Okay, so you’re on a college’s waitlist. That can be a tough position to be in, especially if you’ve been waitlisted at your top choice. But just because you’re on a waitlist doesn’t mean that you just sit and wait, especially if you still want to go to that school. The first thing you should do is see if you need to formally accept a spot on the waitlist.

Your communication from the school should tell you what steps to take to do that. The school should also let you know if you can continue to provide them with grades, new awards or honors, extra recommendations or anything else that may help your case to be admitted. If this is your top choice school, let the college know that by contacting the admissions office.

And don’t be afraid to occasionally check in with the college on your status. You should also make sure to deposit at a school that you have been accepted to. This is very important. The fact is, oftentimes students never hear an explicit admission or rejection from a college after being placed on a wait list.

So make plans to attend one of your backup colleges and place your deposit there. Even if you don’t begin college at your top-choice college, you may still have the option to transfer and graduate from there, so research the transfer requirements and processes. But there’s also a possibility that you may end up liking your second-choice college so much that you decide to stay.