It’s past Memorial Day, and while some high school seniors are sporting new college sweatshirts, others are still in purgatory on a waitlist. The bad news? The more time that passes, the lower the odds of getting off the list. But the good news is, if a student is on a waitlist, he or she is still in the game. Here are five things to know about this particularly mysterious aspect of college admissions.

Read the full column at TIME.com