Waitlist Calling Starts
We will start making offers of admission from our waitlist and we will begin doing so starting this evening and tomorrow. A review of our deposits reveals that we are exactly where we had hoped to be, that is, to be able to admit from the waitlist. I do not know how many offers we will ultimately make as it will depend on how many students accept our offers. Here’s how this process will work:
- Students selected to be admitted from the waitlist will be called on the phone by their assigned admissions officer. We call using the phone numbers provided on the student’s application, and we will continue calling until we can reach the student.
- Once we have the student on the phone, we will indicate that we would like to offer him or her admission to the Vanderbilt 2013 class and will ask if he or she is still interested in being offered admission.
- If the student says yes, an emailed offer of admission will be sent to the student within 24 hours.
- If the student applied for need-based financial aid (and the Office of Student Financial Aid and Undergraduate Scholarships has received all necessary application materials) the student will be emailed an estimated financial aid offer. The emailed offer of admission and financial aid offer should arrive on the same day. We will also mail hard copies of everything to the student.
- Once we email you all your admission materials, you must respond within 7 days. If you wish to accept our offer of admission, we must receive your reply form and matriculation deposit within 7 days of the receipt of your emailed offer of admission.
Students who either did not apply for need-based financial aid, or did not have a complete financial aid application, will not receive the financial aid offer email. If you are admitted and do not receive an offer of need-based financial aid, and you thought you had applied, contact the financial aid office.
Like last year, we will make offers in small waves, which allows us to observe our yield and avoid over-enrolling the class. That means that we will be making these calls over the next several weeks and months.
Congratulations to the latest group of admitted students to Vanderbilt.
May 8th, 2009
Thanks for all the info, Thom. Will international students be receiving phone calls as well?
May 8th, 2009
Audrey, yes, international students could potentially get a call offering admission.
May 8th, 2009
Thanks for the information. I wish all my fellow waitlisters luck and will freak out every time my phone rings from now on.
May 8th, 2009
Any clue on how many spots are available for waitlisted students?
May 8th, 2009
Can you disclose how many openings there are or how many students are currently on the wait list?
May 8th, 2009
Do they call on weekends? And how many spots are open to be filled by waitlist students?
May 9th, 2009
I understand you can’t possibly know how many offers you’ll be able to make but how many spots are left in the class and how many people are on the waitlist?
May 9th, 2009
Was this information disclosed in an email sent out to all those on the Wait List, or has it only been posted on the website?
May 9th, 2009
Thom, thanks for the updates…they are extremely helpful! When do you foresee the bulk of the phone calls to be made by…ie. mid june?
May 9th, 2009
Hi Thom,
I was just wondering if there is a delay with the emails over the weekend? I was accepted off the waitlist yesterday, and i have not received my email yet.
Thanks so much.
May 9th, 2009
When do you notify students that are on the wait list who will not be getting a call for a spot in the class? Is this done over the course of these waves of calls, or only once a particular school’s limit has been reached? I suppose this notification will come by mail. Thank you.
May 9th, 2009
What if you changed your phone number? Do I have to call the admissions office and ask them about my status on the waitlist?
May 10th, 2009
Thanks for the information Thom!!
I’m with you David – I freak out every time the phone rings!!
In regards to more details, aside from the specific numbers,
what are the chances for a student to get in at this point?
And let’s say especially for the College of Arts and Sciences?
Thanks again and best of luck to everyone!!!
May 10th, 2009
Hey everyone, like after mailing day, I will try and answer as many as I can here, and may email some of you directly in answering your questions:
-In terms of how many spots are available for waitlisted students, it’s our practice to not release data while in the middle of a particular cycle, but all of the data for last year’s admission cycle, including waitlist info, is open to the public on the Vanderbilt Institutional Research Group‘s website.
-For students who were contacted and offered admission late on Friday or over the weekend, your official admission email will go out in the morning on Monday.
-We are hoping to make the bulk of calling over the next few weeks. We do not want this to drag on any longer than you all do. Once the class is full, and we are certain that we will be able to make no more offers, an email will go out to all students on the waitlist notifying them of this, and releasing them from our waitlist. We hope to be finished by July 4th.
May 11th, 2009
I am waiting and hoping. Vanderbilt is where I want to spend the next four years.
May 11th, 2009
Hey Thom!
Thanks so much for all of your helpful information. It’s helped ease the stress and wondering that goes along with being on a school’s waiting list. I just had two questions: if we haven’t been admitted off the waiting list yet, would you say that it is unlikely that we will be admitted? And when will the next wave of phone calls be made? Thanks again!
-Madison
May 11th, 2009
Thanks Madison,
I know it’s hard not to, but try not to read into what it means if you haven’t been called. We go out in small waves of offers in order for us to observe the response and to know how many more offers we can make. It’s not a one-and-done kind of thing. It’s all in an effort to not over-enroll the class. Thanks for the question.
T
May 12th, 2009
Dear Thom-
To a parent of a kid in this process, it feels like one is going through an emotional “live autopsy”. Maybe I’m a bit hyperbolic, but it’s a grueling process! I wanted to send out an anonymous shout out to you from all us waiting-list candidate parents for giving some transparency in the process via this blog. Your provision of this information allows us to exhale from time to time through the unavoidable stress as we wait to see if our child has a chair once the music stops. It speaks to your concern and empathy. Thanks.
Regards, A Dad
May 13th, 2009
Thom, on the VIRG’s website is said that only 202 students were admitted off the waitlist. Was it because most of the people who accepted a spot on the waitlist later decided to not be on it anymore? Because it seems that if that wasn’t the case then all students on the waitlist should have been admitted (according to the number of students who were admitted regular decision and the number of students who enrolled).
May 13th, 2009
Hi Liz, thanks for the question. You may have to help clarify what you’re asking, but I’ll try and answer it anyway. After we admit for regular we shoot for there to be a gap that we can then fill from the waitlist. Last year, we didn’t see too many students start on the waitlist and then elect to remove themselves from it officially. This year we wanted to be a little more proactive and asked students to reconfirm their interest in staying on the wasitlist. Interestingly, through that exercise a couple weeks ago we found that about 10% of respondents indicated that they no longer wished to remain on our waitlist, which is great. Great that they have found a college home they are excited about (an assumption I know, but I’m an optimist) and great for people who elected to stay on the list, because it statistically improved their chances. Did that answer your question Liz?
A Dad, I truly appreciate your kind words. Thank you.
May 14th, 2009
Hey Thom,
As a parent of a student who’s dream is to attend Vanderbilt, I also wanted to thank you for making this process just a bit easier.
I was hoping that you might be able to answer a small question as well.
You stated earlier that you make phone calls in small waves –
do you have any idea when you will be making the next wave of calls?
Thank you very much once again and hopefully my daughter will get to hear some good news, along with other students,
Mrs. H
May 14th, 2009
Mrs. H,
Almost all of the calling from the first wave is now done. Since we give students just recently admitted from the waitlist 7 days to respond, I would anticipate the next wave of calls (if there is one) to be early next week. Either way, I will make sure to post the latest here so everyone can stay updated on things.
T
May 14th, 2009
Hey Thom!
I just had one more question for you: in one of your previous replies you said that the admissions office hopes to be through with everything related to the waiting list by July 4, but in your latest post you weren’t even sure that there was going to be another wave of calls, what would cause you to go all the way to July 4? Thanks again and I hope this question is clear!
-Madison
May 14th, 2009
Thom, you kind of answered my question but not completely. I’m going to try and rephrase it.
On VIRG’s website it said that 4292 freshmen were admitted but of those 4292 only 1569 actually enrolled. This would mean that there were 2723 spots open for the people who were put on the waitlist or remained on it. VIRG also said that 1390 students accepted a place on the waitlist. According to the number of spots left open, all of the students that accepted a place on the waitlist or remained on the waitlist could’ve been admitted. Were the 202 students who were admitted off of the waitlist the only ones remaining on the waitlist or did Vanderbilt decide just to not admit all the other ones despite their being available space for everyone else?
May 14th, 2009
Dear Thom,
I was just wondering about the process of deciding which students to call. I know that the waitlist is “unranked” but is there some kind of system?
Sincerely,
Samuel
May 14th, 2009
~Madison, I can see why that would be confusing, sorry about that. Ultimately, we don’t know when we will be finished making offers from the waitlist as it all depends on whether students we admit accept their offer. If lots of the students we admit turn us down, aside from developing a complex, we would simply continue to make offers from the waitlist through the summer until the class was full. The July 4th date is our way of communicating to those of you on our waiting list that we will make every effort to not drag this whole thing out – because at some point, people need to start making plans to go to college, either to Nashville, or elsewhere.
~Liz, the 1,569 enrolled number was the total number of first-time, first-year students in Vanderbilt’s incoming class last year (ED, RD & WL combined), not just for RD. There was not space available to admit all of the students on the waitlist last year, as is the case this year and in most years.
~Sam, the decision of who to call from the waitlist starts initially with an in-depth analysis of what our class looks like after all of the RD deposits have come in. We look at every conceivable way that you can dissect the class searching for any needs or institutional goals that may still be outstanding. With that knowledge, we go looking through the wailist to try and round out the class. For example, if we need oboe players, and you are the strongest overall oboe-playin’ candidate on the waitlist, your phone will likely ring. We are still considering the same academic and personal characteristics as we did throughout ED and RD, but in making WL admit decisions we will look at a student’s level of continued interest in Vanderbilt as I’ve mentioned here on the blog.
May 15th, 2009
I knew I should have chosen the oboe…
May 15th, 2009
Good Luck to everyone else on the waitlist!! I will definitely jump every time the phone rings from now until July…
May 16th, 2009
Darn it! I have a trombone from when I played in middle school, but no oboe. Ugh.
May 17th, 2009
So it seems that if you a just a white male looking to get into the college of Arts & Sciences that chances are slim and none. Also, how do you determine the level of a student’s continued interest if you’ve asked that they only contact you with significant changes to their application? I guess I’m finding the whole process rather discouraging.
May 18th, 2009
It seems like we are all on this journey to July 4th together…Iv gotten spare cells to keep my phone on 24 hrs a day……Good luck everyone
May 18th, 2009
Have you completed enrollment in any of your colleges? Is your chance of being admitted greater if you applied to one college versus another?
May 18th, 2009
Hello all,
At this point the class isn’t full yet, i.e., none of the 4 schools are “closed.” The bulk of our offers made from the waitlist last week took place on Friday (5/8), Monday (5/11) and Tuesday (5/12), and those offers will expire 7 days from then (give or take a day depending on when the actual emailed offer of admission went out). There could be additional offers made by mid-week, but we’ll have to see. I will let you know of course.
And hey, there’s nothing wrong with being a middle school trombone player. Mine is collecting dust in my closet at my parents’ house as we speak. Our band had some ridiculous outfits too, white scratchy fabric pants, white grandma shoes and everything.
Ahhh, awkwardness,
Thom
May 19th, 2009
Hey Thom,
How does the admissions office determine one student’s level of continued interest in Vanderbilt to be higher than another student’s on the WL if we are only supposed to contact the admissions office for changes in our resumes?
Thanks for the comic relief, by the way :]
May 19th, 2009
We just had ugly tie dye shirts. Ah, so glad I was unable to work band into my schedule in high school. Mine is also collecting dust.
May 19th, 2009
Liz, I think your confusion lies in the fact that most colleges and universities accept more students than they actually have room for. The admissions officers realize that many of the admitted students will enroll elsewhere, and so they admit more students. Fortunately, institutions such as Vanderbilt keep a waitlist in case enough students who were accepted, decline admission. This allows for the university to fill out demographics with a relatively small number of openings available, but enough to balance the incoming freshman class as the admissions officers see fit.
May 20th, 2009
Hey Thom!
Do you know if the admissions office will be making calls to students in the second wave today or tomorrow? Thanks.
-Maddi
May 21st, 2009
Maddi,
If you go back to the main blog, the more recent post by Brad details about the second wave of offers.
In those comments, Thom answers that question and several others!!
Best of luck, I’m still hoping for my call!
Andreana
August 14th, 2009
How many people are typically on the waitlist?
Todd