The College Solution Blog, by Lynn O’Shaughnessy always provides a great deal of useful current information.  In a recent post on trying to the beat the wait lists odds, she provides a very useful resource to help students figure out their chances of getting into a school that they have been wait listed.

You can find the wait list odds of any school by heading to the College Board’s Big Future website. Type in the name of any school and then click its Applying hyperlink.

Here are Notre Dame’s wait list stats from last year:

As you can see, the number of applicants offered a spot on Notre Dame’s waiting list was nearly as many students as the eventual freshman class! This wait-list overkill, by the way, is all too common. Many schools put an obscene number of students on the wait list. Last year at Notre Dame 951 rejected students accepted a place on the wait list, but only seven were eventually offered spots.

Why do schools put so many kids on their waiting list when there is little to no chance of getting off of them? Because they can. Their callous business decision isn’t going to discourage tons of students from applying the next year. Schools use their wait lists as a way to manage their admission yield. They also turn to the wait list as a way to reject students without completely demoralizing them.

What I find sad is that so many students are pinning their hopes on suitors that have spurned them. This prevents these teenagers from getting psyched for their grand adventure at whatever colleges they end up attending. And that’s a shame.