2014 Wait List Update
We have begun making offers of admission to students on our wait list for the Class of 2018. As we mentioned in our Wait List FAQ 2014 Edition, applicants on the wait list who are offered admission will receive an email from the Director of Admissions and will have a limited amount of time to accept the offer and pay the matriculation fee. We will continue with offers until the Class of 2018 is filled. We can’t predict when exactly this will happen, although we will notify by email all students who remain on the wait list when the class is officially closed.
In the meantime, we will continue to send email inquiries to all students remaining on the wait list to gauge continued interest in Vanderbilt. A quick response to these inquiries will help us know your interest as we finalize the enrollment for the Class of 2018.
Thank you for your patience with the wait list process – we know this can be an anxious time for you and your family. Remember, though, that the fact that you were offered a spot on the wait list means that we think you would make a valuable contribution to the Vanderbilt community.
We will continue to post updates as the wait list process continues. Questions are welcome in the comments section.
May 5th, 2014
Mr. Watson,
Thank you for the update as to what is currently going on with the waitlist. Out of curiosity, has the entire first wave of acceptance emails already been sent out?
May 5th, 2014
Thanks for the question, Alice. We make our offers to students on the wait list on a rolling basis. We’ll continue with the offers as space is available until the class is full. Bottom line: keep watching your email and checking the blog for updates.
May 5th, 2014
Mr. Watson,
Could you please provide some figures about how many people are currently on the wait list of College of Arts and Science and how many offers have you already sent? Those figures would be really helpful for students still on the waitlist. Thank you.
May 6th, 2014
I understand that this would be helpful information, but unfortunately it is not information that we have access to at this time. The number of students on the wait list fluctuates from day to day, as students accept and decline their spots on the list or are admitted/withdrawn from the process. While the bulk of our A&S wait list offers have been made at this point, we will continue to admit students on a rolling basis over the next few weeks until the class is full.
May 5th, 2014
Can you say how many spots of the 1601 available need to be filled by wait listed students?
May 6th, 2014
Historically about 10% of the incoming freshman class is admitted from the WL.
May 5th, 2014
Quick question. For transfer students on the wait list, are we receiving e-mail inquiries regarding continued interest?
May 6th, 2014
No, transfer applicants are automatically placed on the wait list, and we will not be sending continued interest emails to these students.
May 6th, 2014
Mr. Watson,
Will it be updated when each individual college is full or only once the university as a whole has reached capacity?
Thank you,
Kathleen
May 6th, 2014
Thanks for your question, Kathleen. We will update you when the Class of 2018 is complete, not separately for the individual colleges.
May 6th, 2014
Thank you for taking to time to respond to these questions so quickly; it truly means a lot to those on the waitlist, me included, during this limbo period.
May 6th, 2014
Since the bulk of your wait list offers have gone out for the college of Arts and Sciences, would I be correct in assuming the same is true for the Engineering school? Thank you.
May 6th, 2014
Yes, that is correct.
May 6th, 2014
Depressing – but thanks for quick response.
May 6th, 2014
Ms. Pippen,
When you say that the bulk of the A&S offers have been made, does this mean that the bulk of the offers to the other undergraduate colleges have been made as well (particularly the school of engineering)? Thanks!
Paul
May 6th, 2014
Yes, that applies to all undergraduate schools.
May 6th, 2014
How many days do those that received an offer have to reply and when did the offers begin? Will the offer be posted on the portal or just through email?
May 12th, 2014
Thanks for your question, Donna. We began making offers just before we published this post on May 5. The first notification on any offer will be via email. That email will also tell each person the amount of time they have to reply to offers. Again, thanks for your questions.
May 9th, 2014
So how does the waitlist work for transfer students? Are all transfer students put on the waitlist? When can we expect decisions?
May 12th, 2014
Hi Logan,
All transfer students who are offered a spot on the wait list are automatically put on that list – the students themselves do not need to take any action. Because the transfer process is rolling, we do not have a definitive date by which all of these students will have a final decision.
May 9th, 2014
Is the CSS profile necessary to receive financial aid or is the FAFSA good enough?
May 12th, 2014
Hi Logan,
In order to be considered for need-based financial aid, students must submit both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.
May 13th, 2014
If on average about 10% of the incoming freshman class comes from the wait list, and you have already made the bulk of your offers to wait listed candidates, can you give those that are still holding out hope an idea about what percentage is still left to be filled… are we looking at 5%, 3%, 1%… Any color on the subject that you can offer would be appreciated.
May 13th, 2014
Hi Robert,
Unfortunately we cannot give you much insight there, mostly because I simply do not know. The wait list process is very fluid and changes every day, especially as we are still waiting to find out how many of the students who have been offered spots of the wait list are going to accept them, as well as how many of our matriculated students have been accepted off of wait lists elsewhere.
May 13th, 2014
Thank you Carolyn. Another question if you don’t mind. Are any of the colleges more difficult to get into via the wait list than others? My son is waiting on the engineering program and we are trying to manage his expectations. He very much wants to go to Vandy but it seems to me that at this point the likelihood of that isn’t very promising – especially if there are only about 330 students in the engineering program of which roughly a third are women. I don’t want to crush his dream but I also want to be realistic. Thanks again – this blog is such a great service.
May 13th, 2014
Hi Robert,
While I do not know how many spaces we have to fill in each school, it is true that the smaller schools are going to have fewer wait list offers – though typically fewer applications as well. It may be the case that one school was mathematically more “difficult” to get into than another in a given year, but they are typically pretty comparable, and we will not know that for sure until the process is complete.
May 13th, 2014
Thanks again… I guess we will just wait another few weeks for a final answer.
May 17th, 2014
Mr. Watson,
When will you give offers to transfer students waitlisted? Thanks!
May 20th, 2014
Hi Taozhang,
Offers to transfer applicants on the wait list are on a rolling basis. We will contact students as space becomes available until we have filled all available spaces. When we close the wait list, we contact any students who are still waiting. Thanks.
May 20th, 2014
Mr. Watson and Ms. Pippen,
I’ve been attempting to get in touch with my admissions counselor about a few questions that are pretty specific to my case but unfortunately, my last few emails have gone unanswered. Is there any way to verify that my emails are being received or is there anyone else whom I may get in contact with in hopes of finding some answers to my questions?
Additionally, the first and second waves of acceptances off the waitlist took place quite rapidly in succession. Since there haven’t been additional emails gaging interest in a few weeks, would it be safe to assume that the Class of 2018 is very nearly filled (if not already completely filled)?
May 22nd, 2014
Hi Alice.
I’m sorry to hear that you have had trouble getting in touch with your admissions counselor. Please feel free to email me your questions (carolyn.pippen@vanderbilt.edu) and I will either answer them myself or direct you to the correct contact.
You are correct that the Class of 2018 is very nearly filled, but it is possible that we will be making a handful of final wait list offers in the next few weeks.
May 22nd, 2014
Ms. Pippen,
Thank you very much for your response. I look forward to corresponding with you.
May 23rd, 2014
Out of curiosity, has it been determined what percentage of the early decision applicants and the regular admission applicants were accepted for the class of 2018?
May 27th, 2014
Hi Peter, Vanderbilt’s admit rate for Early Decision this year was about 23%. For Regular Decision, the admit rate was approximately 11%.
May 27th, 2014
Interesting. Thanks for your response. So it looks like the percentages may be a little bit higher than last year. According to the NYT for last year’s entering class, it was 21.60% early admit, 10.90% regular and 11.97% overall. I was wondering because I read that there were more applicants for this year’s entering class than last year’s, but unless they increased the first year class size, that does not appear to be the case.
May 27th, 2014
Hi Peter,
I’m not sure where you read that we had more applications this year that last year. It is true that this year’s applicant pool was more competitive than last year’s – but that is in reference to the quality of the applications, not the number.
You can find more information (and likely more accurate information that you can find in third party publications) on our Common Data Set: https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/vucds.aspx
May 27th, 2014
Have any offers been made since that second wave a couple of weeks ago?
May 27th, 2014
Hi Jack, we continue to make offers to students as places in the class open up. At this point, the wait list has not been closed and the process continues. We will post when the wait list closed.
June 3rd, 2014
Realistically, does anybody in the engineering school have any chance at this time? Can you give a rough figure on the number of students accepted there from the wait list in total, given that the rate of acceptances have somewhat slowed down?
June 2nd, 2014
Have offers for wait listed Transfer applicants begun being mailed out?
June 3rd, 2014
We are evaluating wait listed transfer students as space is available. The class of wait list students is nearly full at this point, but not closed yet.
June 3rd, 2014
At this juncture in the wait list process, if an offer does come (realize that’s probably wishful thinking) would class availability and/or housing options be impacted? Thank you for your reply.
June 3rd, 2014
Hi Robert. This is a good question. Housing assignments don’t receive preference based on when they are submitted, so there would be no disadvantage for students admitted off the wait list. For class availability, the registrar from each undergraduate school would best be able to answer this question. I can also point you to this info for incoming students http://commonplace.vanderbilt.edu/v1/road-3.html
June 24th, 2014
Are waitlist offers still being made or is the class full at this point?
June 24th, 2014
Hi Jennifer, at this point we have not yet closed the first-year class, which means that we may still make offers of admission to students on the wait list. Thanks for your continued interest – hang in there!
June 25th, 2014
Hello, if I were to send in supplementary materials to help my application, can I send them directly to the admissions office email?
June 27th, 2014
Contact your admissions officer directly to discuss supplementary materials. You can find your counselor at http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/your-counselor/
July 8th, 2014
Is the class of 2018 full, or are there still being offers made to those on the wait list?
July 9th, 2014
Hi Emily, we have not yet closed the wait list, and we are still in the process of finalizing the class. Thanks for your continued interest!