Colorado College is a unique school located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That’s a lot of Colorado. We don’t even think Colorado sounds like a word anymore. Anyways, you’re here because you got waitlisted by Colorado College (CC for short), and you want to know your odds of getting off the waitlist and how to get off the waitlist.

Carnegie Mellon is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And it’s one of the best out there for STEM programs. It’s a highly-competitive school with an acceptance rate around 11%. And while students do get waitlisted, it’s really tough to get off the Carnegie Mellon waitlist. All waitlists are hard to get off. But according to U.S. News & World Report, Carnegie Mellon is one of the top 10 hardest schools in America to get off the waitlist. For the 2022-2023 year, 8,986 applicants were wait-listed. 4,652 accepted positions on the wait list and just 43 were admitted.

Located outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern is beloved for its ability to find unique balance in everything: it has an urban setting with a college-town feel, it boasts top-tier academics with state-level school spirit, and it combines a brainy student population with exceptional arts programs. As you can imagine, it’s highly competitive, with last year’s common data set reporting a 7% acceptance rate.

Johns Hopkins was the United States’ first research university and is still the #1 school for medical research in the country. What a track record, honestly. If you’re here, you’re probably a pretty STEM-minded student, and you want to know exactly what you can do to get off the JHU waitlist. Let’s talk about it.

There are nine California universities that use the University of California application, which is their own application process distinct from the Common App. These are UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego, and they have their own way of doing things from start to finish. This can be overwhelming for students who are also applying to schools that use the Common App or Coalition App, especially if you’ve been waitlisted, so we’re here to help. First, let’s look at some statistics.

Being waitlisted can be a pretty stressful process, especially if it’s for your dream school. It’s neither a guarantee nor a rejection, so the uncertainty can be overwhelming. That’s why we’re here to help! In this article, we’ve put together some tips and information that will help you have the best chance of turning your waitlist notice into an acceptance letter.

Claremont McKenna is one of the five Claremont Colleges (along with Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer), and it’s notoriously competitive. For the 2022-2023 admissions cycle, they had a 10% acceptance rate. But you’re not here to know overall acceptance data – you’re here to learn about the CMC waitlist and how to get off of it.

Vassar is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York. While it was originally founded as an all-women’s school, it has been co-ed since 1969. With around 2,500 undergrads, Vassar is consistently ranked as one of the best small liberal arts schools in the country.

Wellesley is a small, all-women’s college grounded in the liberal arts tradition on a 500-acre campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts 12 miles west of Boston. It is, however, far from traditional.

The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic research university outside of the city of South Bend, Indiana that is ranked among the top 25 universities nationally. Notre Dame is home to nearly 9,000 undergraduate students who share a passion for learning, community, and service. It has gained widespread popularity among students from a wide swath of faith traditions (or no faith tradition at all), and two-thirds of admitted students express interest in studying business, science, or engineering. Notre Dame is an interesting balance of tradition and innovation, pushing students to discover and explore while remaining ground in its history as a Catholic school.

Boston College is a private, Jesuit research university in (you guessed it) Boston or, to be more specific, Boston’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. There are about 9,500 undergraduate students, and most of the students at BC come from the Northeast region of the United States — although they are hungry for geographic diversity. Last year, in the 2022-2023 application cycle, the accepted rate was just 15%. This marked a record low for the college, as it’s grown increasingly popular as a mid-size liberal arts college grounded in Jesuit principles of scientific and philosophical inquiry. BC is especially well-known for its Business program, but also for being in one of the best college cities in the world. There are more than 40 institutions of higher education in the Boston area, and the city is alive with new ideas and perspectives, and cultural opportunities. It’s also a great place to be if you love college sports, as BC fields 31 Division one teams.

Calling all poli sci, history, and international relations buffs! Georgetown is located in Washington D.C., and their proximity to the halls of power makes it a top choice for students interested in any and everything related to public policy or government. It’s also a super hard to get into school, and if you’re here, you’ve been waitlisted and don’t know what to do next.

Pomona College is a small liberal arts school in sunny southern California that punches way above its weight. Thanks to the Claremont Colleges consortium, Pomona has the resources of a major university in a tight-knit and super elite community. 62% of the 1,800 students at Pomona conduct research with faculty, and there are 69 different study-away programs available to students. Pomona expects their students to become world leaders in business, philanthropy, government, and art, so they are extremely selective about why they welcome onto campus as part of the student body.

Rice University is a mid-sized private university in Houston, Texas. The school has about 4,500 undergraduate students, who make up about half of the overall student body. The campus culture is, however, truly driven by the enthusiasm of the undergraduate community. At Rice, they seek to build a campus community full of diverse perspectives and voices, and that shows. There is also a real emphasis on practical learning — or learning with a career in mind. About a third of all new students express interest in engineering, and the Rice business program is widely known as exceptional. One in ten undergraduate students pursue the business major, which was launched in 2021 to much academic fanfare and even greater student enthusiasm.

Swarthmore College is a small liberal arts school with only about 425 students per class. The school is both culturally intimate and academically intense. Nestled in a massive arboretum, also known as a really fancy garden and forest full of specimen plants and trees, Swarthmore is only 25 minutes by train from Philadelphia. The college is extremely selective, and especially popular among students who want to study engineering, computer science, or to go pre-med, but who want a liberal arts foundation with significant focus on literature, philosophy, and sociology.

So you have been waitlisted at UVA; you might be asking yourself, ok, what do I do now? Getting waitlisted isn’t fun, we’re sorry. It can be frustrating. However, we want to help you navigate the next steps when it comes to the University of Virginia. UVA actually publishes a sizable list of FAQs about their waitlist. They are very transparent about their waitlist, which is honestly refreshing. Many schools don’t want you to peek behind the curtain when it comes to the waitlist, and we love that UVA isn’t that way. Below you’ll find our own tips and advice on navigating UVA’s waitlist.

Tulane is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana with a tradition of pairing academic excellence with a commitment to service. They look for young people who push past the expected in pursuit of the common good, and students love the college for having a work/life balance that celebrates all that New Orleans has to offer.