What to Do If You’re Waitlisted in Early Decision: A Step-by-Step Guide

For most people, mid-December means gift buying, tree and Menorah lighting, and partygoing.  For college counselors like me, there’s one more early winter ritual on our list.  Answering students’, friends’ and strangers’ question: “What should I do if I’m waitlisted early decision?”

 Last year, I wrote one post about why colleges are waitlisting more and more students during the early decision round.  Then, I followed up with some early decision waitlist advice. Reiterate your interest.  Write a letter of continued interest (you can find a sample letter of continued interest there.)  Update the school periodically on your latest news.

In this post, however, I want to pivot away from your early decision college. Let’s explore the other colleges on your list.  First, I’ll suggest why you want to make this one of your early decision waitlist next steps.  Then, I’ll offer advice on how to do this.  Finally, I’ll share some tips for maintaining your sanity through winter and spring.

What Are Your Chances of Getting Off the ED Waitlist?

Do colleges accept students from the early decision waitlist?  Of course.  Will they accept you?  Well, that depends – not so much on so much on you but on the college’s acceptance and yield rates.  Generally, these two numbers are inversely related.  A college’s yield is the number of students who enroll divided by those whom they’ve admitted. Often the higher a college’s yield, the lower its acceptance rate.  For example, Harvard, my undergraduate alma mater, accepts about 4% of those who apply and yields about 84%.  On the other hand, Rutgers accepts about 65% of those who apply.  Its New Brunswick campus, , where I earned my PhD, yields about 25% of its undergraduate offers.

Can you get off the waitlist early decision? If you’re waitlisted early decision by Harvard, your chances of getting in off the ED waitlist are slim.  Not only does it accept a much smaller percentage of students in the first place, but 84 of every 100 students it does apply enroll there.  On the other hand, if it offered ED, Rutgers would be much more likely to admit you from the waitlist, since only one-quarter of those 65% of students it admitted eventually enroll in New Brunswick.

Be Realistic About Your Prospects

So, my first immediate step to take after being waitlisted early decision would be to evaluate realistically your chances of getting in.  You can find yield and acceptance rates at the U.S. Department of Education websiteor by Googling “[Name of College] Common Data Set” and scrolling to Section C.  You may also be able to find the number and / or percentage of students typically waitlisted by that college in that same section.  If you find that both or either is high, or if the yield is high and the acceptance rate low, you may want to proceed to my next tip.

Image by @dre0316 on Unsplash

What to do after being waitlisted early decision? Explore other options.

If you’ve realized that you’re unlikely to get in off the early decision waitlist, you can still do all the things I suggest here.  But it’s smart to get to know – and fall in love with – some other colleges on your list while you wait to hear from your True Love. Of course, your ED school will always be your first love, but very few of us marry our first loves.  They hold a special place in our hearts, but we often find greater joy in someone — or some college, in your case! — that we come to with a bit more self-knowledge and experience under our belts.

Hopefully, you created a balanced college list. Approach each target and likely college on your list with the mindset, “How well can School X satisfy my needs for Y and Z?”    If you’re able, visit your targets and likelies.  Attend classes; stay in a dorm.  You may soon realize that they all can, though perhaps one or two begin to stand out as your second and third loves.  And they might be holding out the ring and on their knee in April!

Finally, make sure your supplemental essays for the other schools on your college list are as strong as possible.  Put your best foot forward with every college, not just your first choice.  Please drop me a line if you need assistance with revising old or crafting new essays.

Image by @thoughtcatalog on Unsplash

Emotional and Practical Advice for Students and Parents

It’s going to be hard to keep your eyes on your prize during the next four months. It’s so easy to second guess past decisions and compare yourselves to others.  (“Why did so-and-so who had a lower SAT and GPA get accepted to my Dream School when I did not?”)  None of us knows the entirety of others’ applications or the context into which they fit at that school.  So rather than driving ourselves crazy with “what-ifs” and “why-not-me’s,” let’s focus on “what’s next” and “what’s right for me.”

And parents, although being waitlisted early decision isn’t an outright rejection, it sure feels like one when you’re 17 or 18!  Read these tips to help your child weather this period. Consider this service if you’re in need of additional assistance to manage your or your child’s anxiety.

Getting waitlisted early decision or even rejected isn’t the end of the world – and often it’s a portal to unprecedented growth and discovery!