Will Colleges Start Re-Thinking the Waitlist?

As a delegate for the Rocky Mountain Association of College Admission Counseling I had the opportunity to hear the conversation first hand during the assembly at the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) annual conference. The message was loud and clear – something has to change when it comes to the way colleges do their annual waitlists.
Inside Higher Ed  explains that “the main concern among counselors was the lack of transparency surrounding how institutions manage their lists and why they operate them as they do.”
For many high school students waitlists are a significant cause of stress. Students are often placed on a waitlist with little to no understanding of their standing not to mention their potential to eventually come off the waitlist and be admitted. In addition, many colleges do not have standard dates for the release of their waitlist so many students are left waiting over the summer. For some students, when they are given the offer to be admitted off a waitlist they are given a very quick timeframe with which to make the decision to attend.
This year the NACAC assembly voted to conduct a formal study into this matter. It will be interesting to see where the discussion takes us over the next year!