The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
For some applicants, being placed on a college waitlist is discouraging. For others, it might provide some hope that they will still be admitted.
When an applicant is wait-listed, there’s still a chance of getting in, depending on whether space becomes available in the incoming class — typically after the May 1 deadline for high school seniors to submit a deposit and secure a spot at a college. Applicants can either accept or reject a spot on the waitlist during the regular decision round of admission.
Though the odds of being accepted as a wait-listed applicant are often slim, that’s not true for every school, according to U.S. News data.
[Explore how to get admitted off a college waitlist.]
Among the 91 ranked schools that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average proportion of students accepted off a waitlist for fall 2015 was 20 percent. But among the 10 schools where those proportions are the highest, the average is 82 percent.
On the other side of the spectrum, 14 ranked National Universities reported that they did not admit any applicants off the waitlist for the 2015-2016 school year. Among them are Stanford University in California, the University of Delaware, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Suffolk University in Massachusetts.
[Discover three college waitlist mistakes to avoid.]
In the 2015-2016 school year, 132 ranked National Universities that submitted waitlist information to U.S. News indicated that they have a waitlist policy, and 161 said they did not.
Below are the 10 ranked National Universities where the greatest proportion of wait-listed students were admitted for fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School (state) | Total applicants accepting a spot on the waitlist (fall 2015) | Number of wait-listed applicants admitted | Percent of wait-listed applicants admitted | U.S. News rank |
| Ohio State University–Columbus | 304 | 304 | 100% | 54 (tie) |
| Clemson University (SC) | 790 | 783 | 99.1% | 66 (tie) |
| Pennsylvania State University–University Park | 1,473 | 1,445 | 98.1% | 50 (tie) |
| Marquette University (WI) | 1,137 | 1,055 | 92.8% | 86 (tie) |
| University of Arkansas | 147 | 125 | 85% | 135 (tie) |
| University of California–Davis | 2,733 | 2,030 | 74.3% | 44 (tie) |
| University of California–Riverside | 3,737 | 2,770 | 74.1% | 118 (tie) |
| University of Maryland–Baltimore County | 404 | 280 | 69.3% | 159 (tie) |
| Saint Louis University | 164 | 107 | 65.2% | 96 (tie) |
| University of San Diego | 530 | 341 | 64.3% | 86 (tie) |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find waitlist data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2016 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The waitlist data above are correct as of April 18, 2017.
More from U.S. News
3 College Waitlist Mistakes to Avoid
How to Get Admitted Off a College Waitlist: 6 Steps for Success
5 Tips for Students Applying to College Alone
10 National Universities Where the Most Wait-Listed Applicants Get In originally appeared on usnews.com
