Along with a huge jump in applications at Ivy League and other top colleges this year, came a never-before-seen increase in the number of applicants put on college waiting lists, reports the New York Times last week in an article titled “For Students, a Waiting List Is Scant Hope.”
This year MIT has a waitlist of 722 applicants. Yale has put 1000 on the list. And Dartmouth has waitlisted 1,740 applicants. You name it; they’ve got a longer waitlist this year than last, even if their application numbers weren’t on the rise (as was the case for Yale, for example).
But out of all top colleges out there, no school put as many applicants on the waitlist as Duke with a whopping 3,382-name long list. Penn comes in close second with a waitlist of just over 3,000 students.
Duke, like some of its peers, gives waitlisted applicants an opportunity to submit a one-page essay or a 60-second video that expresses how strong their desire to attend Duke is and why. Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions at Duke, who encourages students on the waitlist to send him these vignettes, does admit that they won’t do much to improve a student’s chance of acceptance.
Decisions yea and nay, explains Guttentag, are not based on rankings of student qualifications or desireability, but on deficiencies in the student body as perceived by the admissions office. You may get admitted to Duke in the end not because of a stellar SAT score, but because you play the tambourine and no one else on the waitlist possesses that unique skill.
Students who find themselves on a waitlisted describe the experience as frustrating. Says one waitlisted applicant, “It was frustrating to know I was still on the fence, and couldn’t really get on either side.” Another waitlisted applicant expresses that she’d rather have a definitive “yes” or “no” rather than experience this feeling of limbo and uncertainty. The decision to remain on a waitlist becomes even more complicated when there are other acceptances waiting for an answer.
Accepted.com College Resources
- “Do’s and Don’ts for Your College Admissions Essay,” a free article.
- “Surviving Each Other During the Senior Year,” a free article.
- How to Write Great College Application Essays and STAY SANE!, an ebook.
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Read the full article: Waiting Around for Less-than-Hopeful Waitlist Results