If your child is deferred or wait listed, there is something that he or she can do. There is something that you can do as a parent. Deferred means they applied early action or early decision and that the college needs additional information before they can make a decision. And usually that information is good grades or evidence of leadership or perhaps working on a research project. Colleges love research projects. So if you know someone, if your sister in law is a professor somewhere is working on genomes, that sounds great. And then your child can write an email saying I have been working on genomes since you have deferred me. I am really looking forward to using my grades. I am getting an A in Calculus from the toughest grader in the school. Waitlisted is another story. That means that your child has applied regular decision and that they ended up not getting accepted but not getting rejected, and they are in a horrible limbo. And that is when you have to pull out all stops. Maybe get a letter of recommendation from someone who knows your child who is important and maybe take a trip back to the school and speak to the development people or to a professor to let them know that it is really and truly your child´s first choice because colleges are concerned about yield.