The wait-list, commonly referred to as “admissions purgatory,”  is that ugly and uncomfortable grey area – they didn’t like you enough to accept you, and they didn’t hate you enough to reject you.

May 1st is College Decision Day, when students must decide and place a deposit at one college to which they were accepted. When a college puts a student on a wait-list, they will ask the student to respond as to whether they want to stay on the wait-list or if they’ve already made alternative plans, and accepted or will accept an offer from another college or university.

After dealing with the loss of not being accepted, students and parents need to determine which of the colleges where they were accepted offers the best academic, social, and financial fit for the family. If there is a clear winner, then the process is over. Otherwise, families need to evaluate the wait-list opportunities.

It’s important to be realistic about finances. It would be a rare occurrence for a wait-listed student to receive substantial merit-based aid. Need-based aid is more likely, but colleges will not necessarily meet 100 percent of need.

The wait-list is all about the yield: the yield is the specific percentage of accepted students who will choose to deposit and attend each institution. The national yield average is less than 33 percent, which means that two-thirds of students are rejecting the offers of admission they receive. That seems low, but it makes sense when you think about the fact that students apply to multiple colleges and universities and hopefully receive multiple acceptances. However, they can only attend one school. Colleges wish their yield was 100 percent; it would make their jobs much, much easier.

The dynamics of the wait-list vary from college to college and may greatly vary from year to year. The big problem comes when colleges invite thousands of students to be on their wait-list and then find out, after May 1, that their yield increased and they have fewer or in some cases no spots left for wait-listed students. In fact, they may be panicking that they don’t have enough beds for incoming freshmen who have already said yes.  Colleges do their best to predict yield, but it’s a risky game. All of this is to say that there is really no accurate predictive measure to determine how many spots there will be.

According to Richard Clark,  Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Georgia Tech (www.gatech.edu), “Essentially, the wait-list exists to accommodate demographics that were not met in the initial round of admission offers. If you have the right number of deposits from the West coast, you go to your wait-list for more East coast students. If you have enough Chemistry majors, you may be going to the wait-list for Business students. Ultimately, the job of admission deans and directors is to make and shape the class, as defined by institutional priorities. Meeting target enrollment is critical to bottom-line revenue, creating a desired ethos on campus, proliferating the school’s brand, and other factors.”

So, while stellar academic performance in your first semester is always helpful, much is out of your control. Colleges will not be impressed with gifts and tear-stained notes; they know they are the ones who are in control.

Bierer is an independent college adviser based in Charlotte. Send questions to: lee@bierercollegeconsulting.com; www.bierercollegeconsulting.com