A quick rundown of the college waitlist!
It seems as if the only thing worse than a waitlist, is an outright rejection. Here’s a scenario, you’ve worked hard at school and on your college application. You blood, sweat, and tears have flowed endlessly for months while you poured over your essays, transcripts, and letters of recommendation. And after all this time, your inbox chimes with a new email from your dream school. With nervous anticipation you open the message only to see ‘waitlisted’. What does it actually mean?
Simply put, it is neither an acceptance nor a rejection or in other words, you still stand a chance of getting into your dream school. From one year to another, the number of waitlisted students who receive an offer of admission may vary. It depends on the number of seats available, how many students wish to stay on the waitlist, and how many accept an admit to a school.
First things first, don’t lose hope. Instead, take a step back and evaluate. Do you want to stay on the waitlist or move on to the college that has offered you an admit? It is important to take this decision with care because if you don’t actually want to study there, you may potentially take the seat from a student who wants to attend. If you choose to stay, inform the college with a letter of interest. Let the school know why you are interested and why they should strongly consider your profile. A letter of interest may not be the deciding factor, but it is the one factor that you have complete control over. Some schools may also require an update, whereas others may not look at it. Check with your target school. Ultimately, a school wants to send out an offer to students who will accept soon so that they can meet their enrolment target early on.
It is wise to put in a deposit at the school that you have been accepted to as a safety net. Certainly, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket by waiting on that one decision. If you do receive the offer, you will need to act fast. It is often the case that after converting a waitlist to an offer, the school will want a fast response. Therefore, you should be prepared in advance for such a possibility while also keeping your expectations realistic. Lastly, inform the college where you have placed the deposit about your final decision. You forfeit the deposit amount to accept an admission at your dream school. Compared with the actual tuition cost, this is usually a small amount.
With this brief overview of the waitlist process, we hope that you’ve got a better understanding of how to approach a waitlist if you receive it. We said it before and we’ll say it again, don’t be disheartened. Think of it as one foot in the door to where you want to go. If you need help crafting that letter of interest or boosting your profile, reach out to us today!
Excited to get started? Use our free tools, today to help you build a resume, mock tests, and interviews, and best of all get an in-depth, personalised analysis by our MBA profile auditor.
Get admitted to not only the right MBA program but the top one with ReachIvy’s experts!
You can contact us, Reachivy.com, for further assistance or questions, and take advantage of our wide range of services for students on destinations such as Universities in the United Kingdom, study in the United States, study in Canada, study in Singapore, and many other countries. Contact us today!
