Boston College is a private research university with Jesuit origins and a welcoming community. They received nearly 40,000 applications for the Class of 2029, and the acceptance rate was only 13.9%. However, if you read the BC Class of 2029 announcement in March 2025, before decision day and any waitlist action, the acceptance rate was 12.6%. This helps us identify that BC admitted approximately 1% of the first year class from the waitlist.
The college accepts a little over twice as many students as they actually seek to enroll, which shows that they bet on a yield rate that is about 50%. When their math is off, though, they turn to the waiting list. What this has looked like in recent years is a massive waitlist with narrow odds of admission. On the 2024-2025 Common Data Set, BC reported offering 7444 students a place on the waitlist. 4,139 accepted that offer. Eventually, a total of 352 students, or 4.7% of all waitlisted students, were accepted.
Getting into BC off of the waitlist relies heavily on something you can’t control: whether and where there are gaps in the first-year class. Most BC students go to Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, followed by the Carroll School of Management. The Lynch School of Education and Human Development and the Connell School of Nursing are the smallest programs, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t also use the waitlist occasionally.
In this post, we give you the steps you must be taking now to increase your chances of admission to Boston College off of the waitlist. Yes, you should make these your own. However, that doesn’t mean that you should veer too far from the path we lay out. The waitlist has thousands of students on it. They have no reason to pick you if you make yourself annoying by calling weekly, emailing incessantly, or submitting things that they most definitely don’t want. Shipping a physical box of trophies to the admissions office isn’t charming, it’s weird. Same goes for performative enthusiasm, surprise visits, and dramatic expressions of love for the BC community. Play by the rules and make them love you for who you are, not how many roses you can order.
Sticking it out on a waiting list is a long-shot, but it’s a game we love to win. Contact us to learn more.
If you have received a waitlist decision from Boston College, you need to act. However, you also have to move strategically. These four steps are the strongest strategy to the waitlist outcome you want.
Step One: Join the Waitlist
First, you need to actually get on the Boston College waitlist. Boston College has offered you a spot on the waitlist, but you aren’t actually on it yet. Now, you need to get on the waitlist. It is not ranked, so don’t stress if you’ve taken a few days (or even weeks) to decide whether you want to wait and see if BC could eventually work out. Once you are sure, follow the instructions in your admissions decision to join the waitlist.
Step Two: Commit to a College
Next, you need to line up a college to attend come fall. Boston College may work out, but the statistics aren’t awesome. Yes, BC has enrolled about 1% of the first-year class off of the waitlist in recent years, but less than 1% of students on the waitlist are admitted each year — so the actual odds of getting in are tiny. To hedge your bets, you need to commit to a college that you were accepted by. Hopefully, you have a dream school in your acceptances folder that you can enroll at as a back-up. If you don’t, though, you still need to pick a school.
It is much easier to transfer than it is to reapply as a first-year next year. To set yourself up for success in the future, you need to pick a school today even if it isn’t somewhere you are really excited about. Once you have a school lined up for fall, it’s time to turn your attention back to BC.
Step Three: Update Boston College
Once you have a school lined up for fall, you need to work to make BC happen. We’ve said it and we’ll say it again, the odds of getting in off of the waitlist are extremely slim. It is possible, though, and so we believe it to be worth giving your best shot.
When strengthening your application from a spot on the waitlist, you are balancing giving BC information that could make a big difference in your final admissions outcome and not spamming them with stuff that they truly do not care about or — worse — are actually just annoyed by. To thread this needle, we point to the LOCI. A Letter of Continued Interest, or LOCI, is a one-page (seriously), 12-point font letter that serves to update the admissions officers, underline your interest in BC, and strengthen the narrative that you are an outstanding candidate for the college. Each LOCI is unique, and we work with waitlisted students to craft the perfect message, but they all need to have four parts.
Opening: This is a letter, so it should start like one. Begin the LOCI with “Dear Boston College Admissions,” and we like also including the name of the regional admissions representative assigned to your area. Don’t call him “Jim,” though. BC does not show a photo alongside the name of the admissions rep., and you can’t assume their gender, so either use their full name or look up the person on LinkedIn to confirm their pronouns and use the appropriate formal salutation (for example, Mr.).
After greeting the reader, you need to write three sentences. The first should introduce you to the readers including your name, status as a student on the waitlist, and your prospective major. The second sentence needs to reinforce that BC remains your top choice and that you will attend if accepted. Finally, you need to lay out what your goals are with this letter: to update the admissions team and underline your passion for BC. Next up, the update.
Update: The majority of your letter to BC will be the update, and you do have something to update BC on even if you are shaking your head right now. No, you may not have ‘fancy’ updates, like awards, but you have been doing things since you pressed submit. Maybe there was a group project you found fascinating, a paper that your teacher said was your best work yet, or a community event that you coordinated. Aim to find 2-4 things of this type — not necessarily big, but meaningful — and write a few sentences about each. Of the updates you choose to share, at least one should show you taking action for others. BC cares deeply about caring. As a Jesuit school, service is at the heart of what they value, not solely volunteer service but also mentorship and teamwork.
Reinforce: As we just said, BC wants to see you caring for others. They also want to feel your passion for the BC community, and to get a sense of how you would care for them, too, once you were on campus.
However, it’s also important to remember that the BC application supplement did not ask you to dive into your proposed academic path at the college. We love spending a short paragraph of this LOCI, then, on illustrating what your academic path at BC would look like. More than simply sharing a potential major, you want to mention a professor you’d love to study under, a class or two you’d be thrilled to take (and why it would be so impactful for you), and a program on campus or beyond that would launch you into an exciting new chapter of learning.
Close: End the letter with another short, three-sentence paragraph. Thank the application readers for their time and consideration and state, again, that you will enroll if offered a place in the first-year class. The final sentence should be optimistic, perhaps envisioning you cheering along at a game or studying with peers in a cozy spot on campus.
Step Four: Wait it out.
Finally, you need to accept that there isn’t much to do after you’ve sent your LOCI. Your school needs to send your updated grades, and you need to look out for emails from BC asking you to reconfirm your interest or offering you a spot with only a few days to respond. Other than that, focus on what you can control in your life. Keep your grades high, mentor the upcoming leadership for the activities and commitments you care most about, and enjoy your senior spring.
Getting into BC off of the waitlist is tough, but we pull it off every year. If you want a customized approach, we can help.
Waitlist admissions is more art than it is a science. Email us to learn more.