College applicants face slim odds of admission from waitlists

7 articles · Updated · The Wall Street Journal · May 11

For fall 2024, Boston University admitted 18 of nearly 9,000 students who accepted wait-list spots, while UC Berkeley admitted none of 6,479 wait-listed applicants last year.
Counsellors say chances can be lower than overall admission rates, with Virginia admitting 3.6% from its wait list and Baylor 2.1% for fall 2025.
Colleges say swelling applications make enrolment harder to predict, so wait lists help manage yield, fill specific class needs and can trigger knock-on reshuffling after the 1 May commitment deadline.

With the enrollment cliff arriving, will colleges abandon long waitlists or will the strategy become even more critical?

What is the one unspoken factor that actually gets a student admitted from an elite university's extensive waitlist?

Could a medical school-style 'match' system be the radical solution needed to fix the broken college admissions process?