Decide Whether to Stay on the List

The first thing you need to do is to decide whether or not you want to stay on the waitlist. If you have already gotten accepted to a better-fit school with a great financial aid offer, it probably does not make sense to stay on the waitlist. Furthermore, you should remove your name to give other waitlist students who really want to go there a better chance.

If you think you might want to stay on the list, before you decide, determine whether there are any conditions attached to being wait-listed. Will being notified about admissions later affect your housing, registration and orientation options? How will your financial aid packages be compiled?

If, after thoroughly researching, you decide to stay on the waitlist, you should still prepare to attend another college as a primary plan and should regard the college that has placed you on the waitlist as a back-up plan that may or may not work out. You should evaluate all the schools that you have been accepted to, select the college that is your best-fit and send in a deposit to the school. Unfortunately, you will lose this deposit if the college you are waitlisted for notifies you that you have been accepted, but it is worth the risk to ensure that you are enrolled somewhere.

Boost your Chances of Being Accepted

• Get a sense of your chances of admission. Contact the admission office to find out if the college ranks wait-listed students or if it has a priority list. Most are willing to let you know your status. The higher you rank on the list, the better your chances of being accepted.

• Get a sense of what your financial aid package would be. You may be really excited to go to a particular school and remain optimistic after being placed on the waitlist. But if financial aid is going to play a role in your college selection decision, it may be a good idea to see if they can provide you with an idea of how much financial aid they typically offer students similar to yourself. After all, if that school says they likely won’t be able to provide you with much in the way of financial aid and the cost will fall way outside your budget, it may be better for you to withdraw your name from the waitlist and save yourself the deposit.

• Write a letter to the admission office. The college has already decided that you have the academic credentials for admittance. Now’s the time to mention any additional nonacademic factors that might help your case — any new achievements or supplemental information. Emphasize your strong desire to attend the college and make a case for why you're a good fit. You can tell them that you'll enroll if they accept you, but only do so if you're absolutely certain that you will in fact enroll there.

• Study hard. This is no time to slack off. If you're waitlisted, you may be re-evaluated based on your third- and fourth-quarter grades.

• Stay involved. Show admission officers you're committed to sports, clubs and other activities.

• Request another (or a first) interview. An interview can give you a personal contact — someone who can check on the status of your application. You can also enlist the help of your high school counselor or someone you know who graduated from that college.

• Realize that you've already achieved something. You were waitlisted, not turned away. Many students were not as successful.

• Reconsider the colleges that accepted you. If you would be just as happy at one of your other choices, send in a deposit and plan to attend that college. Then turn down the spot on the waiting list. You'll be surprised how much better you feel after your decision has been made.

• Check-in periodically, but don’t be a pest. It’s a great idea to check-in periodically (maybe once every 2-3 weeks) with the admissions office of the college you’ve been waitlisted to see if you can set-up an interview with them or let them know about any recent developments or achievements that might positively influence your chances of being accepted. That said, you should not contact them everyday looking for updates. Admissions officers will not take kindly to such tactics and you may end up actually decreasing your chances of being accepted.

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