Q. Courtest Waitlist - What is a Courtesy Waitlist?

A. The term "courtesy waitlist" is unofficial, and refers to some colleges' practice of placing some students on a waitlist who have no realistic shot of ever being accepted. Colleges do this for a number of reasons, but some of the most common are:

• to let down easy the children of alumni who might expect special treatment.
• to "reward" appealing candidates with too-low SAT scores but otherwise very appealing applications.
• to demonstrate for various reasons that a candidate got serious attention from the admissions committee.

No college will ever tell you that you're on a courtesy waitlist, so you need to approach every wait listing the same--by doing everything you can to get accepted.

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