A post about the Wait List

Welcome to May in college admissions! This is the time of year when our email in-boxes are filled with communications from the broadest spectrum of constituencies in comparison to other points in the calendar. We hear from seniors who have indicated they will matriculate to the Class of 2014, juniors who are prospective students for the Class of 2015, and other seniors who have accepted our offer to remain on a Wait List in the event that we have spaces to offer in the coming weeks.

If you belong to that last group, we recognize that you are very eager for information about Wait List activity. At this point, it is not yet clear whether we will be in a position to make any further offers of admission. We have had a strong response to the offers we made on April 1, and we will be monitoring the situation over the next few weeks to see if an opportunity to make further offers emerges.

There are several items we'll be watching: One big variable that we do not yet know is whether or not Wait List activity at any of our peer institutions will lead some students to cancel their plans to matriculate at Dartmouth. A second variable is students who may postpone their enrollment for a year to take a "gap" year between high school and college. Each year, these two variables impact whether and to what extent we make additional offers of admission and each year the situation at Dartmouth evolves from week to week as we get more information.

If you are active on the Wait List, it is not important for you to contact our office at this time unless you would like to update your file in the manner described here.

If you have decided that you no longer wish to be considered for admission from the Wait List, please update your status online.

Keep in mind that all essential Wait List correspondence and updates will come via email from the Dartmouth Admissions Office. We always make every effort to close the class as early in the summer as possible so that Wait List students can move forward with a final decision from Dartmouth, but it may take several weeks or longer before we have any further news for you.

We hope that these next several weeks go well for you.