The decision phase · Waitlist playbook

Got waitlisted. Now read this before you do anything.

The waitlist letter feels like a maybe. At most schools it's closer to a soft no. Historical waitlist accept rates at the most-applied-to schools cluster between 0% and 8% in any given year, and at the tightest of the elite schools (Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, BU, Berkeley in recent cycles) they often run under 2%. Most kids on a given school's waitlist will not get off.

That doesn't mean don't try. It means try in a way that's proportionate to the odds: write one short, honest Letter of Continued Interest if the school accepts them, then commit emotionally and financially to your best admit by May 1. The kids who handle this season well treat the waitlist as a long-shot Plan C while building a real life at Plan A.

This page is for the families who don't have a private counselor charging $400/hour to walk them through it. No fluff, no templates that read like fan mail, no “manifest your dream school” energy. Just the data and what works.

Before you write a single email

Ask the harder question first: do you actually still want this school?

Before you spend any energy on a Letter of Continued Interest, sit at the kitchen table and answer this honestly: if we get off this waitlist on June 10, are we actually going to walk away from the deposit at School A?

If School A is affordable, the kid loves it, and the financial aid letter works for your family — the honest answer is often no. In which case, hold space for that answer right now and save yourself eight weeks of low-grade anxiety. Send a polite “please remove me” email to the waitlist school (we've included a template below) and commit fully to School A. The waitlist school will appreciate it. Another kid moves up. Your family stops checking a portal twice a day.

If the waitlist school is genuinely your top choice — meaning you'd pay the difference, you'd move across the country, you've thought about it for more than the 30 seconds since the email arrived — then yes, write the LOCI and stay on. But go in expecting nothing. Plan your life around School A. Decorate the dorm. Buy the sweatshirt. If a miracle happens in June, it's a happy surprise. If it doesn't, you've already moved on.

The families who suffer most through this season are the ones who never commit emotionally to Plan A while white-knuckling the waitlist. Don't be that family.

The letter itself

The Letter of Continued Interest, demystified

A Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) is a short email — sent through the applicant portal at most schools, or to the regional admissions officer at a few — that does three things:

States, in plain language, that the school remains your top choice and that you will enroll if admitted off the waitlist. This is the most important sentence in the letter. Admissions offices use waitlists to fill class targets; the kids most likely to be pulled are the ones the office is confident will say yes.
Names one or two concrete reasons why this school is the right fit for you. Not generic praise (“your school is amazing”) but specific to your application and their program — a professor whose research lines up with your senior project, a study-abroad option that fits your major, a department that your application clearly pointed toward.
Adds one or two genuinely new updates since you applied. A senior-year award, a meaningful capstone result, a leadership transition, an internship offer, a published piece, a competition placement, a notable improvement in spring-semester grades. Not “I'm still doing varsity soccer.”

Timing: send the LOCI within 1-2 weeks of getting waitlisted. Schools start working their waitlists in early May and the meaningful movement happens between mid-May and late June. After your initial LOCI, send at most one update later in May if something genuinely significant happens (final award announced, capstone presented, senior thesis defended). More than two touches starts to look needy.

School-by-school posture

Some schools want a LOCI. A few explicitly don't.

Before you send anything, check the school's own waitlist FAQ — it's usually linked from the waitlist email. Schools mean what they say. If Princeton tells you not to send additional materials, sending one anyway is a small negative signal at a place where you have very little margin.

School	Posture	What to do
Cornell	Accepts LOCI	Cornell's waitlist page explicitly invites a brief written update; one update only.
Northwestern	Accepts LOCI	Northwestern accepts an updated transcript and one short LOCI; no recommendation letters.
UPenn	Accepts LOCI	Penn welcomes a short LOCI through the applicant portal.
Columbia	Accepts LOCI	Columbia accepts updates through its waitlist response form; no additional rec letters.
Johns Hopkins	Accepts LOCI	JHU's waitlist FAQ explicitly invites a LOCI and senior-year grade updates.
Duke	Accepts LOCI	Duke accepts one update letter plus mid-semester grades if available.
Vanderbilt	Accepts LOCI	Vanderbilt asks for any new and meaningful information through its waitlist portal.
Rice	Accepts LOCI	Rice will read a brief LOCI; no additional recommendations.
Notre Dame	Accepts LOCI	Notre Dame welcomes an LOCI and senior grades; one update only.
Northeastern	Accepts LOCI	Northeastern's waitlist response portal includes a written-update field.
Tufts	Accepts LOCI	Tufts explicitly invites LOCIs and treats them as a real demonstrated-interest signal.
Boston College	Accepts LOCI	BC accepts a short LOCI through the application portal.
Emory	Accepts LOCI	Emory's waitlist FAQ welcomes a brief update letter.
Washington University in St. Louis	Accepts LOCI	WashU accepts one LOCI and updated mid-semester grades.
Princeton	Do not send	Princeton's waitlist FAQ states they do not want additional materials. Do not send one.
Stanford	Brief note only	Stanford asks waitlisted students not to send additional materials beyond an optional brief note via the portal.
Harvard	Brief note only	Harvard says no additional letters of recommendation; a single short note is tolerated but not required.
MIT	Brief note only	MIT's waitlist FAQ is explicit: a 'brief note' is OK, anything more is unwelcome.
Yale	Accepts LOCI	Yale accepts an update letter through the Yale Admissions Status Portal.
Brown	Accepts LOCI	Brown accepts a single update letter through the applicant portal.
Dartmouth	Accepts LOCI	Dartmouth accepts a short update through the applicant portal.
University of Chicago	Accepts LOCI	UChicago's waitlist FAQ invites updates that are 'meaningful, not performative.'
Georgetown	Accepts LOCI	Georgetown reads short LOCIs sent by mail or email to the regional admissions officer.

Postures change year to year. Always verify against the school's current waitlist page or the email they sent you. If in doubt, the email they sent you wins.

Templates you can actually use

Three LOCI templates — short, medium, and the update

Use these as scaffolding. Fill in the specifics in your own voice — admissions officers read thousands of these and the ones that work sound like a real 17-year-old wrote them. If a sentence here sounds nothing like how your kid talks, change it.

Template 1: The short LOCI (~150 words)

Best for schools that prefer brevity

Use this for MIT, Harvard, Stanford, or any school whose waitlist FAQ asks for a “brief note.”

Dear [Admissions Officer name, or "Admissions Committee"], Thank you for offering me a spot on the [School Name] waitlist. I am writing to confirm that [School Name] remains my first choice, and that I will enroll if admitted from the waitlist. Since submitting my application, [one concrete update: an award, a capstone result, an internship offer, a published piece, a meaningful grade improvement]. I have continued to focus on [the academic interest that led you to this school in the first place] and am especially drawn to [one specific program, professor, or opportunity at this school that fits]. I understand the waitlist is competitive. I wanted to be clear that the offer would be accepted without hesitation. Thank you for your time and for the work the admissions team does. Sincerely, [Your full name] [Application ID]

Template 2: The standard LOCI (~300 words)

Best for schools that want substance

Use this for Cornell, Northwestern, Penn, JHU, Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Notre Dame, Tufts, Northeastern, BC, Emory, WashU, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth — most schools that accept LOCIs.

Dear [Admissions Officer name, or "[School] Admissions Committee"], I want to thank you for placing me on the waitlist at [School Name]. I am writing to reaffirm that [School Name] is my first-choice university, and to confirm that I will enroll without hesitation if admitted from the waitlist. When I applied, I wrote about [the specific intellectual or extracurricular thread of your application]. That hasn't changed. What has come into sharper focus is why [School Name] in particular is the right place for me to keep developing it. [Name one specific professor whose work you've read, one specific course you've looked at the syllabus for, one specific program or center, or one specific tradition of the school you can speak to concretely.] I've spent time with the [department / program] website and reached out to [a current student, a professor, or attended an info session if you did], and the answer keeps coming back to [School Name]. A few updates since I submitted my application: - [Concrete update one — an award, capstone, internship offer, leadership transition, competition placement, publication, or genuinely meaningful grade trajectory.] - [Concrete update two — same standard. Make it specific and recent.] I understand how competitive the waitlist is and that there are no guarantees. I wanted to be on the record about how serious I am about [School Name], and how immediately I would accept an offer. Thank you again for the consideration. Sincerely, [Your full name] [Application ID] [High school]

Template 3: The mid-May update (only if something real happened)

Send at most one of these

Send this only if something genuinely significant has happened since your first LOCI: a major award, a capstone or thesis result, a national competition placement, a published piece, an unusual internship or research offer. Do not send this for normal end-of-year activity.

Dear [Admissions Officer name], I wrote to you on [date of first LOCI] to confirm [School Name] is my first choice and to share a few updates. I'm writing once more because something meaningful has happened that I think is worth sharing. [One paragraph, three to five sentences, about the new thing. What it is, why it matters, and what it suggests about the kind of work you want to do in college. Keep it concrete — a result, a number, an outcome, a recognition. Don't pad it.] This continues the [thread / focus / interest] I wrote about in my original application, and reinforces why [School Name] is where I want to keep building on it. I remain committed to enrolling if admitted from the waitlist. Thank you for the continued consideration. Sincerely, [Your full name] [Application ID]

Include

One clear sentence that you will enroll if admitted.
One or two specific reasons this school still fits, named by name.
One or two concrete updates from spring semester.
The application ID and your high school in the signoff.
The regional admissions officer's name if you can find it.

Avoid

Begging, “please please please,” or anything self-pitying.
Repeating your essays or application content back to them.
Name-dropping an alumnus, donor, or trustee. It backfires more often than it helps.
Generic praise (“your school is world-class”).
Sending additional recommendation letters unless explicitly invited.
More than one update letter after the initial LOCI.
Sending anything at all to schools whose waitlist FAQ says don't.

The honest numbers

Historical waitlist accept rates, 40 most-applied-to schools

Sources: each school's Common Data Set Section C2 where available, cross-referenced against published admissions reports. Rates swing year-to-year based on yield — if a school over-enrolls in May, the waitlist may not move at all. A few schools (UChicago, Duke, Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, Wake Forest, Northeastern, USC) do not publish full waitlist numbers; we've noted where data is estimated or missing.

“Offered” = students placed on the waitlist. “Accepted” = students who actively accepted their waitlist spot. “Admitted” = students ultimately admitted from the waitlist. The most meaningful rate is admitted ÷ accepted-spot.

School	Year	Offered	Accepted spot	Admitted	Rate
Harvard Harvard does not formally release waitlist admit counts; range is from past disclosures.	Class of 2028	~2,000	~1,600	50-150 (est.)	3-9%
Yale	Class of 2028	773	565	23	4.1%
Princeton Class of 2024 admitted exactly 1 from waitlist; Class of 2027 admitted 0. Highly volatile.	Class of 2029	1,370	1,086	36	3.3%
Stanford 17-year historical avg ~6%, but swings from 0% to 30%+ depending on yield.	Class of 2028	~600	414	25	6.0%
MIT	Class of 2028	590	509	9	1.8%
Columbia Columbia stopped publishing detailed waitlist data; estimates from outside trackers cluster 6-17%.	Class of 2028	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not published
Penn	Class of 2029	2,958	2,288	66	2.9%
Brown	Class of 2028	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	118	Est. 5-8%
Dartmouth	Class of 2028	2,589	2,189	29	1.3%
Cornell Largest waitlist in the Ivy League by a wide margin.	Class of 2028	8,103	6,190	388	6.3%
Duke Duke does not break out waitlist numbers in its CDS.	2024	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not published
Northwestern	Class of 2028	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	59	Not calculable
University of Chicago UChicago publishes no waitlist data. Outside estimates: 0-15%, varies hugely by yield.	Class of 2028	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not published
Johns Hopkins	2024	2,374	Not specified	30	~2%
Vanderbilt	2024	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	279	Est. 5-10%
Rice	2024	3,920	Not specified	122	~4%
Notre Dame	Class of 2029	2,206	1,475	54	2.5%
Emory	2024	6,098	Not specified	109	~3%
Washington University in St. Louis	2024	Not disclosed	~2,500	210	~8%
Carnegie Mellon Among the largest waitlists in the country, with one of the lowest admit rates.	2024	16,484	Not specified	32	0.3%
Caltech Outlier — Caltech's small waitlist actually moves. Yield is unusually low.	2024	206	Not specified	41	24%
Georgetown	2024	~2,500	~1,800	50-200 (est.)	3-10%
NYU	Class of 2028	~6,000	~4,500	200-600 (est.)	4-12%
USC USC does not maintain a waitlist. Denied applicants may appeal directly.	2024	No waitlist	—	—	N/A
Tufts Higher than peers — Tufts uses its waitlist to manage yield more actively.	2024	2,800	Not specified	354	~13%
Boston College	Recent cycle	8,671	Not specified	116	~1%
Boston University One of the largest waitlists in the country relative to admits. Functionally a soft deny.	Class of 2029	15,339	Not specified	18	0.1%
Northeastern	2024	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not published
UC Berkeley Berkeley's historical range is 0-25%; 2024 was one of the lowest on record.	Fall 2024	~7,800	Not specified	26	0.3%
UCLA	Fall 2024	Not disclosed	Not specified	~13% of accepted-spot pool	~13%
University of Michigan	2024	24,804	Not specified	973	~5%
University of Virginia	2024	10,470	Not specified	242	~4%
UNC Chapel Hill	2024	6,120	Not specified	295	~7%
Georgia Tech	2024	6,481	Not specified	201	~4%
Virginia Tech One of the most active waitlists at a flagship public.	2024	17,659	Not specified	1,524	~14%
William & Mary	2024	4,232	Not specified	207	~10%
Wake Forest	Class of 2028	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	100-150 (est.)	Est. 3-8%
Tulane Tulane's waitlist genuinely moves — partly because Tulane over-relies on the waitlist to manage yield.	2024	4,192	Not specified	432	~19%
Lehigh	2024	4,075	Not specified	113	~7%
Bucknell	2024	3,122	Not specified	115	~8%

The takeaway: at most schools above, your chance of being admitted off the waitlist sits between 1% and 8% in a typical year. Plan accordingly.

What to do between now and May 1

Commit to your top admit. Pay the deposit. Mean it.

By May 1 (the National Candidate Reply Date at almost every US school), put down a deposit at the school you most want to attend out of the admits you actually have. The deposit is typically $200 to $500, and it's non-refundable at most schools. Pay it anyway. It is the cost of a real Plan A.

If you later get off the waitlist and decide to switch, you forfeit the deposit and write a polite withdrawal email to School A. That's the deal. $300 is a small price to pay for the certainty of having a confirmed seat somewhere you'd be happy at.

Do not put deposits at two schools (called “double depositing”) to keep options open. Schools share deposit lists in late May through the National Association for College Admission Counseling, and double-depositing can cost you the admit at both schools. It's also widely considered a breach of admissions ethics. The right answer is: deposit at one school, stay on the waitlist at the other, accept the financial risk.

While you wait: pay attention to housing deadlines at your deposit school (often early-to-mid May), the orientation signup, summer reading, roommate questionnaires. The emotional move-in to Plan A starts now, not in August.

Setting a personal deadline

When to mentally close the book

Most schools clear their waitlists between mid-May and mid-July. The biggest wave is the first two weeks of May (as schools see who actually deposited), followed by a second wave in late May, and a long tail of small movements through June. A few stragglers (mostly replacing students with summer commitments that fell through) trickle in July. By August 1, the waitlist is effectively closed at almost every school.

Pick a personal deadline. We suggest July 1. If you haven't heard by then, mentally close the book. Don't check the portal. Don't refresh the email. Lean fully into prep for the school you've already committed to — that's the school you're going to. The five percent chance of an August surprise isn't worth a summer of anxiety.

If the waitlist school does reach out in mid-July, they usually expect a yes or no within 72 hours. Have that answer ready. The math you should already have done: net cost difference over four years between the two schools, whether you'd genuinely be happier, whether the deposit-forfeit-and-housing-scramble at Plan B is worth it. If you have to think about it for more than a day, the answer is probably no.

Withdrawing from the waitlist

The good-citizen email that opens a spot for someone else

If at any point you decide you're definitely not going — you committed elsewhere, the financial reality kicked in, you've looked at the data and decided the long shot isn't worth the energy — email the school and ask to be removed from the waitlist.

Three reasons to do this:

It opens a spot for another kid who actually wants it.
It makes next year's waitlist accept-rate data more accurate — future applicants will see truer numbers.
It closes the loop emotionally. You stop wondering.

Template:

Dear [School Name] Admissions, Thank you for the offer to be on the waitlist at [School Name]. After careful consideration, I have decided to enroll elsewhere and would like to be removed from the waitlist. I'm grateful for the time the admissions committee spent considering my application, and I wish you a smooth close to this admissions cycle. Sincerely, [Your full name] [Application ID]

That's it. No need to explain where you're going or why. Send it and move on.

One more thing

Being waitlisted is not a verdict on your kid. The schools on this page reject thousands of qualified applicants every year for reasons that have nothing to do with the applicant: institutional needs, geographic balance, intended major distribution, the size of last year's yield. A waitlist letter from an elite school is closer to “you were genuinely competitive and we ran out of seats” than it is to “you didn't measure up.”

The school your kid actually attends matters far less than what they do there. The data on this is overwhelming. Commit fully to Plan A, send the LOCI if it makes sense, and then go enjoy the last summer before college.