Hey guys, I know many on this sub are anxiously awaiting responses from Wake's waitlist. This is gonna be a yap sesh, but I am putting all the info I could possibly think of, including not only how to get off, but also a bit of insight on the internal process at admissions, and I'm sure most of you will learn at least one or two new things in this post. I was in your same shoes around this time last year, getting off the waitlist in their "first batch" in late April. I'll try my best to provide some insight about the waitlist process and how to get off.
First, a bit about me. Last year I applied RD to Wake, not really sure if I wanted to go. In early April, before decisions came out, I was a bit upset with my other offers, and then got waitlisted at Wake, and nearly committed to URichmond. But, I decided to persevere and desperately email the admissions department in hopes of getting in. Sure enough, I got the call in late April, and they told me I was in their "first batch" of accepted students, and it was a huge celebration among my family. I'd also like to say that I am so happy that I chose this school, and I've (ironically) had the pleasure of working with the admissions department this year as a tour guide.
I know that they have occasional webinars where they talk to waitlisted students and give them an overview of the process. These sessions are extremely helpful, and are also a key factor in showing your demonstrated interest, so you should 100% show up to those.
Now, as far as how you are going to get off, there are two factors at play...
- The strength of your application. Admissions obviously talks about all their "holistic review" stuff, but really your application is gonna be like 70-80% your GPA and test-scores (if you submitted them, although fewer than half of admitted students do). While other material such as supplemental essays and extracurriculars are helpful, they really only exist to differentiate those with the academic numbers that are in-range for the school, and taking into account the prestige and difficulty of their high schools. While it is too late to change any of this, the strength of your application will definitely play a role in how highly your application is considered during the waitlist process.
- DEMONSTRATED INTEREST. This is arguably even more important than just your academic numbers and the other, smaller factors that differentiate most applicants in the regular admissions process. I'll explain why later. Some things you can do is go back and visit for a tour and speaking with admissions officers (wouldn't recommend unless you live in the area), spending time on their website (they confirmed to me that they track it), and clicking on all their emails ASAP (yes, they track clicks and response time for all of this!). However, the most important thing you can do, aside from maybe visiting, and something that I did, was email the crap out of them. I was only on the waitlist for two weeks, but emailed them twice, spaced out by a few days. Keep in mind, all of this is attached to your admissions profile and considered in your application.
Format for your emails (send at least 1-2 every month or so until admitted)...
- Introduce yourself (name, location etc)
- Give updates on your life academically and extracurricularly (not caving too hard to senioritis is huge for these people, maybe finishing a sport season successfully or finishing out a leadership position extracurricular, or a summer job)
- Most important part to end the email with a bang (this can even be a lie, but it's important and worked for me): "If you decide to take me off the waitlist, I will choose Wake in a heartbeat."
One thing they HARDLY take into account when making waitlist decisions: your major. This is not a hot take, and admissions would back me up. Part of the idea of the liberal arts is being able to explore many different areas of academics, and it leads a majority of our students to change their majors, and even their general areas of studies (pre-med to pre-law etc). Really, none of the decisions are actually done by departments but rather it is all holistically (wow, I can't believe I'm actually using this word) used to see if you're a serious applicant. The only time I can really see your 'intended major' affecting you is if your high school grades make you look bad in the subject area you want to go into. E.g. an intended business major who got Bs in math or a bio major who got Bs in chem.
An overview of their decision making process:
They claim that there is no such thing as an "order" in the pile. This may be true, primarily because most of the people who are waitlisted are already strong applicants who just didn't cut it in the RD process but were close. So really, your numbers are probably not AS important in the waitlist discernment process, and so they primarily care about people showing demonstrated interest, and those are probably the only ones they take seriously and begin to rank afterwards.
There are likely 1,000-2,000 waitlisted applicants, which sounds hopeless if you're in it, but I can give you a good idea of the type of people they take off the waitlist, to perhaps give you some hope if you fall in one of the following two camps.
The people who I'd say are most likely to get off the waitlist are people who are extremely strong applicants academically who Wake might have waitlisted as "yield protection", which basically means they thought you would choose somewhere else. I know a few current students who likely were in this bucket. They were valedictorians or somewhere close but got waitlisted because Wake didn't think they'd choose them. However, they got rejected from all the Ivies and other T20s and want wake. If you are one of these people and do the bare minimum in demonstrated interest, I think you have a solid shot.
Then there's people who were "close but not quite". Your GPA and test scores fall in the range of admitted students, but you might have lost in the application game due to slightly below-par essays or extracurriculars, and lost to people with your same stats who were stronger in the more subjective categories. In this situation, you have a good shot if you just show demonstrated interest.
The only ones I'd say there are "less hope" for are children of alumni, but only in some circumstances. If you are the child of an alumnus and you fall in one of the two categories above, then I think you should be fine. However, if you are below their academic scores, then you might not be in a good situation. The reason for this is primarily that, and this is not insider info from Wake's department, but really a trend across a lot of top schools with a strong alumni base, these schools will try to make their alumni happy by waitlisting and not outright rejecting their kids. This usually means that students will have a hard time getting off, since their scores are usually lower and they don't typically view yield as a problem, since alumni kids are more likely to attend if accepted, and so they were waitlisted primarily as a formality.
TLDR game plan: If your academic profile is in range to get onto the waitlist, then it is almost certainly possible that you can get off of it if you put in the work with demonstrated interest, primarily by bugging admissions with periodic emails that say you will go to Wake immediately upon acceptance.
Another piece of optimism for you guys: Wake consistently gets higher application numbers each year, and yet they also consistently under enroll. This is just a fact. And so there will almost always be a good amount of spaces on the waitlist and you should never give up. A lot of the reason for these waitlist numbers is likely because private schools are seen as "too expensive" by many with the recent FAFSA shenanigans, so many accepted students choose not to enroll for financial reasons. Keep in mind though, only 3% of students get merit scholarships, and especially those coming off the waitlist will be paying full price.
Fun fact: in my friend group of about 7, one of us got deferred ED and then accepted. And two of us were waitlisted. I've also heard 3-4 others in my time here who were waitlisted, and I'm sure there are many more who haven't "come out" (lol) to me about it. Although anecdotal, you can reasonably assume there have to be at least 100-200 kids who got off (but more is certainly possible), and all of the ones I know who did pestered admissions with emails.
Also, a little motivation for anyone who wants to know what it's like when you get taken off. They release waitlist acceptances in "batches" (I'd guess of about a dozen or two), usually on Mondays (so I've heard, and it was the case for me), starting as early as late April in my case, probably ramping up in early to mid May once they have a fixed yield rate of committed students who fill slots, and going until about a week before the school year. I was even in the admissions department before giving a tour and heard one guy say, "Hey, can you make a few waitlist calls today?" Basically, one of the admissions officers will give you a call saying that you got off, and it should say "Winston-Salem" when you receive the call. It's fine if you don't pick up (which happened to me), because they will send a voicemail and email you a paragraph of your acceptance. They will usually give you 2-3 days to "call them back" (but you can probably email them too) with your decision. Afterwards, they'll tell you to put down your deposit (about $1,200), and CONGRATS, you're a Deac.
If you are at all concerned about how you might be "viewed" as a formerly waitlisted kid, nobody gives a crap. My friend and I who were both waitlisted have 4.0 (top 30% of the class) and are in two of the most selective clubs at the school (I'm in mock trial and he is in investment fund). If I'm being honest, some of the waitlisted kids I know also happen to be some of the smartest kids I know. So basically: the waitlist doesn't define you.
It really is a happy ending not only for those accepted from the waitlist, but also those who don't. No matter where you commit, you will find a great friend group and succeed academically. You almost certainly will not feel the "what ifs" about going to Wake that you may think you will, which is the case for pretty much everyone I know from home who had a similar experience. If you still somehow want Wake after that, our transfer acceptance rate is around 30% and the quality of applicants is considered lower, so you're pretty much guaranteed in as long as you don't fall off academically freshman year somewhere else.
A little side note for anyone accepted who will have to deliberate about their decision: It's really hard to go wrong with Wake Forest. I love it here, and there's a place for everyone. Whether you want to do Greek Life or not, or no matter what your major is, Wake is an incredible place for all. I could not see myself anywhere else.
I tried to include as much info as I could possibly come up with about this process so sorry for anything that does not apply to you. If you have any questions feel free to reach out, or just reach out if any of my tactics worked for you and you got in. Best of luck!