Amherst College is a small school with a mighty reputation. Getting in is predictably difficult. For the Class of 2029, they received a record number of application () and admitted about 7%, or 1,175 students.

Just about as many students as are accepted by Amherst each year are offered a spot on the waiting list. These applications will only be revisited if the first-year class isn’t fully filled by accepted students, and the length of the waitlist isn’t because they actual think they’ll need that many students. Instead, it’s about options. Amherst likes to keep their options open, so they maintain a large unranked waitlist pool that they can pull applicants from to fulfill specific gaps in their first-year class. Unfortunately, the number of students they pull off of the waitlist annually is quite small.  

For first-year students enrolling in the fall of 2025, Amherst offered 1,294 applicants a spot on the waitlist and about half, 740 students, chose to join. , or 3.4% were admitted. Of course, that is 3.4% of the total number of students offered a waiting list spot — but we find that it’s important to use that number, over the 740, as Amherst does not have any control over how many students choose to join the waitlist, and you also have no visibility into how many students decide to join.  

The year before was even bleaker for waitlisted applicants. A total of 1105 students were offered a spot on the waitlist and 623 elected to join. , or about 1%, were accepted. As we’ve said, the long waitlist is, as usual, about equivalent to the size of a first-year class at Amherst. The tiny number of students eventually accepted, is also a trend. For admission in the fall of 2023, students got in off a 599 applicant-long waiting list. 

The reality of the Amherst waitlist is that the odds are extremely low. However, there are things you can do to improve your chances of getting in. In this post we are going to give you the tools to improve your chances of getting into Amherst even after a waitlist decision.

We help strong students defy waitlist decisions. Contact us for your personal strategy.

The Amherst waitlist isn’t rocket science. There aren’t buried secrets that you need to discover and decode to make Amherst seriously reconsider your application. However, there are four steps that you need to take to improve your chances of getting into Amherst and to set yourself up for success whichever college you end up attending.

Step One: Accept the Waitlist Offer

The first step is to actually get on the waitlist. You’ve been offered a spot, but if you don’t accept that offer you won’t be considered part of the waitlist pool. You need to get in the game! So, opt in. 

Step Two: Commit to a School

You are on the Amherst waitlist now, but if you visualize a gym full of probably 700ish students and then two dozen students — maybe — being pulled to the side, you’ll be able to see the insanity of the Amherst waitlist statistics. Placing all of your bets on Amherst, then, is a terrible idea.

So, you need to pick a different college. Commit to your favorite school that you were accepted by. You will be required to submit a deposit, and you will relinquish that deposit if you get into Amherst. Call it the price of paying the waitlist game.

Step Three: Update Amherst

Amherst doesn’t give you a lot to go on when it comes to the waitlist, but they do want to hear from you after you’ve opted in to wait and see if they can find a spot for you. The best way to let them know what you’ve been up to, and to strengthen your case for being a strong addition to the Amherst community is with a LOCI, or a letter of continued interest.

A letter of continued interest is a literal letter written to the Amherst admissions team. It needs to have four parts. Let’s break them down.

Open: The first part is the opening. This is a letter, so that means starting with “Dear Amherst Admissions,” and you can name your regional admissions representative, too. Follow with three sentences that set you up for success. First, introduce yourself. This sentence should include your name, your prospective major, and your position as a waitlisted applicant. Next, you need a sentence that states clearly that Amherst is your first-choice school, and you will enroll if accepted. Saying that is not a legally-binding statement. You do not actually have to attend if accepted, but you still need to say it. Finally, write a sentence that sets your intentions for this letter. You are updating them, sharing what draws you to Amherst, and reinforcing your interest.

Update: The next step is to share a few, typically 2-4, substantive updates to your application since you submitted it. “Substantive” does not mean that these need to be awards or recognitions, though. You could be following up on something, like a research project, that was on your application and has continued since submitting, you could be sharing how you are preparing to pass the torch to new leaders in an extracurricular, or maybe there is an award to talk about. What matters most of all, though, is highlighting how you work with others. Amherst doesn’t just look for top students, they seek out strong community-members. It is imperative that the positive contribution you would make to Amherst is clear through the stories you tell about the things you are already doing now.

Reinforce Interest: The LOCI needs to be one page in a size 12 font with normal margins, so this section is typically only a few sentences long. Tie one of your updates related to your prospective major to an opportunity at Amherst that you didn’t write about in your initial application. Be as specific as you can be, as general language about how Amherst is awesome is truly a waste of space in this letter.

Close: We told you this letter needs to be short, and you’re already at the end of it. Close with a sentence thanking them for their time, another restating that you will attend if accepted, and a final optimistic vision of you doing something Amherst-y as part of the college community this fall.

Step Four: Wait

This last bit can be painful, because there really isn’t much you can do after submitting the LOCI. You will not hear from Amherst until May — and it could possibly be even longer than that. This is just the way it goes when you play the waitlist game, so you need to keep your cool.  

Something else you can do is to ask your school college counselor to make an advocacy call on your behalf. They are not required to do this, but it’s worth asking in a way that is respectful of their time and comfort level. 

It can be helpful to know, too, that students accepted off of the Amherst waitlist do still have access to financial aid, and received generous aid packages.

We help strong students pull off competitive waitlist acceptances. Email us to learn more.