Research · College applications · October 2026

24 of the 50 most-applied-to colleges publish their wait-list numbers

As of October 2026: Of the 50 most-applied-to colleges, 24 publish all three of their wait-list counts, and 7 say they keep no wait list at all. UC San Diego offered the most wait-list places, 27,521, and UC Santa Barbara admitted the most students from its list, 9,603 of the 18,022 who accepted a place.

The table holds each college's own published wait-list counts for its most recent reported class, and it is blank where a college publishes none.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

Wait-list counts at the 50 most-applied-to colleges

Each college's own wait-list figures for the entering class it reports, with the share admitted from the list.

Figures come from each college's own Common Data Set, section C2, for the entering class named in the row. They cover first-time, first-year applicants only, not transfer students. A blank cell means the college does not publish that count. The last column divides the students admitted from the list by the students who accepted a place on it, using only the two counts in that same row.

What the three counts mean

Colleges report a wait list in the same three steps. First, how many students were offered a place on the list. Then, how many said yes to that place. Last, how many of those were later admitted. The first number tells you how long the list is. The last two tell you the real odds.

The middle number matters more than parents expect. At UC San Diego, 27,521 students were offered a place on the list. Only 4,539 of the 19,156 who accepted a place were later admitted, which is 23.7%. Divide by the offers instead, and you get a smaller number that no student ever faced.

Long lists and short lists

The longest lists sit at large public universities. UC San Diego offered 27,521 places, UC Santa Barbara 25,713, the University of Michigan 24,804 and UC Davis 17,166. These schools draw huge applicant pools, so a long list is a planning tool for them.

A short list is not always kinder. Stanford offered 483 places and admitted 25 of the 414 students who accepted one, which is 6.0%. Yale offered 773 and admitted 23 of the 565 who accepted, which is 4.1%. A small list can still mean a small chance.

What a family should do with this

Treat a wait-list offer as a maybe, not a near-miss. Put the deposit down at the college that already said yes, and keep the date on it. A wait-list answer often comes in May or June, after that deposit is due.

Then look up the college's own numbers before you plan around them. Ohio State admitted 2,049 of the 2,278 students who accepted a place, which is 89.9%. Illinois Urbana-Champaign admitted 1 of the 1,874 students who accepted. Those two facts call for different plans.

If the college's row is blank, plan as though the chance is small. A blank row is not a low number. It only means the college does not publish one, and a year with no published count can swing either way.

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