The Envelope Please!

The Envelope Please!

Ok so it’s not really an envelope anymore.  It’s an email with a link, or a webpage login and password punched in as the clock strikes the appointed hour. However your news arrives, it is either the end of a journey, as a front runner emerges, or it’s the start of another journey that can last a couple of months. The admissions cycle is far from over for some, who will be zigzagging around the country, attending Accepted Students events, sitting in on classes, appealing Financial Aid packages, collecting string bags and pens, and trying to decide which school feels right and which sticker looks the best on the rear windshield. Others await the news on whether the wait list will move this year. Here are a few tips to get through the next few months if you find yourself in wait list limbo:

• ·      Don’t count on a wait list moving. Treat it like a deferral from ED. Assume you won’t get in and be pleasantly surprised if you do.
• ·      Wait lists are almost always need-aware, so if you are applying for financial aid, it is unlikely you will be admitted with any grant or gift aid- money that need not be paid back- and be offered only loans instead.
• ·      Put a deposit down at the school in second place. Don’t wait to see if the wait list moves or you may lose your spot.
• ·      Go through the motions as if you were attending #2 choice; housing deposits, Facebook Class of 2017 pages, even roommate searches should all be completed, joined and checked off.
• ·      Summer melt, the admissions term for wait list spots that open after June 1, are rare and unlikely, so once you receive word that the list has closed, move on.
• ·      Don’t inundate the admissions office with love letters and news about your recent accomplishments. If they need a softball player who plays the piccolo and wants to study Swahili, they know where to find you.
• ·      Check the Common Data Set for the school at which you are wait listed to see what has happened with their wait list in the past. You can see how many were offered a place on it, how many accepted one and how many actually earned admission. While every year is different, it can shed some light on how much competition you might have.