When Yansong Pang from China applied to nine MBA programs for fall 2017 admission, he was surprised to discover he was placed on the waitlist by five – Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, London Business School, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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USNEWS：对于国际学生，美国大学等待通知意味着什么？
杜克大学（Duke University, Durham, NC）
2018年12月11日
USNEWS：10所最可能给州外学生奖学金的学校
2018年12月13日By Anayat Durrani
今天这篇文章是来自于洛杉矶的一位独立教育专栏作家。他的文章不仅被USNEWS发表，也多次被《纽约时报》、《洛杉矶时报》、《华盛顿邮报》等著名新闻媒体引用。这次，他就抓住了当前最吸引人的一个话题——大学录取问题！”Waitlist”是每一个学生都不愿意看到的，因为这说明学校即没有决定录取你，也没有直接拒绝你，你只能心怀忐忑的继续等待，尤其对于国际学生来说，更是一种煎熬！但作者还是从另一个角度来探讨了这种情况，就是在学费资助方面！作者分析这种等待状态并不影响申请签证以及对于国际学生开放的奖学金。虽然对于能去美国学习且财大气粗的中国留学生来说，这些奖学金与学费相比相差甚远，但它依然是一笔不错的奖励！
“I was extremely happy and proud when I received interview invites from HBS, GSB, Wharton and many other great schools. And I felt sadly funny and confused that I kept being wait-listed one by one,” Pang says.
When a student is placed on a college or graduate school waitlist, it means he or she has not been formally accepted but may be offered admission as spaces become available. For the fall 2017 undergraduate admissions cycle, 40 percent of schools reported using a waitlist and accepted an average of 25 percent of all students who chose to remain on waitlists, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Pang says he was eventually denied admission to four of the schools. However, he gained admission to Wharton, his dream school, and will graduate in May 2019.
As prospective international students prepare applications for admission to U.S. universities, here are some things for them to know about waitlists.
University enrollment targets. International applicants may worry about being at a disadvantage if they eventually find themselves on a waitlist that includes domestic students. Experts say schools don’t typically differentiate between wait-listed international and U.S. students but may have varying enrollment goals that have an impact on admissions decisions.
“No preference is given to domestic students over international students. The academic record, interests of the student in relation to the available capacity in the majors and makeup of the class all contribute to who is offered admission from the waitlist,” says Clark Brigger, assistant vice president for undergraduate education and executive director of undergraduate admissions at Pennsylvania State University—University Park.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says while undergraduate domestic students are not given priority over international students, it does consider whether admitting international students from the waitlist would put it over its international student limit, according to the school’s website.
Not all universities use waitlists each year. Gareth Fowles, vice president for enrollment management at Lynn University in Florida, says the school has had to use a waitlist in the past. And due to a greater interest in the university, the admissions office expects to implement a waitlist for fall 2019.
“We have received the largest number of applications in Lynn’s history, and in order to maintain a small, personalized environment, we cannot accept all students who apply to the university,” Fowles says.
Fowles says Lynn does not treat international students differently from domestic students and all applicants are evaluated equally through a holistic admissions review, which considers all aspects of a student’s application, including essays and letters of recommendation.
Student visa considerations. Prospective international students may also be concerned that being wait-listed means they may not have time to secure a visa once they are off the waitlist.
“With regard to the turnaround time for issuing a visa for a wait-listed student, embassies typically can issue visas up to 120 days prior to the start of a program in the U.S. Colleges usually offer wait-listed applicants (admission) after the May 1 regular decision deadline, thus making the visa turnaround time tight but doable,” says Drew Carlson, educational consultant for McMillan Education in Boston.
“Most colleges and universities, including Penn State, admit from the waitlist in time for international students to obtain their visas,” Brigger says.
Pang says he applied to every MBA program by round one, except for Duke; so although he was wait-listed by multiple schools, he received the eventual decisions early, around March or early April. Pang says this gave him enough time to prepare for the visa application process.
Financial aid. Experts say prospective international students should be aware that if they are placed on a waitlist and eventually admitted, they can still get financial assistance and scholarships at schools that offer financial aid to international students.
“All international students are considered for merit-based aid, even coming off a waitlist. Once a student is admitted to Lynn, they will be notified if they qualify for a merit scholarship,” Fowles says.
Pepperdine University in California says students admitted off the waitlist who qualify for financial assistance will receive financial aid if the budget permits, according to the school’s undergraduate admissions website.
Carlson says separate from the admissions decision communication, financial aid offices will deliver financial aid and scholarship offers to qualified wait-listed students.
