What to do When You're Waitlisted

As you begin to hear back from colleges, it’s inevitable to worry about your potential admissions options. You may fear being rejected, or your heart might skip a beat at the thought of your acceptance. However, there are other scenarios that could happen. Your application may be deferred to a later acceptance time, or you may be put on a waitlist. Or, if you experience my luck, you may experience both. 

When you’re put on a waitlist, it pretty much means the college does think you’re a good fit and meet the criteria of being a student there, but there just isn’t enough room in the welcoming class to accept everybody. When I was waitlisted from two schools I applied to, my high school guidance counselor gave me some tips on what I should do.

Accept/Deny the Waitlist Offer

If you don’t do anything, the school will think you don’t care. So, if you wanted to go to a college/university and were waitlisted, accept the offer to stay on the waitlist as soon as possible. This shows the school that, in spite of its decision, you’re still interested.

Show Interest

Either send a new teacher recommendation or contact an admissions representative directly to show the school you still want to go! A lot of times, schools waitlist their applicants because they don’t think he/she will attend if accepted. If you’re waitlisted to a school you really want to attend, make it clear to the Office of Admissions that you will go if you got in.

Put a deposit down to a different school

Just in case you aren’t taken off the waitlist, you should put a deposit down for another school. However, you should show as much interest as possible and try your hardest academically to get into the school that waitlisted you. It won’t know you put your deposit down somewhere else.

Be Positive!

If it’s the only school you could see yourself attending, just remember that you weren’t rejected, which is a lot more than other students can say. Of course being waitlisted is tedious, but it just is the school reevaluating your application until they hear back from previously-accepted students. A college admission is never a referendum on you.