitlist, combined with the fact that some of them may have admitted fewer students overall this year due to mistakes by enrollment management consultants, so they've already been making heavy use of the waitlist. But then, this is exactly why even top schools have such large waitlists, a hedge against just this sort of risk.

Separately, students coming from particular countries are blocked, as far as I am aware, though I have not checked the news on this issue in a few weeks.

100 per school?

Does this explain what’s going on with Brown and Northwestern?

I was referring to Harvard specifically. Each school has a different number of internationals.

Brown and Northwestern both accepted fewer students in ED/RD and that seems to be behind their waitlist use this year seeming to be more extensive than typical. I would blame their enrollment management consultants failing to predict well. Or perhaps they strategically planned to use the waitlist more.

I know Brown under-enrolled by 100. Had not seen Northwestern did that.

From what we see in our circle and news that’s available for NU (my kid is incoming NU freshman reporting the dozens of kids leaving the NU freshman IG group bc getting off Duke, Stanford, Brown and Harvard WL), their summer melt is higher than usual.

Stanford and Harvard have only taken a tiny number off the waitlist. Harvard (for example) took a round in May and then a half dozen about 10 days ago and that's it. There's a College Confidential group that is watching this like a hawk.

Brown under enrolled by 100+ kids out of the gate and then have probably gone 500 deep in the waitlist to fill these 100 seats plus any seats gained from their usual "summer melt." I don't know what's going on with Northwestern but they have also taken a lot off the waitlist. A number of these on Reddit and local have switched from Northwestern to Chicago which I think is interesting since from many private schools Chicago is much easier admit (it's almost a given for a strong student from a top private.)

Schools going to the waitlist within the past 2 days include Swarthmore, Chicago, Georgia Tech and Brown.

There is nothing on Reddit or College Confidential to confirm what OP's college counselor is saying about July waitlists and I would hazard a guess that this counselor is either just guessing or called one school and is extrapolating what that counselor said (that waitlist movement may happen in July) to all of them. I can't imagine the admissions staff at all of these universities outlined their plan with a single counselor since the the one I know well has NO idea what their university will end up doing. It's all a guessing game as no one knows what will end up happening with the international students. If there is no issue with the internationals there will be no movement as otherwise these schools are pretty much all enrolled.

[Anonymous]

There’s a lot happening on international visas right now:

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/us-donald-trump-indian-student-visa-f1-j1-duration-change-fix-2025-bill-department-of-homeland-security-2749380-2025-07-02

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got off one of the waitlists listed in the OP a few weeks ago. While we were waiting, I was looking at this issue. Those who had an F1 visa appointment that was scheduled prior to May 27 will still have that appointment. The schools probably know exactly which students did not get an appt booked before then. My ballpark guess (based on nothing in particular!) is that perhaps a third of the international freshmen might not have gotten their appt scheduled before appt scheduling was paused. So, there are probably less than a hundred internationals who might not get their visa in time to start freshman year in time. For Harvard, this really is no big deal.

For the other schools, this is a bigger deal due to lower yield coming off the waitlist, combined with the fact that some of them may have admitted fewer students overall this year due to mistakes by enrollment management consultants, so they've already been making heavy use of the waitlist. But then, this is exactly why even top schools have such large waitlists, a hedge against just this sort of risk.

Separately, students coming from particular countries are blocked, as far as I am aware, though I have not checked the news on this issue in a few weeks.

100 per school?

Does this explain what’s going on with Brown and Northwestern?

I was referring to Harvard specifically. Each school has a different number of internationals.

Brown and Northwestern both accepted fewer students in ED/RD and that seems to be behind their waitlist use this year seeming to be more extensive than typical. I would blame their enrollment management consultants failing to predict well. Or perhaps they strategically planned to use the waitlist more.

Follow the school’s paper:

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/6/30/visa-denied-212aF/

[Anonymous]

My DC has been on the Cornell COE waitlist and heard earlier this week that he was rejected. Attending another T20 (not an Ivy).

[Anonymous]

Looking at Stanford, about 24% of international undergraduate students come from China (14%) and India (10%). Chinese students will have a hard time getting visas no matter when they've applied within Trump 2.0 era. Indian students are struggling big time to get appointments for F-1 visas since they've "reopened" consular slots after the pause for setting social media vetting protocols. In an average first-year class of approx. 1700 students where 14% are internationals, that's about 57 students from China and India alone. It makes sense that these colleges are extending their waitlists into early August as they gauge exactly how many international students can't obtain visas in time for the fall 2025 semester. Agree with PP above that they probably have a pretty good sense already based on who had appointments booked before May 27...

[Anonymous]

A lot of what’s reported, especially on college confidential/reddit (and I guess repeated here), is pure conjecture and the type of info they claim to have is not public or known. Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at Stanford, about 24% of international undergraduate students come from China (14%) and India (10%). Chinese students will have a hard time getting visas no matter when they've applied within Trump 2.0 era. Indian students are struggling big time to get appointments for F-1 visas since they've "reopened" consular slots after the pause for setting social media vetting protocols. In an average first-year class of approx. 1700 students where 14% are internationals, that's about 57 students from China and India alone. It makes sense that these colleges are extending their waitlists into early August as they gauge exactly how many international students can't obtain visas in time for the fall 2025 semester. Agree with PP above that they probably have a pretty good sense already based on who had appointments booked before May 27...

So expect 50 more WL spots at Stanford this month?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at Stanford, about 24% of international undergraduate students come from China (14%) and India (10%). Chinese students will have a hard time getting visas no matter when they've applied within Trump 2.0 era. Indian students are struggling big time to get appointments for F-1 visas since they've "reopened" consular slots after the pause for setting social media vetting protocols. In an average first-year class of approx. 1700 students where 14% are internationals, that's about 57 students from China and India alone. It makes sense that these colleges are extending their waitlists into early August as they gauge exactly how many international students can't obtain visas in time for the fall 2025 semester. Agree with PP above that they probably have a pretty good sense already based on who had appointments booked before May 27...

So expect 50 more WL spots at Stanford this month?

It's hard to predict since Stanford starts almost a full month later (mid Sept.) than many other colleges. Maybe student visa processing will be able to catch up? More than likely somewhat significant or at least uncharacteristic late summer movement on extended waitlist however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at Stanford, about 24% of international undergraduate students come from China (14%) and India (10%). Chinese students will have a hard time getting visas no matter when they've applied within Trump 2.0 era. Indian students are struggling big time to get appointments for F-1 visas since they've "reopened" consular slots after the pause for setting social media vetting protocols. In an average first-year class of approx. 1700 students where 14% are internationals, that's about 57 students from China and India alone. It makes sense that these colleges are extending their waitlists into early August as they gauge exactly how many international students can't obtain visas in time for the fall 2025 semester. Agree with PP above that they probably have a pretty good sense already based on who had appointments booked before May 27...

So expect 50 more WL spots at Stanford this month?

It's hard to predict since Stanford starts almost a full month later (mid Sept.) than many other colleges. Maybe student visa processing will be able to catch up? More than likely somewhat significant or at least uncharacteristic late summer movement on extended waitlist however.

You're going to have kids double paying tuition at this rate. Who wants Stanford enough to pay for it on top of another $45k semester elsewhere? I'm sure there would be takers.