DEFINITION OF WAITLIST:
In order for a college to insure that it will have a full freshman class, the admissions office often creates a waitlist; that is, a list of students to whom admittance might be offered should fewer students than predicted say yes to their admissions offers.

Being wait-listed has the effect of saying to an applicant, “You’re not admitted right now, but you may be a little later.” The number of students admissions offices admit from their respective wait lists varies from year to year; some years it is zero and other years it can be as high as in the hundreds.

DEFINITION OF DENIAL:
Sometimes called a letter of denial and also called a rejection letter, this is a college’s formal notification that you have not gained admittance to the college.

THE BOTTOM LINE #1
For most students, getting an acceptance letter is a joyous occasion, particularly if it is from one of their top-choice schools.

Receiving notice of deferred admissions is experienced variously by different students: some are happy just to have gotten in, while others are frustrated with having to sit out fall term (or wait a year) as other students attend their school of choice.

Receiving a waitlist letter puts students into a state of limbo; they’re not out, but they’re not in. Even more frustrating is the knowledge that there are no guarantees that they will get in.

Receiving a denial letter can feel like the end of the world. Rather than celebrate their acceptances, some students dwell on their rejections and often feel defined by them for many years to come. At the very least, this reaction is faulty thinking and serves only to diminish a student’s ability to anticipate and enjoy his or her college experience. It’s important for applicants to understand that, except for a very rare few, virtually every student going through the admissions process gets a waitlist or denial letter or a number of both.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! In order to gain an edge on their competition and win over highly desirable applicants, some colleges sometimes send out “likely to get in,” “early write,” or “wink” letters to a sel- ected group of students. While not official, these letters usually arrive weeks before regular ad- mittance letters, offer heaps of praise, hints of future acceptance and/or scholarship money to come. Students can usually consider these letters “admissions money in the bank.”