National Reply Deadline Update
Thom May 1st, 2009

Greetings from rainy Nashville. Today marks the National Candidate Reply deadline. At Vanderbilt, the May 1st deadline is a postmarked deadline so for those accepted students waiting until the last minute, your reply to us MUST get in the mail today. How you send it doesn’t really matter (i.e.,you don’t have to overnight it or anything).
For everyone on the waitlist, you’ve waited patiently to hear if we will be making offers from the waitlist. As it looks today, it does appear that we will be able to make some offers of admission from the waitlist. When we will be able to start making those offers, and how many we will be able to make are not yet known. Since our deadline is a postmarked deadline, we’ll have to watch how things roll in this weekend and early next week. I would anticipate knowing more towards the middle of next week. Again, stay tuned.
Glad to hear you’re accepting people off the waitlist. I’ll probably get excited every time I hear the phone ring now.
i am really delighted to hear this….i hope the patience pays off well
We actually haven’t started calling students yet. I will post information about the process when we do.
It’s great news to know that there might be room for waitlisted students. I have been waiting to hear this for a long time.
What happens if no one answers the phone when/if admissions calls…?
You’re kidding about making the offers via phone, aren’t you?
Considering that the reply deadline is passed, how soon do you anticipate before waitlisted students are notified? I realize that admissions and acceptance is a LONG grueling process, but I was just wondering how long *normally* before the admissions team knows how many spots are available.
Thanks!
Savannah,
We’re hoping to know really soon, like the middle of the week. I’ll try and keep everyone posted here. And Jules, nope, we’re not kdding. If we offer admission to a student on the waitlist, we will call them and ask if he or she is still interested in being admitted to Vanderbilt. If they say yes, we’ll email them with an official offer of admission followed by an estimated financial aid package (if the student applied for need-based financial aid). Once the admitted student has receieved the email formally admitting them to the University, they have 7 days to let us know if they intend to enroll.
Thom
what would be the latest you would notify someone from the waitlist? (end May? June?)
Once again, thank you for your informative and prompt reply. When you say “followed by an estimated financial aid package” will this follow in an e-mail or U.S. Mail? This would have an effect on the 7 day reply time.
I was one of those phone calls last year. While the wait was very difficult, I can still hear Thom’s voice when he called me to personally invite me to become a member of the class of 2012. Looking back it was so personal and definitely more exciting than reading in a letter or on an e-mail. Vanderbilt was my number one choice then and one year later I truly know I made the right decision for me. Good luck to everyone on the waitlist!
Hi Thom, I was just wondering, if you accept a student from the waitlist and try to call them but there is no answer, do you leave a message or was their one shot?
Hello all,
Not sure what the latest would be, but we make every effort to be done with the waitlist by the 4th of July. Of course, I will update everyone as we go along.
The estimate of financial aid will also come via email. It will arrive several hours after the emailed admission decision so that it does not impact the 7 day window of time, and to make it so that all students who are admitted, and who have applied for need-based financial aid, have all the necessary information to make their decision. We will also follow that up with a mailed hardcopy of everything.
In terms of calling and not reaching someone, we keep calling different numbers until we reach you. We leave messages, etc. We’re pretty persistent.
Hey Lauren, great to see you pop up on the blog!
Thanks,
T
Hey Thom,
I know you’ve probably had enough questions about the phone calls, but what time of day should we be expecting them. Also, if we put both our home number and our cell number on the Common App, which will you call?
Thanks so much,
-M
Hi Thom!
Just wondering if certain Vanderbilt colleges admit a higher percentage from the waitlist. Also, do you think you will be admitting a large number from the wait list this year? Afterall, who wouldn’t want to be a part of Vanderbilt?!?!?!?
Thanks.