Reply to The Annual Waitlist / Waiting Pool Reality Check Thread

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "The Annual Waitlist / Waiting Pool Reality Check Thread"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know it sounds like a rain cloud, but assume that you will not get off the list. For most schools that are deemed competitive, a handful of kids typically are called from the waitpool across all grades each year. Some of these schools waitlist hundreds and may need to pull 3-5.

Schools that were once considered less competitive now have long waitpools too.

Simply put, demand continues to dramatically outpace supply.  The notion that the government cuts will somehow be the "black swan" event that every other "black swan" event failed to be is just not likely.  The WFC in 2008, COVID and now this led to so many people thinking that "this is the year" that things are different.

Instead, more and more kids are applying for a finite number of slots and schools continue to "soft no" with waitpools that rarely move. [/quote]

All of this false hope/confusion could be eliminated if schools didn't have a wait pool that is 3x their incoming class. Cap it at a reasonable number like .5x and reject everyone else.[/quote]

That’s one way to solve the parent’s problem.

But the school doesn’t see a large WL as a problem. To them it’s an opportunity to match incoming student attributes with what they see themselves short of in the group that has accepted. And a larger number decreases the possibility that they might fall short of a full class and not have the tuition revenue they need.

And waitlisting is easy and free to do. Even those that are waitlisted are seem to prefer it to the pain of ”rejection”.

People should understand it’s a low probability deal. But schools aren’t going to publish the odds.

And posters on here CONTINUALLY point out individuals cases where applicants have gotten off the WL. I think they are doing this in an effort to assuage the feelings of those who ask, “Is there any hope?”.[/quote]

At some point a large wait list can cause more headaches for the school - some parents might call each week/month to 'make sure the school knows they are still interested'. In fact, that is the advice given here.

Let's say a school has an incoming class of 50 and admits 58 figuring 10 (+/- 2) won't accept based on prior years yield data. How large of a wait pool do they realistically need? 
- Hundreds?  Way too many. Can only imagine the emails and phone calls coming in the weeks after decisions go out.

- 50? Still too many IMO, you won't have 100% turnover on the incoming class.

- 10-15? Probably getting to a realistic range...obviously this might need to be higher if yield numbers are different.
[/quote]

That's not the way I'd look at it.

Putting applicants on the WL costs nothing. A larger WL means its more likely to have candidates with the attributes and talents they are light on.

Admissions gets a bad grade if they don't have a full class. So that's high on their list of things to be concerned about and its way higher than the annoyance of a bunch of phone calls (which they can dodge.)

When they look at the WL they know:

A percentage of these people have all along preferred another school or schools and have taken that school up on their offer.

A percentage of these people --- stung by being put on the WL --- have decided to go where they are wanted. (ala the fox and the grapes)

A percentage of these people recognize that their DC --- in the eyes of Admissions --- is the 76th best candidate at best. They think that the people they offered admittance to which includes a percentage they will lose to "yeild" are better suited / more likely to be successful at the school that those they put on the WL.

A percentage of these people don't like being given a 24-hour period in which to make a decision or can't bring themselves to make a decision in that short time frame.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics