Anonymous wrote: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 ...

Anonymous wrote:My kid was offered a spot like this. I said to immediately accept (it was a phone call) and then think about it more before we send in the deposit.

Kid did switch and is very happy with the outcome. But to take the pressure off in the moment just accept initially. Unless your kid is totally sure they won’t take it.

Anonymous wrote:DC got something like this from Georgeotown. The AO was pretty blatant in 'confirming' the full pay status. DC reciprocated in kind - curt no longer interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD got this today from a SLAC for which she is on the waitlist:

Dear XXX,

I'm reaching out because you previously shared your interest in remaining on the waiting list at XXX, and I'm delighted to share that we have space in the Class of 2030 to admit a small number of students.

Please let me know if you remain interested by responding to this email by 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 19.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

XXX
Director of Admission
XXX College

Am I right to read this as an acceptance off the waitlist? It is just phrased a little weirdly.

What if the email ends up in SPAM folder and kids don't see

Anonymous wrote:DD got this today from a SLAC for which she is on the waitlist:

Dear XXX,

I'm reaching out because you previously shared your interest in remaining on the waiting list at XXX, and I'm delighted to share that we have space in the Class of 2030 to admit a small number of students.

Please let me know if you remain interested by responding to this email by 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 19.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

XXX
Director of Admission
XXX College

Am I right to read this as an acceptance off the waitlist? It is just phrased a little weirdly.

Anonymous wrote:

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 wrote:Congrats to OP's kid! Interested to know where they are turning down as well if OP feels they can share.

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.

+1

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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.

DP. How long ago was this? I think today people are much more awkward and anxious and more people would act like that. 20 years ago I can picture myself saying "Yep, I'm still interested, thanks." Today I would probably be overthinking: "why are they calling? Is this yield protection? I need to go online and see if others got this call and how they responded." I can't ever imagine myself acting all excited because that's just not my personality.

I agree; I think it's weird to judge someone's interest based on how they react on a cold call, especially a 17-year-old who doesn't have any experience with this sort of thing.

They are literally asking "are you still interested in getting off the waitlist." They aren't judging the kid, they're asking them outright if they want the offer or not.

That's the case of the OP, but this was a side conversation from someone who cold called and did judge based on the reaction (although that was for law school).

I’m that PP. we’d call and say something like “I’m calling from X school. We are looking at potentially having a little bit of availability in our upcoming class and were wondering what your plans were and if you were still interested in attending.”

Based on their response, it was pretty easy to judge eagerness or not. It’s not that complicated. I didn’t mean “judge” as in think less of them. I meant do they actually sound excited or not really. IME, the ones who actually ended up coming accepted on the spot or call back within a couple hours. Those who needed extra time “to think” or whatever weren’t going to come anyway so it was better to just move on to the next person without making the formal offer. We didn’t even run the acceptance letter until we got a firm verbal commit.

So you required a verbal commitment before they could see the costs laid out? And asking about costs would be a sign that you should move on to a more eager person?

Is my takeaway accurate that if money is a factor, we just shouldn’t bother with waitlists?