Field School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Actually, it is not about thinking there is still a chance, it is about whether or not we are being lied to. It drives me crazy that schools will not say we had XX applications for XX spots. We accepted XX and put XX on the waitlist. I have been explicitly told that no one came off the WL and here on DCUM I hear differently. So don't tell me it is time to move on. I am starting to wonder if there is fraud.

Schools have no way of knowing if every one of their acceptances will take the spot. Sometimes the person accepts the spot and they get off a waitlist especially when it comes time to pony up the tuition. Unexpected job transfers or a financial problem also opens up spots. They also don't just go down the list, they look and see who will fill in the spot best. If all boys are accepting and they need girls, they will take more girls off the wait list.

It is not an exact science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Actually, it is not about thinking there is still a chance, it is about whether or not we are being lied to. It drives me crazy that schools will not say we had XX applications for XX spots. We accepted XX and put XX on the waitlist. I have been explicitly told that no one came off the WL and here on DCUM I hear differently. So don't tell me it is time to move on. I am starting to wonder if there is fraud.

So what? So maybe some kid did get off the wait list recently. Waitlists for private school are not strictly ordered lists. It's a pool of kids on the waitlist and it's going to depend on several factors as to what child is offered the spot. There is no fraud.

[Anonymous]

There isn't fraud but some schools put an excessive number of applicants on waitlists, giving folks false hope. No idea how Field manages theirs. Maret is notable for this practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There isn't fraud but some schools put an excessive number of applicants on waitlists, giving folks false hope. No idea how Field manages theirs. Maret is notable for this practice.

False hope would equal any private school wait list.

A school could have 2 people on the waitlist and one opening and still one child will not get in. Was that fraud? Did they take too many kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There isn't fraud but some schools put an excessive number of applicants on waitlists, giving folks false hope. No idea how Field manages theirs. Maret is notable for this practice.

False hope would equal any private school wait list.

A school could have 2 people on the waitlist and one opening and still one child will not get in. Was that fraud? Did they take too many kids?

Schools traditionally over-admit students. If the school has 100 entering class seats, the admissions director will make more than 100 admissions offers in the first round of admissions decisions. This is because schools know that not all students will accept the admissions offer. Admissions officers make educated guesses about exactly how many offers to make based on historical 1st round acceptance rates plus some fudge factor for improving/declining economy or whatever other impacts. It's like when the airlines over-books a flight, except the school will not bump you if you are the last to show up for your seat. They will honor their initial admit offer (to do otherwise would be suicidal).

In the same way, admissions officers put more people on the wait list than they could possibly hope to ultimately admit. In addition, private school wait lists are often not run on a numerical basis, i.e. with prospective students placed on a list from 1 to whatever. This is because schools generally pull from a wait list to match, to some degree, the hole that was created by the declining prospective student(s). Let's say a school has 100 seats, but historically only about 80% end up accepting offers. That school will make 125 offers. If for some odd reason, this year 30% of the offers are declined, that means that there are 13-14 seats still unfilled. A school would have to have MORE than 13-14 people on the wait list to fill these seats. (maybe 2 or 3 times as many people). Let's say for some odd reason that 11 of those 13 decliners were boys -- the admissions office is going to make significantly more wait list offers to whatever boys are on their wait list. And, if the boys were all jocks, then you can depend on more wait list offers going to jock boys.

It may seem unfair that wait lists are not run on a numbered basis, but from the admissions perspective they are painting a coherent picture of an incoming class that is going to be balanced and work as a whole. That's not really fraud or over promising. Parents can call and ask some questions about how the wait list works (numbered or pool-drawn) what the range of wait list admissions has been in previous years and whether there were any weaknesses in the application that led to the wait list decision that can be addressed (although most schools are careful to say that all wait listees are equally qualified as admit tees, and only ended up on the wait list because there are far more qualified applicants than seats).

I'm not troubled by the lengthy wait lists, nor the unpredictability of them. What bothers me is the "you have to know someone" nature of admissions and wait list. We have often been told by friends upon hearing of our wait list or decline, "why didn't you tell us you were applying, we would have made an internal recommendation" and know of several people who got recommendations from heavy-hitters, either personal or professional, who often don't know the prospective student at all. I think making these kinds of admits gives a school the reek of favoritism rather than merit, but I have to admit the practice seems universal in DC.