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 graduate school search.
Each year thousands of college applicants are neither accepted nor rejected, instead remaining in the gray area known as the waitlist.
While wait-listed applicants can try various strategies to become more competitive — improving their ACT score, for example — at some schools these prospective students are almost guaranteed to never get an admissions offer.
For fall 2016, 10 National Universities — among the 92 ranked institutions in this category that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey — did not accept anyone on their waitlists. National Universities offer a wide range of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs and are committed to research.
[Avoid these mistakes as a wait-listed applicant.]
The University of California–Riverside had the largest waitlist applicant pool with 2,753 prospective students. Tying for No. 124 in the U.S. News rankings, it’s the second lowest-ranked school among the 10. Boston University, tied for No. 37, is the highest-ranked school.
Tulane University in New Orleans and Widener University in Pennsylvania are the only schools that are not new to the list. Tulane had 1,168 on its waitlist and Widener had just five.
Among the 10 schools, the average number of wait-listed applicants for fall 2016 was 1,020.
[Learn how to get admitted off of a college waitlist.]
Kent State University in Ohio is the only National University that accepted 100 percent of its wait-listed applicants for fall 2016, totaling nine students.
Below are the 10 National Universities that admitted the lowest percentage of wait-listed applicants for fall 2016. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | Total applicants accepting a spot on the waitlist (fall 2016) | Number of wait-listed applicants admitted | Percent of wait-listed applicants admitted | U.S. News rank |
| University of California–Riverside | 2,753 | 0 | 0.0% | 124 (tie) |
| Boston University | 2,308 | 0 | 0.0% | 37 (tie) |
| Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA) | 1,519 | 0 | 0.0% | 61 (tie) |
| Tulane University (LA) | 1,168 | 0 | 0.0% | 40 (tie) |
| University at Buffalo–SUNY | 631 | 0 | 0.0% | 97 (tie) |
| Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ) | 622 | 0 | 0.0% | 69 (tie) |
| American University (DC) | 501 | 0 | 0.0% | 69 (tie) |
| Ohio State University–Columbus | 497 | 0 | 0.0% | 54 (tie) |
| University of San Francisco | 198 | 0 | 0.0% | 110 (tie) |
| Widener University (PA) | 5 | 0 | 0.0% | 192 (tie) |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find admissions data, complete rankings and much more. Sign up for the U.S. News Extra Help: College Admissions free email newsletter to receive expert advice twice a month.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2017 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 admissions data above are correct as of Nov. 7, 2017.
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10 National Universities Where It’s Hard to Get Off the Waitlist originally appeared on usnews.com
