For sake of argument, let’s say they admit 300.

First, they take all siblings/alumni children who are admittable.

Second, they take all feeder school students who are admittable.

Third, they spend a dozen or two spots on recruited athletes.

Then? You still have more applicants than you need who meet your academic baseline and how many spots are left? Anecdotally, being Catholic matters. And not just checking the box, but demonstrated commitment to a parish. And essays certainly seem to matter given how many similar profiles didn’t get in. I would also guess a demonstrated commitment to athletics is a positive, not because they necessarily expect you to compete for a spot, but because it shows time management. Sports are on average a 15 hour per week commitment for my son. It’s often not easy to balance that and homework. I can see why that would be a tiebreaker vs someone with nothing else going on.

In other words, I don’t think they are sweating hspt/grade differences above a certain level. If you are not Catholic and don’t have a significant extracurricular time commitment of some kind…there probably aren’t many spots for those kids. Obviously there will be exceptions to everything.

Anonymous wrote:Accepted
Not great grades (3.5ish) or HSPT (60s)
Lapsed Catholic and public school student
Athlete

This is not a typical result. Congrats.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Accepted
Not great grades (3.5ish) or HSPT (60s)
Lapsed Catholic and public school student
Athlete

don't believe you. but welcome

What's not to believe? That is the average profile of the students there. They have a 40% acceptance rate, we actually researched a lot.

Anonymous wrote:DS was waitlisted at Gonzaga.

Wondering if anyone has a sense of number of students on the WL and how the movement has been in the past. They note that they take the kids with strongest school performance off the WL.

Do they WL all applicants or do they turn anyone down?

Thanks.

Oh good question, my son got an acceptance letter (most likely not going) but we are not sure on waitlisting results, good luck to you though!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy. I wonder the profile of the kids who were accepted since these waitlisted posted are stellar profiles. I heard the essay is important too.

98 HSPT
Straight As
Public school; but Catholic
Athletic- not recruited
Spent a long time on essay

accepted?

Sorry- yes

🎉

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gonzaga admits close to 250 boys each academic school year. With that many spots to fill, I would suspect that there would be plenty of movement on the waitlist. As others suggested, write a letter to admissions, letting them know that Gonzaga is your first choice.

Actually, Gonzaga enrolls 250 boys.

Based on history, they offer admittance to more than 250 boys knowing that not everyone they offer admittance to will enroll. So they over-admit.

If fewer boys than they expect enroll, they will go to the Wait List.

Wait Lists are a long shot.

Sorry got the terminology wrong, but I meant enroll. So depending on what their typical yield may be, they will admit, say, 275 students, and only 225 enroll, that would be an 81% yield. I doubt their yield is even that good, so they probably admit more than 275. Either way, with such a large student body, it is more likely kids will move off the waiting list.

Yes, but ….

Admissions tries hard to get the yield percentage estimate as accurate as possible. Administering the waitlist is a real pain because so many on it have moved on.

The Waitlist pool is quite large because they want to have a spectrum of candidates with different attributes to choose from.

The Waitlist is a long shot deal. Those on it would be well advised to start down the path of opportunities that are actually available to them.

Accepted
Most As; Some Bs
89 HSPT
Public Middle School (NoVa)

Our letter said it was the among highest applicant pool in history.

Friend with 'Zaga sophomores (twins) were both waitlisted and both got off. I hope the same holds true for all those wanting to get in!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy. I wonder the profile of the kids who were accepted since these waitlisted posted are stellar profiles. I heard the essay is important too.

98 HSPT
Straight As
Public school; but Catholic
Athletic- not recruited
Spent a long time on essay

accepted?

Sorry- yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gonzaga admits close to 250 boys each academic school year. With that many spots to fill, I would suspect that there would be plenty of movement on the waitlist. As others suggested, write a letter to admissions, letting them know that Gonzaga is your first choice.

Actually, Gonzaga enrolls 250 boys.

Based on history, they offer admittance to more than 250 boys knowing that not everyone they offer admittance to will enroll. So they over-admit.

If fewer boys than they expect enroll, they will go to the Wait List.

Wait Lists are a long shot.

Sorry got the terminology wrong, but I meant enroll. So depending on what their typical yield may be, they will admit, say, 275 students, and only 225 enroll, that would be an 81% yield. I doubt their yield is even that good, so they probably admit more than 275. Either way, with such a large student body, it is more likely kids will move off the waiting list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy. I wonder the profile of the kids who were accepted since these waitlisted posted are stellar profiles. I heard the essay is important too.

98 HSPT
Straight As
Public school; but Catholic
Athletic- not recruited
Spent a long time on essay

accepted?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Waitlisted -
all As except for one B -
98 HSPT
Non Catholic
DC public charter school

Sorry. I assume they rank the waitlist and you're close to the top of the pile. This one is surprising to me. My son had a similar resume and got accepted: straight As DCPS but a 90 HSPT. Non-religious. Feeling lucky right now.

They don't rank the Waitlist.

They look at who has enrolled and their attributes and then figure out what qualities they are short of.

Athletes? Better students? Full Pays? Legacies?

And then they go to the pile of applications that have the attributes they are short of and select the best of these.

Anonymous wrote:Gonzaga admits close to 250 boys each academic school year. With that many spots to fill, I would suspect that there would be plenty of movement on the waitlist. As others suggested, write a letter to admissions, letting them know that Gonzaga is your first choice.

Actually, Gonzaga enrolls 250 boys.

Based on history, they offer admittance to more than 250 boys knowing that not everyone they offer admittance to will enroll. So they over-admit.

If fewer boys than they expect enroll, they will go to the Wait List.

Wait Lists are a long shot.

Gonzaga admits close to 250 boys each academic school year. With that many spots to fill, I would suspect that there would be plenty of movement on the waitlist. As others suggested, write a letter to admissions, letting them know that Gonzaga is your first choice.

Accepted
91 HSPT
Mostly As, couple Bs
Catholic
Athlete, not recruited
Spent a lot of time on essay
Not coming from a Catholic school

Anonymous wrote:Holy. I wonder the profile of the kids who were accepted since these waitlisted posted are stellar profiles. I heard the essay is important too.

98 HSPT
Straight As
Public school; but Catholic
Athletic- not recruited
Spent a long time on essay