The purgatory of college, a place where students are good enough to get into college, but not good enough to be accepted: the waitlist. At this point, the waitlist is just as bad as a rejection, or worse. At least with a rejection students are not filled with false hope that their dream college may or may not accept them.

Of course you won’t hear back from the school until you have already committed. The universities clearly don’t care about what commitment you may make outside of their school. With decision day on May 1, 2024, for the University of California (UC) system, the Statement of Intent to Register has been moved to May 15, colleges expect you to hold off your decision until the last minute. You wait weeks, likely devoid of any messages from a university, in the hope that one person declines this “elite” college spot.

To get off the waitlist, websites will advise writing letters, showing off new quarterly grades or awards given in the past couple months; it feels like you’re forced into being a stalker, constantly checking on any new updates to the portal or any emails from the college. There’s only so much dignity a person can have to being waitlisted and with the influx of waitlisters, it seems more like a soft rejection than a chance at a dream school. At this point, I am sure students would prefer to be flat out rejected because at least they can then move on and can plan accordingly.

The sudden spike in those getting waitlisted seems to come from “test-blind” or “test-optional” schools getting two to four times the number of applicants in a typical year. More applicants means more students are getting placed on the waitlist and less are getting off of it. A waitlist has become a way for colleges to get on the good side of students so they can eventually send more money for applications if they decide to transfer.

Even for those who get off the waitlist, they are met with ceaseless dilemmas. Housing and financial aid are already given away to the first round acceptees as both are typically given out on a first come first serve basis. This inclines colleges to accept the wealthier students, those that do not qualify or did not apply for financial aid as they will not have to shell out more money than necessary.

Students are becoming statistics to colleges that are trying to fill vacancies and students are sick of these fake acceptances, only being good enough if a student decides that the college is not good enough for them.