Instructions for wait listers

Here's the email I've been using to reply to all my wait list candidates who've contacted me, and I think it pretty much covers all the questions you might have now:

Thank you for your continued interest in the University of Chicago, even after this somewhat disappointing news. Emailing me to show interest is the right thing to do – hundreds of students accept a position on the waiting list, but fewer of them actually contact their admissions counselor. Keeping in touch is the best thing you can do to ensure that, if we use our waiting list (which we are planning on doing), your name pops into our minds.

I want to make sure that you officially accepted your position on the waiting list by replying online or by sending back the paper reply form we mailed you last Wednesday.

I also want to make sure that you reply to another school with an enrollment deposit. We will not know how many spaces we have until after May 1, and will only start accepting students from the waiting list in mid-May.

Accepting your position on the waiting list does not mean that you are bound to attend if we later admit you. We’ll feel out your thoughts on being admitted by calling you if we want to offer you a spot. If you say you are still interested, we’ll send you an admit packet. If you say you’ve changed your mind (and you could!) then we won’t.

If you want to send extra credentials, you can, but it’s not necessary. We will not re-review applications or have another reading cycle when we make our wait list decisions—it’s all about showing interest. Visiting is not necessary to show interest (especially not all the way from the West Coast), and can sometimes be awkward and emotionally draining for you and your parents; at least that’s been my experience in the past. However, if you want to visit just for fun, or were going to be in town anyway, you’re welcome to have a tour and information session.

You could fall in love with another school before May – because of that, it is important to be in touch now, but it’s really important be in touch in early May. That’s when the waiting list is in the forefront of our minds.

Another thing to make sure to do is, if you’ve applied for financial aid, to check if your financial aid application is complete with us—this will expedite your acceptance from the waiting list if it comes to that. You can call the aid office at 773-702-8655.

We’re not in a position to discuss the reasons for our admission decisions. Decisions are made by a group of people, over the course of a few months, keeping in mind our need to admit a certain number of students. There is nothing an admissions counselor could say that would help you make your application stronger, or that would tell you what you did “wrong” that led to this decision. You didn’t do anything wrong (besides being 17 when there are more college-going students than ever in our nation’s history). What we did wrong was building a college that could only house an incoming class of 1,200.

Good luck in the coming months. I hope things turn out well for you.

So, there it is. I myself have never been on a waiting list. I've only been accepted or denied! But I can assure you that we're all hoping we can accept lots of you.

Also, some people have said that they can't find the link online to respond to the wait list. Here is what it looks like:


There you have it - it's the first link after viewing your notification.