What Does Waitlisted Mean And How to Respond When You’ve Been Waitlisted?

What does waitlisted mean? And How do I respond or get accepted off a waitlist? The waitlisted result has become one of the most common results in college apps. Yet, very few people know how it works or why colleges even do it in the first place. Let’s take a look at why a mechanism that was historically used primarily by private colleges. It is now one of the go-to solutions for all colleges in the United States.

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Why Do Colleges Waitlist?

Why do colleges waitlist? To understand what waitlisted means, we first have to understand things from the college perspective. Let’s say you’re UCLA, and you have 113,761 applicants for just 6,240 seats. How do you get that number down? Well, it’s not as simple as you might think.

So what does waitlisted mean for UCLA as an example? Most people think UCLA just has to look for the most qualified applicants. Then they send them acceptance letters, and then the whole process is over. Wrong. On so many levels.

For one, UCLA probably has too many “qualified” and “overqualified” applicants to choose from. For instance, even if you took the top 10% of applicants, you’d still have 14,000 students. Secondly, who’s to say that those top applicants would even be interested in going to UCLA? After all, top applicants to any school have other choices. Whether it’s UC Berkeley, Stanford, or any of the Ivy League colleges.

The Yield Problem.

That’s the problem, the yield problem. UCLA doesn’t know how many students they accept will actually decide to enroll. Let’s say UCLA accepts its top 10% of applicants. However, they wish to define “top 10%.” Out of that number, say that 7,000 of those students decide to enroll at UCLA.

Well, then UCLA would have accomplished its job and filled all 6,240 seats. (with the delta being over enrolled). But what happens most of the time is the opposite: UCLA under enrolls by some margin.

UCLA will accept students not in one wave, but rather, in two or more. In its first round of acceptances, for instance, UCLA may accept 10,000 students, wait listing another 10,000.

From the first 10,000, they see that 5,000 students have decided to enroll. Well, that leaves another 1,240 seats to fill, during which time UCLA begins accepting students from its waitlist until they’ve filled the remaining seats.

What Percent Of Waitlisted Students Get Accepted Off A Waitlist

To predict what percent of waitlisted students get accepted. It is impossible. Not all universities publish their waitlist figures, but from our experience, it’s 50/50. Students usually have better odds for less selective schools and lower odds for highly selective schools.

For instance, from our years of counseling at ReadyEdgeGo, we’ve noticed students usually get accepted off the waitlist for UC Santa Cruz, whereas it’s much rarer for Harvard. That said, most of our students who’ve been waitlisted to UC Berkeley over the years have gotten accepted. Although at best this is purely anecdotal.

How to Respond To Being Waitlisted

The university in question may ask whether you wish to accept a spot on the waitlist. Respond with an affirmative “yes”. Secondly, if the university requests a formal essay, then you’ll want to address the specific prompt. We generally see waitlist essays mirroring a common supplement: “Why are you interested in our university?” Hence, we recommend our students approach it the same way we trained them for that question.

If the university doesn’t have a formal essay to respond to the waitlist, we generally encourage students to write a letter of continued interest: often emailed to the regional admissions representative or the general admissions office. A letter of continued interest is basically “Why our college?” essay, with a little bit extra. We’ll be including a detailed instructional guide on how to write such things within GoPath. Find us here if you have an issue with waitlisted.

What Does Waitlisted Mean? The Recap and Conclusion

What does waitlisted mean? Waitlisted is a good thing. It means the university likes you and is just waiting on their other acceptances to enroll. That said, you should never count on a waitlist result. Therefore keep that door open by letting them know how interested you are, but don’t make a decision until all your other results are out.

We hope that this provides some valuable insight into how to release some of the stress you may have while making your college application profile even stronger. We specialize in youth mentorship and college counseling. From 8th grade to 12th, we have you covered for any stage in your high school career. Schedule a free consultation with us here.

We are always posting more helpful tips and tricks to help reduce the stress of college application season. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.

See you soon!

Sarah Gooch

Essay Editor

Q:How many total years of experience do you have in your current role, including but not limited to ReadyEdgeGo?

A: I have five years' experience in coaching student writing, but this is my first year with ReadyEdgeGo.

Q: What about working with students do you most enjoy?

A: I love helping students find depth and meaning in their own stories—but I also just love it when they make me laugh!

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

A: In theory, I enjoy painting and writing poetry, but these days I actually spend most of my free time socializing or watching movies with my husband.

Q: What is your one piece of advice for high schoolers?

A: Don't just focus on achieving top grades and credentials because they look good on applications, or your education will be meaningless. The numbers and awards have their place, but stay connected to your sense of curiosity, discovery, excitement, and wonder so that the content you're learning is constantly transforming you—it's something you care about, something you remember after the final exam. Work on the aspects of yourself no one can measure, like integrity, wisdom, kindness, and compassion, so that you're not only developing your academic and career potential but also investing in the type of adult you're going to be, the person you'll have to live with after you clock out every day for the rest of your life.

Doing the hard inner work of building your character and learning deeply instead of just earning grades will set you up for a satisfying, well-rounded life. Strange as it sounds, it will also put you ahead in your academic and career goals, because colleges and hiring managers aren't looking for an empty set of data on a spreadsheet; they want a fully fleshed-out person marked by passion, creativity, and a story no one else has lived.

So go on studying hard for tests, but also spend some time asking yourself what matters in life and who your role models are. Read up on topics that amaze you, and build something incredible just for fun. Cultivate that spark of joy you feel when you're immersed in a subject that fascinates you. If you can hit that balancing act of doing your homework and meeting deadlines but also investing in the kind of person you want to be, then trust that all the rest will follow: schools will recognize you as a dynamic, all-star person, and you will also build a life of happiness, close relationships, and peace.

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