{"id":278,"date":"2022-09-07T16:33:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T16:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2022-12-09T09:19:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T14:19:07","slug":"the-pros-and-cons-of-being-waitlisted-from-a-college-funding-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/the-pros-and-cons-of-being-waitlisted-from-a-college-funding-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pros and Cons of Being Waitlisted From a College Funding Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, countless students are waitlisted at major colleges and universities across the country. When my daughter was applying to colleges back in 2013, we ran into this exact situation. She received a notice that she had been added to the waitlist at the University of Chicago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was another record year for UChicago \u2013 over 30,000 applicants for approximately 1,500 spots.\u00a0 This was a 20% increase in applications over 2012, for the same number of spots.\u00a0 About 10,000 of the applications were for Early Action (non-binding option where decisions are received mid-December) and only 13% of early action applicants were accepted. Along with applications, the yield rate (number of accepted applicants who actually enroll) for UChicago is also up. In 2012, it was almost 47%.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yikes!<\/span><\/p>\n

Navigating a waitlist situation with stats like these can be daunting. Let\u2019s dive into the good, bad, and ugly about college waitlists \u2013 and how you can evaluate how to move forward from a financial perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cons of Being Waitlisted<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s get the bad news out of the way first \u2013 being waitlisted by the college of your child\u2019s dreams isn\u2019t always a walk in the park. There are three primary drawbacks to being waitlisted:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Your chances of being admitted off the waitlist are typically low<\/b>. Although numbers in recent years have <\/span>increased for waitlist admissions<\/span><\/a>, they\u2019re still markedly lower than if your student were to have been accepted in the initial wave of applicants. Even if only 40% of all admitted applicants enroll, that should be enough to fill the class. On top of that, schools are putting a higher number of applicants on the waiting list, so there is more competition for any spots that do open up.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. You didn\u2019t really \u201cget in\u201d to the college that waitlisted you.<\/b> Especially if this was your #1 school, your dream of acceptance didn\u2019t come true. Yes, you should be glad that you weren\u2019t declined, but this outcome isn\u2019t what you wanted. You will need to find another school that you like equally well, or at least as a close second, and enroll there.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. You\u2019ll lose your deposit.<\/b> If you get accepted off the waitlist and decide to enroll, you will lose your deposit at the other school where you enrolled.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Pros of Being Waitlisted<\/strong><\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. You weren\u2019t rejected!<\/b> You can take some comfort in knowing that you were at the top of the applicant pool, just not quite high enough to make the cut. The school didn\u2019t really say, \u201cWe don\u2019t want you,\u201d they said, \u201cIf we had more spots to fill, we would offer you one.\u201d\u00a0 When people ask whether you were accepted, saying you were waitlisted is better than having to tell them you were declined.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. You get to move on. <\/b>(This is the optimistic view of Con #2.) Even if you decide to stay on the waiting list just to see what happens, you will be forced to pick another school.\u00a0 You can turn your attention away from this one and invest it fully on the school you choose. Then, if you are one of the lucky few who make it off the waiting list (usually sometime in May), you may even be over the waitlist school and want to stick with the one where you enrolled.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. If you do get accepted off the waitlist, you are not obligated to enroll.<\/b> You will still have the opportunity to decide if losing your deposit at \u201cSchool B\u201d is worth it so you can enroll at \u201cSchool A\u201d and evaluate whether you still really want to go to \u201cSchool A.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Evaluating Whether You\u2019re Waitlisted At Your \u201cDream School\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

      For my daughter, UChicago wasn\u2019t really her \u201cdream school.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      There were reasons why she really wanted to go there, but there were other reasons why she wasn\u2019t so sure. She was ok with being waitlisted, and was ready to move on to other schools on her list.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      If you (or your child) have found yourself in a waitlist situation, you can evaluate a few key questions:<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Is this school my (or my child\u2019s) dream school?<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. Is there another college I (or my child) was accepted into that checks all of the boxes I\u2019d need to feel confident in my college decision?<\/span><\/li>\n
      3. Am I willing to lose my deposit at a different school if I end up getting accepted to this college?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        You can also do a cost analysis on attending the college that has waitlisted you and the schools where you\u2019ve been accepted to determine which is the best financial fit using MyCAP! <\/span>Sign up for your free account by clicking here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Every year, countless students are waitlisted at major colleges and universities across the country. When my daughter was applying to colleges back in 2013, we ran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":52,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[5,93],"tags":[35,36,37,38,108],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/blog-img-3-600x400.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/blog-img-3-600x480.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Bill Rabbitt","author_link":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/author\/rabbs\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}