They told you to wait

Posted by Doreen 

I know how frustrating it is to be waitlisted. I applied to six private schools last year, five of which were Ivies, and when I got the responses from the Ivy schools, two of the five had waitlisted me, one of which was one of my top choice schools.

Naturally I was frustrated — yes I had other options — I had other great schools I could go to in the fall, but being waitlisted was almost as bad as being rejected since I had little idea about where I stood! Should I wait around for their response before submitting an affirmative answer and deposit for another school? When would they make a final decision on my admission? Would they ever make a final decision or would they just leave me hanging forever? Did being waitlisted and then getting accepted make me less than my peers who were accepted first? How many other people were waitlisted? Did they rank the waiting list? How can I find out how high up I am on the list? Or… how low I am on the list?! If there is a list that is… the unanswered questions go on and on. So, here are some thoughts in retrospect.

The decision letter:

The letter they send you saying that you’re waitlisted will tell you little beyond the fact that you were put on the waiting list; they’ll probably comment that you’re a great student and that there were so many qualified students that they couldn’t have space for all of the wonderful applicants and yadda yadda. Some schools may include percentages of applicants that were waitlisted with you, but this is rare — usually they leave you in the dark on those things.

The postcard:

Usually, the school will give you the option though of staying on the waitlist or not.

Decisions are out: season 2007

Posted by Doreen 

So decisions are mostly all out for most of the colleges and universities across the country, and whether you’re in heartache or heaven right now, we’ve got a lot of content planned for you readers for the next few days… here’s what’s on the schedule, folks:

Tonight: Post about being waitlisted to the private universities

Later (yeah, I know that’s not very specific!): A post about connecting online to fellow accepted students, a post about admit weekends, an article about academics at UCLA, a post about being accepted for the spring semester at a school but not for fall freshman status, and a post about contesting a declined admission for the UCs.

When to know if you’re accepted: season 2007

Posted by Dee

It’s almost March, which means that results from regular admissions will start trickling in soon enough.

Since there seems to be no comprehensive list anywhere on the Internet that compiles the dates when each of the top schools report their decisions for regular admissions, we at AdmitSpit created one. The name of each school, along with the date you should expect a response and any special notes are provided. This data was taken from each college’s admissions Web site. This post will likely be updated with more detailed dates and times as deadlines approach and colleges release more precise information about when notifications will be sent out.

Brown: Decisions will be mailed “end of March” 2007, and definitely they will be mailed no later than in the first week of April.

CIT: Decisions mailed “late March/early April.”

Columbia University: Regular Decision application decisions are mailed out in the first week of April, along with invitations for on-campus and regional programs for accepted students.

Cornell: Regular Decision application decisions for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Hotel Administration, and Industrial and Labor Relations are rolling starting in the

Not going to your ED school?

Posted by Dee

What happens if you don’t go to the Early Decision school you were accepted to?

Eh, chances are nothing.

Barbara sent us a comment last week on the post titled, “Response to Theodore: why Princeton over Yale?” inquiring on this topic, and the answer is that seldom, if not never, has a college actually pursued legal means of dealing with students who disregard the promise they made that, if accepted, they will attend the school they were admitted to early decision. Basically, most of the ED agreements list that only for financial reasons are you allowed to decline your ED acceptance; if you really can’t raise the funds to attend their school. So, there is definitely a financial out of your ED acceptance.

There are obviously plenty of myths floating about as to what happens if you break your Early Decision promise. For example, is it true the ED school you turned down will tell every other school you were accepted to causing the other schools to

Response to Mimi

Posted by DeeMimi commented on the post titled, “I was deferred; now what?!” Here’s what she wrote:

“I was deferred from my early school in December. I’ve now finished my RD applications and realized that my new essays are infinitely better than the ones I sent in early. Can I now send in my new essays to replace the ones I sent in a while ago? The RD deadline for this school has passed, however.“

It’s great that you turned in more perfected essays this time around, but I’m sorry to say that I would defnitely not recommend sending in your new essays.

But, before I get ahead of myself… What exactly did the letter from the school say? Do they want or encourage you to send in new or supplementary material? Is there

Words from the admissions bins

Posted by Doreen

I came across this article in a newsletter my high school sends out every so often regarding college admissions.

Apparently this was compiled by a member of the National Association of College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. Enjoy!

“Are you sure you sent my recommendation?”

It might help to know that colleges face a mountain of admissions mail every day–mail that requires very systematic and careful handling. As a result, there will be a very reasonable delay between the moment your application arrives at the admissions office and the time it is processed and placed into your file. Let’s hear from the experts on this:

From a large public university: 
“I wish I had a photo that I could send you of thousands of pieces of mail sitting in the mail bins waiting to be processed. Maybe this bit of information will help… we employ an ‘army’ of students to help us process the mail. We receive so much mail that all some students do is simply slit open envelopes, other students will date

Remember, remember the first of November

Posted by Luke

This long-awaited date will be upon us in just four days.

Four days. That’s all you have to write more clichéd epiphanies into your essays and beef up those resumes with newly-discovered extracurriculars, for in four days, all you Early Decision hopefuls must have your applications post-marked, if not already submitted, to your dream school, and then wait the agonizingly long month and a half buying college sweatshirts and waiting for your letter to arrive.

I know most of you have probably already convinced yourselves that it’s your destiny to be accepted to your Early D school. Let me burst your bubble; you’d better wait until April to pop open the champagne. Realistically speaking, most of you will not get the answer you want (or for our arrogant readers: the answer you deserve…) on December 15th.

Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Stanford all have acceptance rates around 11-ish percent. That means that you have a 89% chance of not getting in. If you apply to all of these fine schools, your probability of not getting into a single one is (.89)^6, or about 50%. If you apply to other selective schools such as MIT, or even the Ivies with relatively higher acceptance rates, like Brown, UPenn, Cornell, and Dartmouth, your chances of not getting in to any of them is much lower. (I would calculate it for you, but I’m terribly lazy. You can see the AdmitSpit post titled, “Admission statistics for top colleges: 2006” and do the math yourself).

So, you should apply to schools with higher rates, but, that said, don’t sell yourself

As promised, interview specifics for top schools

Posted by Dee

As promised, here’s the list of interview policies for specific top schools! Sorry if my use of the word ‘alumni’ is grammatically incorrect Latin-wise; I’m sort of still confused with alumni vs. alumnus vs. alumnae vs. alumna vs. alum!

Brown: Interviews recommended but not required. Once application is received, alumni in your area will contact you. If you do want an interview then you’ll set up the time and place at that point. This applies to international applicants where possible too. No on-campus interviews.

CIT: No interviews.

Columbia University: Interviews are not required. Between October and February, a member of Columbia’s Alumni Representative Committee will contact you if an interview is available in the area where your high school is located. So, if you’ve finished high school and not living by your high school anymore, you can’t get an interview. Also, to better your chances of getting an interview, turn in your Application

Harvard, Harvard, Harvard

Posted by Luke

With the recent move by Harvard College to drop its early admission policy, and Princeton and University of Virginia (another fine institution; a member of the “public Ivy League” consisting of the College of William and Mary, Miami University of Ohio, University of California, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Texas at Austin, University of Vermont, and University of Virginia) blindly following suit a week afterwards, Harvard has reestablished its mantle as the best university in the world.

Therefore it’s time to talk to you about the power and prestige of Harvard and not selling yourself short during college admissions. I’m sure some people may disagree with my assertion of Harvard’s preeminent position in world academia, but let us be realistic. Harvard is the institution to which all other schools are measured. Harvard has the name recognition all schools would kill for and although it might not be the strongest school academically, its power in name alone allows it to lord over all the other institutions of higher learning. Harvard alone is given the freedom to do what it wants without radical repercussions. This is evident in the fact that it single-handedly ended a 30-year American college institution while other schools have petitioning for years against early action in vain. Even in the Ivy League Harvard is known to be “better” than the others. When Brown controversially decided to allow all classes to be Pass/No Pass, there was a shit-storm raining on all sides of Providence while Harvard has inconspicuously implemented even more radical policies with nothing but admiration from the

University of Virginia gets rid of ED

Posted by Dee

Now part of the growing list of schools to cut their early admissions programs, the University of Virginia announced that they too will replace Early Decision with a single application deadline of January 2nd for the freshman class entering fall of 2008.

For the full article from The Cavalier Daily titled “U.Va. drops early admissions program,” click here!