What's the latest conventional wisdom about the Ivy waitlists? Movement expected?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those posters who want the kids to handle every single thing with patience and grace, that’s fabulous if your kid can. For some kids, this pandemic time has involved not only disappointment after disappointment, but sickness and in some cases, death.

At least for my DS, the waitlists and rejections are just one in a string of challenges. Is it the worst? Most terrible? of course not. But during a year+ of some pretty terrible things in our family, it feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

And before anyone asks, the deaths were not directly Covid-related. One person got stuck in another country and had a heart attack. Another cruelly died in childbirth.

I’m sorry for your losses. I agree, it has been a tough year all around.

Very sorry for your losses.

Anonymous wrote:This thread motivated me to nudge my kid to tell the schools he definitely isn't attending that he definitely isn't attending. So thanks for the nudge.

When I went to put the deposit down at the place he'll go if he doesn't get off the waitlist at his first choice, the site said there would be a refund if he changed his mind before May 1. I wasn't expecting that. (I'm also not expecting him to get in off the WL, but I was willing to eat the deposit if he did.)

My DD did the same last night!

This thread motivated me to nudge my kid to tell the schools he definitely isn't attending that he definitely isn't attending. So thanks for the nudge.

When I went to put the deposit down at the place he'll go if he doesn't get off the waitlist at his first choice, the site said there would be a refund if he changed his mind before May 1. I wasn't expecting that. (I'm also not expecting him to get in off the WL, but I was willing to eat the deposit if he did.)

Univ of Wisconsin, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Bucknell, GW, Univ of Delaware, Virginia Tech, Oberlin, Colby, UChicago, Barnard, Cal Poly SLO

Anonymous wrote:They had some very public missteps, related to COVID.

Only because the school's profile is so high that it's the envy of others and haters are gonna hate. Overall they handled COVID quite well. I'm quite confident that anyone serious about going to Notre Dame is not going to reconsider because of its COVID response.

I know kids who got off waitlist at Barnard and Chicago.

You can add Colby to the list

Could we start to list the schools with confirmed waitlist movement. I have a DS who is on edge holding out for 5 waitlists. Knowing the names of the schools would be a big help.

From earlier in this thread, this list is: Univ of Wisconsin, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Bucknell, GW, Univ of Delaware, Virginia Tech, Oberlin (expected this week).

So far no Ivys have been mentioned and no movement is expected until after May 3.

Any other updates?

Anonymous wrote:For those posters who want the kids to handle every single thing with patience and grace, that’s fabulous if your kid can. For some kids, this pandemic time has involved not only disappointment after disappointment, but sickness and in some cases, death.

At least for my DS, the waitlists and rejections are just one in a string of challenges. Is it the worst? Most terrible? of course not. But during a year+ of some pretty terrible things in our family, it feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

And before anyone asks, the deaths were not directly Covid-related. One person got stuck in another country and had a heart attack. Another cruelly died in childbirth.

I’m sorry for your losses. I agree, it has been a tough year all around.

For those posters who want the kids to handle every single thing with patience and grace, that’s fabulous if your kid can. For some kids, this pandemic time has involved not only disappointment after disappointment, but sickness and in some cases, death.

At least for my DS, the waitlists and rejections are just one in a string of challenges. Is it the worst? Most terrible? of course not. But during a year+ of some pretty terrible things in our family, it feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

And before anyone asks, the deaths were not directly Covid-related. One person got stuck in another country and had a heart attack. Another cruelly died in childbirth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my kid has to wait until summer to find out, he’s going to lose his mind. He assumed he would hear shortly after May 3rd if any of the waitlists are going to move.

I can’t imagine they would move at the Ivys or next tier schools anyway.

Calm down. He will be ok even if he has to wait. It will make him stronger. DS waited until 7/31 to hear that he was rejected by one of the magnet schools here in the DMV area. He was just 14 and the news came while we were away on vacation. He was upset but eventually understood that that news had nothing to do with who he is and what he will become. As he is deciding where to enroll before the 5/1, he couldn’t be happier w the choices (Hopkins, CMU and Rice) he has during such a tough admission year. Even that rejection from MIT didn’t phase him for more than the second it took to read the decision release. He was more relieved than upset. He knows he will turn out just fine and we couldn’t be prouder.

Was this supposed to be helpful or a humble brag?

Seems like it but I am happy for that kid. Having gone through that rejection at 14 may have helped to keep him more grounded. Maybe that experience came through the essays and got him into those schools. It would show grit.

I agree w the parent who posted it, WL is rough but it all depends how a students handles it.

Anonymous wrote:[guardian]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my kid has to wait until summer to find out, he’s going to lose his mind. He assumed he would hear shortly after May 3rd if any of the waitlists are going to move.

I can’t imagine they would move at the Ivys or next tier schools anyway.

Why do you think the Ivys won't move? Not disagreeing necessarily, but curious. I ask because applications at all Ivys are way up (presumably more kids applied to all Ivys this year). I'd expect that alone might lead to more waitlist movement. Full disclosure, could be wishful thinking on my part as my kid waits.

Not to mention the kids who are admitted to multiple Ivies -- they can only go to one and have to reject the others. Add to that the donut hole kids who get in but have to full pay and decide to take a full scholarship elsewhere.

Because all the schools admit more than the number they hope will enroll, knowing that some will accept other places. It’s not like they have 900 spots and they admit 900 kids and if 50 go elsewhere they suddenly have 50 spots to fill with WL kids.

They will only take off the WL if they miscalculated the number of people from their admits that they think will say yes. And I think they probably did a pretty decent job, even with all that’s going on.

My DC was admitted to one Ivy and waitlisted at a few others. Just out of curiosity, I ran the numbers on the schools he was waitlisted at, taking into consideration the number of ED/REA admits, RD offers made, past RD yield (using the lowest recent rates), target class size, and deferrals from last year. Based on this data, all the waitlist schools will be oversubscribed by 100+ spots (in some cases, 200+), so highly unlikely to go to the waitlist.

Wow you are intense. Does your DC care about these stats?

He doesn't care about the stats, of course, but he was curious if there was much of a chance the other schools would go to their waitlist, as I would guess most waitlisted kids wonder. He asked me if I could tell from what the schools had done in the past. I crunch numbers for my job, so this was really easy for me to do. Trust me, if you knew me IRL, you wouldn't think I was intense!

After listening to several podcasts with AO, I think your assumption that the RD yield will be the same as in recent years MAY be a mistake. With so many more applications sent per person this year, yield is hard to predict. The AOs said they are using the WL rather than risk having too many admits.

I hope you're right, but the RD yield rate I used was generally around 40%. I just don't see enough students this year getting multiple offers from the Ivies to push the yield rate much lower. And, if the students they pull from the waitlist are similar to those who turned the school down, my kid -- a completely unhooked kid from the DMV -- probably doesn't have a chance. I haven't heard of too many unhooked kids from around here having multiple Ivy admits. Also, if you look closely at the wording of some of the Ivies' announcements about this year's admissions, they said they would "admit" a full class despite the large number of deferrals last year, not enroll one. They have all the deferred kids to fill in any spaces left open from a low yield. Again, I hope you're right that low yield rates will cause the Ivies+ to go to their waitlists. I'm really just trying to manage expectations here.

Anonymous wrote:If my kid has to wait until summer to find out, he’s going to lose his mind. He assumed he would hear shortly after May 3rd if any of the waitlists are going to move.

I can’t imagine they would move at the Ivys or next tier schools anyway.

We’ve just told ours not to expect it. They remained on the waitlist but it will be a nice surprise but we’re not waiting for anything. Chances of getting off are super slim.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my kid has to wait until summer to find out, he’s going to lose his mind. He assumed he would hear shortly after May 3rd if any of the waitlists are going to move.

I can’t imagine they would move at the Ivys or next tier schools anyway.

Calm down. He will be ok even if he has to wait. It will make him stronger. DS waited until 7/31 to hear that he was rejected by one of the magnet schools here in the DMV area. He was just 14 and the news came while we were away on vacation. He was upset but eventually understood that that news had nothing to do with who he is and what he will become. As he is deciding where to enroll before the 5/1, he couldn’t be happier w the choices (Hopkins, CMU and Rice) he has during such a tough admission year. Even that rejection from MIT didn’t phase him for more than the second it took to read the decision release. He was more relieved than upset. He knows he will turn out just fine and we couldn’t be prouder.

Was this supposed to be helpful or a humble brag?