The Year of the Waitlist

Jul 19

Due to Covid and many colleges and universities dropping test score requirements, more students than ever submitted applications this past year. An ugly by-product of the avalanche of applications was the astronomical growth of wait lists, especially for highly competitive colleges.

With more students than ever applying to highly competitive colleges, many institutions are lengthening their already long lists.

Art & Science Group, a consulting firm that advises colleges on their admissions strategies, conducted a survey of high school seniors now -- when they know what the colleges they applied to have said, but before the students have told the colleges that admitted them if they will enroll. The findings of the survey of 1,132 high school seniors:

• A total of 20 percent of the students were on at least one waiting list.

• Minority students were more likely than white students to be on a waiting list (29 percent versus 18 percent for white students).

• Men (29 percent) were more likely than women (16 percent) to be on waiting lists.

• More students from higher-income (32 percent) than middle- and lower-income groups (18 percent and 19 percent) were on waiting lists.

• Forty percent of students who reported being wait-listed said they would attend the college that wait-listed them over their current first choice if they were offered admission from the waiting list.