KQED News Mind/Shift – Clare Lombardo and Elissa Nadworny
“Those are just some of the thoughts that high school seniors have tweeted in the past few weeks. They’ve opened their mail — or, more likely, an online portal — to finally hear decisions from colleges. But many didn’t get one. The number of students placed on college waiting lists has climbed in recent years, leaving students hoping for the best — even when they might not have any reason to hope at all. “Many students … think they’re very close to getting in, and that there’s considerable hope for them to be admitted to the college,” says Cristiana Quinn, a private college admissions counselor in Rhode Island. That’s not the case. In the spring of 2017, Dartmouth College, a small ivy league school in New Hampshire, offered 2,021 waitlist spots to applicants. Of the 1,345 who chose to stay on the waitlist, not a single person got in. The University of Michigan offered 11,127 potential freshman a place on their waitlist that spring — 4,124 students accepted spots on the list, and 470 eventually got in.” (more)