Am I right to read this as a waitlist acceptance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes- my son was admitted to Duke in August of last year with an email like this. Of course they had “closed” the WL in June and magically reopened it.

That was bonkers. I've worked at Duke for 20+ years and was stunned. I'm sure students happily took the offer (did yours?), but they were behind the curve on everything needed to get ready for Duke attendance, not to mention if they'd found roommates at their previous institutions and had to cancel on them. I thought it was a bad look for Duke personally. June/July, okay. But August??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these offers. my kid got several last year. the kids are trying to take APs, find a roommate, finish high school (which at our school included a 20 page paper and a full week of cumulative exams--so a lot of work until the very end) and then it's like "you have 48 hours to decide on a new school you may or may not have ever visited." And before you say "why did your kid apply to schools they didn't visit?" Well, it wasn't in the budget to fly to a dozen different cities, including many with 5% chance of admission.

+1000

It's 100% yield protection, OP. If she says yes, she'll get an offer. If she says no or doesn't respond, they will go to someone else. Heaven forbid another person actually turn down this school, although obviously, they are dealing with egg on their face because their projected yield didn't work out so well this year. So embarrassing for them.

Thanks. Fingers crossed. I didn't think this was a school that cared much about its yield, as opposed to Colby (where she is currently committed).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes- my son was admitted to Duke in August of last year with an email like this. Of course they had “closed” the WL in June and magically reopened it.

That was bonkers. I've worked at Duke for 20+ years and was stunned. I'm sure students happily took the offer (did yours?), but they were behind the curve on everything needed to get ready for Duke attendance, not to mention if they'd found roommates at their previous institutions and had to cancel on them. I thought it was a bad look for Duke personally. June/July, okay. But August??

He did not. Took the weekend to think about it and turned it down. Had he received a yes in June he would have heavily considered it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these offers. my kid got several last year. the kids are trying to take APs, find a roommate, finish high school (which at our school included a 20 page paper and a full week of cumulative exams--so a lot of work until the very end) and then it's like "you have 48 hours to decide on a new school you may or may not have ever visited." And before you say "why did your kid apply to schools they didn't visit?" Well, it wasn't in the budget to fly to a dozen different cities, including many with 5% chance of admission.

+1000

It's 100% yield protection, OP. If she says yes, she'll get an offer. If she says no or doesn't respond, they will go to someone else. Heaven forbid another person actually turn down this school, although obviously, they are dealing with egg on their face because their projected yield didn't work out so well this year. So embarrassing for them.

Thanks. Fingers crossed. I didn't think this was a school that cared much about its yield, as opposed to Colby (where she is currently committed).

Every school does this. It's not just about yield, but about filling the class quickly and efficiently because office of student life needs to send out info regarding housing, etc. The AOs need to recommend and get approval for a handful of kids, but if your kid is not going to accept the waitlist offer, they don't want to waste their time vouching for your admission.

[Anonymous]

Do waitlist admits count for the yield stats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these offers. my kid got several last year. the kids are trying to take APs, find a roommate, finish high school (which at our school included a 20 page paper and a full week of cumulative exams--so a lot of work until the very end) and then it's like "you have 48 hours to decide on a new school you may or may not have ever visited." And before you say "why did your kid apply to schools they didn't visit?" Well, it wasn't in the budget to fly to a dozen different cities, including many with 5% chance of admission.

You'd think that you would only stay on the waitlist for a school you want to attend.

Your post makes no sense. My kid may have never visited Brown or Northwestern but if given the waitlist they're going to stay on if the current best option is a top 35 school.

Then why are you complaining about emails offering a spot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these offers. my kid got several last year. the kids are trying to take APs, find a roommate, finish high school (which at our school included a 20 page paper and a full week of cumulative exams--so a lot of work until the very end) and then it's like "you have 48 hours to decide on a new school you may or may not have ever visited." And before you say "why did your kid apply to schools they didn't visit?" Well, it wasn't in the budget to fly to a dozen different cities, including many with 5% chance of admission.

+1000

It's 100% yield protection, OP. If she says yes, she'll get an offer. If she says no or doesn't respond, they will go to someone else. Heaven forbid another person actually turn down this school, although obviously, they are dealing with egg on their face because their projected yield didn't work out so well this year. So embarrassing for them.

Thanks. Fingers crossed. I didn't think this was a school that cared much about its yield, as opposed to Colby (where she is currently committed).

They ALL care about yield. Who is going to pay for the bloated staffs and upkeep of the lawns?

This year seems to be particularly bad. My DC has gotten off of mulitple wait lists that we never expected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does your kid want to go there?

It took a bit for her to process the news (this school usually takes about 3-4 percent of kids off the waitlist, so it was unexpected), but yes. She responded to the email as requested. I guess we'll see what the follow-up is.

That is exciting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these offers. my kid got several last year. the kids are trying to take APs, find a roommate, finish high school (which at our school included a 20 page paper and a full week of cumulative exams--so a lot of work until the very end) and then it's like "you have 48 hours to decide on a new school you may or may not have ever visited." And before you say "why did your kid apply to schools they didn't visit?" Well, it wasn't in the budget to fly to a dozen different cities, including many with 5% chance of admission.

+1000

It's 100% yield protection, OP. If she says yes, she'll get an offer. If she says no or doesn't respond, they will go to someone else. Heaven forbid another person actually turn down this school, although obviously, they are dealing with egg on their face because their projected yield didn't work out so well this year. So embarrassing for them.

It’s fine. Plenty of other kids to take the spot. If you “hate” it, don’t accept.

[Anonymous]

I worked in admissions in a T10 law school. We didn’t admit anyone from the waitlist without doing this. Usually by phone because we wanted to judge the response. Every once in a while we’d still get skunked because after our offer (which they had accepted) then an even higher ranked school would admit them from their WL. It just the way it works. Now mind you our incoming class sizes were much smaller to manage.

[Anonymous]

Let us know, OP!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked in admissions in a T10 law school. We didn’t admit anyone from the waitlist without doing this. Usually by phone because we wanted to judge the response. Every once in a while we’d still get skunked because after our offer (which they had accepted) then an even higher ranked school would admit them from their WL. It just the way it works. Now mind you our incoming class sizes were much smaller to manage.

Judge the response? What do you mean? If they didn't sound excited enough, then what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these offers. my kid got several last year. the kids are trying to take APs, find a roommate, finish high school (which at our school included a 20 page paper and a full week of cumulative exams--so a lot of work until the very end) and then it's like "you have 48 hours to decide on a new school you may or may not have ever visited." And before you say "why did your kid apply to schools they didn't visit?" Well, it wasn't in the budget to fly to a dozen different cities, including many with 5% chance of admission.

+1000

It's 100% yield protection, OP. If she says yes, she'll get an offer. If she says no or doesn't respond, they will go to someone else. Heaven forbid another person actually turn down this school, although obviously, they are dealing with egg on their face because their projected yield didn't work out so well this year. So embarrassing for them.

Thanks. Fingers crossed. I didn't think this was a school that cared much about its yield, as opposed to Colby (where she is currently committed).

Every school does this. It's not just about yield, but about filling the class quickly and efficiently because office of student life needs to send out info regarding housing, etc. The AOs need to recommend and get approval for a handful of kids, but if your kid is not going to accept the waitlist offer, they don't want to waste their time vouching for your admission.

Agree, it's also because their admissions committee is meeting frequently and reviewing the spots they have to fill (i.e. more boys, more kids with X interest or from Y states) and the regional AO's are going through their respective waitlist candidates and pulling up ones to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked in admissions in a T10 law school. We didn’t admit anyone from the waitlist without doing this. Usually by phone because we wanted to judge the response. Every once in a while we’d still get skunked because after our offer (which they had accepted) then an even higher ranked school would admit them from their WL. It just the way it works. Now mind you our incoming class sizes were much smaller to manage.

Judge the response? What do you mean? If they didn't sound excited enough, then what?

Hesitates, seems unsure, asks lots of questions about FA, seems to be buying for time, asks for extension, etc. You become a good judge over time. As another PP noted it’s partially about yield but also just that AOs have been grinding all admissions season and just want to be done. So if the next guy on the list is more eager than you or you give off red flags, we’ll go with him.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. I was starting to doubt myself and worry that I had gotten DD's hopes up, so I messaged the admissions director for confirmation and she said DD will get an offer tomorrow. So yay!

This admissions process has been so painful ...