美国国家公共电台 NPR College Waitlists Often Waste Would-Be Students' Time

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It's April, which means the college-bound students of the class of 2022 are hearing yes or no from the schools they've applied¹ to. Increasingly, though, they're getting a maybe. That's because more and more colleges are putting students on waitlist. But one college admissions adviser² says schools are overdoing³ it. Cristiana Quinn wrote an open letter criticizing the practice of putting large numbers of students on waitlist. I asked her why she sees that as a problem.

CRISTIANA QUINN: What we've seen in the college admissions counseling world is that over the last few years, the number of students that we've had waitlisted has increased, and the number of schools that they're waitlisted at has increased. So I've been doing this for about 10 years, and 10 years ago, it might be common for me to have three or four students on one, two, possibly three waiting lists. This year, all of my students who made regular admissions were waitlisted. And I've been getting a lot of calls on my phone lately from families where their students haven't been accepted anywhere. They're on five, six, eight waiting lists.

CORNISH: Talk about the colleges that you think are deploying⁴ this tactic⁵. And what is the motivation from a college admissions perspective?

QUINN: So for instance, if we look at numbers from last year because this year's numbers haven't published yet, Boston College last year waitlisted 5,689 students and took 112. U Michigan waitlisted over 11,000 students and took 36. Williams College waitlisted over 2,300 students and took 24. So we're looking at that from a perspective of larger private universities, public universities and small liberal arts colleges are really all doing this.

CORNISH: So you say they're overdoing it, but why shouldn't a college keep their options open, right? Students are doing the same.

QUINN: Well, if you look at it from a student perspective, many students when they get waitlisted think they're very close to getting in. And the reality is that many of these schools, they're accepting 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent off of the waiting list.

CORNISH: Does it make the school look better? Is it - like, what is the motivation there?

QUINN: There are several motivations. Traditionally, colleges have put students on the waiting list who were maybe somewhat qualified⁶ and perhaps their parents were legacy⁷. Or they had a VIP donor⁸ helping⁹ them in the admissions process, and they didn't want to ruffle¹⁰ feathers. Or perhaps the college wanted to keep a good relationship with that high school.

But now what we're hearing from colleges is that they want to have a very large pool to choose from so that, for instance, if they don't have a student from South Dakota, they can pull one from South Dakota. If they don't have a student who plays the oboe, they can pick an oboe player. But that really has students holding out hope because a lot of students don't see these numbers that are published in the common data set on waiting lists.

CORNISH: Can you talk about the financial implications of that?

QUINN: Unfortunately you will find that at many colleges, there is very little if any financial aid left by the time the colleges go to the waiting list. And that can be even at need-blind colleges and some of the wealthiest colleges in the country.

CORNISH: In the meantime, what are you telling your families, especially those maybe who find themselves on only waitlist?

QUINN: So for families where the student is only on waiting lists, there are colleges that have openings and have rolling admissions into the summertime. So there's still a chance to apply to colleges.

CORNISH: But do you tell them, look; this waitlist is a sham¹¹; you're not getting in any of these schools; we've got to come up with a new plan.

QUINN: No. I do have students write a letter of continued interest to the colleges where they're on the waiting list, and then I have them pursue colleges where they have rolling admissions or where there still may be openings.

CORNISH: That's Cristiana Quinn. She's a college admissions adviser in Rhode Island. Thank you for speaking with us.

QUINN: Thank you for having me.

1 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

2 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

3 overdoing   

v.做得过分( overdo的现在分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度

参考例句：

• He's been overdoing things recently. 近来他做事过分努力。 来自辞典例句
• You think I've been overdoing it with the work thing? 你认为我对工作的关注太过分了吗？ 来自电影对白

4 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

5 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

6 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

7 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

8 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 ruffle   

v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边

参考例句：

• Don't ruffle my hair.I've just combed it.别把我的头发弄乱了。我刚刚梳好了的。
• You shouldn't ruffle so easily.你不该那么容易发脾气。

11 sham   

n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的)

参考例句：

• They cunningly played the game of sham peace.他们狡滑地玩弄假和平的把戏。
• His love was a mere sham.他的爱情是虚假的。