Every year thousands of students hear "maybe" from their top-choice colleges and land on wait lists. Institutions then cherry-pick these lists to fashion their ideal freshman class.

But as this article points out, by the time colleges get around to pulling people off the wait list, much of the financial aid money has been committed. As a result, institutions are more likely to favor kids who don't require aid—that is, kids from wealthy families who can afford full tuition.

So if you've applied for aid and wind up on your first-choice college's wait list, your chances of gaining admission are, theoretically, not as good as your rich neighbor's. Fair? Probably not, but would you want to be admitted without sufficient aid? Better to attend your second (or third) choice, assuming the finances make sense. And you can always apply for transfer admission after one or two years.

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