For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's our initial update of Class of 2029 waitlist notification dates and status where available.  

To get a sense for what's happening at the macro level, we took a look at recently released Class of 2028 waitlist statistics from 68 private and public institutions.  Our analysis paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist increased 10 percent year over year from 41,000 for the Class of 2027 to 46,000 for the Class of 2028

• On average, 26 percent of Class of 2028 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, up from 23 percent in for the Class of 2027

• Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 19 percent of Class of 2028 enrollments, up from 15 percent for the Class of 2027

• 39 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for the Class of 2028 (vs. 45 percent for the Class of 2027)

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Class of 2029 Waitlist Notification Dates and 2024 Statistics

College Kickstart LLC

When Do Waitlist Notifications Happen?

Colleges typically begin notifying waitlisted applicants of final decisions between late April and mid-June, though some stretch into July. The timeline varies depending on how quickly accepted students respond to their offers and decide to enroll or not. The National Candidate Reply Day on May 1 is a major milestone after which many colleges can determine how many spots are available in the class and begin waitlist activity. Keep an eye on our blog post for more information when schools update their waitlist notification dates.

How Many Students Get Off the Waitlist?

For the Class of 2028, we see a growing waitlist admission rate and an increased percentage of the class filled from waitlist admits. While the average waitlist admit rate is 26%, this varies widely by institution. Based on our analysis of the selected institutions above, at highly selective schools ( under 25% admit rate), on average 8% of waitlisted students may be admitted. At very selective schools (25% - 50% admit rate)  the admission rate is 25% , at selective schools (50% - 75% admit rate), the waitlist admission rate is closer to 32%, and at the less selective institutions (over 75% admit rate), the average waitlist admit rate has increased to 44%. See our table above for the exact Class of 2028 waitlist admission rate for many popular institutions.